Tibiriçá

Chief Tibiriçá (died 25 December 1562) baptized as Martim Afonso was an Amerindian leader who converted to Christianity under the auspices of José de Anchieta. He led the Tupiniquim people of Piratininga and other tribes. His daughter, Bartira, took the name Isabel and married a Portuguese man named João Ramalho. After his conversion to Christianity he became a strategic ally and protector of the Jesuits and the Portuguese; his name appears on letters to Saint Ignatius of Loyola and King João III of Portugal. Tibiriçá chose to side with the Jesuits and against his own brother Piquerobi with help of his nephew and his son-in-law João Ramalho. His granddaughters and their descendants married Portuguese noblemen that led the colonization of São Paulo under Martim Afonso de Sousa, including Jorge Ferreira, Domingos Luiz (a knight of the Order of Christ), and Tristão de Oliveira, son of capitão-mor Antonio de Oliveira and Genebra Leitão de Vasconcelos, both of important noble families.

== Etymology == The writer Eduardo Bueno, based on Teodoro Sampaio, says that "Tibiriçá" means "watchman of the land" in Tupi, also fitting the expression "sentinel of the mountains". The writer and researcher Clóvis Chiaradia states that Tibiriçá comes from the Tupi Tibi-r-eçá (tibi, "your land" + eçá, "eye", "to see" or "seen"), meaning "the watchman of the land", agreeing with Eduardo Bueno and Teodoro Sampaio. Tupinologist Eduardo de Almeida Navarro argues that "Tibiriçá" and "Tebireçá" come from the Tupi tebiresá, which means "eye of the buttocks" (tebira, "buttock" + esá, "eye").