Lautaro
Lautaro (Leftraru) (from Mapudungun: lef, 'fast',[citation required] and traru, 'traro' or 'traro calvo', from lau, 'bald, bald, and traru, 'traro'; circa 1534-Peteroa, present-day Sagrada Familia; April 30, 1557) was a prominent toqui (Mapuche military leader) in the Arauco War during the first phase of the Spanish conquest of the territory that would become Chile.
Biography
Early Years
There is no certainty of Lautaro's place of birth. Some historical versions place his birth in the year 1534 in the Trehuaco area, in the current Ñuble Region, since the Pedro de Valdivia expedition that captured him camped there and it was also the area occupied by the lonco Curiñancu, Lautaro's father Other versions place it near the Andalién River in Concepción or in Tirúa, near the Nahuelbuta mountain range.
Lautaro was the son of a lonco named Curiñancu (mapudungun Kurüñamku, 'aguilucho negro') and lived a normal life until, when he was around eleven years old, he was captured by the Spanish and turned into servitude, for six years.
According to some historians, in the vicinity of the future site of Concepción, Pedro de Valdivia would have ordered the mochar los pies (cut off the toes) of all the Mapuche warriors commanded by Curiñancu and who had put up resistance, including Curiñancu himself and his wife, to prevent them from following him. This situation provoked great hatred[citation required] in the young Lautaro against the Spanish and particularly against Pedro de Valdivia. It is said that this act of mopping the feet of the Mapuches by Pedro de Valdivia made the Spanish soldiers identify this valley as the «Valle de la Mocha»; the name in question has been maintained over time.
After the capture, Lautaro was made a Yanacona as an indigenous auxiliary in battles. He remained a prisoner of the Spanish for three years, during which time he became Valdivia's personal page. As it was difficult for the Spaniards to pronounce his original name Leftraru , he was given the name Felipe Lautaro Among his usual tasks was taking care of Valdivia's horses and always accompanying him to battles and military exercises. That's how he learned not to fear the horse and to ride until he became a good rider. In addition, he observed the battle arrangements of the Spanish, learning from Valdivia his military tactics. During this period, he made some degree of friendship with one of Valdivia's leading captains, Marcos Veas, who taught him the use of some cavalry weapons and tactics.
In 1550, during the battle of Andalién (February 22) and the battle of Penco (March 12), Lautaro witnessed the punishments to which Valdivia had the defeated Mapuches subjected, mutilating the prisoners and releasing them later, as an example to avoid future rebellions; this shocked him deeply. It is probable that as a result of all these violent acts towards his people, a terrible disappointment and rebellion against Valdivia and the Spaniards arose within him. It was possibly inspired by the biography of the Hebrew Moses, a character from the Bible , who was educated in the home of Pharaoh of Egypt and led the liberation of his people from slavery, during the Exodus .
In 1551, as a page, Lautaro accompanied Valdivia in the foundation of the forts of Cautín, the new Imperial city, and reached Villarrica guided by a renegade Mapuche named Alicán. Valdivia resolved to return to La Concepción and then go to Santiago in the winter of 1552.
Sometime between his stay in La Concepción (present-day Penco) and the journey to Santiago, Lautaro fled. string of victories, their battle tactics being the determining factors in the outcome of these.
Escape from the Spanish camp
After learning about Spanish military tactics and strategy, he escaped at some point on horseback, the field master from Valdivia, returning to his people. The flight of Lautaro, Valdivia's page, went unnoticed by the Spaniards as they considered it an almost common occurrence and therefore never pursued him. According to what is told in the epic poem La Araucana, Lautaro appeared before the surprised loncos presided over by Colo Colo and some of his "captains": Pelantaro, Fresia, Lincoyán, Guacolda, Tucapel and Elicura.
Once his natural misgivings had been overcome, Lautaro resolutely demonstrated his natural qualities as an innate leader and taught his people to lose their fear of horses. They learned to ride and use the horse as a single being, taking it as a corporeal extension to fight. Thus, thanks to Lautaro, the first Mapuche cavalry squadrons appeared, which would be extremely effective when it came to fighting the Spanish armies.
He called meetings in the open field and taught the Mapuche the military arts and the use of new weapons. He also designed a set of military tactics: the use of squads. He proposed leaving the massive attack and facing them directly in blocks or successive groups, thus choosing the terrain, ambush and guerrilla tactics as a method of combat. Thanks to his victories, and having the authority of the loncos, he was elected toqui, maximum chief in a state of war and led a great military uprising against the Spanish, who, until then, had walked victorious throughout the area between the Valdivia river and the Biobío.
Leadership
Lautaro proved to have the innate qualities of a leader and would soon also demonstrate the qualities of a military strategist. With eloquent speech, he taught his people, based on his own demonstrations, to fight in squads, taking advantage of the terrain and using defensive forms against cavalry charges. He taught them that retreat was not cowardice, but a tactical form of combat. Likewise, he instilled the use of the bugle call, as an element of tactical obedience of the squadrons, as the Spanish did. He also created a true "investigation and intelligence" service, using men, women and adolescents. They were given professional training. For example, in characterizations they pretended to be drunks, crazy, Christians or traitors of their town in order to work as false collaborators, servants or slaves of the Spaniards, pretending not to understand the Spanish language and thus extract vital information, in addition to disseminating news or data. incorrect about possible attacks by the Mapuche army; In addition, they carried out nocturnal visibility training, subjecting the agent to live for days without seeing the light of the sun, so that later at night, he would do the work of night espionage; they were also taught the exclusive system of communication through the movement of tree branches. Lautaro chose and instructed commanders for the various sections of his complete and hierarchical army; Including a toqui head of the investigation service, who supervised and reported on the actions of his service.
Physically, Lautaro was a young man not very tall, rather thick, with penetrating black eyes, a robust body and a full face. Broad shoulders and raised torso, pleasant appearance.
He was wearing a red Spanish T-shirt, a scarlet leather bonnet. Her shaved head was crowned with a forelock that was left as an insignia of generalship; He also carried the symbolic Toki Kura, a stone emblem that hangs from his neck, in addition to the Clave that he carried in his hand, symbols of the war chief or Toki.
Ambush and death of Governor Pedro de Valdivia
Lautaro knew that the forces under his command, recently trained, were now in a so-called "Interior Line", that is, between two forces, those of Fort Purén by the south and those of Concepción to the north. For this he chooses to neutralize one of them and used a stratagem: he deceived Gómez de Almagro in the Purén fort and made sure that his troops did not join those of Valdivia in the Tucapel fort.
Lautaro captured an emissary, from whom he learned that Valdivia was marching south and necessarily had to pass through Tucapel. Indeed, in mid-December 1553, Valdivia left Concepción and went to Quilacoya, where he took some soldiers on his march to Arauco. The Mapuche spies followed the column from the heights of the hills and did not present a battle, letting it make its way. Valdivia showed surprise because he did not receive any news from the Tucapel fort, in addition to the fact that he was not harassed on the road.
On December 24, he decides to head to Tucapel, hoping to find Gómez de Almagro on the way. The tranquility and the sporadic sightings of indigenous people in the distance aroused his suspicions and he sent Luis de Bobadilla with five men in an outpost to explore the road and provide information on the presence of the enemy. He doesn't see them again. Valdivia was surprised at not having more news from Bobadilla, who spent the night half a day from the Tucapel fort.
On Christmas day of that year, he sets out early and when he arrives in the vicinity, he is surprised by the absolute silence that prevails. Upon reaching the hill where the fort is, he finds it completely destroyed. Neither Gómez de Almagro nor Bobadilla appeared anywhere. Valdivia still decides to continue and make camp in the smoking ruins of the fort. When the preparations were already advancing, suddenly, the forest was filled with whispers and, without further warning, a mass rushed towards the Spanish enclave.
Valdivia, a military expert, was barely able to arm his defensive lines and withstand the first shock, while the cavalry charged the Mapuche rearguard. The Mapuches, anticipating this maneuver, had arranged lancers and held back the charge. The Spaniards managed to break up the Mapuche charge, which, turning to the woods, withdrew from the hill. The Spanish celebrated the victory. But a new indigenous squadron appeared in combat and once again they had to set up lines and once again charge with the cavalry.
The Mapuches, in addition to the lancers, had men carrying maces, boleadoras and lassoes with which they managed to dismount the rider and deal him a final blow to the head once he was on the ground. The same scene was repeated, and at the sound of a distant horn, the squadron withdrew, not without leaving some casualties. A third squadron showed up for battle, this time led by Lautaro. Valdivia, seeing the situation desperate, given the fatigue and casualties, gathered the available men and discussed whether or not to continue with the fight, which was already acquiring very fierce edges: half of the Spaniards were lying on the field and the auxiliary troops of the Empire dwindled.
Valdivia addresses those still around him and asks them:
"Gentlemen, what are we gonna do?".Captain Altamirano responds: "What your honor wants us to do if we don't fight and die!".
Valdivia, seeing the unnecessaryness of so much death, ordered an orderly retreat, but found himself face to face with Lautaro, who unleashed all the fury of his cavalry against the exhausted Spanish troops. The battle passed to the persecution stage and the Mapuche dropped one by one on the isolated Spaniards. Only Valdivia and the clergyman Pozo, who rode very good horses, managed to take the escape route but, when crossing some swamps, the horses got bogged down and the Mapuches captured them.
After being captured at the battle of Tucapel, a long discussion began about what to do with Valdivia. Some said that the legs had to be cut off, in the Spanish style. Others proposed killing him and using his skull as a trophy. Another group said that the best thing to do was to negotiate a stable peace. While everyone was discussing, a Cacique named Leucotón stood up, calmly walked towards Valdivia and extinguished his life by giving him a strong blow to the neck.
The crowd fell silent and Leucotón limited himself to saying that the Spanish did not keep promises, so it was not worth negotiating with them. And in this way the discussion came to an end, without a drop of blood having been spilled. It is possible that the heart of Valdivia has been consumed by the Mapuches, because according to their tradition, that is where value is found in great warriors, and by consuming it you absorb that value and at the same time honor their memory.
According to the Spanish version,[citation needed] Valdivia was taken to the Mapuche camp, where he was killed after three days of atrocious torture. First they poured earth mixed with gold dust into his mouth and beat him like an arquebus, so that he would get fed up with what those who came from beyond the seas sought with so much mercy; Later, in an act of justice for the mutilations and massacres of the indigenous people that he ordered, after the Battle of Andalién, they made similar cut-offs to those carried out by the conqueror to punish the Araucanians in that battle. The martyrdom continued with the amputation of his muscles while he was alive, using sharp clam shells, and eating them lightly roasted before his eyes. Finally they extracted his heart raw to ritually devour it between the victorious toquis, while they drank chicha from his skull, which was kept as a trophy.
The Mapuche victor then systematically devastated the Spanish cities. He twice sacked and burned Concepción, the nerve center of the Spanish settlements in southern Chile.
The aftermath of Concepción in 1554
The defeat suffered by Francisco de Villagra at the hands of Lautaro caused panic in the nascent population, who, terrified, undertook the depopulation of Concepción in search of Santiago.
The inhabitants of Concepción were saved from being exterminated thanks to the fact that the victorious mass of Lautaro surrendered to the "Admapu" and to spoil what was left on the battlefield by the Spaniards (the ancient Spanish chroniclers estimate 30,000 to 100,000 Mapuche warriors, although this is surely an exaggeration). Without a doubt, this was the golden opportunity that Lautaro lost to end his wishes. of Spanish conquest, since he could not convince his hosts to fight more and had to let them drink and profit while in the distance the column of frightened settlers could be seen moving away from the city. The Mapuches, past the Admapu, dropped onto the deserted Concepción and after looting it, they reduced it to smoking rubble. It is said that it was then that he said his famous phrase: “I am Lautaro, who finished off the Spanish; I am the one who defeated them in Tucapel and on the slope. I killed Valdivia, and put Villagra to flight. I killed his soldiers; I burned the city of Concepción." The large number of refugees from the south in an overcrowded Santiago became untenable to the point that the Spanish realized that it was necessary to retake control over their devastated homes.
Attack on the Confines de Angol and attempt to rebuild Concepción
From April to November 1555 there was no major activity by Lautaro. In addition, the harvests had not been produced due to the war and famine was beginning to appear among his people. To this was added the new diseases brought by the Spanish, smallpox and typhoid fever among others.
In December of that year, a Spanish outpost, coming by land and sea, began to rebuild Concepción. Lautaro gathered his people, forming an army of 4,000 warriors (summing up rumors, the sum would rise to 50,000 or even 100,000 men) and went first to Angol, which was abandoned by its inhabitants to take refuge in La Imperial. The Mapuches destroyed Angol and this emboldened Lautaro's hosts, who turned towards Concepción, where they defeated the Spaniards again, beginning the second depopulation.
The period of 1554-1556
For two years no Spaniards were heard from the region again. Meanwhile, the situation of the Mapuche people, who had suffered a great famine due to the war and the drought, wreaked havoc among its members. The crops had failed due to a season of severe drought and acts of cannibalism appeared; first they devoured their Spanish prisoners and then they cannibalized each other, even committing acts of self-laceration. In addition, the chavalongo, (probably typhus, a disease brought by the Spanish and unknown in America), settled among them, diminishing Lautaro's fighting force.
Campaigns
The campaign of late 1556
Despite the famine and typhus, Lautaro managed to lead more than 2,000 warriors with whom he crossed the great Biobío River for the first time, continued northward and began to recruit people among the Picunches, much more peaceful than the mapuches. Lautaro maintained a rigid discipline among his men but allowed them to commit all kinds of outrages against those indigenous communities that did not join his cause, even burning some natives alive.
In Santiago, Diego Cano was urgently dispatched, plus 14 men, to find out the real situation of the Maule. As they approached Lautaro's camp, the latter, already knowing by his spies, let them approach and then fell on them at the crossing of a river. Here a Spaniard was killed and the others managed to flee. Lautaro had the Spaniard's corpse skinned and had it placed on top of an oak tree. Panic spread in Santiago and defenses began to be built in the city, while a dispute over the royal succession to Valdivia was still ongoing.
The campaign in 1557
Pedro de Villagra, cousin, like Juan de Villagra, of Don Francisco de Villagra, began a campaign gathering 50 horsemen, twelve arquebusiers and 300 yanaconas. He learned that Lautaro had a headquarters in a Pucará located in Peteroa and was soon in the vicinity of the Mapuche fort. Lautaro attacked him from the rear, making use for the first time of Mapuche cavalry armed as lancers and made Pedro de Villagra retreat towards a narrow valley, who sent emissaries to Santiago to ask for reinforcements.
On the way they met Diego Godínez who was bringing 30 horsemen who, by chance, ran into 180 Mapuches who were on their way to meet their leader. A furious battle ensued where Godínez was so badly wounded that he had to withdraw. Meanwhile Lautaro crossed the Itata River and regrouped his forces on the north bank of the river.
There is an episode from this period that narrates an interview arranged at a distance, between two hills, that took place between Lautaro and one of Villagra's captains. Marcos Veas, a Spanish soldier and former friend of Lautaro in the time of Valdivia, urges Lautaro to lay down his arms since he could not forever oppose Spanish power. Lautaro responded rudely to Veas by fixing the Maule as a border for the Spanish and also asking them for a tribute in horses, women and weapons in exchange for not attacking the colony. Lautaro's offer was rejected ipso facto by Veas.
Lautaro advanced towards the Maule River and once he crossed it, he found out that Francisco de Villagra had left Santiago with a punitive battalion of 50 horsemen and 30 arquebusiers plus a thousand Yanaconas. Judging Lautaro well that the capital was left unguarded, he advanced to the north, letting Francisco de Villagra pass to the south.
By then Lautaro had become proud of his victories and his influence over his people. He became an autocratic dictator and again committed all kinds of outrages against the Picunche people and the less warlike Promaucahues, earning numerous enemies, including a young Mapuche who saw his father burned to death in front of him. This Mapuche, whom he would leave alive, would be his downfall. In the current sector of Chillán, Lautaro suffered the desertion of his great ally, a cacique named Chillicán who could not bear the degree of abuse from his leader and moved away from him with his hosts, giving up the company of Lautaro.
This significant loss in his forces was a hard blow to Lautaro's pride and made him give up advancing north in search of Santiago, aggravated by the fact of marching late in the autumn and without food, for which he preferred to return to reluctantly towards Mataquito and regroup in Peteroa.
Death of Lautaro by the Spanish avenging Pedro de Valdivia
The Spanish outposts led by Francisco de Villagra, who were to the south of the Mapuche forces, were informed in Reinohuelén by a Mapuche-Pehuenche (already mentioned above) that Lautaro was camping in a fort on the south side of the Mataquito river, the feet of the Chiripilco hill, in the Peteroa sector (near the current Sagrada Familia, Chile). As soon as Villagra realized the valuable information he had, he sent Captain Godínez through the advance guard to join him in the town of Mataquito.
Gathered his forces, Villagra advanced hidden at night along the banks of the Mataquito River, to the outskirts of the town. The information obtained by Lautaro led him to believe that the enemy that he had left to the south was far away and therefore he neglected to monitor the location and was unaware of the approach of Villagra and Godínez, either because the natives of the area did not raise the alarm or hid it from him. information. The Spaniards were also informed that, the night before, Lautaro's hosts had been getting drunk in a celebration. If the maneuver went well, the surprise would be total.
At dawn on April 30, 1557, Francisco de Villagra attacked Lautaro, together with his cousin Juan de Villagra, Diego de Altamirano and 57 horsemen, five arquebusiers and more than 400 yanaconas (a relatively small force if one considers compares with the estimate of 800 Mapuches who were in the camp).
Villagra, very cautiously, made some Yanaconas explorers advance and they returned saying that there were no sentinels, which made Villagra predict that the camp was in the most absolute rest. The Spanish hosts approached the fort at dawn, climbing a steep mountain range and stretched out their line of attack. Villagra in a low voice addressed a few words to his companions, representing to them the responsibility for success and that the fate of the colony depended on this action.
Villagra had already organized the form of attack when an impatient trumpet sounded the signal prematurely. Immediately, the Mapuches came out to take up their weapons and Villagra shouted –Santiago and close Spain, go ahead!– they totally surprised the hosts of Lautaro, creating confusion and fleeing. The place where Lautaro was was known by the indigenous spies of Villagra, so they resolutely went to the ruca that housed Lautaro who was in the company of his wife Guacolda.
Lautaro came out of his ruca, with Valdivia's sword in hand and was pierced at the door with a spear while his followers were taken by surprise and massacred. The jubilant Spaniards shouted: –Here Spaniards that Lautaro is dead!– (1557). Despite the death of the leader, the Mapuches put up a brave resistance, the battle lasting more than 5 hours, in which 663 fell in the end, barely managing to escape about 130. The Spanish caused more than 650 Mapuche casualties, but lost Juan de Villagra (Francisco de Villagra's cousin) who died from a spear shot in the mouth, in addition to all the wounded Castilians, plus 200 wounded or dead yanaconas plus many horses.
Lautaro's corpse was beaten and dismembered, his head was exhibited in Santiago's Plaza de Armas for a long time impaled on a spear.
Other leaders of the Arauco War
Although Lautaro failed to expel the Spanish from Mapuche territory, after his death they were more cautious about founding new cities, creating only seven south of the Biobío River. Soon, other leaders would ravage the Spanish cities following Lautaro's example, but lacking his military genius. Only others, such as Pelantaro ( Pelantraru ), Lientur and the Mestizo Alejo could be compared to Lautaro, since they also achieved success in his campaigns. The Mapuches razed all the cities to the south of the Biobío River, in the great uprising of Pelantaro, in 1602.
Ideological and strategic legacy
The extinct Lautarina Lodge or Lautaro Lodge, created in the 19th century in London by Francisco de Miranda, bears his name for the example of resistance against the Spanish.
It's changed the story for us, of course. The "official books" say that it is others who did it and continue to do it for our peoples. The heroes of this story, in a "civilized" world in which there should no longer be, are the invaders [...] Lautaro is the future that we glimpse, behind the curtain of mystery and commitment, and that will come out as the light of our eyes.
Elicura Chihuailaf
Lautaro is considered a great strategist in guerrilla warfare, knowing how to apply the knowledge he acquired with the Spanish in the fight against them, especially that of exploiting numerical superiority by attacking in successive groups to tire a more advanced enemy and better equipped, as well as the tactic of isolating the different corps of the armies so as not to allow their communication.
The figure of Lautaro is highly praised among Chilean schoolchildren, considering him a national icon and the first great Chilean hero. In fact, he was chosen by students and teachers in the Great Chileans contest as the seventh greatest Chilean, surpassing figures such as Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Violeta Parra.
The commune of Lautaro, near Temuco, receives its name from him.
In recent times there has been a marked popularity of the character due to the so-called Mapuche conflict in the southern area of Chile, where Mapuche claims have spread to the rest of the Chilean population due to the use of the Internet, raising the figures of Mapuche heroes like Lautaro, Caupolicán, Lientur, etc.
However, the historical factor is subordinated to the literary factor, transforming the figure of Lautaro more into an ideal than a factual character. There are historians who have argued that a Lautaro did not really exist as in the traditional epic, postulating instead that the Lautaro figure is a representation of various indigenous leaders who successfully resisted the Spanish conquest.
Likewise, there is a mistaken tendency to think that Lautaro is a leader of a unified Mapuche people. What is certain is that the Mapuches of the XVI century and up to 1860 (with the Occupation of Araucanía) are different human groups under religion, language, and similar cultures. They only acted together in case of war, as happened in the 4 main indigenous uprisings. Lautaro ended up facing other Indians due to this political atomization, and that made it possible for the disgruntled Indians to deliver crucial information to the Spanish, which caused their defeat. There is also a tendency to see him as the greatest of the Mapuche leaders in honor of his victories, but the truth is that in terms of achievements, he is less than Pelantaro.
Battles of Lautaro
Lautaro fought many battles. Being a Yanacona prior to his flight, some historians and chroniclers have argued that he first fought as Valdivia's page in the battles of Andalién and Penco:
- Battle of Andalién (as yanacona, not verified or improbable their participation)
- Battle of Penco (such as yanacona, not verified or unlikely to participate)
- Fourteenth of Fame
- Battle of Tucapel
- Battle of Marihueñu
- First Destruction of Conception
- Second Destruction of Conception
- Battle of Peteroa
- Battle of Mataquito
Presence in popular culture
- The life of the Mapuche leader is portrayed by Fernando Alegría in his novel Lautaro, Young Liberator of Arauco.
- The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in his poem General chantIn the fourth song, The liberatorsincluding poems Lautaro (1550) and Cacique Educationinspired by Lautaro.
- In the children's book Trasucho historiador de Marcela Paz, the protagonist presence through his dreams the time of the War of Arauco, where, among other things, attests the moment when Lautaro is named toqui after inspiring the Mapuches to confront the Spaniards.
- The novel Inés of the soul of the Chilean author Isabel Allende is a work of historical fiction published in 2006 based on the life of Inés de Suárez, in it Lautaro is one of the characters that the protagonist knows during the events of the Arauco War.
- In 2020, the Chilean Inés mini-series of my soul was premiered, a television adaptation of the homonymous novel, where the character of Lautaro is played by Simon Beltrán in his childhood era and Mauricio Paniagua as an adult.
- In the Chilean strategy card game Mitos y Leyendas has portrayed Lautaro as a type card Allied in several of its editions.
- The series of Chilean comics Guardians of the South it is inspired by four indigenous historical figures of Chilean territory, recounting in each number the life and history of one of them. The fourth and last volume is dedicated to Lautaro.
- In June of the year 2022, it was premiered in Santiago de Chile Lautaro, Toqui de Toquis, a musical work of opera rock style directed by the musician Felipe Valladares and inspired by the life of the indigenous warrior.