T

he Lenca, an indigenous people of Honduras, believe that in the beginning of the world there were no humans on the earth, only animals. Then an alliance was made between the heart of heaven and the heart of the earth.

Salvador Zuniga, a founder of COPINH and the former husband of Berta Cáceres, explains that in the Lenca tradition, the great Mother and Father baptized the animals to seal the alliance, and the animals became human. Only the monkey chose to keep his animal form, and he became a rogue and thief. As a part of the alliance, the humans made a covenant that in their new form they would care for Mother Earth.

After the baptism, the archangel Saint Michael walked along the water of the earth’s mantle and with every step he took a ray of lightning fell to the earth carrying an angel. Ten angels fell, but when it was time to return to heaven, only one remained.  The angel Desiderio stayed behind to keep watch over the earth and to hold the humans accountable to their alliance.

El ángel Desiderio se quedó para vigilar la tierra y responsabilizar a los humanos de su alianza. // Ilustración kirstin Garrison

Restoration of the Alliance

The commitment to care for the earth is central to the cosmovision of the Lenca people. Their religious beliefs begin with this responsibility and it continues to fuel the activism and position of Lenca people today.

According to Zuniga, he, Caceres and a number of other activists understood the intimate relationship between environmental rights and indigenous rights when they united various social organizations to create the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations (COPINH) in 1994, the organization through which Berta Cáceres would fight discrimination and exploitation until her assassination in 2016.

COPINH was formed was a reference point,” says Zuniga, “for the unity of different social organizations to fight for two things: to fight for the defense of ecology—the defense of the forests, the rivers, the waters—but also to rescue the indigenous culture and rights.”

In the early 1990’s, Honduran activists, including Caceres and Zuniga, had witnessed a shift in the social and political climate of the continent. The Cold War had ended and activism in Central America moved from violent resistance to peaceful strategies of structural change.

The indigenous community began to gain worldwide recognition when Roberta Menchú of Guatemala won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, and again in 1994 when the United Nations declared August ninth as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

Zuniga says that he and other activists watched continental movements emerge from indigenous and black activists, like the Zapatistas in Mexico, and they were inspired to reclaim the indigenous movement in Honduras.

COPINH’s founders saw a prime opportunity for a new, effective, nonviolent movement. They got to work, prioritizing the voices of the indigenous people and educating the rest of the Honduran population on the struggles that indigenous communities faced.

On March 27, 1993, COPINH was founded with Olayo Méndez as its first coordinator. Zuniga acted as secretary, and Berta Cáceres, according to Pascualita Vázquez, a longtime member of COPINH, was the coordinator of Women’s Rights. At the time, Zuniga was 24 and Berta was just 18. Zuniga recorded the first minutes of COPINH in a notebook he carried, and he has kept them to this day.  

In 1994, just a year after it began, COPINH’s mobilization against deforestation resulted in the closing of 36 timber mills. The same year, COPINH fought for the recognition of indigenous communities as official municipalities of Honduras. The first municipality founded was San Fransisco de Opalaca, a small area of land in the west of Honduras sandwiched between two natural reserves.

COPINH’s advocacy helped to develop the Special Prosecutor of Ethnic Groups and Cultural Heritage, a branch of the Attorney General’s Office that protects ethnic minorities and archeological and cultural heritage, as well as PRONEA – the National Indigenous Education Program, a Ministry of Education program that promotes education rights for indigenous communities.

COPINH also created its own educational program in indigenous communities as a part of its efforts to rescue indigenous culture.

There are studies now to recover the language,” says Pasucalita Vázquez, a longtime member of COPINH. “We lost the [Lenca] clothing, we lost a lot. Now men don’t carry [traditional Lenca bags], they carry briefcases. We are losing everything, and the government says we are not Lenca.”

La madre tierra // Ilustración kirstin Garrison

Vázquez explains that shortly after COPINH began, its representatives began to travel around to Lenca communities to give workshops about the Lenca identity. She remembers Berta Cáceres leading one of the first of these workshops on traditional harvesting methods and religious rituals.

The rescue of the Lenca culture created a hedge of protection around the people. Under ILO’s Convention 169, which was ratified in Honduras in 1989, the government must respect the property rights of indigenous groups to the land they have traditionally occupied as well as indigenous claims to the land's cultural and spiritual value and to its natural resources.  

The cosmovision of the Lenca people focuses heavily on the Lenca's responsibility to protect Mother Nature’s lands, waters, flora and fauna. By teaching Lenca values to a new generation, COPINH and other indigenous rights activists ensure that the Lenca responsibility to protect the earth must continue to be respected and protected by the Honduran government.

The Lenca Cosmovision

The angel Desiderio remained on earth to live in the breast of Mother Earth and remind humans of their pact. If they destroy the earth for their own selfish pursuit of wealth, they break their alliance with the great Mother and Father and humanity will also be destroyed.

Humans’ choice is reflected in the nagual, their animal representative, often portrayed as part jaguar and part man.

The nagual accompanies us and when we do something bad, so does the nagual,” says Zuniga. “When we do something good, the nagual does [something good] also. When the nagual dies, we die. If we die, the nagual dies. It is a harmonious relationship with the animals and for that reason, the animals cannot die out. If they do, our naguales die, and without the nagual, we are nothing.”

To prove to Mother Earth that they have maintained their alliance to protect her, the Lenca people make the sacrifice of first fruits to Desiderio. They gather nine vultures, nine fish, nine ears of corn, nine grains of cacao, and one turkey as their offering.

El Nagual, representante animal, que suele ser retratado como mitad jaguar y mitad hombre. // Ilustración kirstin Garrison

Zunga explains that, like the nine angels who returned to heaven after falling to the earth, nine is an important number in the Lenca cosmovision. Its importance is represented in the nine months of gestation, the nine days that it takes for corn to grow leaves, the nine days of mourning, and the nine months that a person’s soul remains on earth before it joins the ancestors.

When the angel Desiderio receives the first fruits offering, the alliance is maintained. Without the offering, the alliance is broken, and Desiderio will bring natural disasters to plague the people, like landslides and storms. The offering is also a sign of gratitude to the Mother for her provision or a prayer for good harvest.  

Mother Earth designated specific protectors for her rivers. Girls are river guardians. The stork represents their spirit, and reminds the people to present the offering of first fruits for the protection of the rivers and the creatures that inhabit the rivers.

Zuniga explains that the Lenca believe that rivers, like the Gualacarque River where DESA began to construct the Agua Zarca dam, are considered holy, and protecting the rivers is part of the Lenca alliance with Mother Earth to care for her.

“The cosmovision says that the rivers are sacred and necessary for fish and for washing,” says Zuniga. “The dams have come and, for one thing, they have hoarded the rivers and, for another, have generated division in the community. They have generated violence and murder.”

The Lenca cosmovision to protect nature, including animals, plants, and rivers, also protects the Lenca people and their natural resources under the ILO Agreement 169.  Their ownership of the land and their religious beliefs toward the land give the Lenca the right to be consulted with before any potentially damaging projects, like dams or lumber mills, can use their natural resources.

The fight to restore their ancient cosmovision is therefore also a fight to guard their culture, their lands, and their resources of today.

“This is the Lenca culture that our ancestors gave us,” says Pascualita. “We are not going to lose it.”