The Nicarao are a Nahua people who live in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. They spoke the Nahuat language before it went extinct in both countries.
Monument to Macuilmiquiztli, ruler of the Nicarao
Spiral petroglyphs found at ancient Nicarao settlements on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua.
Nicarao vase depicting Quetzalcoatl (800-1350 CE), near the Asososca lagoon (Managua), Nicaragua
A pre-Columbian Nicarao effigy of a Techichi, Rivas, Nicaragua.
The Nahuas are a group of the Indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and El Salvador. They are a Mesoamerican ethnicity. The Mexica (Aztecs) are of Nahua ethnicity, as are their historical enemies, the Tlaxcallans (Tlaxcaltecs), and the Toltecs which predated both groups are often thought to have been as well. However, in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity.
Nahua children in traditional clothes
Ceramic sculpture of Nahua deity from Puebla
"Atlantean figures" from the Nahua culture of the Toltecs at Tula.
Depiction of Tlaxcaltec soldiers leading a Spaniard to Chalco from Lienzo de Tlaxcala