Pre-Columbian Cuscatlean Literature

*Cuscatlán*, "land of prizes" or "place of treasures"; that is the meaning of one of the almost fifteen hundred toponyms that are still preserved in El Salvador. To study these toponymies and organize them in a novel way was the objective of a thesis presented by Félix Montano and Mario Ramos to obtain a degree in Literature from the UCA. The fundamental motivation for this thesis was based on a simple fact: it is practically impossible to study the literature that existed in Salvadoran territory before the arrival of the Spaniards. There are no codices as in the cases of Mexico and Guatemala, and the oral tradition collects only a very deformed part of what was or what could have been that literature. For this reason, the study of Salvadoran literature in the pre-Columbian period was approached in a novel way. The country, El Salvador, is plagued with toponyms. Wherever our Pipil, Lenca, Chortís, Mames and Ulúas ancestors settled, they identified the places with striking names. Why not consider, then, that the entire map of El Salvador was like a great codex, a great book full of signs, of images: of writings, in short?