Túpac Amaru II
| Túpac Amaru II | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
March 19, 1738 Surimana-Canas, Cuzco, Viceroyalty of Peru |
| Died | May 18, 1781 (aged 43) Cuzco, Viceroyalty of Peru |
| Other names | José Gabriel Túpac Amaru, José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera |
José Gabriel Túpac Amaru (March 19, 1738 – May 18, 1781) — known as Túpac Amaru II — was the leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru. Although unsuccessful, he later became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement, as well as an inspiration to myriad causes in Hispanophone America and beyond.
Túpac Amaru II was born José Gabriel Condorcanqui in Surimana, Tungasuca, in the province of Cusco, and received a Jesuit education at the San Francisco de Borja School, although he maintained a strong identification with the indigenous culture and population. He was a mestizo who claimed to be a direct descendant of the last Inca ruler Túpac Amaru. He had been given the title of Marquis of Oropesa, a position that allowed him some voice and political leverage during Spanish rule. Between 1776 and 1780 Condorcanqui went into litigation with the Betancur family over the right of succession of the Marquisate of Oropesa and lost the case. In 1760, he married Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua of Afro-Peruvian and indigenous descent. Tupac Amaru II inherited the caciqueship, or hereditary chiefdom of Tungasuca and Pampamarca from his older brother, governing on behalf of the Spanish governor.
He was quartered and beheaded by the colonial authorities in Cusco in 1781.
Although the Spanish trusteeship labor system, or encomienda had been abolished in 1720, most natives at the time living in the Andean region of what is now Ecuador and Bolivia, who made up nine tenths of the population were still pushed into forced labor for what were legally labeled as public work projects. However, most natives worked under the supervision of a master either tilling soil, mining or working in textile mills. What little wage that was acquired by workers was heavily taxed and cemented Native-American indebtedness to Spanish masters. The Roman Catholic Church also had a hand in extorting these natives through collections for saints, masses for the dead, domestic and parochial work on certain days, forced gifts, etc. Those not employed in forced labor were still subject to the Spanish provincial governors, or corregidores who also heavily taxed any free natives, similarly ensuring their financial instability.
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Wikipedia