History of the Municipality of Puerto Cortés
After the discovery of America, the desire for conquest awakened in Spain; several Spaniards crossed the ocean: some to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and others to conquer the then-called New World.
One of these Captains was Gil González Dávila, who, authorized by the King of Spain, set out to always search for the passage along the coasts of Honduras that would connect the Gulf of Chorotega in the Pacific with the Gulf of Honduras in the Atlantic. He departed from Santo Domingo on March 10, 1524, towards the Hibueras coasts, with four ships, carrying 300 men and 50 horses. He arrived at an indigenous settlement called Chivana, at the location where it is today, in the same month of March of that year. It was then that the mentioned settlement was named Puerto Caballos. This name was given because when they approached the coast, a strong storm broke out, endangering the expedition. They lost 17 horses, which, according to tradition, were carefully thrown into the sea so that the indigenous people observing from the coast would not realize that these animals were mortal and would always have the mistaken idea that the horse and rider were one entity. Some believe that the horses had already died during the journey from the Spanish island, while others believe that the animals were thrown alive to lighten the load and avoid shipwreck.
In 1525, Hernán Cortés came to Honduras with the right of conquest, and his explorations gave him strength. He traveled to Puerto Caballos and arrived here on September 8, 1525. He founded the village of Natividad de Nuestra Señora a short distance from this port, in the place where the village of Cienaguita is currently located. The village had a short existence in the bay of San Andrés or Santander, as the current bay of Puerto Cortés was called at that time. Cortés established a municipality there with two Mayors, four Aldermen, a Prosecutor, and a Scribe. He continued his journey along the coast to Trujillo, where he stayed for over a year. On his return to Mexico, he left his cousin Hernando de Saavedra as the Governor of Honduras.
In 1539, upon his return from Spain, the conquistador Don Pedro de Alvarado arrived at Puerto Caballos. He had come from Spain to resolve his difficulties with the Audiencia of Mexico due to his disobedience in his journey to Peru. He had obtained from the King a pardon for all his offenses. Alvarado arrived at the same port accompanied by his second wife, Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, twenty maidens, and two hundred other people. Alvarado opened a road from Puerto Caballos to the valley where he founded the town of San Pedro de Puerto Caballos. In this town, he distributed the indigenous people and the lands.
The city of Puerto Cortés was described as follows by historians in 1940:
The bay is completely sheltered by the lush forest along the northern coast of the peninsula.
Between Caballos Point and the mouth of the Tulián River, the bay is 6 kilometers wide, with an inland extent of 5 kilometers until the mouth of the Medina River. Its depth is significant towards the north, with soundings indicating depths ranging from 7 to 20 meters.
Most of the land within the municipality was suitable for all kinds of crops, especially bananas, pineapples, sugarcane, coconuts, rice, cassava, etc. with the exception of the land where the city of Puerto Cortés is located, which was marshy.
For many years, banana cultivation constituted the livelihood of the former municipality of Puerto Cortés. However, in 1942, the disease known as Panama disease or Fusarium wilt, followed by the disease called Sigatoka, caused the ruin of the crop among national farmers, leading to its disappearance due to the lack of resources to effectively combat these diseases. As a result, large agricultural areas previously dedicated to banana cultivation have been converted into rice, pineapple, and root crops plantations.
In 1524, Gil González Dávila, authorized by the King of Spain, set sail from Santo Domingo on March 10, 1524, towards the coasts of Hibueras. He arrived at an indigenous settlement called Chivana, at the location where Cieneguita is currently located, and it was then that the mentioned settlement was named Puerto Caballos. This name was given because when they approached the coast, a strong storm broke out, endangering the expedition. They lost 17 horses, which were carefully thrown into the sea so that the indigenous people observing from the coast would not realize that these animals were mortal.
The immediate local government of this port and its demarcated jurisdiction was exercised through a local council dependent on the Political Governor of Santa Bárbara. On March 5, 1869, President José María Medina, when the construction of the interoceanic railroad began, decided to found the present-day Puerto Cortés in memory of the illustrious Captain Hernán Cortés. The foundation was made on the southern side of the current peninsula, which was uninhabited at that time due to being filled with swamps, as the population of Puerto Caballos was located south of the bay, where the villages of Cieneguita and Tulian are now situated. It remained under this regime until 1882 when it was elevated to the category of municipality. There is no executive agreement or any other authority that has authorized the new municipality.