8/3/2019 Lautaro2

1/1

Lautaro ( Lef Traru - Halcn veloz) biography of the greatestmapuche militar strategist.

It is told that he was born in 1535 near Tira. His real name was LefTraru(fast bird), also known as Lautaro. Son of a mapuche Lonko (chieftain).When young, he was captured by some spanish colonists and he became a

yanacona or personal helper of Pedro de Valdivia, from whom he learnedthe way of thinking and the way of living of the Spanish, and discovered theirweaknesses.

Lautaro escaped from the captivity he suffered from the spanish and meetwith the mapuches as a Young.adult. With his knowledge, he introduced theuse of horses and tactical war planning for the battle against the Spanish..

Lef traru started by organizing his army, divided i tinto numerous batallions,asigning the best toki in front of each of them,. To form the batallions he madeevery warrior endure different tests and then gathered them according to theirskills. That way, he formed squads of archers, pikemen, macemen, horsemen and

warriors equipped with clubs.In meetings with the toqui chiefs during wartime, he taught them to combine theaction of different weapons in the battlefield. Besides, with horses obtained from theSpanish, he taught the mapuches the art of horseriding and the use of weaponsfighting as horseriders. Also he showed them how they could transport otherwarriors in the sides, creating mobilized infantry.

During the yearshe livd amongst the Spanish he learned the importance ofanticipating the plans, decisions, movements and enemie resources. Because of thatone of the most used strategies of the young mapuches of both genres in that time,was to enter the domestic service of sapnish houses, especially officers houses, inwich the pretended not to understand the Spanish language even tough the couldfluently speak it. That way, overhearing conversations during mealtime or duringwork, they knew their habits, problems, plans and movements.

Leftraru was murdered on April 1, 1557 during a combat that lasted more tan fivehours on Peteroa Fort. Nevertheless, as in Santiago nobody believed he was dead,his head was staked on a pike in the center of the plaza de armas. There itremained exposed for over 15 days so everyone get convinced that the danger wasover.

Leftraru not only left a great war-school for his mapuche people, he left a legacy toall the chileans as a symbol of freedom. Also, today, four centuries after his death,his bust is now a part of the greatest strategists of the world gallery, in the militaryacademies of Europe.

http://kultura-mapuche.blogspot.com/2009/09/lautaro-lef-traru-halcon-veloz.htmlhttp://kultura-mapuche.blogspot.com/2009/09/lautaro-lef-traru-halcon-veloz.htmlhttp://kultura-mapuche.blogspot.com/2009/09/lautaro-lef-traru-halcon-veloz.htmlhttp://kultura-mapuche.blogspot.com/2009/09/lautaro-lef-traru-halcon-veloz.html