Wayuus, also known as the
Guajiros, are indigenous people that live in the Guajira Peninsula in the North
of Colombia and the Northwest of Venezuela. They have lived in that region for
hundreds of years, in the desert of the Guajira peninsula, and are one of the
few Latin American indigenous groups that have resisted the culture and
language from the Europeans. The native dialect of Wayuu's people is the
Wayuunaiki that belongs to the family language Arawak.
Nowadays, this area is a hot area
of migration toward urban areas, which has left the Guajira area and it's Wayuu
people among the poorest aboriginal people in Latin America. They have suffered
from violence, racism, and discrimination for centuries.
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| Wayuu Women |
Women of the Wayuu community are
the societal leaders, shamans (religious leaders), and the center of their
families. The mothers are responsible for handing down their culture and
finding ways of life to the children, while men are responsible for teaching
young boys how to hunt, build houses, and herd animals. It is a society
organized in matrilineal clans (children carry their mother's last name). The
men of the mother's family, not the father's, are responsible for the
children's education.
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