Entepica, Lord of Cerquín
Lenca · mortal · Lenca traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Entepica, whose name is also written Tapica, is recorded by the chronicler Antonio de Herrera as the principal lord and cacique of the Lenca province of Cerquín and of the town of Piraera in southwestern Honduras. Honduran historiography, following Herrera, credits him with commissioning the war captain Lempira to organize the confederated defense of the Peñol de Cerquín against the Spanish invasion of 1537, on account of Lempira's reputation for invincibility. He thus personifies the paramount chiefly authority of the pre-conquest Lenca of Cerquín, the same legendary province over which the Comizahual cycle is set; nothing further is recorded of his life or death.
Domains
- sovereignty
Powers
- to hold supreme lordship over the towns of a highland province
Sources
- Entepica was the paramount Lenca lord of the province of Cerquín and the town of Piraera who, according to Herrera's chronicle, entrusted the war captain Lempira with organizing the resistance to the Spanish conquest in 1537.: Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del mar océano, Década VI (Madrid, 1601–1615) (secondary); Anne Chapman, Los lencas de Honduras en el siglo XVI (Tegucigalpa: Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, 1978) (secondary)