Everything about Guaicaipuro totally explained
Guaicaipuro, (circa
1530 –
1568) was a native (indigenous)
Venezuelan chief of both the
Teques and
Caracas tribes.
Though known today as Guaicaipuro, in documents of the time his name was written
Guacaipuro.
Guaicaipuro formed a powerful coalition of different tribes which he led during part of the
XVI century against the Spanish conquest of Venezuelan territory in the central region of the country, specially in the
Caracas valley. He commanded, among others,
Cacique (
Spanish: Indian chief)
Naiguatá,
Guaicamacuto,
Chacao,
Aramaipuro,
Paramaconi and his own son
Baruta. Guaicaipuro is one of the most famous and celebrated Venezuelan Caciques.
The area occupied by the Teques was populated by several native groups each with its own cacique. Guaicaipuro's tribe, which was located in what is now
San José de los Altos, was the largest one. He had a son named
Baruta, himself a
Cacique. The name of two is his sisters is also known:
Tiora and
Caycape.
The
Spaniards discovered gold in the area of the land of the Teques, and as they started to exploit the mines, Guaicaipuro attacked, forcing the Spanish to leave. Following the attack, the governor of the province of
Venezuela sent
Juan Rodríguez Suárez to pacify the area, which apparently he did after defeating Guaicaipuro in several engagements. Believing he'd achieved his task, the Spanish commander and his soldiers left the area leaving behind miners and three of his sons. Once the Spanish soldiers had left, Guiacaipuro assaulted the mines killing all the workers as well as the sons of Rodríguez Suárez.
Immediately thereafter, Rodríguez Suárez who was on his way to the city of Valencia, with a small contingent of only six soldiers, with the purpose of meeting
Lope de Aguirre, another Spanish
conquistador, was ambushed by Guaicaipuo and killed.
After these successes Guaicaipuro became the main and central figure in the uprising of all the native tribes in the vicinity of the
Caracas valley, and managed to unite all the tribes under his command. In
1562 they defeated an expeditionary force led by
Luis Narváez. Due to the fierce attacks, the Spanish retreated away from the area for several years.
In
1567 the city of
Santiago de Leon de Caracas was founded in the Caracas valley. The Spanish worried about the nearby presence of Guaicaipuro and his men, and given the past history of attacks, they decided not to wait for an attack from him, and as a preventive move
Diego de Losada, (founder of Caracas) ordered the mayor of the city,
Francisco Infante to undertake Guacaipuro's capture. In
1568 Infante and his men were led by native guides to the hut where Guaicaipuro lived and they set it on fire to force the native cacique out. Guaicaipuro stormed out and found death at the hands of the Spanish soldiers.
The county of Guaicaipuro in the state of
Miranda,
Venezuela was named in his honor. Later the county reformed to the Guaicaipuro Municipality.
Amidst the new policy started by president
Hugo Chávez of re-assessing and valuing the role of Venezuela's Caciques and indigenous peoples in a historical narrative which has traditionally given greater prominence to the
Spanish conquistadores, Guaicaipuro's remains were symbolically moved (his remains have never been found) under ceremonial pomp to the national panteon on
December 8,
2001.
Under the same new policy president Chávez often mentions Guaicaipuro and other native chiefs in his speeches with the purpose of inspiring Venezuelans to resist what he calls American imperialists and interventionists policies directed towards Venezuela. Most notably, he does it every year during the
October 12 holiday, which after being renamed several years ago Dia de la Raza (previously America's Discovery Day), was recently renamed as
Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance)
The Venezuelan government named as
Mission Guaicaipuro one of its ongoing
Bolivarian Missions; this specific program seeks to restore communal land titles and human rights to Venezuela's, still remaining, 33 indigenous tribes.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Guaicaipuro'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://guaicaipuro.totallyexplained.com">Guaicaipuro Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
