They historically spoke various dialects of the Lencan languages such as Chilanga, Putun (Potón), and Kotik, but today are native speakers of Spanish.

Mota led the Lenca war defence in the surrounding settlement of Gracias a Dios, in the current department of Lempira and the exterior Coco River in Miskito territories from the Spaniards; Entepica was chief of Piraera and lord of Cerquín.

In 1993, the tribal leader and Lenca activist Berta Cáceres co-founded the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Lenca men engage in agriculture, including the cultivation of coffee, cacao, tobacco, varieties of plantains, and gourds.

To increase sales of their works, the cooperatives were encouraged to orient their designs and styles to meet the tastes of urban buyers and to expand their market.

[8] Custom Lencan pottery is still made by women in the town of Gracias, Honduras and the surrounding villages, most notably in La Campa.

The contemporary Lenca primarily practice Roman Catholicism, adopted, often by force, during the colonial Spanish era after the first war.

[11] Guancasco is the annual ceremony by which neighboring communities, usually two, gather to establish reciprocal obligations in order to confirm peace and friendship.

According to Boyd Dixon, research in the area has revealed a complex history spanning approximately 2500 years from the early pre-classic period to the Spanish Conquest of 1537.

Prehistoric Lenca settlements were typically located along major rivers to afford access to water for drinking and washing and to waterways for transportation.

In his research of the Comayagua Valley region, Dixon finds ample evidence of cross-cultural relationships; many artifacts have been found that show that settlements were linked through ceramics.

The production of Usulua Polychrome ceramics has been shown to link Lenca settlements with neighboring chiefdoms during the classic period.

The Lenca sites of Yarumela and Los Naranjos in Honduras, and Quelepa in El Salvador, all contain evidence of Usulután-style ceramics.

[15] Yarumela is an archaeological site in the Comayagua Valley believed to be a primary Lenca center during the middle and late formative periods.

Other features found in the area are at the sites of Los Naranjos and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, each dominated by a single constructed earthen mound.

Many other sites appear to share site-planning principles and structural forms with these examples, having large, open, flat plazas, leveled by manual grading, and dominated by a massive two- to three-tiered pyramidal earthwork mound.

Its pottery shows strong similarities to ceramics found in central western El Salvador and the Maya highlands.

[19][20] Members of the Lenca community have taken larger national roles since the late 20th century, primarily in the areas of human and land rights for the indigenous peoples, which are seen as inextricably linked.

They have also been active in a variety of environmental issues, particularly in trying to protect their territories against major development projects that would alter their lands and ecology.

Berta Cáceres was an important leader of the Lenca and founder of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Cáceres strongly protested the development of the DESA Agua Zarca Hydro Project and dam on the Gualcarque River in Honduras.

[24] A few weeks after her murder, major international investors—the Netherlands Development Finance Co. (FMO) and FinnFund—announced that they would suspend funding for the Agua Zarca project.

[25] On July 8, Secretary of Security Julian Pacheco said that the government had failed to provide adequate protection for Cáceres, who had received death threats previously.

Lesbia Yaneth was another Lenca activist who opposed the Aurora hydroelectric project which was planned in the municipality of San José, La Paz.