Who Is Cacique Lempira?

Cacique (an old Latin American title roughly equivalent to "chief") Lempira is a Honduran warrior hero. His name means "Lord of the Mountains" or "Lord of the Sierra." Lempira was born late in the 15th century and became the chief of the Lenca people. After the appearance of Spanish conquerors, Lempira unified more than 200 rival tribes to form a resistance army of 30,000. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful, but the legend of the campaign lives on today.

Title

"Cacique" is an honorary title used originally by the Taino people. The Spanish, after encountering the Taino in the New World, began to use "cacique" as a title for the leaders of the Latin American tribes they encountered. The term, used in this way, is exclusively pre-Colombian; however, Latin Americans still use "cacique" as a name for powerful local political leaders.

Rule

Gracias, Lempira today

Lempira was the ruler of Coquin, a city now known as Gracias and established as the capital of the Lempira region in Honduras. This region is the historical highland of the Lenca people, who are celebrated as the indigenous group who fought the hardest against Spanish conquest.

Lenca Resistance

Having gathered supplies and made preparation for the uprising, Lempira called his army together at the fortress of Cerquin. He signaled the beginning of the war by killing three Spaniards passing through the region, and the Spanish forces retaliated by storming Cerquin. The attack on the fortress was prolonged (some estimates put the length of the siege at six months) but unsuccessful, and the Spanish were eventually forced to flee to Gracias, which Lempira quickly put under siege. Seeing no way to win their war, the Spanish leaders resorted to an assassination plan.

Death

Lempira's death, according to legend, occurred when the Spanish captain Alonso de Caceres invited the chief to a false peace meeting on the edge of a high cliff. When Lempira refused to agree to an accord, a concealed soldier shot him in the forehead, and he fell off the cliff. After his death, which occurred in 1537, the resistance effort fell apart.

Legacy

Dia de Lempira

Today, the currency of Honduras is the lempira, which replaced the peso in 1931, and the exchange rate runs approximately 18 lempira to the American dollar. Cacique Lempira is honored on the 1 lempira note as well as the 20 and 50 centavos coins. The people of Honduras celebrate his memory and legacy every July 20 (the Dia de Lempira), an occasion during which Hondurans often reenact Lempira's legendary death and the ethnic Lenca people sell their crafts and food.

Resources

• Cacique Lempira
• Cacique Lempira Celebration