Agüeybaná II.

Statue of Agüeybaná II, "El Bravo", in Ponce (Puerto Rico)

Agüeybaná II. (* Around 1470, † 1511 ), born as Güeybaná , was one of the two most important and powerful cacique of the Taíno in "Borikén" ( Puerto Rico ) when the Spaniards first came to the island on November 19, 1493. Agüeybaná II led the Taino of Puerto Rico in the Battle of Yagüecas, also known as the Taino Rebellion of 1511 against Juan Ponce de León and the Spanish conquistadors .

"The big sun"

Güeybaná, better known as Agüeybaná II., Was the brother of the great cacique Agüeybaná and lived with his tribe in Guaynia ( Guayanilla ), near a river of the same name on the southern part of the distant island. The name Agüeybaná means “the great sun” and the addition “II” is often added to distinguish it from its brother Agüeybaná, the other great cacique in Puerto Rico at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. All other caciques (indigenous military) were inferior to Agüeybaná and subject to obedience, but led their own tribes.

Arrival of the conquistadors

Agüeybaná the elder received the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León when he arrived in Puerto Rico in 1508. Following an old Taíno tradition, Agüeybaná practiced the guaytiao , a Taíno ritual in which he and Juan Ponce de León became friends and exchanged names . The hospitality and the friendly treatment that the Spaniards received from Agüeybaná made it easy for them to betray the Indians and later to conquer the island. Agüeybaná actions helped maintain the short-lived peace between the Taíno and the Spanish.

Taíno rebellion of 1511

After Agüeybaná the Elder's death in 1510, his brother Güeybaná (better known as Agüeybaná II) became the most powerful cacique on the island. Agüeybaná II had his doubts about the “divine” status of the Spaniards. He devised a plan to test the perceived divine nature of the Spaniards: he and Urayoán (cacique of Añasco ) sent out some of their tribe members to lure a Spaniard named Diego Salcedo into a river and drown him. They watched Salcedo's body to make sure it wouldn't come back to life. Salcedo's death was enough to convince him and the rest of the Taíno that the Spaniards weren't gods.

Agüeybaná II held Areytos (war dances) or secret meetings with other caciques, where he organized a revolt against the Spaniards. Cristobal de Sotomayor sent a spy, Juan González, to one of the Areitos, who learned of Agüeybaná's plans. Despite the warning, Agüeybana II killed Sotomayor and his men, and seriously wounded González. Juan González escaped and managed to escape to Caparra , where he reported the murders to Ponce de León. Meanwhile, Guarionex, the cacique of Utuado, attacked the village of Sotomayor (now Aguada) and killed eighty of its inhabitants. After that, Ponce de León led the Spaniards in a series of offensives against the Taìno, culminating in the Battle of Yagüecas.

The Agüeybaná II. ("El Bravo") Park in Ponce, Puerto Rico

death

In 1511, around 11,000 to 15,000 Taíno against around 80 to 100 Spaniards gathered in the Yagüecas region. Before the battle began, a Spanish soldier shot an Indian with an arquebus . Presumably this was Agüeybaná II, since the warrior wore a gold necklace, as only wore cacique.

Effects of the battle

After the death of Agüeybaná II, the local warriors withdrew and remained disorganized. The supporters of Agüeybanás II decided to employ the Spaniards using guerrilla tactics. This guerrilla war lasted the next 8 years until 1519. A second round of riots broke out in 1513 when Ponce de Leon left the island to explore Florida. The settlement of Caparra, at the time the seat of the island's government, was looted and burned by an alliance of Taínos and locals from the northeast Antilles.

After 1520, the Taíno presence on the island had almost disappeared. A government census in 1530 reported the existence of only 1,148 Taíno remaining in Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, the oppressive conditions for the surviving Taíno continued. Many of those who stayed on the island soon died from either the cruel treatment they received or the smallpox epidemic that struck the island in 1519.

legacy

Badge in Agüeybaná II. ("El Bravo") Park in the Caracoles sector, Barrio Playa, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Agüeybaná II is revered in Puerto Rico for loyalty to his people. Many public buildings and streets in Puerto Rico are named after him:

A high school is named after him in the city of Bayamón .
A street in Caguas is named in his honor.
An avenue in the Hato Rey district of San Juan is named after Agüeybaná.
In Puerto Rico an equivalent to the Oscars was awarded annually, which was named " Agüeybaná de Oro " (The Golden Agüeybaná) in honor of the great cacique .
In the “Caracoles” sector of the Barrio Playa in Ponce (Puerto Rico) there is a small park dedicated to Agüeybaná II, “El Bravo” (the brave). It is on the southeast corner of the intersection of Ponce By-Pass (PR-2) and Avenida Hostos (PR-123).
The poet Daniel de Rivera wrote a poem entitled Agüeybaná El Bravo , which is dedicated to him. It reads in excerpts:

¡Ea, compañeros! Vamos al combate:
Honor la patria a defender nos llama;
Si en paz, contento el corazon no late
La guerra nos dara fortuna y fama;
Hasta la mar que nuestra costa bate
Ondas escupe y agitada brama,
Que cual nosotros contemplar quisiera
Libre esta perla de la gente ibera.

Hey brothers! Let's go to battle:
the homeland calls us to defend our honor;
If our hearts do not beat peacefully,
war will bring us happiness and fame;
Even the sea that hits our coasts
spits waves and rumbles with alarm,
because like us,
our pearl would also like to be freed from the Iberian people.

literature

Agüeynaba . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 1 : Aaron - Crandall . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 36 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d La Rebelion del cacique Agüeybaná II. ( Memento from February 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: En Marcha: Organo del Comite Central del Partido Comunista Maxista Leninista de Ecuador . Seccion: Testimonio y Dialéctica. May 8, 2006, p. 1; Retrieved July 14, 2011.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Cathy Bryan: Land Tenure Development in Puerto Rico . ( Memento from September 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 46 kB) University of Maine, Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, Orono ME approx. 2000. James W. Sewall Company, Old Town ME, p. 5; Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Salvador Brau: Puerto Rico y su historia: Investigaciones críticas. Imprenta Francisco Vives Mora, Valencia (España) 1894, p. 64.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Héctor L. Sánchez: Del mito al hito: la defensa de los taínos. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. December 26, 2012 (Title in printed version: Del mito al hito: Conozca la brave defensa de los tainos , Year 31, Issue 1517, p. 28). Retrieved December 26, 2012.
↑ Puerto Rico y su historia: Investigaciones críticas. Salvador Brau. Valencia, España: Imprenta Francisco Vives Mora. 1894. Pages 64 and 180. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ WH Holmes: Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 25th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 1903-1904. United States Government Printing Office , Washington 1907, p. 38.
^ Puerto Rico in the Great Depression: History. ( Memento of November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquén . Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration in Co-operation with the Writer's Program of the Work Projects Administration (Federal Writers Project, 1940) The University Society, New York 1940, pp. 36-67 (American Guide Series). Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ A Historical Overview of Colonial Puerto Rico: The Importance of San Juan as a Military Outpost. National Park Service. San Juan National Historic Site. History and Culture. no date. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
↑ ^a ^b José R. Oliver: Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The University of Alabama Press, 2009, p. 4.
^ Francisco Moscoso: El Mito de la Muerte de Agueybana: y de los Caciques Colaboradoes Caguax y Don Alfonso . In: Revista ICP , Year 10, Number 20, 2011, p. 46; Retrieved December 27, 2012.
↑ José R. Oliver: Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The University of Alabama Press, 2009, pp. 4, 41.
↑ Puerto Rico. Yale University. Genocide Studies Program. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
↑ Puerto Rico's First People ( Memento from December 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
↑ El Gran Combo. Music of Puerto Rico. (Reference to the “Agüeybaná de Oro”.) Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Socorro Giron: Ponce, el Teatro La Perla, y la Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce, Ponce (Puerto Rico) 1992, p. 71, LCCN 85-090989 .

personal data
SURNAME	Agüeybaná II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Güeybaná; Agüeybaná el Bravo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Puerto Rican chief of the Taínos
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1470
PLACE OF BIRTH	Borikén ( Puerto Rico )
DATE OF DEATH	1511
Place of death	Borikén ( Puerto Rico )

[Marcha-1] La Rebelion del cacique Agüeybaná II. ( Memento from February 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: En Marcha: Organo del Comite Central del Partido Comunista Maxista Leninista de Ecuador . Seccion: Testimonio y Dialéctica. May 8, 2006, p. 1; Retrieved July 14, 2011.

[Bryan-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Cathy Bryan: Land Tenure Development in Puerto Rico . ( Memento from September 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 46 kB) University of Maine, Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, Orono ME approx. 2000. James W. Sewall Company, Old Town ME, p. 5; Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[3] Salvador Brau: Puerto Rico y su historia: Investigaciones críticas. Imprenta Francisco Vives Mora, Valencia (España) 1894, p. 64.

[periodicolaperla-4] Héctor L. Sánchez: Del mito al hito: la defensa de los taínos. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. December 26, 2012 (Title in printed version: Del mito al hito: Conozca la brave defensa de los tainos , Year 31, Issue 1517, p. 28). Retrieved December 26, 2012.

[5] Puerto Rico y su historia: Investigaciones críticas. Salvador Brau. Valencia, España: Imprenta Francisco Vives Mora. 1894. Pages 64 and 180. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[6] WH Holmes: Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 25th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 1903-1904. United States Government Printing Office , Washington 1907, p. 38.

[7] Puerto Rico in the Great Depression: History. ( Memento of November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquén . Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration in Co-operation with the Writer's Program of the Work Projects Administration (Federal Writers Project, 1940) The University Society, New York 1940, pp. 36-67 (American Guide Series). Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[8] A Historical Overview of Colonial Puerto Rico: The Importance of San Juan as a Military Outpost. National Park Service. San Juan National Historic Site. History and Culture. no date. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[Oliver-4-9] José R. Oliver: Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The University of Alabama Press, 2009, p. 4.

[10] Francisco Moscoso: El Mito de la Muerte de Agueybana: y de los Caciques Colaboradoes Caguax y Don Alfonso . In: Revista ICP , Year 10, Number 20, 2011, p. 46; Retrieved December 27, 2012.

[11] José R. Oliver: Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The University of Alabama Press, 2009, pp. 4, 41.

[12] Puerto Rico. Yale University. Genocide Studies Program. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[13] Puerto Rico's First People ( Memento from December 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

[14] El Gran Combo. Music of Puerto Rico. (Reference to the “Agüeybaná de Oro”.) Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[15] Socorro Giron: Ponce, el Teatro La Perla, y la Campana de la Almudaina. Gobierno Municipal de Ponce, Ponce (Puerto Rico) 1992, p. 71, LCCN 85-090989 .