[9][10][11][12] Macuilmiquiztli governed one of the many Nahua chiefdoms in western Nicaragua that the Spanish came to call the Nicaraos, who inhabited a shared land they referred to as Nicānāhuac.

[19] According to Spanish conquistadors Gil González Dávila and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, who was also a historian, Macuilmiquiztli had a cousin named "Wemak" who was the chief of Kakawatan, another Nahua chiefdom in present-day Rivas.

[20][21][22][23] At the time of Spanish arrival, Gil González Dávila traveled to western Nicaragua with a small army of just over 100 men made up of conquistadors and their Tlaxcalteca allies.

They explored the fertile western valleys and were impressed with the Nahua and Otomanguean civilizations for the vast amounts of food they had in addition to their flourishing markets, permanent temples, and trade network.

When Dávila demanded the now skeptical Macuilmiquiztli, as well as chiefs Wemak and Diriangén who were also present, to be baptized, to renounce their pagan beliefs, and to hand over the rest of their gold and jewellery, they refused.

Diriangén escaped the Spanish onslaught but eventually died between 1527-1529, Wemak was captured and executed in 1525 after the last of his Kakawatec forces were annihilated by the conquistadors and Tlaxcaltecas, and the fall of Kwawkapolkan in 1525 finalized their defeat.

The tribe's capital city or principal settlement was called Kwawkapolkan,[36][37][38][39] though it has sometimes been referred to in history books as Nicaraocallí,[39] and it is believed to have been situated near the modern lake port of San Jorge.

In 2002, through the research done by two Nicaraguan historians working independently of each other, it was discovered that the true name of the cacique was actually Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language.

In the vicinity of Costa Rica's Gulf of Nicoya, they found the largest indigenous village they had visited, which was ruled by a cacique named Chorotega.