Because Totogalpa is an access road to the Coco River, it attracted the attention of the Spanish. The site was controlled early by the colonial administration and the indigenous people became tributaries of the Spanish crown.
The Totogalpa brotherhoods were established in 1707 and the indigenous people obtained a part of the territory through their Royal Title issued by the King of Spain in 1711.
During the XNUMXth century, its indigenous population lost control of its communal territory, which fell into the hands of foreign loggers and coffee growers, and they also lost their ancestral organizational structure, which was recovered until the beginning of the XNUMXst century.
The administrative subordination of the town of Totogalpa has varied four times in four centuries until its territory was stabilized as part of the department of Madriz.
The municipality of Totogalpa is administratively divided into six micro-regions, which are home to 45 communities and 6 neighborhoods; this territory was elevated to the category of municipality in 1911.
Its inhabitants are people attached to traditions, shy, authentic and helpful.
Traditions, artistic expressions and music
Local traditions
La Ceiba archaeological site
La Mojiganga with its mantudos: It is a traditional activity that has been carried out since 1960, on December 25 and January 01, dancing in the main streets with mariachi and disco music. The festival starts at 07:00 at night until 01:00 - 02:00 in the morning. This activity is like a small carnival where many people dance in costumes (mantudos).
Palm dance: Traditional ancestral dance, which was originally performed when a baby who had not received baptism died, this dance is carried out by those who would be the child's godparents, they dance a “jumping” rhythm. In the hands, the godfather carries the lily and the godmother the palm.
On September 12, the celebration of the anniversary of the indigenous people of Totogalpa takes place.
Traditional music and dance
There are 14 peasant music groups scattered in the communities, the main ones are:
The Scorpions: from the urban area of Totogalpa, Los Terribles de Cuje, Los de Terrero Grande, Los Hermanos López de la Maysuta, Grupo Sol de Libertad, El Salto, Grupo de Verapaz, Grupo de El Cacao and Los Cayanes de Cayantú.
The municipality has four groups of folk dances that participate in municipal, departmental and national cultural events, some of them have been awarded for the quality of their presentations, they are: Mocuana, Nido de Aves, Chorotega and Nueva Generación.
Painter
Sonia Vasquez
Arnulfo José Gómez, is an artist with more than 20 years of work. He works with oil, acrylic on canvas and watercolor on gourds. Its theme is the recreation of nature in its natural state with pictorial representations of flora and fauna with special interest in colorful birds. He also captures his art in paintings alluding to the legends of the municipality.
Crafts
Tusa craft workshop: known as the Doña Sonia Workshop, where they make dolls and pictures of tusa. At the Totogalpa corn fair, in 1984, it won first place for its beauty and originality. The raw material is corn waste: cob, cob hair, toilet paper, wire and artificial colors. The workshops are located in different parts of the city, northeast of the city of Somoto, in the department of Madriz, on the street from the first exit to Managua, among others.
In the municipal mayor's office they can give you more information about traditionalist artisans who still work in the compilation of products made in the area.
Basketry
Tule duffel bags: the ancestral tradition of weaving individual tule mats of different sizes is preserved by Mrs. Flor de María López Bautista, since 1980.
She is part of a group of 60 women from the Santo Domingo community. The Tule is a wild plant of the locality, which is processed in its own workshop.
Heriberto Pérez Vargas, with more than 40 experience, makes hats, for children and adults, and the old charro, using real palm fiber, in his family workshop in the Cayantú community. In addition, they themselves cultivate the plant that is their main raw material.
In Totogalpa, the pottery It is used to make domestic-utilitarian vessels, wall decorations and jars for pinolillo or pozol.
Traditional trades or practices
Midwife or midwives: In all the communities there are women who attend and follow-up the births, especially of young women.
Healers: They are local specialists in traditional medicine, whose ancestral knowledge allows them to give relief to a series of common ailments, it can be practiced by a man or a woman. In the community of El Cuje there are people experienced in traditional cures.
Sites of historical and cultural interest
The Guadalupe Grotto
The Grotto of Guadalupe: It is the foundations of a grotto that was originally built to venerate the Virgin of Guadalupe, it was a place of worship for novenaries and religious celebrations on December 12 of each year. Archaeological remains have been found in the subsoil of the site.
The Mines of El Cuje: place where gold was extracted and processed, consists of seven caves. You can see the pinwheels where the stones were crushed and the gold was extracted using quicksilver.
It is a historic site of the revolutionary struggle of the Army Defender of National Sovereignty led by Augusto C. Sandino, site of Sandino's last combat on December 6, 1928.
Place with a pleasant microclimate, high mountainous area, with natural broadleaf and coniferous forest, where coffee is grown; it is conducive to family life, easy access by safe and all-weather road.
Another ancient mine is the Furnace mine.
La Ceiba ceremonial center: Pre-Columbian remains have been found here.
Cerro Las tres senoritas: an area of charms and a place that served as an observation post for the natives.
Archaeological collection
The little mountain: It is a site about which the inhabitants tell many legends. One of them says that the place is a volcano that is connected with other colossi of Guatemala. It is also believed that at the time of the gold rush, many Americans climbed up and were lost in the place.
It was a refuge for guerrilla columns (60s and 70s) and a military observation post.
La Ceiba archaeological site, San José: Archaeological remains have been found at this site: 12 large mounds and ceramic objects dating from 400 to 600 years after Christ.
Archaeological collection: The municipality has an archaeological collection in which you can see samples from the pre-Columbian era such as metates, petroglyphs, fragments of ceramic pieces, stone utensils and fragments of old houses made of cane and clay.
El Almendro municipal community museum: This site protects the culture and history of this town, you can appreciate the exhibition of archaeological pieces inside. It is located in front of the municipal park.
Spanish bridge: Here you will know part of the history of this town, it was built by the Spanish between the years 1756-1780, in the community of Santo Domingo and La Ceiba.
Ancestral voices natural center: located on the north side of the Catholic church, where you will find various compounds of traditional medicine or natural medicine originating in this territory.
Other sites of interest
Spanish bridge
The Indigenous Cemetery of Veinte Roble; the Ruins of the Old Totogalpa; Monument of the Grotto, recently restored and the Mausoleum of Enoc Ortez, built in honor of this guerrilla fighter who fell for the liberation of Nicaragua in 1979.
Legends
La sirena, El cadejo, La cegua, La chancha bruja and La mona.
Relevant characters of the local culture
Francisco Jose Arteaga Zamora: researcher who has dedicated himself to the search for ancestral roots, gathering documentary information, archaeological and historical objects; promoting the updating and revitalization of the history of Totogalpa.
Gallery
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