Centroamericano/a in Spanish and in English Central American is an alternative standard and widespread cultural identity term that Salvadorans use to identify themselves, along with their regional isthmian neighbors.

Native Americans appeared in the Pleistocene era and became the dominant people in the Lithic stage, developing in the Archaic period in North America to the Formative stage, occupying this phase for thousands of years until European contact at the end of 16th century, spanning from the time of the arrival to the Upper Paleolithic era to European colonization of the Americas during the early modern period.

Historically El Salvador has had diverse Native American cultures, coming from the north and south of the continent along with local populations mixed together.

El Salvador belongs to both to the Mesoamerican region in the western part of the country, and to the Isthmo-Colombian Area in the eastern part of the country, where a myriad of indigenous societies have lived side by side for centuries with their unique cultures and speaking different indigenous languages of the Americas in the beginning of the Formative stage.

The 'Olmec Boulder, ' is a sculpture of a giant head found near Casa Blanca, El Salvador site in Las Victorias near Chalchuapa.

Some scholars have suggested that the Lenca migrated to the Central American region from South America around 3,000 years ago, making it the oldest civilization in El Salvador.

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

The culture lasted until the Spanish conquest, at which time they still maintained their Nawat language, despite being surrounded by the Maya in western El Salvador.

The Pipil are known as the last indigenous civilization to arrive in El Salvador, being the least oldest and were a determined people who stoutly resisted Spanish efforts to extend their dominion southward.

By 1521, the indigenous population of the Mesoamerican area had been drastically reduced by the smallpox epidemic that was spreading throughout the territory, although it had not yet reached pandemic levels in Cuzcatlán or the northern portion Managuara.

He disembarked in the Gulf of Fonseca on 31 May 1522, at Meanguera island, naming it Petronila,[11] and then traversed to Jiquilisco Bay on the mouth of Lempa River.

[12] in addition small Salvadoran communities sprung up in Canada, Australia, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, Italy, and Sweden since the migration trend began in the early 1970s.

[15] According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 American Community Survey,[16] the top Metropolitan statistical areas for the Salvadoran community are: Salvadoran-American diaspora over time: As is the case elsewhere in Latin America, there is no clear distinction between White and Mestizo Salvadorans, the large majority of the population have varying proportions of Spanish and Native American ancestry.

A majority of Central European settlers in El Salvador arrived during World War II as refugees from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland.

The governor of San Salvador, Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet, ordered families from northern Spain (Galicia and Asturias) to settle the area to compensate for the lack of indigenous people to work the land; it is not uncommon to see people with blond hair, fair skin, and blue or green eyes in municipalities like Dulce Nombre de María, La Palma, and El Pital.

However, the majority of Salvadorans of full Spanish descent possess Mediterranean racial features: olive skin and dark hair and eyes (black or dark brown) and identify with the mestizo majority, As for the mestizo / castizo population, it dates back to the time of the discovery of America, Because there were no Spanish women, the Spaniards maintained relationships with Amerindian women, before the discovery, El Salvador was the second Central American country with the least indigenous population, and due to the hostility of the Spanish and added to the diseases brought by them, the population was greatly reduced and precipitously, the Amerindian men were more affected than the Amerindian women, in the first years of the colony, 50% of the population Salvadoran was Mestizo and White, in 1805, 78% of the inhabitants of El Salvador were Mestizo and White.

[17][18][19][20] Later, in the post-colonial era, the country received several groups of European immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy, mainly between 1880 and 1930, when several Europeans emigrated to the country, immigration had a great demographic impact, the population of El Salvador went from 480 thousand to 1.2 million inhabitants[21][22][23][24] There is a significant with at least partial Arab descent (of about 100,000);[25] mostly from Palestine (especially from the area of Bethlehem), but also from Lebanon.

Arab immigration in El Salvador began at the end of the 19th century in the wake of the repressive policies applied by the Ottoman Empire against Maronite Catholics.

The Pipil are located in the west and central part of the country; the Lenca are found east of the Lempa River; and there are small populations of Cacaopera people in the Morazán Department.

The low numbers of indigenous people may be partly explained by historically high rates of old-world diseases, absorption into the mestizo population, as well as mass murder during the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising (or La Matanza).

[3] The remainder of the population (3%) is made up of Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Latter-day Saints, and those adhering to indigenous religious beliefs.

Archbishop Óscar Romero is a national hero for his role in resisting human rights violations that were occurring in the lead-up to the Salvadoran Civil War.

Notable 20th-century personages include the late filmmaker Baltasar Polio, female film director Patricia Chica, artist Fernando Llort, and caricaturist Toño Salazar.

Amongst the more renowned representatives of the graphic arts are the painters Augusto Crespin, Noe Canjura, Carlos Cañas, Giovanni Gil, Julia Díaz, Mauricio Mejía, María Elena Palomo de Mejía, Camilo Minero, Ricardo Carbonell, Roberto Huezo, Miguel Ángel Cerna, (the painter and writer better known as MACLo), Esael Araujo, and many others.