Boruca

The Boruca, also called the Brunca, are a Chibchan-speaking people of the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Before the Spanish arrival their ancestors formed a cluster of chiefdoms dominating the coast from Quepos to the Panamanian border, including the Osa Peninsula, in the zone between Mesoamerica and the Andes. The later Boruca were a composite group drawn from neighbouring communities such as the Coto, Quepos and Abubaes.

They lived from maize agriculture and were noted for back-strap loom weaving and painted balsa-wood masks. Spanish expeditions reached the coast early in the sixteenth century, and in 1524 the territory was incorporated into the Captaincy General of Guatemala.

In the colonial period the Danza de los Diablitos, a masked ceremony reenacting indigenous resistance to the conquistadors, became part of their annual life, while their Chibchan tongue gradually gave way to Spanish.