Uncovering a forgotten chapter of piracy in El Salvador
byNewsara-
0
An upcoming documentary reveals how European buccaneers plundered the Gulf of Fonseca between the 16-17th centuries.
In El Salvador, as in the rest of the world, when talking about the phenomenon of piracy, we immediately relate it to the Caribbean Sea. First, because it was in that area where it mainly developed, and secondly, thanks to the popular depiction of piracy in Hollywood.
Unknown to cinema but no less intrepid, are a group of pirates that followed the route of the Magellan-Elcano expedition – the first recorded voyage around the world – and crossed the strait that bears their name today, where they found a gold mine in the unprotected Spanish ports of the South Sea (today’s Pacific Ocean) at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Our new documentary film, The Pirates of the Pacific and La Union Islands (forthcoming), will address these facts, routes, ships, and pirate captains who attacked and plundered the west coast of the American continent, and more specifically the landings and massacres committed by both English and French pirate captains on the islands of the Gulf of Fonseca belonging to the department of La Union, in El Salvador.
It is a rescue of historical memory due to the fact the archives are in Europe, in both the Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain, as well as in other archives in England and France, which resulted in a historical "disconnection" in Latin America and especially El Salvador.
This is in addition to local characters, who are among the few who know fragments of this history and have contributed knowledge to find archaeological remains, sunken objects, or intangible cultural heritage such as myths and legends related in some way to the pirates.