Toquegua may be the name of a group of people, and a language, spoken along the Atlantic coast of

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

and Honduras from the area around the mouth of the Golfo Dulce to the Ulua river in Honduras. It is also an elite indigenous family surname in colonial Honduras, and a place name in the Motagua river valley in 1536. Feldman (1975), largely based on unpublished notes of Nicholas Helmuth conserved in the American Philosophical Society, concludes that Toquegua is a Chʼol

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

-related language. Sheptak (2007) contests that identification and concludes the people referred to as the Toquegua were multi-lingual, speaking Yucatec, Chʼol, Nahuatl, and Lenca. The Toquegua were merchants of cacao and feathers (particularly quetzal feathers) in the sixteenth century and hosted Yucatec Maya people in their communities.

References

* Feldman, Lawrence H. (1975), Riverine Maya. The Toquegua and other Chols of the Lower Motagua. Museum Brief 15. University of Missouri, Columbia. * Feldman, Lawrence H. (1998), Motagua Colonial. C&M Online Media, Inc., Raleigh North Carolina. * Sheptak, Russell N. (2007) "Los Toqueguas de la costa Norte de Honduras en la época colonial". Yaxkin 13(2): 140–157. Mayan languages Indigenous languages of Central America Mesoamerican languages Languages of Guatemala Former indigenous peoples in Guatemala {{mesoamerica-stub