III.

People

About 90 percent of the people of Honduras are mestizo (people of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry). The remainder are Native Americans, blacks, and whites. The population is 54 percent rural.

The population of Honduras (2007 estimate) was 7,483,763. The overall population density was 67 people per sq km (173 per sq mi), with the greatest concentrations in the small towns and villages in the northern coastal and central areas. The rugged terrain has kept the people living in villages isolated from other villages.

A.

Principal Cities

The capital and largest city of Honduras is Tegucigalpa (2001 estimate, 1,089,200), located in the south-central highlands region. The country’s second largest city is San Pedro Sula (490,600). The principal city and commercial center in the north, it lies in the heart of the vast banana plantations on the Caribbean Sea. La Ceiba (111,200) and Puerto Cortés (36,000) are among the leading Caribbean ports.

B.

Language and Religion

Spanish is the official language and is spoken by nearly all the Honduran people. English is spoken by some people in the north, and the Native Americans who remain have retained their languages. Roman Catholics make up 86 percent of the population; Protestants constitute 6 percent.

C.

Education

Education in Honduras is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 12. The government has pledged to raise the literacy rate, which stands at 77.2 percent. In 2000, 1.09 million pupils were enrolled in 8,114 primary schools. However, only 32 percent of secondary school-age children were enrolled in school. The number of secondary schools and teachers is inadequate in rural areas.

The National Autonomous University of Honduras (founded in 1847), in Tegucigalpa, is the country’s major institution of higher learning. The José Cecilio del Valle University in Tegucigalpa (1978) offers training in engineering, administration, and computer science.

D.

Culture

The interaction of both Native American and Spanish strains in Honduran cultural history is clearly visible in the architecture. Many colonial buildings show strong Native American influences combined with baroque, Renaissance, and Moorish styles imported by Spanish colonists.

Traditional languages and customs have been preserved in a few isolated Native American settlements in the highlands. However, the culture of Honduras is primarily Spanish today. The marimba is the most popular instrument and forms the core of many bands. Native folklore, folk music, and dances are limited, and artistic activity is concentrated around the School of Fine Arts in Comayagua, the old capital. In northwestern Honduras lies Copán, a ceremonial center of the Old Empire of the Maya and one of the most important archaeological sites in the Western Hemisphere.

The most important painters of the 20th century included Arturo López Rodezno, founder of the School of Fine Arts in Comayagua; Antonio Velásquez, who painted scenes of Honduran village life; and Carlos Garay, noted for landscape paintings. The most-respected Honduran literary figures of the 20th century were poet, historian, and essayist Rafael Heliodoro Valle; novelist and short-story writer Argentina Díaz Lozano; and poet and publisher Clementina Suarez.