Alejandro Diaz
2/27/18
Tupác Amaru Rebellion
A murderous scheme of Spanish plunder and colonization paved the way for centuries of conflict and distrust between the Spanish colonizers and the Andean people. The Túpac rebellion is a testament to the resistance the Spanish colonial rule generated from the Andean people as the Spanish imposed gender hierarchy and Catholicism. The Túpac Amaru rebellion reveals the jarring, and fracturing nature of Spanish colonial rule as the Spanish strove in every manner to eliminate Inca and Andean culture. The context that gave way to the 1780 Túpac Amaru rebellion was not one spanning a few decades, but rather it was a build up of anger and resentment over several centuries harking back to the ancient days of Inca culture and glory.
In order to understand the context that gave way to the rebellion, it is essential to understand the history that drove its creation. Before the Spanish came with their mission of conquest, the Andean people had already been under Inca rule for a little less than a century with mostly peaceful results; this was due in large part to the, “shared basic understandings of the limits within which power could be wielded as well as how the universe was supposed to work”, between the Inca conquerors and the Andean people whom they conquered.1 Under Inca rule the Andean people maintained their communal structure of the allyu (traditional Andean of town organization held together through kinship and the passing of power along parallel gender lines), and were generally less imposed upon. With the arrival of the Spanish however, gender complementarity went out the window, “Spanish expectations… presupposed [women’s] inherent impurity and their inferiority”.2 This Spanish view of female inferiority, “favored men as society’s representatives, administrators, and power brokers” which ultimately broke down the very structure that held the Andean communities together.3 By implementing gender hierarchy, the Spanish began to methodically unravel the very fabric that held Andean allyus and therefore, Andean society together.
Along with gender hierarchy the Spanish also breed discontentment and eventually fierce conflict by disallowing Andeans the right to practice their polytheistic pagan religions–which venerated the sun and moon among other idols. The Andean people use their religion as a lens through which they were able to understand the world. This schema of interpreting the world manifests itself in The Huarochiri Manuscript, a compilation of Andean origin stories. In one such origin story, Cuni Raya, a trickster God, imposes fates on animals such as the falcon, declaring the falcon, “greatly blessed” and destined for honor, after the falcon aids Cuni Raya in his travels.4 The creation story of the falcon by Cuni Raya, highlights the relevance of religion to Andean ideology. Rather than slightly altering the Andean religion as the Incan’s successfully did, the Spanish wield Catholicism “as the ideological arm of Colonial Rule” in order to justify their conquest and thereby extinguish the Andean’s former religion.5 This conversion is not merely a trivial baptism, but rather a severe blow to the culture and ideology of the Andean people. Guaman Poma, the son of an Andean chief outlines a key component of this transformation of ideology; after declaring ancient, Andean religion as idolatry and heresy, Guaman Poma laments, “But it is the Christians who still adore property, gold, and silver as their idols”.6 Guaman Poma makes it clear that the Christian religion, if not inherently, then through the Spanish, breeds an idolatry of wealth contrary to the Andean culture of shared resources. At the same time Guaman Poma also criticizes the greedy nature of the Spanish Empire and is hinting at the worsening condition of the Andean people as they are driven further from their beliefs and culture.
Through the forced conversion to Catholicism, and the destruction of gender complementarity, the very roots of the Andean people are torn out. As the years go by, the greed of the Spanish increases and the Andean lúcuma tree is not able to withstand any longer the burden of new taxes and restrictions; the Andean people have no choice, but to fight back. José Gabriel Túpac Amaru, the leader of the Túpac Amáru Rebellion, echoes the voices of the Andean people in the opening lines of his edict of rebellion, “I make known… that in view of the oppressive yoke of taxation and the tyranny of our callous and merciless oppressors I have reached the end of my patience”.7 Amaru, a mestizo and former mule driver, is the voice of the people and speaks to the oppression of the Spanish over many generations of Andean people. His edict is not a soft voice of contradiction, but rather it is the unbending declaration of freedom from their Spanish captors. There is no question that animosity is high as Amaru shows no mercy in his edict’s last word of caution, “I will know who follows this advice, and I will reward the loyal and punish the rebels”.8 Centuries of oppression amount to bloodshed and rebellion, and bring the root of the conflict to the forefront.
A key component of Amaru’s rebellion and also of the preventative measures taken by the Spanish to prevent further revolt is that they are linked to the Inca history and glory of centuries past, which is still alive. The inspiration for the rebellion itself stems from the execution of Túpac Amaru I in 1572 by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, “The last remnant of the once proud Inca state… had fallen… [Toledo] condemned the young Inca to death”.9 Túpac Amaru I is brutally killed and his head is hoisted to symbolize the defeat of the Inca Empire; however, he is highly honored in death and obviously his death is not forgotten as evidenced by the 1780 Túpac rebellion in his name. The Spanish repetitively try to extinguish the Inca and Andean culture through violence, but are unable to ever fully break spirit that fuels their culture.
Although it is clear that the Andean people have good reason to despise the Spanish for the disruption of their society as they knew it and the endless oppression, the Spanish are similarly enraged and take violent actions to attempt to maintain control. Seemingly without considering other alternatives the Spanish arrest Amaru and in an attempt to prevent future rebellions, the magistrate decides to execute Amaru’s entire family as Amaru watches and then, “cut out his tongue...and let the horses be urged… so that his body be divided”.10 The planned execution of Amaru is horrifically explicit and goes on to explain the distribution of Amaru’s limbs throughout the Andean regions. Relations between the Andean people and the Spanish have been so thoroughly degraded, that the only way either side can attempt to reconcile the other is through bloodshed. After delineating the execution of Amaru, the magistrate continues to explain additional measures to prevent further revolt, “it is prohibited that the Indians wear heathen clothes… since it only serves to symbolize those worn by their Inca ancestors… [Paintings or likenesses of their Incas] shall be erased”.11 The suppression of Inca culture centuries after Spanish colonization exposes depth of the conflict between the Spanish and the Andean people.
The initial conquest of the Andean people by the Spanish plants the seeds for rebellion that are reaped during the 1780 Túpac Amaru Rebellion. The relationship between the Spanish and the Andean people tends to consist mostly of the destruction of Andean culture through gender hierarchy, Catholicism, violence, and the prohibition of Inca culture as a general idea, to name a few. The destruction of Andean society through these methods, breeds a sense of lost glory and Inca pride that comes to fruit through the 1780 Túpac Amaru rebellion. Amaru’s rebellion was one of the first significant steps towards liberation from Spanish rule, which is ultimately overthrown within the next few decades. The pent up anger and resentment of the Inca people reaches a tipping point with the Túpac Amaru rebellion and no Spanish opposition can stem the tide of Inca glory and retribution that has been brewing for centuries.
Notes
1. Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches (Princeton University Press, 2002), XXIX
2. Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches (Princeton University Press, 2002), XXVI
3. Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches (Princeton University Press, 2002), XXX
4. Anonymous, The Huarochirí Manuscript, 32
5. Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches (Princeton University Press, 2002), XXX
6. Guamán Poma de Ayala, The Peru Reader (Duke University, 1995), 80
7. Julie A. Charlip, Consider the Source: Documents for the Study of Latin America (Prentice Hall, 2011), 26
8. Julie A. Charlip, Consider the Source: Documents for the Study of Latin America (Prentice Hall, 2011), 27
9. Kenneth J. Andrien, Andean Worlds (University of New Mexico Press, 2001), 193
10. Julie A. Charlip, Consider the Source: Documents for the Study of Latin America (Prentice Hall, 2011), 30
11. Julie A. Charlip, Consider the Source: Documents for the Study of Latin America (Prentice Hall, 2011), 31