Túpac Katari or Catari (also Túpaj Katari) ( – 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 La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

for six months. His wife Bartolina Sisa and his sister Gregoria Apaza participated in the rebellion by his side. 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 Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

and baize. 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 The Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II (4 November 1780 – 15 March 1783) was an uprising by ''cacique''-led Aymara, Quechua, and ''mestizo'' rebels aimed at overthrowing Spanish colonial rule in Peru. The causes of the rebellion included opposit ...

, whose

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

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 claimed authority from Túpac Amaru and proclaimed himself viceroy of the region. (''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.) He raised an army of some 40,000 and laid siege to the city of

in 1781. Katari and his wife Bartolina Sisa set up court in

El Alto El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the List of Bolivian cities by population, second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest- ...

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 Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. During the siege, 20,000 people died. 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". On his death on 15 November 1781, Katari's final words were, according to oral tradition, "". This is translated from Aymara as "I die but will return tomorrow as thousand thousands".

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

. 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. 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

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. During the second siege, Andrés Túpac Amaru, a nephew of

Túpac Amaru II Tupac Amaru II (born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera, – 18 May 1781) was an Indigenous ''cacique'' who led a Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II, large Andean rebellion against the Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish in Peru as Self-proclaimed monarc ...

and romantically linked to Gregoria Apaza, Túpac Katari's younger sister, joined the Tupac Katari rebels. 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).

Legacy

For his effort, his betrayal, defeat,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

and brutal execution, Túpac Katari is remembered as a hero by modern indigenous movements in Bolivia, who call their political philosophy

Katarismo Katarism () is a political movement in Bolivia, named after the 18th-century indigenous leader Túpac Katari. Origins The katarist movement began in the early 1970s, recovering a political identity of the Aymara people, Aymara people. The movemen ...

. 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". In Argentina, as part of the

Bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe * French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

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 The ''Casa Rosada'' (), , is the president of the Argentine Republic's official workplace, located in Buenos Aires. The palatial mansion is known officially as ''Casa de Gobierno'' ("House of Government" or "Government House"). Normally, the pre ...

. The first Bolivian telecommunications satellite, Túpac Katari 1, whose purpose is to support educational initiatives and maintain state security, bears his name. Since 2019, his appearance has been incorporated into the new design of the 200 Bolivian banknote.

References

External links

tupackatari.org
- Bolivian indigenous activist page (in Spanish) (link broken)

Boston Globe article on Bolivian politics, mentioning Tupac Katari

Great Rebellion of Peru and Upper Peru by Nicholas A. Robins {{DEFAULTSORT:Tupac Katari -- diacritics removed to clarify sorting -- 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

Biography

Rebellion

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading

External links