Nicarao people

The Nicarao are an indigenous Nahua people living in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. They are the southernmost Nahua group located in southern Mesoamerica. They spoke the Nahuat language before it became endangered after the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The Nicarao are a subgroup of the Pipil people, both of which are descended from the Toltecs, who migrated from Aridoamerica over the course of several centuries starting about 700 CE, the late Mesoamerican Classic period. This branch of the Nahua people originated in Chiapas, which was inhabited by Nawat-speaking Toltecs for hundreds of years before they migrated further into Central America.

Around 1200 CE, a group of Pipils that would eventually become the Nicarao migrated further south and settled in the Greater Nicoya region of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, seized most of the fertile lands in the region, and eventually separated and formed their own chiefdoms. The migration of the Nicarao has been linked to the collapse of the important central Mexican cities of Teotihuacan and Tula, as well as the Classic Maya collapse. The Nicarao settled throughout western Nicaragua, inhabiting Rivas, Jinotega, Chinandega, Nueva Segovia, Masaya, Carazo, Madriz, Matagalpa, Esteli, Leon, Granada and Managua. In addition the Nicarao controlled Tiger Lagoon, Lake Managua, Lake Cocibolca, and the islands of Ometepe and Zapatera in Lake Nicaragua. Both Ometepe and Zapatera were sacred to the Nicarao.

The Nicarao also settled in Bagaces, Costa Rica after displacing the Huetar people, Chibchan speakers already living in the region, resulting in tribal warfare between Nahuas and Huetares that lasted until Spanish arrival.

The Nicarao referred to western Nicaragua as Nicānāhuac, which means "here lies Anahuac" in Nahuat and is a combination of the words Nican (here), and Ānāhuac, which in turn is a combination of the words atl "water" and nahuac, a locative meaning "surrounded". Therefore, the literal translation of Nicanahuac is "here surrounded by water". This was a geographical endonym that referred to the large bodies of water that surrounded the land the Nicarao inhabited: the Pacific Ocean, lakes Nicaragua and Xolotlan, and the many rivers and lagoons. Similarly, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was also surrounded by water, which they referred to as Cemanahuac. This establishes a linguistic, ethnic, and cultural connection between pre-Columbian Mexico and Nicaragua.

As a Mesoamerican people, the Nicarao shared many blended cultural traits with other indigenous belief systems and maintained the Toltec version of the Mesoamerican calendar, similar pottery and effigies, similar organizational treaties, the use of screenfold books, the worship of a high god and closely-related sky gods, nagual mysticism, the practice of animal and tonal spirituality, and expertise in medical practice.