Cacique was a term first borrowed into Spanish from Arawak by Columbus, and it originally denoted the Taíno chieftains (kassequa) of the island of Hispaniola. During the Conquista and the Spanish colonial period (Colonial empire), it came to be used to categorize authorities and rulers of all kinds and degrees of power in the subjugated indigenous societies of Latin America [1].
The title cacique was used differently from region to region. At first, the local populace continued to u…