San Francisco Gotera, Morazán
Encyclopedia
San Francisco Gotera is a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Morazán
Morazán Department
Morazán is a department of El Salvador. Located in the northeast part of the country, its capital is San Francisco Gotera. It covers a total surface area of 1,447 km² and has a population of more than 200,000.-History:...

 department
Departments of El Salvador
||A list of the departments of El Salvador in alphabetical order.Department :# Ahuachapán # Cabañas # Chalatenango # Cuscatlán # La Libertad # La Paz...

 of El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

.

Name

Gotera is a native word that is derived from two roots: "Got," meaning snake or serpent, and "era," meaning hill. The name has been interpreted to mean "hill of snakes." The original population of Gotera occupied the summit of the hill known as Coroban, where remains of the original population can still be found. The ancient pueblo of Gotera was re-named San Francisco after the parish of the same name. Today the city is referred to as San Francisco Gotera or simply Gotera.

Military

Because of the Salvadoran Civil War, part of the park was turned into a military base and the other part was paved. The military base sat unused for several years but was converted into a municipal market in 2002. Today the market is nearly empty because a larger, covered market with running water and trash pick-up was constructed in 2003 two blocks to the east of the old military base. The current military base sits on the banks of the San Francisco River
San Francisco River
The San Francisco River is a river in the southwest United States, the largest tributary of the Upper Gila River. The river originates in Arizona and flows into New Mexico before it curves around and enters the Gila down stream from Clifton, Arizona....

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Today

Gotera is the department head and largest municipality in Morazán. The Destacamento Militar 4 (Military base no. 4) operates out of Gotera. City Hall, the oldest Catholic church in town, a defunct movie theater, the government center and the post office surround a small, paved town square. Before 1980 the square was larger and it was grassed in and had several shade trees.
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