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Artist's perception of Caupolicán holding a tree trunk for three days
Caupolicán was a leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, who decided to choose a supreme war leader in response to the Spanish threat. He supposedly won the position by demonstrating his superior strength by holding up a tree trunk for three days and three nights. In addition to proving his physical power, he also had to improvise a poetical speech to inspire the people to valor and unity. Much of the legend of Caupolicán is found in the epic poem La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla, a major piece of literature about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. His death came at the hands of colonizing Spaniards as their prisoner. He was impaled by making him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch.
Ercilla refers to the Mapuche as "araucanos." Isabel Allende suggests that Ercilla chose this name because it is very easy to rhyme in Spanish, whereas "mapuche" does not[citation needed].
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