Their Nawat language, art and temples revealed that they had significant Mayan and Toltec influence from the ties they had with the Itza in Yucatan.

It is believed that the first settlers to arrive came from the Toltec people in central Mexico, mostly Puebla during the Chichimeca-Toltec civil wars in the 10th century AD.

The people of Cuzcatan came to be called Pipiles in the historical chronicles, a term that today is usually translated as "boys" or less likely as "young nobles."

This was due to the perception of the Central Nahuatl-speaking Tlaxcala and Mexica allies of the Spanish that the Nahuas of Cuzcatan were speaking a corrupted version of their language in those regions.

An alternative theory is that it meant "nobles," from the Nahuas social class "Pipiltin" and the Nawat Pipil origin story that they are descendants of Nanahuatzin.

[1] The Pipil people are an ethnic group who resided in western modern day El Salvador and parts of Honduras.

Historical accounts of the Annals of the Cakchiquels called the Pipil coastal people Panatacat (place of the water man); this could have been a name or a title for a person as well.

The warrior's attire consisted of a breastplate, a corselete or vest (made of cotton) and a mashte (species of loin cloth) and each painted their faces and bodies with unique colored abstract shapes and forms.

The economy of Cuzcatlan had contributions from both the indigenous Pipil people who inhabited the land and Spanish conquistadors post colonization.

Cocoa bean and Indigo dye was a major export crop that was carefully cultivated in the Izalcos area and traded throughout the isthmus.

The large dependency on Indigo and Cocoa beans required massive amounts of labor which were carried out by the areas indigenous people.

Pedro de Alvarado began establishing slave labor throughout Central America beginning in modern-day Guatemala.

[5] As Spaniards continued to settle in the Cuzcatlan, it became common for their households to contain indigenous slaves, typically women to act as servants.

Typically an "encomienda" consisted of food products such as maize, beans, chilli peppers, turkeys, venison, salt, dried fish, honey, and beeswax.

[5] Through Spanish chroniclers (cronistas) and archaeological investigations we know that the Señorío de Cuzcatlán was well organized with respect to its "Creator" or "Divine energy of life" Tiyut/Teotl, its priesthood, first ancestors, religious rites, etc.

One of the pilgrimage sites was the sanctuary dedicated to the ancestor goddess Nuictlán constructed by Cē Ācatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl and located on Lake Güija.

The people living in the ancient Cuzcatlán possibly attributed cosmic power to the following: Xipe Totec, Quetzalcoatl, Ehécatl, Tláloc, Chacmool, Tonatiuh, Chalchiuhtlicue and others.

[8] After the fall of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés sent Pedro de Alvarado to conquer the native city states further south.

After subduing or striking alliances with the Mayan peoples in the highlands, on June 6, 1524, Pedro de Alvarado crossed the Paz river with a few hundred soldiers and thousands of Kaqchikel Mayan allies and subdued the Cacique of Izalco (the first major city state en route to Cuzcatlan).

Otherwise, Kuskatan is not known for the kind of monumental architecture used by the Classical Maya because its later Spanish rulers dismantled most of the palaces and temples over the centuries to build walls and roads.