Guamá

Cuban Taíno cacique. In 1522 he rose up against Spanish colonizers and maintained his struggle for almost ten years. He used surprise attacks and very rapid retreats as his main strategy, in order to prevent the Spanish from using their weapons, which were much more advanced than those of the natives.

Although there is no final version about his death, the most accepted one says that he was assassinated by his own brother while he slept.

The name of Guamá is of Araucanian origin. According to Antonio Bachiller y Morales, it means lord, although other linguists translate it as master. Despite the origin of his name, the most accepted criterion is that Guamá was of Taíno origin.

His name is mentioned in history for the first time in 1522, the year in which the young cacique rose up against the colonizers. Initially Guamá did not attack the Spanish and lived peacefully in the hills of Maisí, accompanied by a group of aborigines. The place was attacked by the Spanish, who took several members of the tribe as slaves, principally several children.

During the first years of his uprising, the cacique moved into difficult-to-access areas near Baracoa. In those places he and his followers built shelters and organized activities that would allow the community to sustain itself. Gradually other natives joined them and in a short time Guamá had a significant number of men willing to fight.

Diego Velázquez, worried about Indian uprisings, sent squads of well-armed men accompanied by Indians who served as guides and also used dogs to combat the rebels. Upon Velázquez's death in 1524, the government was assumed temporarily by Manuel de Rojas, who intensified the methods to eliminate the rebellions. Captured Indians, if accused of any crime, were sentenced to death and their heads were later displayed at the entrances of towns. Survivors were forced to work as slaves in the encomiendas.

In 1526 Gonzalo de Guzmán took over the government of Cuba, and during his government there was a relative abandonment of the persecution of the rebels.

Around that time, new warriors joined Guamá's ranks, among them Juan Pérez, a principal Indian from a neighboring area, who went to the mountains with a group of men and women. Similarly, a significant number of the so-called encomienda Indians from the Baracoa region, desperate from the exploitation they were subjected to, abandoned their encomenderos and joined Guamá's forces. The name of Guamá was already famous; his actions were not limited to the Baracoa area but extended to Maisí and Sagua de Tánamo.

Between 1527 and 1530 the rebels assaulted and burned the town of Puerto Príncipe (today Camagüey), causing great destruction. The fire spread rapidly, causing the population to flee in terror. They also attacked Baracoa, creating such fear among its inhabitants that they were forced to take refuge on the coast, awaiting reinforcements they had requested from La Española. They sent Governor Guzmán a request for protection, stating:

"That the Indians who were working in the mines, seeing that Guamá was there risen up and in rebellion, one by one and even seven by seven we believe are going with him and no gold is being collected and the Spanish do not dare go out to search for them."

In a letter that the Cabildo of Santiago de Cuba addressed to His Majesty in 1530, it was reported that for approximately four years an Indian named Guamá had been in uprising, that at that moment he had more than fifty men under his command, and that day by day he was gathering more peaceful Indians, and that the increase in the number of his warriors could cause much harm.

In February of 1532 the colonists lamented the ineffectiveness of the squads sent against Guamá and his followers. In July of that year Gonzalo de Guzmán was suspended from his position as governor, which was assumed again by Manuel de Rojas, who set out to end the uprisings, especially that of Guamá.

Guamá continued his surprise attacks against the Spanish and the pacified Indians, and the queen, by Royal Decree of September 28, 1532, directed to the bishop of Cuba, fray Miguel Ramírez, gave instructions to him and to Manuel de Rojas to impose better treatment of the Indians on his men, in order to prevent more from joining the rebels.

Rojas, however, chose to form more squads to combat the rebels in Puerto Príncipe and Sancti Spíritus, composed of Spanish, Indians, Black slaves and runaway dogs. In early 1532, Rojas set out toward the mountains of Baracoa commanding two squads. It took him many days to locate Guamá's settlement, until he finally managed to discover it. When the squads arrived, they only found four men and three women, who were interrogated in the presence of the interim governor. They declared that about fifteen Indians had managed to escape to the mountains, and they informed that Guamá had been killed by his brother Guamayry, through treachery and with an axe, while he slept.

Apparently Guamá had abducted his brother's woman and this was the cause of the assault and subsequent death.

Source: Ecured