Wonder Woman of the Week: Anacaona

The Wonder Woman this week is perhaps the earliest known woman from Hispanola (Haiti and Dominican Republic today) whose name historians know- and for good reason. This Taina cacica (or chief) led her people during a difficult time in their history- the arrival of Spanish conquerors- and refused to surrender either herself or her people, remaining rebellious until her death at the hands of her captors. Puerto Ricans today remember Anacaona as a heroine of the Taino and Haitian/Dominican Peoples and as one of the most important figures of Haitian and Dominican history.

Anacaona was born to a matrilineal culture where a man's property went to the children of his sister upon his death- giving women an important role in land ownership in pre-colonial Hispanola. Anacaona was the daughter of an important chief, so when her father died, the young woman assumed an equal role in politics and warfare with her brother- the new chief. When Spanish explorers arrived in the late 1400's, Anacaona and her brother initially responded with peaceful trade agreements, but political negotiations broke down and the Spanish kidnapped Anacaona's brother and shipped him to prison in Spain (dying on the journey). Anacaona was left to represent her tribe on Hispanola when the chiefs met to discuss how to respond to the Spanish conquerors. After a brief resistance, the Spanish captured several chiefs- including Anacaona.

The Spanish governor on Hispanola locked some captured chiefs inside a building and burned it to the ground while opting to have his guards shoot others. For Anacaona, the governor offered a different punishment. The young woman could surrender and allow the Spanish soldiers to use her as their personal concubine- or be executed for resistance against the Spanish Empire. Anacaona refused to surrender and at twenty-nine years old, Anacaona died via hanging. Anacaona had the unfortunate life of a young woman thrust into emergency political power- with the death of her father and the kidnapping of her brother all during the time of a mass invasion from a foreign empire. Anacaona stood beside her fellow chiefs in war and accepted execution rather than surrender- dying beside them as well. In her martyrdom for the Taino People, Anacaona cemented herself into the history books as a leader who refused to turn her back on her people and her allies and never compromised under threat of execution.