Tupac Amaru I

Peru, 1746

Guerrilla Victory

General Jose de Llamas exudes arrogance when he walks.  The most prestigious officer in Peru, he is fresh from the war with England where he commanded twelve thousand men.  Rejecting suggestions to plan carefully, Llamas has nothing but disdain for these jungle “savages” whom he will put down in quick order.

At the beginning of March, he heads into rebel territory with 850 soldiers.  The humidity rots their supplies and the mules go lame.  The men fall sick and some die.  When they reach Mount Salt they are fatigued and demoralized.  They were supposed to meet other soldiers under the command of Troncoso.  But at that moment Troncoso is being beaten so badly by the indigenous forces of Juan Santos that he has to retreat to avoid annihilation.

With the indigenous is a woman named Dona Ana who was born from the union of an indigenous and a black slave.  She commands a company of fifty women.

Neither Llamas nor those who follow him can either find or defeat Juan Santos.

See Steve Stern, ed., Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 43, 44; Daniel Valcarcel, Rebeliones Indigenas, 61, 62

 

Peru, 1780: El Grito de Tinta

Tupac Amaru I                                   Micaela Bastidas

November 4: Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui is having dinner in the home of his former tutor.  The other dinner guest is the local corregidor Antonion de Arriaga, an intransigent man who has used his power to cruelly oppress the people.  Jose Gabriel excuses himself on the pretext of having an unexpected visitor.  With a small band of loyal followers he waits and captures the corregidor.

November 10: Jose Gabriel proclaims that he is the legitimate heir of the last Incan ruler Tupac Amaru I.  He takes the name of Tupac Amaru II and declares a royal order giving him the power to seize, try, and punish corregidores and their aides.  He promises the people that he will abolish the mita and the reparto and other forms of labor abuses.  He calls upon the people to follow him.

He then takes his first act as their new ruler, and the body of Antionio de Arriaga swings from the scaffold, surrounded by indigenous men with muskets, pikes, and slings.  The people pledge their lives to him.

November 18: After hearing of Arriaga’s execution, Spanish authorities in Cuzco send a force of six hundred soldiers and seven hundred loyal Indians.  Tupac Amaru II marches out to meet them at Sangarara where he wins a great victory.  The Inca’s ranks swell to sixty thousand.

November 26: Tupac Amaru II issues a proclamation of emancipation freeing everyone, including the slaves.

December 6: Micaela Bastidas, the wife of Tupac Amaru, is back at the command pot, governing the country and sending letters to her husband.  She is the movement’s chief strategist.  She understands better than he that their power lies in moving quickly before the Spaniards can call up reinforcements.

Dear Chepe:

You are causing me grief and sorrow.  While you saunter thorough the villages…our soldiers rightly grow tired and are leaving for their homes….I have warned you sufficient times against dallying….I gave you plenty of warnings to march on Cuzco immediately….

Your wife

After I finished this letter, a messenger arrived with the news that the enemy from Paruro are in Archos.  I shall march out to meet them though it may cost me my life.

 

June E. Hahner, ed., Women in Latin American History, 36-37

Micaela is very beautiful.  Her thin nedk belies her indomitable spirit.  She was the one who had advocated the death of Arriaga.  She carried bullets in her mantilla, to shoot him in case he escaped the hanging.  While her husband is away she is the government—issuing passports, sending supplies, preventing crime, issuing edicts, appointing officials, and taking charge of prisoners.  Generals report to her and priests ask her for assurances and help.  She is the chief propagandist for the cause, recruiting new followers.  She even goes out personally on expeditions saying, I will die where my husband dies.

See Lillian Fisher, The Inca Revolt

 

The Age of Andean Resistance

History of Defiance

 

Juan Santos Atahualpa

Well over one hundred times between the years 1720 and 1790 the native Andean people rose up in defiance of colonial authorities.  The causes of the rebellion were rooted both in the repressions that the indigenous population had to endure under colonialism and the vision of the return of the great Incan creator.  The Inkarri myth envisioned the return of an Andean god who would bring in an age of justice.  This belief both unified and legitimized the great rebellion of Juan Santos Atahualpa.

Also during this time, resurrection stories circulated telling of the reappearance of the messiah who would come and recover the Incan greatness.  When the invaders decapitated Tupac Amaru I in 1572 the great Incan dynasty came to an end.  But they believed that his body had been regenerating underground for possible return.

 

A New Leader

In 1742 in the Andean jungle, a man calling himself Juan Santos Atahualpa Apo Inca arose as a leader.  He was a direct descendant of the Inca king Atahualpa who had been betrayed and strangled by Pizarro.  He called upon the indigenous population to join in an insurrection that would bring in a new order by outlawing slavery and expelling the whites.

The colonial authorities, deeply threatened by a possible insurrection, organized military campaigns against Juan Santos in 1742, 1743, 1746, and 1750.  Never defeated, Juan Santos controlled the jungle regions, keeping this area from further colonization for over a century.  The Spaniards finally had to rely on a defensive strategy that kept the rebellion from spreading to the sierra.

 

Frequent Upheavals

Los corregidores

From 1751 to 1765 evidence reveals fourteen upheavals against corregidores (local governors) and priests.  Economic repression was behind most of the revolts of this whole period.  The indigenous were under a multiple system of taxes, forced labor, indebtedness, and payments that left them destitute.

The three main types of economic activity were mines, obrajes (weaving mills), and haciendas, or plantations.  The mita system required the indigenous to work unpaid in mines, obrajes, or haciendas from six to twelve months during the year.  This requirement would be repeated every second or third year.

In addition, the reparto system forced the indigenous population to purchase European and native goods at inflated prices from the local corregidor.  They quickly became indebted to the corregidor and therefore had to work for him in the mines, obrajes, or haciendas.  The reparto proved more effective at guaranteeing forced labor than the mita.

Added to this burden were local priests who began demanding free personal services from the indigenous while charging for religious services.  For example, a high mass with a procession cost twelve pesos.  The longer the reparto remained in effect, the more pressure it created, because the debt of the indigenous only increased.

Most of the uprisings of this period can be traced to these economic injustices.

See Steve Stern, ed., Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, and Scarlett O’Phelan Godoy, Rebellions and Revolts in Eighteenth Century Peru and Upper Peru