The extinction of the Yariguies ethnic group
When Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Guanahani, in October 1492, he could not imagine that in the New World, later called America, there lived a total of more than 2000 different peoples, for a total population of around 60 million people. As we know, the majority of these indigenous people died following the invasion of the Europeans, initially the Spanish and Portuguese and later the Dutch, English and French.
Europeans unknowingly transported viruses and bacteria, often present in their animals: cattle, pigs and horses.
The dispersion of these viruses, especially smallpox, caused many epidemics over the following centuries, exterminating 80% of the indigenous Americans. Entire populations disappeared or drastically reduced their demographic size.
Then there was the actual war impact, through which the Europeans took possession of immense territories. The indiscriminate exploitation of indigenous labor, as in the case of the Potosí mine, or the rubber plantations of the ferocious Peruvian entrepreneur Arana, among others, caused thousands more deaths among the indigenous population.
The original American peoples who were affected by this senseless European expansion in the Americas were numerous, and unfortunately the attacks on indigenous lands continue today.
Sometimes they are real embezzlements, where the multinational in question obtains a mineral exploitation contract and causes, with the help of private armies, the abandonment of the lands by their legitimate owners, the natives.
Other times, however, indigenous lands are officially demarcated and protected, but then an NGO is allowed to enter them and carry out biodiversity study projects, to then obtain lucrative licenses for the creation of cosmetics or chemical products, thus taking away wealth from the legitimate owners.
One of the indigenous American peoples who suffered, over the centuries, repeated attacks by the colonists was that of the Yariguies, an ethnic group of the Caribe linguistic stock, who lived near the Rio Magdalena, in present-day Colombia, which became definitively extinct in 1940.
The area where the Yariguies lived corresponds to the western part of today's department of Santander, precisely the area where, starting from the beginning of the 20th century, oil was found and the city of Barrancabermeja was founded. It is an area with a typical tropical climate, hot and humid.
The first Europeans who had contact with the Yariguies ethnic group were the Spaniards who were part of the expedition of Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada in 1536, which ended with the conquest of Cundinamarca and the foundation of Santafé de Bogotá.
The Yariguies lived on agriculture (maize, mandioca and beans), but also on hunting and fishing. They were excellent craftsmen, in particular they created beautiful ceramic vases which they decorated with vegetable dyes.
They were divided into six clans, each of these commanded by a respective cacique, or indigenous leader: Arayas, Chiracotas, Tolomeos, Suamacaes, Opones y Carares. Around 1570 the best known caciques were: Beto, king of the Arayas, Caciquillo, of the Opones, Martinillo, of the Carares and Suamacá, of the Suamacaes.
In general they attempted to counter the advance of the Spanish and their plans to colonize their ancestral lands. They often attacked sailing ships sailing along the Rio Magdalena or those sailing up the Rio Sogamoso with the aim of reaching Velez, a city founded by Martin Galeano in 1539.
The Yariguies were very fierce and did not allow themselves to be easily dominated. They used poisoned arrows which they shot from powerful bows and caused the death of the Spanish colonists.
Beto's heir was the legendary cacique Pipaton, who led a staunch defense of the Yariguies territory, killing many Spanish soldiers.
At the end of the 16th century, however, a terrible smallpox epidemic decimated the army of the Yariguies, which went from 1600 to 400 personnel. The defense of the indigenous territory was increasingly difficult, both due to the weakness of the natives, mowed down by epidemics, against which they had no antibodies, and by the increased flow of settlers, who arrived in large numbers from Spain in search of a better future.
In 1601 Pipaton was taken prisoner by the Spaniard Benito Franco, his heels were cut off and he was sent into exile in a distant valley, from where, however, he managed to escape and reorganize the resistance. At the same time, however, the Spaniards had killed the other caciques Itupeque and Labogache, as well as many soldiers.
Pipatón died later, in 1612, after having handed himself over to the Spanish. The demographic size of the Yariguies, who numbered around 50,000 in 1536, dropped to 30,000 in the 17th century.
The majority of the natives were incorporated into the so-called encomiendas where they were forced to work hard in the fields.
About 200 years later, in 1850, the Yariguies were reduced to no more than 15,000.
In the second half of the 19th century, the German adventurer Geo Von Lengerke arrived in the current department of Santander.
The German, who came to own enormous extensions of land cultivated with cinchona, was the promoter of a series of projects for the construction of roads and the agricultural use of the land. During the thirty years of his stay in Colombia many natives, who opposed the process of colonization of their ancestral lands, were killed, while others perished from diseases such as smallpox and measles.
Starting from 1866, various laws were approved in Colombia for the "civilization and evangelization of the indigenous people", which had as their aim the integration and use of the native workforce. These regulations were destructive to the few remaining Yariguies, who were forced to speak the Spanish language and no longer use their language and traditions.
In 1880 the Yariguies were only 10,000 while at the beginning of the 20th century they were only 5000.
The final blow to the indigenous Yariguies, however, was given by the discovery of oil, in the current department of Santander, carried out by Colonel José Joaquín Bohórquez.
Some oil samples were sent to the impresario Roberto De Mares who analyzed them and confirmed the discovery. De Mares obtained a thirty-year concession from the then President of Colombia, Rafel Reyes. However, since De Mares was unable to find the funds for the exploitation of the oil, he sold the concession to American entrepreneurs, who subsequently founded the Tropical Oil Company.
This company, which began oil exploitation in present-day Santander, in 1921, was directly responsible for the disappearance of the last Yariguies, who were persecuted because they were guilty of living in the areas that were part of Roberto de Mares' concession.
The Yariguies, who in 1910 numbered no more than 1000 and in 1920 numbered around 500, became completely extinct around 1940. Their language and traditions were lost into oblivion, and their ceramic creations were sold to antiquities dealers.
Only today is an attempt to recover a lost heritage that could help restore identity to the Colombian people.
YURI LEVERATTO
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