El Salvador
POPULATION 6,353,681
ROMAN CATHOLIC 56.7 percent
PROTESTANT 17.8 percent
NONDECLARED 23.2 percent
OTHER 2.3 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of El Salvador, is Central America's smallest country, but it has its greatest population density. It was Christianized in the sixteenth century as a result of Spanish conquest and colonization. In pre-Columbian times groups belonging to three different aboriginal civilizations lived in the current territory of the republic. The Maya inhabited the north-western part of the country near Lake Guija. The Pipil, a group belonging to the Nahuatl ethnolinguistic family that also included the Toltec and the Aztec, migrated from central Mexico in successive waves that lasted from the ninth to the thirteenth century C.E. They founded the chiefdom of Cuzcatlán in the center of the country and gradually displaced other groups from most of the territory. The Lenca, a group of South American origin that was strongly influenced by Mayan culture, settled in the eastern part of the country across the Lempa River. These group's religious practices were documented beginning in colonial times.
Many archaeological sites now attest the importance of religion among the aboriginal cultures. The Pipil worshiped a supreme deity (Teotl), the earth (Tal), the sun (Tonal), and the moon (Meztli) and shared the cult of the mythical cultural hero Quetzalcoatl with other groups in the region.
