Túpac Katari
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Túpac Katari or Catari (also Túpaj Katari) (Template:Circa – 13 November 1781), born Julián Apasa Nina, was the indigenous Aymara leader of a major insurrection in colonial-era Upper Peru (now Bolivia), laying siege to La Paz for six months. His wife Bartolina Sisa and his sister Gregoria Apaza participated in the rebellion by his side.<ref>Kendall W. Brown, "Túpac Catari (Julián Apaza)" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 5, p. 280, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.</ref> The rebellion was ultimately put down by Spanish loyalists and Katari was executed by quartering.
Biography
Katari was born Julián Apasa in the jurisdiction of Sicasica and later moved to the nearby town of Ayo Ayo. He was born a peasant and worked as a trader of coca and baize.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A member of the Aymara, Apasa took the name "Tupac Katari" to honor two earlier rebel leaders: Tomás Katari and Túpac Amaru, executed by the Spanish in 1572. Katari's uprising was simultaneous with the rebellion of Túpac Amaru II, whose cacique leader claimed to be a descendant of the earlier Túpac Amaru. Túpac Katari had no traditional claim to leadership similar to that of Túpac Amaru II, which may well have prompted Katari to associate himself with earlier leaders. Katari means "serpent, large snake" in Aymara; Amaru means the same in Quechua, the language of Tupac Amaru. Tupac means "brilliant, resplendent" in both languages.<ref>Thompson, Sinclair (2002), We Alone Will Rule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, p. 190.</ref>
During a stage of his rebellion, Tupac Amaru II was able to convince the Quechua speakers to join him. Therefore, under his command, the Quechua speakers fought alongside him with Aymara-speaking rebels from Puno on Lake Titicaca and on the Bolivian side of the lake. Unfortunately, the alliance did not last that long and this led Túpac Katari to lead his army alone.<ref name="Meade_2016">Teresa Meade, A History of Modern South America – 1800 to the Present, p. 105, John Wiley & Sons, 2016.</ref> Katari claimed to be the viceroy appointed by Tupac Amaru II.<ref name="DU">Template:Cite web</ref>
He raised an army of some 40,000 and laid siege to the city of La Paz in 1781. Katari and his wife Bartolina Sisa set up court in El Alto and maintained the siege from March to June and from August to October. Sisa was a commander of the siege and played the crucial role following Katari's capture in April. The siege was broken by the Spanish colonial troops who advanced from Lima and Buenos Aires.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the siege, 20,000 people died.<ref name="DU"/>
Katari laid siege again later in the year, this time joined by Andrés Túpac Amaru, nephew of Túpac Amaru II, but Katari lacked adequate forces to be successful.
Katari had a reputation as a fierce and often violent leader. Other leaders in the rebel camps testified to his "homicides and enormous violence"; he was known not only for violence toward his enemies but also those who fought on his side, executing people for having "spoken against him, stolen his property, acted in an overweening fashion, challenged his authority, or humiliated him".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
On his death on 15 November 1781, Katari's final words were, according to oral tradition, "Template:Lang". This is translated from Aymara as "I die but will return tomorrow as thousand thousands".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Rebellion
As part of the uprising, Túpac Katari formed an army of forty thousand men and surrounded twice for a time, in 1781 the Spanish city of La Paz.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The two attempts, however, ended in failure due to political and military maneuvers by the Spanish, as well as alliances with indigenous leaders against Túpac Katari. Eventually all the leaders of the rebellion were arrested and executed, including Túpac Katari's wife, Bartolina Sisa, and his sister, Gregoria Apaza.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
This indigenous uprising at the end of the 18th century was the largest geographically and with the most support. It took the affected viceroyalties two years to suffocate it.
The rebels besieged the city of La Paz from 13 March 1781 for one hundred and nine days without success, due to resistance and the support of troops sent from Buenos Aires. In this context, Viceroy Agustín de Jáuregui took advantage of the low morale of the rebels to offer amnesty to those who surrendered, which gave many fruits, including some leaders of the movement. Túpac Katari, who had not accepted the amnesty and went to Achacachi to reorganize his dispersed forces, was betrayed by some of his followers and was captured by the Spanish on the night of 9 November 1781.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
During the second siege, Andrés Túpac Amaru, a nephew of Túpac Amaru II and romantically linked to Gregoria Apaza, Túpac Katari's younger sister, joined the Tupac Katari rebels.Template:Citation needed
As a moral reward for the efforts and sacrifices that the Spanish of the city of La Paz had to endure, through the royal decree of 20 May 1784, the city of La Paz was awarded the title of "noble, courageous and faithful" (faithful to the king of Spain, it is understood).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Legacy
For his effort, his betrayal, defeat, torture and brutal execution, Túpac Katari is remembered as a hero by modern indigenous movements in Bolivia, who call their political philosophy Katarismo. A Bolivian guerrilla group, the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army, also bears his name.
In Bolivia, on 15 July 2005, former President Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé declared (through Law No. 3102) "National Aymara Hero and Heroine to Julián Apaza and Bartolina Sisa".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In Argentina, as part of the Bicentennial celebrations, a Gallery of South American Patriots was inaugurated on 25 May 2010, in which Bolivia is represented by portraits of Túpac Katari, Pedro Domingo Murillo and Bartolina Sisa. The pictorial sample is located in the so-called "Hall of the Bicentennial Heroes", in the Casa Rosada.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The first Bolivian telecommunications satellite, Túpac Katari 1, whose purpose is to support educational initiatives and maintain state security, bears his name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Since 2019, his appearance has been incorporated into the new design of the 200 Bolivian banknote.
See also
- Túpac Amaru II
- Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II
- Tomás Katari
- Aymara people
- Bolivia
- Bartolina Sisa
- Katarismo
- Túpac Katari Guerrilla Army
References
Further reading
- del Valle de Siles, María Eugenia, Historia de la rebelión Túpac Catari, 1781–1782. (1900)
- Fisher, Lillian Estelle, The Last Inca Revolt, 1780–1783, 1966
- O'Phelan Godoy, Rebellions and Revolts in Eighteenth-Century Peru and Upper Peru, 1985
- Paredes, M. Rigoberto, Túpac Catari: Apuntes biográficos (1897, 1973)
- Template:Cite book
- Stern, Steve J. ed., Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries, 1987
- Valencia Vega, Alipio, Julián Tupaj Katari - caudillo de la liberación india, 1950
External links
- tupackatari.org Template:Webarchive - Bolivian indigenous activist page (in Spanish) (link broken)
- [1] Boston Globe article on Bolivian politics, mentioning Tupac Katari
- [2] Great Rebellion of Peru and Upper Peru by Nicholas A. Robins
- Pages with broken file links
- Bolivian people of Aymara descent
- Bolivian torture victims
- Executed revolutionaries
- People executed by dismemberment
- 1750s births
- 1781 deaths
- Executed Bolivian people
- Rebellions in South America
- Rebellions against the Spanish Empire
- Indigenous rebellions against the Spanish Empire
- 18th-century executions by Spain
- 18th-century Bolivian people