Panchimalco (ingles)

Panchimalco is known for its indigenous population and its festivities. Together with Izalco, Panchimalco is considered one of the last two remaining bastions of indigenous people or "Indians" in ElSalvador. Villagers still weave and wear colorful native textiles and maintain many indigenous traditions. However, the native language is not one of them. As of the last few years, no Nahuatlspeakers remain in Panchimalco.

Salvadoran "Indians" comprised 51.6 percent of the Salvadoran population in the 1769-1798 censuses, but at current time they are numbered at less than 500,000 in all of ElSalvador. The number was greatly reduced when forces loyal to Gen. Maximiliano Hernandez massacred up to 30,000 peasants during the Salvadoran peasant uprising of 1932 known as La Matanza.

HistoryThe Spanish established Panchimalco as a village, and built its famous colonial church, one of the most important historical monuments in El Salvador. Its original construction date, circa 1725,make it the oldest surviving colonial structure in El Salvador. The church, consecrated to the Holy Cross of Rome, and bearing that name (Santa Cruz de Roma), has been damaged in the various earthquakesthat have shaken El Salvador through the centuries, beginning with one registered in 1736.

The church consists of a single nave covered by a roof supported by 16 wooden beams. It contains an altarreredos done in the French baroque style, but its most well-known feature is its bleached white colonial façade. Like many colonial churches, it fronts a central square centered around a largecypress tree. The clay floor is not original, but marks a restoration completed in 1970. The church was declared a national historic monument by the Salvadoran congress on February 27, 1975.

Culture
Thefestivities held in Panchimalco are colorful and religious in nature. The Flower & Fronds Fair (Feria de las Flores y Palmas) celebrates the Virgin Mary devotion of the local Catholic Church....