One of the most prominent Guanche leaders in the resistance against the Castilian conquest. He led the aboriginal forces at the Battle of La Matanza.
Bencomo was the penultimate mencey — king — of the menceyato of Taoro, the richest and most populous of the nine kingdoms into which Tenerife was divided before the Castilian conquest. His territory encompassed the fertile Valle de La Orotava, with its laurel forests and farmland. When Alonso Fernández de Lugo landed in 1494 with nearly two thousand men, Bencomo refused all terms of submission and called on the other menceyes to resist.
On 31 May 1494, in the ravine of Acentejo, the Guanche forces ambushed the Castilian army and nearly wiped it out. It was the greatest military defeat suffered by the conquerors in the entire Canarian campaign, and Fernández de Lugo barely escaped with his life. That site became known as La Matanza de Acentejo — the Massacre of Acentejo — a name the municipality still bears today.
The victory proved short-lived. Reinforced with fresh troops and allied with the menceyes of the peace faction, Fernández de Lugo decisively defeated the Guanches at the Battle of La Victoria de Acentejo (1495) and then at La Laguna (Aguere). Bencomo died in combat or shortly afterwards. His son Bentor succeeded him briefly before taking his own life rather than be presented as a trophy before the Catholic Monarchs. Bencomo's memory endures as a symbol of the dignity and resistance of the Guanche people.