The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayú, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Indigenous ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost Colombia and northwest Venezuela.

The Wayuu inhabit the arid Guajira Peninsula straddling the Venezuela-Colombia border, on the Caribbean Sea coast.

In 1718, Governor Soto de Herrera called them "barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law and without a king".

In reaction, on May 2, 1769, at El Rincón, near Río de la Hacha, Wayuu set the village on fire, burning the church and two Spaniards who had taken refuge in it.

[4] In 1771, a Spanish force sent from Cartagena to squash Indigenous insurgency in the Guajira Peninsula, and what they found was a fearsome army with British guns.

In fact, Wayuu chiefs Pablo Majusares and Toribio Caporinche both owned eight African slaves.

The removal of debt peonage in Venezuela did not officially end until 1854, when President José Gregorio Monagas (1851–1855) promised land owners compensation for the release of their so-called "unvaluable" workers growing in age.

[6] From 1880 to 1936, local areas were able to continue to exploit Indigenous workers, as the Venezuelan government maintained most of their focus on the main cities.

The oral tradition of the Wayuu people suggests that getting tricked into coerced labor happened frequently.

Afro-descendants were brought in from countries like Cuba, for many land owners felt as though they needed more workers, and there was not a huge supply in Wayuu captives.

Forms of resistance came in the shape of fleeing, petitioning to local governments, or asking foreign countries for help, Columbia being a huge example.

[4] In 1936, General Eleazar López Contreras (1935–1941), Gómez's successor, sent government officials to rural regions to stop debt peonage from occurring to both Afro-Venezuelan and Wayuu people.

In 1905, Pope Pius X created the Vicariate of La Guajira with friar Atanasio Vicente Soler y Royo as first Vicar, in an attempt to "civilize" the Wayuu people.

The Wayuu occupy a total area of 4,171 square miles (10,800 km2) within approximately ten settlements, eight of which are located south of the Department (including a major one called Carraipia).

[9] There are small differences in dialect within the region of La Guajira: the northern, central or southern zones.

Most of the younger generation speak Spanish fluently but understand the importance of preserving their traditional language.

The perceived intention is to wed her to a man before risking that pregnancy out of wedlock or arrangement, a cause of great social shame, specifically for the woman's family's honor and credibility.

The relatives of the dead act in a certain way: first, the body is buried with personal belongings; after five years, the bones are exhumed, put into ceramics or a chinchorro (hammock), and reburied in the clan's cemetery.

The typical house is a small structure called a piichi or miichi, generally divided into two rooms with hammocks to sleep in and keep personal belongings such purses or mochilas of acrylic fiber and ceramics to keep water.

Close to the main house is a common area called a luma or enramada, similar to a living room but almost in the open.

Traditionally, the walls are made of yotojoro[13] – a wattle and daub of mud, hay and dried canes, but some Wayuu now use more modern construction with cement and other materials.

The preferred material for roofing and yotojoro wood is the dagger cactus (Stenocereus griseus), which the Wayuu call yosú.

Because the demand for yosú as food and wood is seasonal, at times there is little fruit, building material or even cuttings for fences.

[13] Due to varying supply of yosú wood for construction, other plants are also used, including trupillo or turpío (Prosopis juliflora), jattá (Haematoxylum brasiletto), kapchip (Capparis zeylanica) and kayush (Peruvian Apple Cactus, Cereus repandus).

With her head covered and wearing a fabric shawl and dress, the girl dances forward with small steps and arms outstretched, swooping like a bird, within a circle made up of people from the village.

Cotton used to be able to grow in the region of La Guajira thus Wayuu bags were made of natural fibers.

But all crochet pieces from the Wayuu community are made of acrylic threads from companies like Miratex, providing bright hues that will not wash out easily with time as opposed to natural fibers.

The men participate in the industry as well; they make the straps, provide the materials, and transport the goods to the city centers.