The Lenca are an indigenous people of southwestern Honduras and eastern El Salvador. They once spoke the Lenca language, which is now extinct. In Honduras, the Lenca are the largest indigenous group with an estimated population of 100,000. El Salvador’s Lenca population is estimated at about 37,000. The pre-Conquest Lenca had frequent contact with various Maya groups as well as other indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America. The origin of Lenca populations has been a source of ongoing debate amongst anthropologists and historians. It continues to generate research focused on obtaining more archaeological evidence of pre-Colonial Lenca. Some scholars have suggested that the Lenca were not originally indigenous to Mesoamerica region, but migrated to the region from South America around 3,000 years ago.
