i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

Vásquez’ records indicate that the Mexicano tribe was a remnant of a military envoy sent
to ensure dominance over the rich province of Tagüisgalpa; its name in Nahuatl signifies
“place of gold” (562). Vázquez traces the origins of these thirty-two tribes to four larger
ethnic groups: the Xicaques from the east, Lenca from the west, Paya to the north, and
Taguaca to the south (Guerrero y Soriano 1982:123).
Incer (2003) offers the example of Friar Espino as proof of an affinity between the
Lenca of Honduras and the Ulua-Matagalpa-Chontales linguistic groups of Las Segovias.
The Ulua originated near the town of Waspán along the Rio Coco. The Matagalpa-
Chontales are the displaced nomadic groups who settled the Segovias prior to the Spanish
conquest. In 1891, Brinton credited neighboring tribes as having had a lexical influence
on (but not a genealogical relationship with) the Matagalpa-Chontal groups. He claimed
the influences were “the Nahuatl or Aztec on the south 18 , Lencan to the west, the Ulvan
to the north and the Moscan or Musquito to the east. Other [linguistic] stocks are not far
off, as the Chortis of Honduras speaking a Maya dialect, the Xicaques of the same state,
and the Mangues of Nicaragua” (Brinton 1895: 404).
Nahua place names confirm the presence of Aztec- or Nahuatl-speaking tribes in
the region during the Spanish Conquest. However, as Brinton (1883) asserts, the Nahautl
achieved prominence in the eyes of the conquerors and established themselves as the
guides or interpreters for the conquest-era Spaniards. Brinton (1883), Newson (1987),
and Gamboa (in Field 1999) have suggested that a more accurate account would
recognize the Mankeme, or Mangue in the dominant Castilian/Nahautl dialect, as the
18 Many colonial records consider the Pacific coast region of Nicaragua as the south and
the inland mountains leading towards the Caribbean Sea as the North, as in the linguistic
records of Brinton (1891, 1893)
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