Dear readers,
Through all the years of living in Honduras and writing this blog, I don’t think I have ever written about where the name Catracho comes from. Hondurans call themselves and are known as Los Catrachos, but what does it mean? I should know; after all, I am married to a Catracha and it bears in the name of the blog.
I was actually reminded recently of the story by a friend and colleague from Nicaragua, as it seems the Nicaraguans actually coined the name for their dear neighbours.
The term began to be used in the mid-19th century when the Honduran General Florencio Xatruch returned to Nicaragua with his Honduran and El Salvadoran soldiers after defeating a troop of US freebooters led by William Walker, whose grave I saw in Trujillo, which has “fusilado” – meaning “shot” – famously written on the headstone. William Walker had sought to re-establish slavery and take over of Central America, although Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvadorans had other ideas.
As Xatruch and his comrades returned, Nicaraguans would yell Aquí vienen los xatruches – roughly translating to “Here come Xatruch’s men!” It seems, rather amusingly I must add, Nicaraguans had great problems pronouncing the Catalan name los xatruches that they altered it to los catruches, and settled on los catrachos.
So there we have it. Hondurans have the Nicaraguans to thank for bolstering their national pride.
Xatruch eventually died in Managua, Nicaragua, long after bringing an end to Walker’s attempted coup, although he was born and raised in San Antonio de Oriente, an old, picturesque mining town not too far from Tegucigalpa. I have never been, but it’s now on my bucket list.