Lempira (Kazike)
Lempira (*? Probably area of today's Honduras , † approx. 1537 ibid) was a cacike of Lenca , who in 1537/38 put together an army of several indigenous tribes against the Spanish conquistadors , but under unexplained circumstances either fell in fighting or in one Ambush was murdered. He is now considered a national hero of Honduras'; its public holiday is July 20th ( Día del Cacique Lempira ).
Live and act
From the sparse Spanish sources nothing is known about its age, appearance or origin. Its name is said to be the Hispanic form of Lepaera from the Lenca language . According to a Spanish source, it means lord of the mountain or lord of the hill .
What seems certain is that in 1537 Lempira was the Kazike of Lenca and organized the military resistance in the area of Cerquín against colonization by the Spaniards invading from Guatemala under the leadership of Francisco de Montejo and Alonso de Cáceres . According to Spanish sources, Lempira had raised an army of 30,000 warriors from 200 Lenca villages .
On the orders of the governor of the newly established province of Honduras, de Montejo, Lempira's seat of Cerqín, near Gracias a Dios, was attacked. Lempira then withdrew with his warriors to a fortified hill and offered resistance for several months. He was finally lured out of his fortress on the pretext of peace negotiations and shot by a Spanish soldier with an arquebus .
Based on research by the Honduran historian Mario Felipe Martínez Castillo , who consulted Spanish sources in the India Archives in the 1980s, one of the Spanish attackers, Rodrigo Ruiz , cut off Lempira's head, whereupon the Lenca and their allies surrendered after four days; then the city of Gracias a Dios was founded.
The Lenca are said to have preserved the legend that Lempira wore Spanish clothes in the belief that they would make him invulnerable. He was therefore killed in battle and not in an ambush.
Tradition, honors
1931 Lempira was in honor of the Honduran currency in Lempira , 1943, the Department of Gracias in Lempira Department renamed. In 1957, the Honduran writer Ramón Amaya Amador wrote the novel El señor de la sierra ( The Lord of the Mountains ) about Lempira . The port city of Puerto Lempira is also named after him.
See also
literature
- Mario Felipe Martínez Castillo: Los Últimos Días de Lempira: Rodrigo Ruiz, El conquistador Español que lo venció en combate , Tegucigalpa (Universidad Nacional Autonoma, Editorial Universitaria) 2000.
- Tony Jaques: Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-First Century , Volume 1, Greenwood Publishing Group 2007.
Web links
- Images of Lempira, apparently after a likeness of the 1 Lempira banknote
- Lempira. Mito o Historia (Lempira. Myth or History), documentation on youtube.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lempira |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Kazike of Lenca |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century or 16th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 1537 |