Coquivacoa or Coquibacoa is an indigenous name for an area in north-west

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

- either the

Gulf of Venezuela The Gulf of Venezuela is a gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcón and by La Guajira Department, Colombia. The western side is formed by the Guajira Peninsula. A strait connects it with Maracaibo Lake t ...

(as used by Colombian President

Alfonso López Michelsen Alfonso López Michelsen (30 June 1913 – 11 July 2007) was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the 24th President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was nicknamed "El Pollo" (The Chicken), a popular Colombian idiom for people with ...

in 1974) or Lake Maracaibo (as others argue Miguel Angel Burelli Rivas said that the term had never been applied to the Gulf of Venezuela and actually referred to Lake Maracaibo - Leandro Area, Elke de Stockhausen (2001), ''El Golfo de Venezuela'', Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas, Universidad Central de Venezuela, p128) or possibly the wider region. It may also be the name of an indigenous people itself, in particular the people fought by

Ambrosius Ehinger Ambrosius Ehinger, also (Ambrosio Alfínger in Spanish) Dalfinger, Thalfinger, (ca. 1500 in Thalfingen near Ulm – 31 May 1533 near Chinácota in modern-day Colombia) was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concess ...

before his 1529 establishment of Maracaibo; the name "Maracaibo" may derive from a Coquivacoa chieftain killed by Ehinger. This people may be related to (or even identical to) the

Wayuu The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayúu, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Amerindian ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Maipuran (Arawak) language family. Geography ...

or the

Caquetio people Caquetio, Caiquetio, or Caiquetia are natives of northwestern Venezuela, living along the shores of Lake Maracaibo at the time of the Spanish conquest. They moved inland to avoid enslavement by the Spaniards, while their numbers were drastically ...

. The Spanish ''conquistador''

Alonso de Ojeda Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famou ...

had been appointed Governor of Coquibacoa in 1501 (june, 10th), a position that only lasted a few months. He had applied the term ''Coquibacoa'' to the

Guajira Peninsula The Guajira Peninsula ( es, Península de La Guajira, links=no, also spelled ''Goajira'', mainly in colonial period texts, guc, Hikükariby) is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean. It is the norther ...

, which Ojeda erroneously thought was an island.

Legacy

A parish in Maracaibo is named ''Coquivacoa''.

Gran Coquivacoa Gran Coquivacoa is a Venezuelan gaita zuliana group founded in 1968 by Jesús "Bocachico" Petit, Nelson Suárez, Rody Tigrera, Pedro Arteaga and Manolo Salazar in Cabimas, Zulia State. They were named Best Gaita Artist at the 2015 Pepsi Venezu ...

is a

Gaita Zuliana Gaita zuliana (often simply called "gaita") is a style of Venezuelan folk music (and dance) from Maracaibo, Zulia State. According to Joan Coromines, it may come from the word "''gaits''," the Gothic word for "goat", which is the skin generally us ...

group founded in 1968. There is a regional television station named Coquivacoa Televisión. Singer

Alí Primera Alí Rafael Primera Rosell (31 October 1941 – 16 February 1985) was a Venezuelan musician, composer, poet, and political activist. He was born in Coro, Falcón State, Venezuela and died in Caracas. He was one of the best known representatives ...

wrote a song called ''Coquivacoa''. There is a city named Chivacoa in

Yaracuy Yaracuy State ( es, link=no, Estado Yaracuy, ;) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is bordered by Falcón in the north, in the west by Lara, in the south by Portuguesa and Cojedes and in the east by Cojedes and Carabobo. Its geograp ...

state, founded by

References

History of Venezuela Circum-Caribbean culture {{Venezuela-stub