Prologue to Legends:(a kinda' brief History of Honduras) By HoBBiT DuDe!

well, thank you for reading this page for all the USMers that are interested in this prologue or legends in general. i will first give a background of the country my mom's family and my sisters were born in, the background of the republic of honduras, the place were i was raised and from where i am far away, the links holding the country and i severed by the distance and time... First of all, it is unknown to a large number of Americans, maybe most Americans, that there is a country called Honduras... It seems to me geography classes are based on the history of great civilizations, of their rises and falls, of the wonders of the world... another reason honduras doesn't fit into geography is probably the fact that it is a third world country... it's only relevance comes from it being part of the birthplace of the ancient central american tribe called the mayans, one of the, if not the greatest American civilizations... it's roots i believe are unknown as is their disappearance.. some say the mayans were divided, others say warrior tribes defeated them, i believe that every great civilization has a chance to fall and never rise again... yet what was left by them is still conserved today in the present countries of Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico... in Honduras they founded the ancient city of Copan, which is admired by tourists around the globe... another reason it is known perhaps is the fact that Honduras is in the top five corruption places... i've lived there, and i agree to the fact that the class system is divided mostly into two parts:rich and poor.... middle class exists but it isn't very visible... one last reason it might be known by might be Hurrican Mitch, a hurricane that struck honduras in october of 1998 i believe.. anyway, i lived through that but didn't really feel the effects on my wellbeing... anyway, those are just things you might have learned or heard that my guide you towards the identification of this country... honduras' sandy beaches were first raped by foreign feet in the 1500s. A voyage headed by christopher columbus in search of a shorter way to reach the india, in an attempt to facilitate the trade of spices and textiles between spain and india... he found central america by mistake and reported this to his king, whose name i cant remember right now... decades later, troops of spanish conquistadores(conquerers) were raping honduran land with the shields and swords and other kinds of weaponry... what they found was a fertile land, a mountainous land, a land full of deep fissures, translated into spanish gave it its name, honduras. the indians i really dont know if they tried to be friendly, but articles and history books tell of a violent conquering. one troop led more troops, which led them to establish a spanish state. indians were defeated and treated as slaves, their attempts to overcome the spanish weapons seemed in vain... besides the fact that their weapons weren't any good, tribes were also too separated by the mountains.. what seems like a disadvantage to the spanish was actually an advantage.. they hated walking over the highlands and not having roads or tracks... but they never knew that the whole force of indians together tripled or quadrupled the spanish troops, but again, mountains were like barriers to indian communication and sharing of ideas.. anyway, the spanish conquered the indians quickly and developed their first city-state in comayagua, found at the heart of honduras, and therefore at the heart of all central america. the agricultural business flourished, and the catholic religion predominated among everybody... superstitions were in everybodys mind, the fact that witches existed, the devil among them, miracles, saints, everything.. so they built the first cathedral there called "La Merced" of which I will relate a story when i start with the legends... another great church was built there, a church holding the world's second oldest clock in the world, a gift granted by the king of that epoque to the spanish settlers, who had the duty of producing strictly for the Spanish treasury.. it is from these times that corruption started in honduras, but the fact isn't really relevant...anyway, Comayagua, being the first city-state in honduras, is one of the towns that holds the most interesting traditions and ceremonies... beautiful and colorful rugs made of sand or sawdust, gorgeous ceremonies, and a variety of church related architectural gems of four or five centuries ago... anyway, not far from comayagua, 200 miles maybe, gold was found... the greedy Spanish decided to change the capital city from Comayagua to Tegucigalpa... decades passed before the constitution of honduras was signed.. it wasn't a violent independence, it was in fact a very dumb independence.. Honduras was just being wasted by Spain.. honduras asked for its independence, spain gave it to them, since most of the gold was in their treasury by the time and greater gold mines had been found in South America, so interest was lost in Honduras.. while the US was showing its first car to the world, Hondurans were still riding donkeys and far from knowing of cars or modern time things... it lagged behind in sophistication as years went by, and hasn't been able to stand up... a series of fights for the government take place but most of them and by the expulsion of the presidents and a life in exile.. ideas of forming a republic out of the countries in central america start to revolve in general Morazans head, yet his ideas were shamefully put to an end as he was fusilated in Costa Rica, a country south of honduras... industrialization takes place, the first banana companies arrive and start working in the north coast of the country.. some people still depend on gold and a lot have gone back to Comayagua to do agricultural businesses... the banana business flourishes but all the money goes to the owners of the companies, and not to the country itself... the state corruption goes hand in hand with the abolition of taxes on the foreign companies, who promised to build a railroad... it is the construction of the railroad that begins the nightmare of the external debt... which remains a high problem until the present day... yet other problems arise, no jobs, bad governments, and gangs... yet gangs are a recent problem, because i remember walking at two o'clock in the morning without the fear of someone killing me.. but that was like six-seven years ago... now i don't dare go out on the street after nine, because of the dreaded gangsters... anyway, legends have been passed from generation to generation, a lot of them lost in time, others have survived... those of which i will speak, i will relate from what my grandma has told me, or from what the spanish teacher has told me, and for others i've got a book, from which i'll just translate... if somebody even bothered reading down to this point and liked it, well i appreciate your interest and patience, cuz it was a really long thing to read, and i just hope the scroll bar doesn't discourage the USMs enthusiastic readers, and i hope you enjoy the stories i'll relate to you, readers..