Historically, the area now included in the department of El Progreso was known as
Guastatoya or
Huastatoya, derived from
Nahuatl huäxyötl or
huäxin ("
calabash") and
atoyac ("last"), meaning the last place that calabashes grow, a reference to the change in altitude that occurs in the department, and corresponding climatic change from cold to hot.
Early history The Spanish colonial
corregimiento of
San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán was established in 1551 with its seat in the town of that name, in what is now the eastern portion of the modern department. In El Progreso it included San Agustín de la Real Corona (modern
San Agustín Acasaguastlán) and La Magdalena, but covered a broad area that also included parts of Baja Verapaz and Zacapa. In the 1520s, immediately after conquest, the inhabitants paid taxes to the Spanish Crown in the form of cacao, textiles, gold, silver and slaves. Within a few decades taxes were instead paid in beans, cotton and maize. The region was subject to a strong influx of Spanish colonists due to its location on the route between the colonial capital and the
Caribbean Sea, and hence to Spain, resulting in the
hispanicisation of the territory. Guastatoya was mentioned as a village in an edict issued in
Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, the colonial capital, in 1758. In 1825, various settlements were integrated into the Acasagustlán district that would later be included in El Progreso department. In the 1870s, the territory was divided between the departments of Guatemala, Zacapa and Chiquimula.
Departmental history The department of El Progreso was created by executive decree on 13 April 1908, to include the municipalities of Acasaguastlán, Cabañas, Guastatoya (which was renamed as El Progreso), Morazán, Sanarate, Sansaria (now known as Sansare), San Antonio La Paz, and San José El Golfo. For a short time from December 1919 to June of the following year, the department was renamed
Estrada Cabrera at the request of its constituent municipalities, in order to honour the then-president. On 9 June 1920, after the president was overthrown, the department was dissolved by the government. The department was reestablished on 3 April 1934 by the legislative assembly. The departmental capital of Guastatoya was badly affected by the
1976 Guatemala earthquake, which completely destroyed all historic architecture in the town. ==Geography==