Túpac Amaru II

Did You Know?

• Túpac Amaru II was a direct descendant of Túpac Amaru, the last Inca of Vilcabamba.
• He inherited 350 mules from his father's estate and worked as a muleteer transporting goods and minerals in Upper Peru.

Early life

José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera, later known as Túpac Amaru II, came into the world around 1742 in Surimana, part of the Tungasuca area in Cusco province. His father, Miguel Condorcanqui Usquionsa Túpac Amaru, served as kuraka for three towns in Tinta district, and his mother was María Rosa Noguera. A priest named Santiago José Lopez baptized him on May 1, 1742, in a Tungasuca church. Orphaned at twelve, he grew up under the care of an aunt and uncle. At sixteen, he studied at the San Francisco de Borja School, a Jesuit institution for sons of kurakas. There, he learned Latin alongside Quechua and Spanish. At twenty-two, he married Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, a woman of both Afro-Peruvian and indigenous heritage. Not long after, he took over his father’s role as kuraka, gaining rights to land and inheriting 350 mules. This made him both a community leader and a trader who traveled widely, building connections with other indigenous groups and learning about the economy. From 1776 to 1780, he fought a legal battle against the Betancur family over the Marquisate of Oropesa succession, but he lost the case.

The Corregidores and the exploitation of the natives

Although the encomienda system had been abolished in 1720, a seventh of the population in native communities and permanent indigenous workers in the Andean region of what is now Ecuador and Bolivia were still forced into labor for public work projects. This shift consolidated indigenous labor under local government control. Most natives worked under a master tilling soil, mining, or in textile mills. Wages were heavily taxed, cementing indebtedness. The Roman Catholic Church also extorted natives through collections for saints, masses for the dead, and forced gifts. Those not in forced labor were subject to corregidores, who heavily taxed and overpriced commodities. Mining production intensified in the mid-18th century, increasing the burden of the mita system. Potosí's mining mita was dangerous and labor-intensive, forcing migration of workers and families. Many future rebellious areas centered around Potosí and the mining district.

Rebellion

The immediate cause lay in grievances from Bourbon Reforms under Charles III, which centralized control and increased taxes and labor burdens. Ideologically, the rebellion was complex: at one level it demanded reforms within colonial rule, often speaking in the king's name; at another, it envisioned overthrowing European rule and restoring the Inca empire, Tahuantinsuyo. There were also millenarian, proto-Jacobin, and proto-communist elements. Most soldiers were poor Indian peasants, artisans, and women, who saw the rebellion as an opportunity for an egalitarian society without castas, rich and poor, or forced labor.

Legacy

The Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla active in Uruguay in the 1960s and early 1970s, were inspired by his name and ideals. In 1962, the trio Los Amaru de Tinta emerged. In 1989, the musical group Los Túpac Amarinos de Canas was formed.