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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cacique

Cacique \Ca*cique"\, n. [Sp.] See Cazique.

Wiktionary
cacique

n. 1 Originally a tribal chief in the Spanish West Indies. 2 A local political leader in Latin America. 3 Any of a number of tropical blackbirds from Central America and South America, family Icteridae.

WordNet
cacique

n : black-and-red or black-and-yellow orioles of the American tropics [syn: cazique]

Wikipedia
Cacique

A cacique (; ; feminine form: cacica) is a leader of an indigenous group, derived from the Taíno for the pre-Columbian chiefs or leaders of tribes in the Bahamas, Greater Antilles and the northern Lesser Antilles.

The Spanish used the word as a title for the leaders of the other indigenous groups that they encountered in the Western Hemisphere territories they occupied, with the Andean region being the major exception being called there by their local denomination "kuraka". In Colonial Mexico, caciques and their families were considered part of the Mexican nobility, often also holding the Spanish noble honorific don and doña and some having entailed estates or cacicazgos. The records of many of these Mexican estates are held in the Mexican national archives in a section Vínculos ("entails").

In Mexico, the Spaniards' use of the term cacique to designate indigenous rulers had important implications since individuals and communities might claim a status for which, in the indigenous system of nomenclature, they would not have fulfilled the criteria.

In Peru, the Spaniards allowed the caciques maintain their nobility titles as long as they converted to Catholicism, this was maintained without much restraint until the Tupac Amaru II rebellion, after the rebellion the andean nobility was forced to present proofs about their nobility titles, something that many of them couldn´t do because of the burning and theft of their assets after the rebellion, some mestizos took advantage of the situation and presented questionable documents that accredited them as the true descendants of the precolumbian kurakas.

In the modern Spanish language, the term has come to mean a local political boss who exercises significant power.

The term is also used in the Portuguese language to describe the leaders of indigenous communities in Brazil. It is also frequently used in Portugal to describe how certain influential and well-known students use their powerful social character to influence student body elections in the student movement in Portugal's major universities.

In Spain, Portugal and Brazil, the word is most commonly used in a third sense, "a person in a village or region who exercises excessive influence in political matters."

Cacique (rum)

Cacique is a Venezuelan brand of rum first marketed in 1959. It is the top-selling rum in Venezuela. The Cacique product lines are owned by Diageo, the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world. The word "cacique" (a loan from Taíno or Arawak languages) means "chief of the tribe" in Spanish.

It comes in several varieties, starting with the simplest Cacique Origen and then moving up to the Cacique 500. The most expensive is the Cacique Antiguo.

Cacique (bird)

The caciques are passerine birds in the New World blackbird family which are resident breeders in tropical South America north to Mexico. All of the group are in currently placed in the genus Cacicus, except the aberrant yellow-billed cacique (Amblycercus holosericeus), and the Mexican cacique (Cassiculus melanicterus) which constitute respective monotypic genera. Judging from mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence (Price & Lanyon 2002), the aberrant oropendolas band-tailed oropendola (Ocyalus latirostris) and casqued oropendola, Psarocolius oseryi (Ocyalus oseryi?) seem to be closer to the caciques.

The caciques are birds associated with woodland or forest. Most are colonial breeders, with several long, hanging, bag-shaped nests in a tree, each suspended from the end of a branch. Some species choose a tree that also contains an active wasp nest (such as Polybia rejecta) as a deterrent to predators (e.g. toucans), and females compete for the best sites near the protection of the wasp nest. The eggs are incubated by the female alone.

These are slim birds with long tails and a predominantly black plumage. The relatively long pointed bill is pale greenish, yellowish or bluish, depending on species, and most caciques have blue eyes (at least when adult). The female is typically smaller than the male.

Two species have the black plumage enlivened by a red rump, five have a yellow rump and in some cases yellow on the shoulders or crissum (around the cloacal opening). The two remaining species are all black with no bright colour patches. A single species, the Mexican cacique, has extensive yellow to the tail, but otherwise all caciques have largely black tails (something that separates them from the larger oropendolas).

Caciques eat large insects and fruit. Most are gregarious and typically seen in small groups. They are very vocal, producing a wide range of songs, sometimes including mimicry.

Most remain fairly common and are able to withstand some habitat modifications, but two west Amazonian species, the Ecuadorian and Selva caciques, are notably local and scarce.

Cacique (disambiguation)

Cacique is a Native American title for a chief or leader.

Cacique may also refer to:

  • Cacique (bird), several species
  • Cacique (horse)
  • Cacique (rum), from Venezuela
  • Cacique Cheese, a brand of Hispanic cheeses, chorizos and creams
  • Cacique Guaro, a brand of alcohol from Costa Rica
  • Cacique, Colón, a subdivision of the Colón Province, Panama
  • Cacique, Distrito Nacional, a sector of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • Cacique, a lingerie brand by Lane Bryant
  • A 19th-century name for a powerful man in Spain under the Restoration
Cacique (horse)

Cacique (foaled 2001 in Ireland) is a retired Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in Europe and the United States. Bred and raced by Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms, Cacique is the son of the great international Champion sire, Danehill. He was out of the fantastic mare, Hasili whose damsire, Kahyasi, won the 1988 Epsom and Irish Derbys. Cacique is a full-brother to Breeders' Cup winners Banks Hill and Intercontinental and to Grade One winner Champs Elysees and Grade One-placed and Leading sire in France, Dansili.

Usage examples of "cacique".

Don Juan Ponce was curious about the great virility of this cacique, and one day he sent a certain Aurelio Herrera to visit him in his village.

Director of Lands, it was said, wrote a letter, in turn, to Manuel Valerio, the cacique, calling upon him to desist from troubling Blas Ramos, the tao.

Each statement now to follow comes, however, from a mestizo Filipino in high standing in the cacique ranks, whether in public life or in other fields.

He who comes straight out, as scarce a mestizo dares to come, and defies the Big Caciques to their teeth?

And, as will further be seen in connection with the land-shark plague, the conditions of life under cacique rule would kill thrift in an ant-hill.

Yonder strode caciques of the Azteca with saw edged, obsidian toothed swords hanging by their sides.

Torridge for its weight in silver, and draw from thence, after the example of the Caciques of Dariena, supplies of inspiration much needed, then as now, in those Gothamite regions.

This touched the local caciques on a very tender spot, and made evident the necessity of quieting the little man.

The Tomasas and the horse thief parientes, the Justices of the Peace and the caciques are to-day, as a whole, just what they were at the beginning of the century.

The main grip of these minor caciques lies in their practice of money-lending at usury, which makes them masters of the lives, including the votes, of the people.

If a Filipino makes the caciques hate him, who is going to protect him from cacique vengeance if America goes?

Whereupon, Provincial Governor Carlos, with the local caciques, besieged the Philippine Legislature with imperative demands that the Rural Credit be kept out.

Then the Legislature, itself composed chiefly of caciques and the lawyers of caciques, decided that better yet might be done for cacique purses.

Americans first came, we taos were told, by the caciques, that Americans are all huge monsters who devour everything and who chop off the heads of every Filipino they can catch.

American veterinarians and cattle-inspectors had all been dropped out of the service, leaving ignorant and venal local caciques to dictate at pleasure.