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'''Guaitipan''' or '''“La Gaitana”''', a chieftain of the Yalcón culture known by 16th century Spanish conquerors and chroniclers as “La Gaitana”, was the indigenous woman who resisted the colonization of her territory, initially bringing together more than six thousand indigenous people from different communities (initially Timanaes, Yalcones, and Pijaos) against the violent acts of domination of Pedro de Añasco and his men, who acted by order of the conqueror Sebastián de Belalcázar. A colonizing process of appropriation of land, property, and native labor force that led to the massacre of hundreds of indigenous people in the south of the country and the dispossession of lands and cultural forms of their survivors. Avenging her son, who had been burned alive by Añasco, Guaitipán, counterattacking with her sibling peoples, captured the murderer of her son alive and subjected him to a slow and painful death as revenge and derision for the Iberian colonizers. Over the years she continued to forge alliances, this time with the Aviramas, Paeces, and Guanacas of Tierradentro, achieving a warrior force of about 15 thousand men. Guatipán disappeared amid the Spanish onslaught to the indigenous uprising motivated by her. Her rebellion and warlike arts disrupted the Spanish settlement in the southern Colombian Andes for several decades, leaving a revolutionary legacy to the communities to fight the conquerors. Even today, La Gaitana is an indigenous symbol of resistance.
'''Guaitipan''' or '''“La Gaitana”''', a chieftain of the Yalcón culture known by 16th century Spanish conquerors and chroniclers as “La Gaitana”, was the indigenous woman who resisted the colonization of her territory, initially bringing together more than six thousand indigenous people from different communities (initially Timanaes, Yalcones, and Pijaos) against the violent acts of domination of Pedro de Añasco and his men, who acted by order of the conqueror Sebastián de Belalcázar. A colonizing process of appropriation of land, property, and native labor force that led to the massacre of hundreds of indigenous people in the south of the country and the dispossession of lands and cultural forms of their survivors. Avenging her son, who had been burned alive by Añasco, Guaitipán, counterattacking with her sibling peoples, captured the murderer of her son alive and subjected him to a slow and painful death as revenge and derision for the Iberian colonizers. Over the years she continued to forge alliances, this time with the Aviramas, Paeces, and Guanacas of Tierradentro, achieving a warrior force of about 15 thousand men. Guatipán disappeared amid the Spanish onslaught to the indigenous uprising motivated by her. Her rebellion and warlike arts disrupted the Spanish settlement in the southern Colombian Andes for several decades, leaving a revolutionary legacy to the communities to fight the conquerors. Even today, La Gaitana is an indigenous symbol of resistance.
== Biography ==
Guaitipán was a chieftain of the Yalcones, who lived in the territory of Timaná. This was the name of Quechua origin of the settlement founded in 1538 by Pedro de Añasco after dominating the local population. Añasco was a sailor, explorer, and conquistador who sailed to the Indies between 1527 and 1538. He was appointed by Sebastián de Belalcázar to found villages that facilitated the communications of the conquistadors between Popayán and the Magdalena River, a task that involved the extermination of entire populations to consolidate the Spanish settlements.
Pedro de Añasco summoned the indigenous male leaders, excluding Guaitipán for being a woman, to proceed with the distribution of their lands among the Spanish men. The son of the Cacica, second in command, refused to meet him, not deserving his trust. Because of this disregard for his call, Añasco ordered the young man to be burned alive in front of his town. This act caused such indignation in Guaitipán that she summoned close to six thousand indigenous people to demand repairs for the grievance. These original communities, characterized by union and labor, rebelled using their warlike strength. The act that was intended as derision to other indigenous peoples was the cause of the rebellion of several communities against the colonizers. This is when La Gaitana led the feat of summoning and gathering over six thousand indigenous people to avenge the death of her son and maintain indigenous resistance for years.
=== Valor and Indigenous Strategy ===
The war strategy planned by the Chief Guaitipán was carried out one morning before dawn, when the indigenous ambushed Pedro de Añasco’s camp,where he and more than 20 of his men were sleeping. Two-thirds of them were killed, and those who fled returned some days later with reinforcements. Añasco was captured alive and taken before La Gaitana, who pulled out his eyes and pierced his tongue with a rope, dragged him from town to town, later cutting off his limbs and killing him to finally exhibit his head as a trophy of war and symbol of victory. The communities that lived at the time between the valleys and mountains of the Central Andean mountain range of southern Colombia were numerous and were formed by many members. The chronicles by Fray Pedro Simón, Juan de Castellanos, and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (REVISAR ORIGINAL) comment that among them were the Yalcón, Timanaes, Avirama, Pijao, Guanaca, Paeces, and Andaquíes, communities that were close to each other in the region, which joined the intentions of the cacique Guaitipán, its commander, and cacique Pigoanza, as well as the caciques Inando, Añolongo, Meco, and Timano. Although the motive of the indigenous insurgency was detonated by the crude assassination of Guatipán’s son between 1539 and 1540, the strength of this warring enterprise achieved the insurrection of organized, knowledgeable, and civilizing societies in their territories against the forms of control and expropriation of entire peoples by blood and fire by the Spanish conquerors.
=== How the Resistance was forged ===
Añasco was succeeded by Juan del Río in Timaná, a territory attacked by La Gaitana with the Yalcones. From there, she left to other nearby indigenous peoples, inciting a general rebellion to which the paeces, guanacas, and aviramas of Tierradentro were added, concentrating 15 thousand warriors with whom she attacked Timaná again. Del Rio defended the population with difficulty with a contingent of 90 men, plus the advantage offered by cavalry and firearms. Afterwards, he received reinforcements from Governor Juan de Cabrera, Añasco's successor, who called on the Indians to return to Timaná to rebuild their homes. The natives, thinking that the Spaniards had learned the lesson, returned only to find treason awaiting for them. Those who came back were murdered.
=== The Decline of Indigenous Endurance: Betrayal ===
Amidst the climate of indigenous resistance, betrayal was forged between leaders and caciques of the various communities that supported Guaitipán. REVISAR ORIGINAL Although the leaders of the Yalcones, Paeces, Guanacas, and Piramas rose to her aid, chief Matambo revealed to the Spaniards the ambush plans prepared for them, as a final blow of La Gaitana and her allies’ strategy. The Spaniard conqueror Juan de Ampudia, who had joined to reinforce the Spanish forces, died by indigenous hands with a spear that crossed his neck. His second-in-command, Francisco Tobar, fled while designing the plan “Punishment for the insolence of the natives,” based on torture and death to placate the indigenous people who had gathered and rebelled against the Spanish Crown's regime. After the betrayal of Guaitipán, the indigenous resistance of the mid-16th century did not last long.
=== The libertarian Feat of the indigenous Peoples fades ===
This epic is considered one of the most powerful wars of the conquest in Colombian territories against the Spanish invasion, a colonizing company that would end up decimating the native population, taking advantage through deception, firearms, and cavalry. Once the indigenous had been defeated militarily, the Catholic religion, forced labor, diseases, tributes and obligations, repression, and the concealment of their cultural practices by colonizing action ended up rendering an American feat of resistance and defense of the territory invisible. This situation still takes place today in the Republican context of the Colombian nation, where land tenure promotes displacement and extermination in a political and economic system that promotes inequality and cultural, social, and economic marginalization as well as the assassination of social and indigenous leaders, as La Gaitana, or Guaitipán, once was.
=== Union makes Strength ===
The motivation and strong support of these indigenous societies was communal and massive. Between the silence and the repressed fear, they knew how to turn to their warrior ancestors and defend the dignity of their present. Despite the loss of their cultural autonomy and their community territorial heritage, this historic indigenous feat managed to form the first confederation of indigenous peoples in the region, leaving a precedent of union and rebellion  against the Spanish colonization to the communities. This resistance capacity survives today among Colombian indigenous communities despite the constant siege, marginalization, and devaluation of their knowledge.
=== Guatipán and Timaná Today ===
Legends and indigenous stories are still heard today, and in them the presence of Guaitipán as a heroine and leader who fought for her people, her land, and the legacy and memory of her ancestors seeking for the autonomy of the original peoples is still present. In the city of Neiva, capital of Huila, there is a monument to La Gaitana honoring her courage and community awareness, as well as her capacity as a woman to overcome gender prejudices.
The image of strength associated with Timaná is forged from the legacy of La Gaitana, and over the years, this population has represented freedom, since in the process of independence of the Spaniards toward a republic, many of its inhabitants supported the cause of the Libertador, Simón Bolívar. Its current inhabitants, proud of a warrior past, are peaceful, mostly mestizos of predominantly Caucasian traits. This municipality stands out in Huila for its coffee production, and like so many Colombian territories, it has been a victim of violence and forced displacement since 2005.
== See also ==
* Policarpa Salavarrieta
* Inocencio Chincá
== Bibliography ==
• “Cacica Gaitana”. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. https://www1.udistrital.edu.co/universidad/colombia/historia/prehispanica/gaitana/
• Calpe Espasa. “Personajes de la Historia de España”. Madrid. 1999.
• Celia Suárez Cabal. “La Gaitana”. La Real Academia de la Historia. Biography in: http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/10029/la-gaitana
• Fray Pedro Simón. “Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales”. Nine volumes. Bogotá 1953.
• “Gaitana”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Biography in: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaitana
• Jesús María Henao and Gerardo Arrubla. “Historia de Colombia”. Bogotá, 1967.
• Joaquín Acosta. “1901: Compendio histórico del descubrimiento y colonización de la Nueva Granada”. Librería Colombiana, Bogotá. Biblioteca Virtual del Banco de la República. 2004.
• La Gaitana. “Cacica Gaitana”. Colombia. c. 1539 – s. XVI. Heroína y líder indígena colombiana del siglo XVI.
• “La Gaitana, cacica (siglo XVI)”. Enciclonet, la web de las biografías. Biografía en: http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=la-gaitana
Credits
1. December 2019. Research and text: Olga Escobar Trujillo for Banrepcultural
[[Categoría:Mujer]][[Categoría:Nacidos en Colombia]][[Categoría:Fallecidos en Colombia]][[Categoría:Indígena]] [[Categoría:Mujeres Notables]] [[Categoría:Líder]] [[Categoría:Cacique]][[Categoría:Saberes Indígenas]]
{{relacionesBanrepcultural}}

Revisión actual - 20:28 27 nov 2023

La Gaitana
La Cacica Gaitana.jpg
Monumento a la La Gaitana en Timaná, Huila
Datos generales
Nombre Guaitipán
Fecha de nacimiento First half of the 16th century
Nacionalidad Yalcón - Colombiana Bandera de Colombia }}
Seudónimo La Gaitana
Ocupación Cacica and warrior leader
País de nacimiento Nueva Reino de Granada (Imperio Español)
Ciudad de nacimiento Timaná, later known as Villa de la Gaitana in Huila, Colombia


Guaitipan or “La Gaitana”, a chieftain of the Yalcón culture known by 16th century Spanish conquerors and chroniclers as “La Gaitana”, was the indigenous woman who resisted the colonization of her territory, initially bringing together more than six thousand indigenous people from different communities (initially Timanaes, Yalcones, and Pijaos) against the violent acts of domination of Pedro de Añasco and his men, who acted by order of the conqueror Sebastián de Belalcázar. A colonizing process of appropriation of land, property, and native labor force that led to the massacre of hundreds of indigenous people in the south of the country and the dispossession of lands and cultural forms of their survivors. Avenging her son, who had been burned alive by Añasco, Guaitipán, counterattacking with her sibling peoples, captured the murderer of her son alive and subjected him to a slow and painful death as revenge and derision for the Iberian colonizers. Over the years she continued to forge alliances, this time with the Aviramas, Paeces, and Guanacas of Tierradentro, achieving a warrior force of about 15 thousand men. Guatipán disappeared amid the Spanish onslaught to the indigenous uprising motivated by her. Her rebellion and warlike arts disrupted the Spanish settlement in the southern Colombian Andes for several decades, leaving a revolutionary legacy to the communities to fight the conquerors. Even today, La Gaitana is an indigenous symbol of resistance.

Biography

Guaitipán was a chieftain of the Yalcones, who lived in the territory of Timaná. This was the name of Quechua origin of the settlement founded in 1538 by Pedro de Añasco after dominating the local population. Añasco was a sailor, explorer, and conquistador who sailed to the Indies between 1527 and 1538. He was appointed by Sebastián de Belalcázar to found villages that facilitated the communications of the conquistadors between Popayán and the Magdalena River, a task that involved the extermination of entire populations to consolidate the Spanish settlements.

Pedro de Añasco summoned the indigenous male leaders, excluding Guaitipán for being a woman, to proceed with the distribution of their lands among the Spanish men. The son of the Cacica, second in command, refused to meet him, not deserving his trust. Because of this disregard for his call, Añasco ordered the young man to be burned alive in front of his town. This act caused such indignation in Guaitipán that she summoned close to six thousand indigenous people to demand repairs for the grievance. These original communities, characterized by union and labor, rebelled using their warlike strength. The act that was intended as derision to other indigenous peoples was the cause of the rebellion of several communities against the colonizers. This is when La Gaitana led the feat of summoning and gathering over six thousand indigenous people to avenge the death of her son and maintain indigenous resistance for years.

Valor and Indigenous Strategy

The war strategy planned by the Chief Guaitipán was carried out one morning before dawn, when the indigenous ambushed Pedro de Añasco’s camp,where he and more than 20 of his men were sleeping. Two-thirds of them were killed, and those who fled returned some days later with reinforcements. Añasco was captured alive and taken before La Gaitana, who pulled out his eyes and pierced his tongue with a rope, dragged him from town to town, later cutting off his limbs and killing him to finally exhibit his head as a trophy of war and symbol of victory. The communities that lived at the time between the valleys and mountains of the Central Andean mountain range of southern Colombia were numerous and were formed by many members. The chronicles by Fray Pedro Simón, Juan de Castellanos, and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (REVISAR ORIGINAL) comment that among them were the Yalcón, Timanaes, Avirama, Pijao, Guanaca, Paeces, and Andaquíes, communities that were close to each other in the region, which joined the intentions of the cacique Guaitipán, its commander, and cacique Pigoanza, as well as the caciques Inando, Añolongo, Meco, and Timano. Although the motive of the indigenous insurgency was detonated by the crude assassination of Guatipán’s son between 1539 and 1540, the strength of this warring enterprise achieved the insurrection of organized, knowledgeable, and civilizing societies in their territories against the forms of control and expropriation of entire peoples by blood and fire by the Spanish conquerors.

How the Resistance was forged

Añasco was succeeded by Juan del Río in Timaná, a territory attacked by La Gaitana with the Yalcones. From there, she left to other nearby indigenous peoples, inciting a general rebellion to which the paeces, guanacas, and aviramas of Tierradentro were added, concentrating 15 thousand warriors with whom she attacked Timaná again. Del Rio defended the population with difficulty with a contingent of 90 men, plus the advantage offered by cavalry and firearms. Afterwards, he received reinforcements from Governor Juan de Cabrera, Añasco's successor, who called on the Indians to return to Timaná to rebuild their homes. The natives, thinking that the Spaniards had learned the lesson, returned only to find treason awaiting for them. Those who came back were murdered.

The Decline of Indigenous Endurance: Betrayal

Amidst the climate of indigenous resistance, betrayal was forged between leaders and caciques of the various communities that supported Guaitipán. REVISAR ORIGINAL Although the leaders of the Yalcones, Paeces, Guanacas, and Piramas rose to her aid, chief Matambo revealed to the Spaniards the ambush plans prepared for them, as a final blow of La Gaitana and her allies’ strategy. The Spaniard conqueror Juan de Ampudia, who had joined to reinforce the Spanish forces, died by indigenous hands with a spear that crossed his neck. His second-in-command, Francisco Tobar, fled while designing the plan “Punishment for the insolence of the natives,” based on torture and death to placate the indigenous people who had gathered and rebelled against the Spanish Crown's regime. After the betrayal of Guaitipán, the indigenous resistance of the mid-16th century did not last long.

The libertarian Feat of the indigenous Peoples fades

This epic is considered one of the most powerful wars of the conquest in Colombian territories against the Spanish invasion, a colonizing company that would end up decimating the native population, taking advantage through deception, firearms, and cavalry. Once the indigenous had been defeated militarily, the Catholic religion, forced labor, diseases, tributes and obligations, repression, and the concealment of their cultural practices by colonizing action ended up rendering an American feat of resistance and defense of the territory invisible. This situation still takes place today in the Republican context of the Colombian nation, where land tenure promotes displacement and extermination in a political and economic system that promotes inequality and cultural, social, and economic marginalization as well as the assassination of social and indigenous leaders, as La Gaitana, or Guaitipán, once was.

Union makes Strength

The motivation and strong support of these indigenous societies was communal and massive. Between the silence and the repressed fear, they knew how to turn to their warrior ancestors and defend the dignity of their present. Despite the loss of their cultural autonomy and their community territorial heritage, this historic indigenous feat managed to form the first confederation of indigenous peoples in the region, leaving a precedent of union and rebellion against the Spanish colonization to the communities. This resistance capacity survives today among Colombian indigenous communities despite the constant siege, marginalization, and devaluation of their knowledge.

Guatipán and Timaná Today

Legends and indigenous stories are still heard today, and in them the presence of Guaitipán as a heroine and leader who fought for her people, her land, and the legacy and memory of her ancestors seeking for the autonomy of the original peoples is still present. In the city of Neiva, capital of Huila, there is a monument to La Gaitana honoring her courage and community awareness, as well as her capacity as a woman to overcome gender prejudices.

The image of strength associated with Timaná is forged from the legacy of La Gaitana, and over the years, this population has represented freedom, since in the process of independence of the Spaniards toward a republic, many of its inhabitants supported the cause of the Libertador, Simón Bolívar. Its current inhabitants, proud of a warrior past, are peaceful, mostly mestizos of predominantly Caucasian traits. This municipality stands out in Huila for its coffee production, and like so many Colombian territories, it has been a victim of violence and forced displacement since 2005.

See also

  • Policarpa Salavarrieta
  • Inocencio Chincá


Bibliography

• “Cacica Gaitana”. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. https://www1.udistrital.edu.co/universidad/colombia/historia/prehispanica/gaitana/ • Calpe Espasa. “Personajes de la Historia de España”. Madrid. 1999. • Celia Suárez Cabal. “La Gaitana”. La Real Academia de la Historia. Biography in: http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/10029/la-gaitana • Fray Pedro Simón. “Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales”. Nine volumes. Bogotá 1953. • “Gaitana”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Biography in: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaitana • Jesús María Henao and Gerardo Arrubla. “Historia de Colombia”. Bogotá, 1967. • Joaquín Acosta. “1901: Compendio histórico del descubrimiento y colonización de la Nueva Granada”. Librería Colombiana, Bogotá. Biblioteca Virtual del Banco de la República. 2004. • La Gaitana. “Cacica Gaitana”. Colombia. c. 1539 – s. XVI. Heroína y líder indígena colombiana del siglo XVI. • “La Gaitana, cacica (siglo XVI)”. Enciclonet, la web de las biografías. Biografía en: http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=la-gaitana Credits 1. December 2019. Research and text: Olga Escobar Trujillo for Banrepcultural

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