Laureano Tacuavé Martínez


Laurent Vacouabé was a young Native American from present day Uruguay. Son of Eustaquio Tacuavé and Francisca Martínez, younger brother of María Manuel Tacuavé and Apolinaria Tacuavé. It is uncertain if he was Charrúa of Guaraní and Spaniard descent or if he was Guaraní of Spanish-Charrúan descent.
After the European conquest and colonization, the Charrúa population declined at the hands of local authorities, being practically exterminated in a massacre led by Bernabé Rivera on 11 April 1831.
Four surviving Charrúa were captured at Salsipuedes. These were Tacuabé; his partner María Micaela Guyunusa, daughter of María Rosa, born on 1806; Senaca o Senaqué, a 52- to 57-year-old medicine man and warrior; and Vaimaca-Piru, a 54-year-old warrior and a general of Artigas. All four were taken to Paris, France by François Curel on November 11, 1833, where they were exhibited to the public as a circus attraction. Tacuabé had also a musical instrument.
Guyunusa and Vaimaca gave birth to a daughter few months after they were taken. Vaimaca, Senaque and Guyunusa died during the first year in France. Eventually they all died in France, including the baby. Tacuabe was baptised by the French as Jean Soulassol. It is also said that he and the child of her late wife, Micaela, escaped. In 2012 documents were found indicating that the child died of tuberculosis just like her mother, and that Laureano adopted the life of a Frenchman and probably died of sickness or old age.
In Montevideo, Uruguay there is a monument called The Last Charrúas,, depicting Tacuabé.
They were not the first to set sail to France: a young "cacique" named by a traveling Spanish ship Lieutenant, Navio Louis Marius Barra as Ramón Mataojo, had traveled to France in January 1832.