Last Benahorite king of Aceró. He heroically resisted the Castilian conquest until he was captured by treachery in 1493.
Tanausú was the lord of the canton of Aceró, the most inaccessible territory of La Palma, whose core was the vast Caldera de Taburiente. While the other eleven Benahorite cantons fell one by one before the advance of Alonso Fernández de Lugo in 1492, Tanausú held his position thanks to the natural terrain: the precipices of the Caldera made any frontal assault impossible. There he held out for months, carrying out night raids and ambushes that drove the conquerors to despair.
Surrender came through treachery, not arms. Fernández de Lugo sent emissaries offering a truce and a peace meeting. Tanausú, trusting in the given word, went to the encounter and was seized. It was 1493. Chained with other prisoners, he was put aboard a ship bound for Castile to be presented to the Catholic Monarchs as evidence of the conquest's success. On the voyage, Tanausú refused to eat or drink. He died at sea, preferring death to servitude and humiliation.
His figure has taken on almost mythical dimensions in La Palma. He is the supreme symbol of indomitable freedom and refusal to surrender. The Canarian writer Domingo Rivero devoted impassioned verse to him, and his name is today that of avenues, plazas and cultural centres throughout the island. The Caldera de Taburiente carries his legacy: it was declared a National Park in 1954 and preserves the landscape he defended to the death.