MIAMI, United States. — The process of conquest and colonization of America brought with it a tenacious resistance on the part of the original communities of the so-called New World, which in the end would end up being enslaved and almost extinct.
In the case of Cuba, the first indication of resistance to the conquest dates from November 27, 1492, barely a month after the arrival of the Spanish colonizers on the Island. According to his own notes, Christopher Columbus He arrived in Baracoa and there he found the largest population of natives he had ever seen, “all naked, with their assegayas (spears) in hand.”
However, it was not until the arrival of Diego Velázquez, “El Adelantado”, that episodes of resistance began to become more frequent.
The first native to confront the colonizers was the chief Hatuey, considered by many to be the first rebel in the Americas. While in Cuba, according to what Father las Casas tells in his work Very brief account of the destruction of the IndiesHatuey found out about the landing of the Spanish and began to warn the native population of what had happened in Hispaniola, where the colonizers had already perpetrated abuses and looting.
Hatuey faced the Spanish until he was captured and finally sentenced to die at the stake on February 2, 1512.
Hatuey’s example was followed in Baracoa by the cacique Guamá. This native resisted the domination of the colonizers from 1514 to 1532. Unlike Hatuey, Guamá was not executed by the Spanish, but rather by his own brother, who —according to several records— “took revenge because the cacique He had previously kidnapped his wife.
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