Levtaru was captured by Spanish forces in his early youth, and he spent his teenage years as a personal servant of chief conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, but escaped in 1551.

Back among his people he was declared toqui and led Mapuche warriors into a series of victories against the Spanish, culminating in the Battle of Tucapel in December 1553, where Pedro of Valdivia was killed.

Between 1556 and 1557, a small group of Mapuche commanded by Levtaru attempted to reach Santiago to liberate the whole of Central Chile from Spanish rule.

[1] He lived a normal life until, at the age of 11, he was captured by the Spanish and forced into servitude by Don Pedro de Valdivia and became his personal servant.

Among his daily tasks as a page, he was in charge of taking care of Valdivia’s horses and always accompanying them into battle and military exercises.

During this period he had a certain level of friendship with one of Valdivia’s principal captains by the name of Marcos Veas, who taught Lautaro how to use different kinds of weapons and cavalry tactics.

[5] After the defeat at Tucapel, the Spanish hastily reorganized their forces, reinforcing the defenses of Fort Imperial and abandoning the settlements of Confines and Arauco in order to strengthen Concepción.

However, Mapuche tradition dictated a lengthy victory celebration, which kept Lautaro from realizing his desire to pursue the military advantage he had just gained.

It was only in February 1554 that he succeeded in putting together an army of 8,000 men, just in time to confront a punitive expedition under the command of Francisco de Villagra.

Additionally, a small group was sent to destroy the reed bridge the Spanish had erected across the Bío-Bío River, which would further disrupt any attempted retreat of Villagra.

In Santiago, Villagra reorganized his forces, and that same year of 1554, he departed again for Arauco and reinforced the strongholds of Imperial and Valdivia, without any interference from the Mapuches, who were dealing with their first epidemic of smallpox, which had been brought by the Spanish.

From there he launched another campaign towards Santiago when Villagra's army passed him by on the way to save the remaining Spanish settlements in Araucanía.

The Spanish forces met in the field, and from a member of the local ethnos, the Picunche, they learned the disposition of Lautaro's camp.

At dawn, on April 29, 1557, the conquistadors launched a surprise attack from the hills of Caune, obtaining a decisive victory in the Battle of Mataquito in which Lautaro was killed early in the fighting.