Apacuana

Her story was presented nearly a century and a half later by writer José de Oviedo y Baños in his 1723 book The Conquest and Settlement of Venezuela, a foundational work on the country's history.

Introduced by the author as an "elderly sorceress and herbalist", Apacuana is considered to have been a piache, that is, a curandera, a term used in Hispanic America to call a healer or shaman.

She was the mother of Guásema, who served as cacique—a term used to designate indigenous tribal chiefs in Hispanic America—while several modern writers consider her to have been a cacica (feminine form of the title) as well.

Apacuana was highly regarded in her community, both as a healer and as a political leader, which allowed her to instigate an attack against two Spanish colonists as they traversed their territory.

In the territory of the Quiriquires, García's company set fire to several settlements and managed to thwart a surprise attack by an army formed from an alliance between different indigenous groups.

[8] The other ethnic groups that inhabited the area at the time the Spanish arrived were the Arbacos, Caracas, Chagaragatos, Mariches, Meregotos, Taramainas, Tarmas and Teques.

[10] Oviedo y Baños also states that the territory of the Quiriques bordered that of the Teques,[9] writing: "Their towns extended along the banks of the Tuy for more than twenty-five leagues, up to the western boundary with the Tumusa tribe".

[20] In the conquest era of the 15th century, the comenderos were the holders of a grant awarded by the Spanish Crown called encomienda, which gave them the monopoly on the labor of particular groups of indigenous peoples.

[21] The badly wounded Garci-González managed to carry the also injured Francisco Infante on his shoulders and reach Caracas, causing the outrage of the mayors and residents of the town.

This action brought complete pacification of that rebellious tribe, as the natives, in terror at Apacuana's torture, and broken by the loss of more than two hundred warriors, at first retired to the sierras on the other side of the Tuy but soon returned to solicit peace.

[23] The following year, on July 22, 1600, the group famously assaulted the Spanish settlement of San Antonio de Gibraltar with a force of 500 men and 140 canoes,[24] looting it and setting fire to all its houses.

[26] Since 2015, the Compañía Nacional de Teatro (CNT; English: National Theater Company) of Venezuela gives an annual playwright award named after the indigenous leader.