| Lempira | |
|---|---|
 Drawing of Lempira (Lenca de Honduras) | |
| Chieftain of theLencas of westernHonduras | |
| Reign | ? – 1537 |
| Born | 1499 |
| Died | 1537 (aged 37–38) Corquin |
| Cause of death | Assassination-decapitation |
Lempira was a warrior, chieftain of theLencas of westernHonduras inCentral America during the 1530s, when he led resistance toFrancisco de Montejo's attempts to conquer and incorporate the region into the province ofHonduras. Mentioned asLempira in documents written during the Spanish conquest, he is regarded by the people as a warrior hero whom the conquistadors feared, since they could not kill him. The Spaniards sent a messenger to tell him they wanted “peace”, but when Lempira showed up for negotiations, they captured him, dismembered his body, and buried him in undisclosed locations so no one could pay him respects.
Jorge Lardé y Larín argues that the nameLempira derived from words of theLenca language:lempa, meaning "lord" as a title of hierarchy,i meaning "of", andera, meaning "hill or mountain". Thus, Lempira, means "lord of the mountain" or "lord of the hill".[1] When the Spaniards arrived in Cerquin, Lempira was fighting against neighboring chiefs. Because of the Spanish threat, he allied with another Lenca subgroup, the Cares, and united the different Lenca tribes. Based at Cerquin hill, he organized resistance against the Spanish troops in 1537, managing to gather an army of almost 30,000 soldiers, from 200 villages. As a result, other groups in the valleys ofComayagua andOlancho also took up arms. Spanish attempts to stop him, led byFrancisco de Montejo andAlonso de Cáceres, were unsuccessful until later in 1537.[2]
Historical accounts of Lempira differ.Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, whose account was published inHistoria general de los hechos de los castellanos ... (1626), in Seville, Spain, identifies Lempira as a war captain appointed by Entipica, leader of the Cares, a subgroup of the Lenca. Herrera reports that Lempira, whose name means something like "Lord of the Mountains" inLenca, commanded over 30,000 soldiers from over 200 different Lenca towns. In 1537, there were widespread indigenous uprisings in Honduras, and the Cares were one group that revolted againstSpanish rule.
The Spaniards, on instruction from their Governor,Francisco de Montejo, attacked Lempira at thePeñol de Cerquín, in what is nowLempira Department. According to Herrera, Lempira retreated to a fortified hilltop where he resisted the Spaniards for many months. Finally, the Spaniards lured him out to talk, and a concealed Spanish soldier with anarquebus shot and killed him. On seeing this, Herrera reports, the Lenca surrendered. This is essentially the official version that is taught to Honduran children in school.
In the 1980s, the Honduran historian Mario Felipe Martínez Castillo discovered a very different account of Lempira in a document entitledMéritos y Servicios: Rodrigo Ruiz, Nueva España, written in 1558 in Mexico City. The manuscript is located in theArchivo General de Indias inSeville, Spain.[3] That document, Patronato 69 R.5, tells the story of Rodrigo Ruiz and his service in the conquest of Honduras under Francisco Montejo. It includes his account of killing Lempira. The document is in the form of a series of questions, answered by witnesses to the conquest which Rodrigo Ruiz gave to the Spanish king. It is his effort to gain a pension as payment for his services.
Ruiz wrote the questions, one of which is translated in part as follows:
"...after I cut off his head, they retreated and within 4 days we controlled all of their towns, and they gave obedience to your Majesty as they were obligated to do... and later we founded the town of Gracias a Dios. Ask them to say what they know and if its true that I served in said war, all the time it lasted, serving with myself, my weapons, my horse, at my cost, and was not rewarded for it." – Archivo General de Indias,Méritos y Servicios: Rodrigo Ruiz, Nueva España.[4]
Rodrigo Ruiz described his other service to theSpanish Crown. Witnesses to this 100-page document attested that Ruiz recounted his service accurately and told the truth. Ruiz asked for a pension of 1000 pesos for his service. The modern HonduranLenca preserved in their oral history Lempira elements that match the Ruiz story, such as Lempira's belief that wearing Spanish clothing made him impervious to Spanish bullets, and that the chief died in combat, not through ambush.
In 1931, Honduras renamed itscurrency in honor of Lempira.[5] In 1943, Honduras renamed the Gracias Department as theLempira Department.[6]
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