Long before the founding of the city, the Rivas isthmus —that narrow strip of land that separates the great Lake Cocibolca from the Pacific Ocean— was inhabited by the Nicaraos, a Nahuat-speaking people of Mesoamerican origin that had migrated from the north and had settled on these fertile and strategic lands. The Nicaraos grew maize, cacao and other products, and made use of the privileged position of the isthmus between the lake and the sea.
It was precisely in this region where, according to historical tradition, one of the founding episodes of Nicaraguan identity took place: the encounter, around 1522-1523, between the Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila and the cacique Nicarao (also called Nicaragua), leader of the Nicaraos. From that cacique and his people would derive, according to the most widespread version, the name of the country: Nicaragua.
The chronicles recount that between Gil González Dávila and the cacique Nicarao there were exchanges, conversations and even a famous dialogue on philosophical and religious topics, besides the baptism of numerous Indigenous people. Beyond the legendary details, the episode symbolizes the encounter between two worlds on the Rivas isthmus and forever links this region with the origin of the name of Nicaragua.
During the colonial era, the Rivas isthmus became a prosperous agricultural region and a strategic passage. Its position between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, and its closeness to the route that linked the interior with the coast and with the San Juan River (the natural outlet toward the Caribbean), gave it an importance that would grow over the centuries.
The lands of the isthmus were devoted to the cultivation of cacao —highly valued at the time—, to ranching and, later, to other agricultural products. Around these activities grew a population that combined the Indigenous Nicarao heritage with Spanish and mestizo settlers. The town of Rivas established itself as such in the 18th century, becoming the main urban center of this southern region.
The location of Rivas on the isthmus always kept it tied to the communication routes: it was an obligatory passage between the lake and the Pacific, and a junction point of the southern trade. That crossroads condition, which defines it to this day, had its roots in the geography and took hold over the colonial period, preparing the ground for the leading role the city would have in the 19th century.
In the 19th century, the geographic position of Rivas and southern Nicaragua took on a worldwide importance thanks to the so-called 'transit route'. Before the Panama Canal existed, Nicaragua offered one of the most practical ways to cross from one ocean to the other: you could go up the San Juan River from the Caribbean, navigate the great Lake Nicaragua and, across the narrow Rivas isthmus, reach the Pacific.
During the California gold rush (from 1849), thousands of people traveling from the east coast of the United States toward the west used this route across Nicaragua as a shortcut between the two oceans. The American businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt organized a transit company that transported passengers along this way, combining steamships on the lake and the river with the overland crossing of the Rivas isthmus, which turned the region into a passage point of international relevance.
The 'transit route' brought movement, trade and also disputes. The control of this interoceanic way became a matter of great strategic and economic value, and it was at the center of the conflicts that would shake Nicaragua in the mid-19th century. The Rivas isthmus, once again, found itself at the heart of the great events.
The most famous episode in the history of Rivas is its role in the Central American National War against the American filibuster William Walker. In the mid-19th century, Walker, an adventurer who took advantage of the Nicaraguan civil wars, managed to seize power in Nicaragua and proclaimed himself president, in a project that sought to favor expansionist interests and that even went so far as to reestablish slavery.
The reaction was not long in coming: the Central American nations —Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and the Nicaraguans themselves— united in the so-called National War (1856-1857) to expel Walker and his filibusters. The isthmus and the city of Rivas, for their strategic value tied to the transit route, were the scene of some of the most important and bloody battles of that war.
In the Rivas region several decisive battles were fought. The most remembered is the Second Battle of Rivas, in April 1856, in which, according to tradition, the Costa Rican hero Juan Santamaría set fire to the inn or redoubt where the filibusters were holding out, in a heroic act that cost him his life and that made him a national symbol of Costa Rica. Walker's final defeat in 1857 established Rivas as a central place in the historical memory of Central America.
Today Rivas keeps its historical character as a crossroads, now turned into its main tourist and logistical function. The city remains the hub of connections of southern Nicaragua: through it passes the road to the island of Ometepe (embarking at the nearby port of San Jorge), to San Juan del Sur and the beaches and surf spots of the southern Pacific, and to the border with Costa Rica at Peñas Blancas.
The economy of Rivas keeps its agricultural and commercial root —the department is a land of crops, cattle and, on its coast, of a growing beach tourism—, while the city functions as a services center and a passage point for the thousands of travelers who tour the south of the country. Its center, with the Basilica of San Pedro, the park and the market, offers the everyday and authentic face of Nicaragua.
Behind its quiet, provincial air, Rivas holds a dense history: the settlement of the Nicaraos and the origin of the country's name, the colonial isthmus, the interoceanic transit route and the battles of the National War. That memory, preserved in its monuments and in its museum, coexists with the city's current role as a gateway to the great lake, the volcanoes of Ometepe and the beaches of the southern Pacific, the great destinations of southern Nicaragua.