Anacaona

Who is Anacaona?

Anacaona was a Taíno cacica, or ruling chief, born around 1474 in Yaguana in the Jaragua region of Hispaniola, near present-day Léogâne, Haiti; her name means "golden flower" in the Taíno language. She married the powerful cacique Caonabo and was also respected in her own right as a zemi interpreter, composer, and poet whose works were performed at areítos, the ceremonial gatherings central to Taíno cultural and religious life. After the death of her brother, the cacique Bohechío, around 1500, Anacaona became ruler of Xaragua, the last independent Taíno cacicazgo to hold out against Spanish encroachment on the island. She initially pursued a policy of cooperation with the colonizers even as Spanish mistreatment and enslavement of the Taíno intensified elsewhere. In 1503, she hosted the newly arrived Spanish governor Nicolás de Ovando, who used the occasion to orchestrate the massacre of dozens of local caciques; Anacaona was captured, taken to Santo Domingo, and executed. She is remembered as a symbol of Taíno resistance and pre-colonial heritage, and the Taíno name for the island, "Ayiti," meaning "land of high mountains," is the origin of the modern name Haiti.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Anacaona · Wikipedia: Anacaona · Executed Today: "1503: Anacaona and the caciques of Xaragua"