Municipality of Amapala
Amapala is a municipality in the department of Valle in Honduras.
Geographical Location
Amapala is formed by the island of El Tigre and its satellite islets and rocks in the Gulf of Fonseca. It has an area of 75.2 km² and a population of 9,687 inhabitants according to the 2001 census (excluding 4 people living on Isla Comandante). Despite lacking modern infrastructure, Amapala has been the main port of Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca and the Pacific Ocean for many years, thanks to a deep natural channel.
History
The name of the island where Amapala is located originated from the presence of a group of pirates led by Francis Drake in the 16th century. Drake and his men were considered fierce and ruthless by the local inhabitants, so they named the island «Cerro del Tigre» (Tiger Hill).
Amapala became the capital of Honduras on August 26, 1876 during the provisional government of Dr. Marco Aurelio Soto.
The name Amapala derives from the Nahuatl language and means «near the amate trees.» However, there is another version that suggests it comes from the Goajiquiro dialect, where «ama» means «maize» and «palha» means «hill,» thus signifying «maize hill.»
In 1895, Amapala was designated as the capital of the Greater Republic of Central America, an attempt to reestablish the defunct Federal Republic of Central America by unifying the states of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The short-lived union changed its official name to the United States of Central America when its constitution came into effect in 1898, with Amapala as its capital. However, in the same year, Salvadoran President Tomás Regalado was overthrown in a coup, leading to El Salvador’s separation from the republic. Shortly thereafter, Honduras and Nicaragua followed suit. Thus, Amapala was briefly the federal capital of the other republic.
By the late 1970s, Amapala was gradually replaced by the port of San Lorenzo on the mainland, during the administration of the Military State Board, led by General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro. Amapala became the capital of Honduras on August 26, 1876, when Dr. Marco Aurelio Soto assumed provisional government.
A description of the city and the Island of Amapala in 1881 can be found in the book A Lady’s Ride Across written by Mary Lester (alias Mary Soltera). In the late 1890s, it was designated as the capital of the Republic of Central America.
Albert Einstein and Herbert Hoover in Amapala
Records show that in 1925, the German scientist Albert Einstein lived on the island for a short period. He arrived with a group of researchers and stayed at the home of German immigrants with the last name Uhler. Three years later, the President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, also visited Amapala in 1928.
In that region lies the Gulf of Fonseca, the «triple border» that has been a source of conflicts in Central America. Now, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua see it as an opportunity.
