Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Realejo: A Forgotten Colonial Port and Shipbuilding Center in Nicaragua

1971; Duke University Press; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-51.2.295

1527-1900

David R. Radell, James J. Parsons,

Historical Studies in Central America

C OLONIAL NICARAGUA was an important source of Indian slaves, timber, dyewood, naval stores, and foodstuffs for Viceroyalty of Peru. The great bulk of this traffic moved through port and villa of Realejo, at head of a mangrove-lined estuary some 8 kilometers up river from modem Pacific coast port of Corinto. Today Realejo is an almost forgotten village of thatch-roofed cane houses, shrouded by giant mango trees and reached not by ship, but by a rutted dirt turnoff from modem paved Corinto-Chinandega highway. The road lies deep in mud during rainy season, is choked with dust during dry season, and can hardly be distinguished from private access paths through surrounding fields of cotton. Once called, perhaps with only modest hyperbole, the best natural harbor within Spanish monarchy' this large estuary consists of drowned confluence of mouths of several rivers which cross Leon-Chinandega Plain of Nicaragua to reach Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1). It could safely have accommodated a fleet of several hundred Spanish men-of-war within its spacious confines. The entrance is well protected from strong winds and swells, both of which are common along this stretch of Central American coastline.2 Paso Caballos estuary, a mangrove-lined creek that presently separates mainland