Timana

Timaná stands in the upper Magdalena country, among valleys and mountains that connect the river basin with Popayán. The district was home to the Yalcón and other Indigenous peoples before the Spanish invasion. Its colonial town was one of the earliest Spanish foundations in the region, established as a link between Popayán and the Magdalena. In 1538 Pedro de Añasco founded the settlement on the orders of Sebastián de Belalcázar. Indigenous resistance in the district became associated with Guaitipán, the Yalcón leader remembered as La Gaitana. According to the tradition, after Añasco ordered her son killed, she brought together neighbouring peoples against the invaders. Her story became an enduring account of resistance to the conquest in the upper Magdalena valley.