Central American Folk Religions

In Talamanca, spanning southeastern Costa Rica and northern Panama, Bribri communities preserved spiritual practices amid resistance to Spanish rule. In 1709 the Indigenous leader Pablo Presbere led an uprising against forced removal and missionary establishments; rebels burned churches, and the Spanish captured him the following year.

Farther south, the Muisca of the Colombian highlands worshipped at Lake Guatavita and at temples of the sun and moon. Spanish conquest came in 1537–1540; a public Muisca ceremony was still held at Ubaque in 1563.