Guacolda (mapuche mythology)
Script error: No such module "AfC submission catcheck".
Guacolda | |
|---|---|
.JPG) | |
| Nickname(s) | mapudungun Wa-kelü, o Wa-koli, (choclo, maíz - colorado, rojo) |
| Allegiance | Wallmapu |
The existence of Guacolda, Lautaro's wife —as well as that of Fresia, Caupolicán's woman—, is a matter of discussion since while for some it is only a legend, for others it is a real person.
Biography[edit]
For some historians it would be nothing more than a myth, a literary character created by the pen and ingenuity of Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga in his epic poem La Araucana, published in Madrid in three parts (1569, 1578 and 1589), to embody and exemplify the characteristics of the Mapuche woman. Guacolda would have been in love with Lautaro, who would have reciprocated. Thus, Ercilla says that:
Aquella noche el bárbaro dormía
con la bella Guacolda,
y ella por él no menos se abrasaba.— Guacolda
That night the barbarian slept
with the beautiful Guacolda,
and she hugged him for him.— Guacolda
According to tradition, Francisco de Villagra, the winner, would have taken her with him and the woman would have died of grief shortly after.
For the colonial chroniclers, on the other hand, it is a flesh and blood character and they do not doubt its existence and explain its name from the Wa-kelü, or Wa-koli, mapudungun ('corn, red '), deducing, for this reason, that it would have been blond or reddish hair. For the Spanish, her name was Teresa and she was a beautiful woman. Guacolda would have joined Lautaro when he took the city of Concepción.
Fray Diego de Ocaña, the religious Imelda Cano, Father Rosales, and later Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, coincide in describing her as a beautiful woman who was seduced by Lautaro's courage and talent and who decided to follow him with determination and courage. The chronicles also indicate that Guacolda and Lautaro served in Spanish houses. It is said that Lautaro served Pedro de Valdivia himself and that Guacolda would have grown up in the home of Francisco de Villagra.
Neither Guacolda nor Lautaro were afraid of the Spaniards: they had both lived in their houses, they had seen them asleep, sick, perhaps drunk, they had seen them eat, cry and laugh, and they had even cleaned their weapons. For the Mapuches, the Spaniards were not gods but human beings, men of the earth, like them and, therefore, susceptible to being defeated. When Lautaro ended his apprenticeship, he set out to join the uprising of his people. Guacolda would have joined him and they would not have parted anymore. Guacolda would have been present at the capture of Concepción, at the Battle of Mataquito, on the banks of that river (April 1, 1557), and at the assault on Santiago.
They would also have died together, in an ambush set up one night by Francisco de Villagra. Alonso de Ercilla and Pedro Mariño de Lobera tell, in their respective La Araucana and Historia de Chile, that Guacolda would have predicted disaster and death to Lautaro on the eve of the Battle of Chilipirco (Battle of Peteroa, 1557), where both would have dead.
Aunque en general tienen las mujeres el color más castaño que moreno, tiénenlo muchas veces verdinegro y quebrado, y unas más blanco que otras, según los temples de las tierras donde nacen y se crían [...] Son comúnmente de mediana estatura, y en general tienen grandes y negros ojos, cejas bien señaladas, pestañas largas y cabello muy cumplido [...] Su vestir es honesto para bárbaras, pues usan de faldas largas, mostrando sólo los pies descalzos y los brazos desnudos. Sus ejercicios son hilar y tejer lana de que se visten [...] Tienen a cargo las mujeres la labranza de las tierras, y el hacer los vinos.
— Alonso González de Nájera, Desengaño y Reparo de la Guerra del Reino de Chile[1]
Isidora Aguirre wrote his play ¡Lautaro! Epopeya del pueblo mapuche (1982), where he relates:
Lautaro es cantado por su amorosa mujer, Guacolda: "Lautaro, estás aquí Lautaro, estoy contigo Lautaro, estás conmigo. Estás en mí, Lautaro ¡estás presente! Hermano... Aquí estamos para defender tu tierra. Tu gente. El hijo dormido.
— Isidora Aguirre, ¡Lautaro! Epopeya del pueblo mapuche[2]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Historia de Chile Biografías.Guacolda y Fresia Dos mujeres mapuche" (in Spanish). 2007-03-02. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) - ↑ "Guacolda , la bella mujer de Lautaro" (in Spanish). 2009-09-15.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
Bibliography[edit]
- González de Nájera, Alonso (1889). Desengaño y reparo del Reino de Chile (PDF). Imprenta Ercilla. Search this book on
- Aguirre, Isadora (1982). ¡Lautaro! Epopeya del pueblo mapuche (PDF). Nascimento. Search this book on
External links[edit]
- Guacolda y Fresia Icarito, La Tercera[dead link]
- Guacolda Professor en linea
This article "Guacolda (mapuche mythology)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Guacolda (mapuche mythology). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
