| Las Vueltas | |
| Settlement Type: | Municipality |
| Pushpin Map: | El Salvador |
| Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in El Salvador |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  El Salvador |
| Subdivision Type1: | Department |
| Subdivision Name1: | Chalatenango |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Rosa Cándida Alas de Menjívar (FMLN) |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 1765 |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Total Km2: | 36.83 |
| Population As Of: | 2005 |
| Population Total: | 2101 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
| Coordinates: | 14.0936°N -88.8894°W |
Las Vueltas is a municipality in the Chalatenango Department in the north of El Salvador. The municipality is bordered to the north by Ojos de Agua, to the east by Las Flores, to the south by Chalatenango, and to the northeast by Concepción Quezaltepeque. The territory covers 36.83 km2 and the population was, as of 2005, of 2,101 inhabitants. For its administration, the municipality is divided into six cantones and 35 caseríos.
According to the information preserved by tradition, Las Vueltas was founded in 1765 by emigrants from Chalatenango. By legislative decree on May 12, 1902, the then municipality of La Ceiba was abolished and changed into a cantón in the municipality of Las Vueltas.
A new law, that of April 23, 1906, reinstated El Zapotal as part of Las Vuelas and also moved the prosperous cantones of La Ceiba and La Laguna to Chalatenango. Another legislative decree, on April 8, 1943, moved these two cantones out of the jurisdiction of Chalatenango and also shifted the cantones of El Zapotal and El Coyolar to Ojos de Agua.
Due to the repression of the landowners, in 1931 farmers and indigenous citizens began a rebellion (Lonely Planet). The army responded by killing 30,000 people, including the leader of the rebellion, Farabundo Martí, in a bloody act that was later referred to as La Matanza (The Massacre) (Lonely Planet). But the people remained unhappy with the government. This began a movement organized around leftist guerrillas to combat the repression violence (Stahler-Sholk, 1994:2). The government responded with violence, and the Death Squads were formed, which eventually torturing and killed thousands of people (Foley 2006). More political instability and the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 sparked the beginning of the Civil War (Lonely Planet). This war, which lasted 12 years, resulted in the death of an estimated 75,000 people and the displacement of thousands more (Stahler-Sholk, 1994:3). The Peace Accords were signed on January 16, 1992 (Embajada).
The department of Chalatenango was heavily impacted by the Civil War. Many people of Las Vueltas were forced to abandon their homes because of the violence. But beginning in the early 1990s, and especially after the Peace Accords, the people have returned to repopulate the municipality.
Patron-saint and other religious festivals are still very important and celebrated in Las Vueltas, as in almost all of the municipalities in the country. Almost all the cantons have their own patron-saint in whose honor the festival is celebrated. The fiestas patronales in the municipalities are the following:
Before the popular music was ranchera and vals. Some of the popular instruments used to be guitars, violins, accordions, and marimbas. This music is now no longer heard.
The petroglyphs run in some sort of "line", perhaps from north to south passing through El Zapotal, El Tablon and on up to San Juan Olosingo at the border of Honduras. They are largely Lenca drawings.
The people of Las Vueltas grow corn, beans, and sorghum. The majority, if it is a good crop, is for family sustenance; little is sold. The fields also produce melons, cucumbers, and squash.
Traditional foods include beans, tortillas, metas, soups, sweets, and seeds. Other traditional foods and dishes include:
The majority of the ingredients used to make these foods and drinks are natural and are grown in the area. They also form part of the biodiversity that, in some cases, is threatened or in danger of extinction. Nevertheless, these habits are less common as more people eat commercially produced foods.
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