According to the mayor of San Salvador, Manuel de Gálvez Corral, the town of San Julián Cacaluza had four native tribes; their economic activities were the raising of chickens and in addition to the farming of corn and cotton, balm and cocoa were also farmed.

On April 24, 1912, the town of San Julián was elevated to the title of "small town" by decree of the National Legislative Assembly; the decree was sanctioned on April 26 by the government of President Manuel Enrique Araujo.

[2] On April 11, 1913, the Ministry of Public Works agreed to the creation of a Special Public Works Board in the town of San Julián; this was chaired by the mayor, the vice president would be the Local Commander, the members were Mr. Ricardo Paniagua and Mr. Manuel Rivera Engelard, the secretary was Mr. Joaquín Valeriano Maza and the treasurer was Mr. Juan Antonio Trigueros.

Currently this city has one of the most popular tourist activities, which is the Balm Route, since it has large extensions with crops of this medicinal tree.

The district has the El Balsamar Natural Protected Area (ANP), which is shared with the municipality of Cuisnahuat.