Copallín is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of the province of

Bagua The ''bagua'' ( zh, c=八卦, p=bāguà, l=eight trigrams) is a set of symbols from China intended to illustrate the nature of reality as being composed of mutually opposing forces reinforcing one another. ''Bagua'' is a group of trigrams—co ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, located along the Amazon River.

History

The district's capital, Copallín, was originally founded as ''Santa Magdalena de Copallín''. The first historical account regarding the current population of the district of Copallín is tied to the history of Copallín Viejo, erected in the current district of Aramango. Don Juan Requejo Guerrero, the fourth mayor of the province of Bagua, recalls that the natives staged three consecutive attacks on the town of Copallín Viejo. According to priest José Maria Guallart, in 1845 a group of

aguarunas The Aguaruna (or , their endonym) are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon-Andes divide. They live primarily on the Marañón River in northern Peru near the border with Ecuador and several of the Marañón's tributaries, the rivers Santia ...

, including women, visited Copallín Viejo (today the Hillocks of Aramango) to trade

copal Copal is a tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree '' Protium copal'' ( Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includ ...

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

s, and changuitas for

machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...

s and

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

s. The natives had the bad fortune of coming across a

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

, the inhabitants of which devised a trap for the natives, getting them drunk before killing the men and raping the women. Eventually, the aguarunas organized themselves and launched a surprise attack on Copallín. Since history tells the story of winners and the influential rather than losers and commoners, the natives of Copallín have been labelled as savages dedicated to butchery and looting, while the colonists are often portrayed as innocent and defenseless. Records show that in 1857, natives assaulted the ancient village of Copallín, killing its inhabitants, destroying its crops, appropriating its goods, and taking its women. The document further adds that from this period on, the whole of Copallín (its houses, temples, etc.) remained in ruins. Those who escaped the slaughter, among them some Huatangari, continued to seek out sympathetic and hospitable populations for some time, until the inhabitants of

The Freckle ''The Freckle'' (Hungarian: ''Der Leberfleck'') is a 1948 Austrian romantic comedy film directed by Rudolf Carl and starring Oskar Sima, Grete Zimmer and Fritz Imhoff.Fritsche p.232 The film's sets were designed by the art director Sepp Rothaur. ...

claimed a section of land where they grouped and, in 1860, founded a village called New Copallín. This new location proved to be a failure; on October 26, 1870, governor Pedro C. Lean and municipal receiver José Felis Molla – both authorities of The Freckle – raised a flag to the national representatives (deputies), stating that the people of Copallín, The Freckle, Morerilla, and Bagua Chica were in danger of disappearing at any minute after realizing that the "savages" had reappeared and threatened to pose a raid. Desperation and fear showed in such heartbreaking pleas as, "We present ourselves ... before your paternal mercy," "We come as citizens of the Homeland begging for protection," and "Affectionate Fathers of the homeland, we beg that you do what is right." This cry for help was published in defense of rights and endorsed on November 18, 1870, when the board established a garrison on The Freckle; later the Principal Commission of War thought to endorse this project – a measure of supreme importance aimed at protecting the civilized peoples of the area.

References

External links

Copallín district official website
{{coord, 5, 27, 07, S, 78, 27, 02, W, source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Districts of the Bagua province Districts of the Amazonas Region

History

See also

References

External links