Lautaro was a Mapuche military leader and protagonist in the War of Arauco . Some of his tactics are currently studied in several war academies around the world.

Lautaro was the son of a mapuche "Lonko" (chief for times of peace). When young, he was captured by some Spanish colonizers, and became the personal servant of Don Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conqueror of Chile. Lautaro learned the military ways and skills of the Spaniards' army by observing Valdivia and his peers.

Lautaro escaped from Spanish captivity and rejoined the mapuches as a young adult. With the knowledge he had acquired, he introduced use of horses to the Mapuche, and designed improved tactics for combat against the Spanish. He attracted a large number of otherwise dispersed Mapuche warriors and formed a native army that could fight successfully against the Spanish conquerors.

Lautaro achieved several successes in the battlefield, destroying newly founded cities. After he obtained an important victory in the southern cities (including the death of Pedro de Valdivia in the battle of Tucapel), he began a campaign for Santiago de Chile, the Spaniard's capital, and one of the oldest Spanish-founded cities. He was killed when he was only 200 km away from his destination.

He is considered an icon of the War of Arauco, for his revolutionary strategies and the responsibility in uniting the dispersed Mapuche people.

His name was used by Francisco de Miranda when he founded the Logia Lautaro, an American independence society of the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Lautaro became a key protagonist in the epic poem La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla, a major piece of literature about the Spanish conquest of America.