Yaguana

Yaguana lay on a fertile plain near the Gulf of Gonâve, in the Taíno chiefdom of Xaragua. It was associated with Anacaona and her brother Bohechío, leaders of a region that extended across much of southwestern Hispaniola. Rivers descended from the mountains to water the plain, where Indigenous communities cultivated crops and maintained their settlements.

In 1503 the Spanish governor Nicolás de Ovando came to Xaragua and was received by Anacaona and other chiefs. The visit ended in violence: Spanish forces attacked the assembled leaders and their people, and Anacaona was taken prisoner and executed. The destruction of Xaragua’s leadership marked a brutal stage in the conquest of Hispaniola. A Spanish settlement later developed in the area of Yaguana, near the place known as Léogâne.