The Indigenous rebellion that inspired Peru's independence
By Stephen K Hirst & Heather Jasper
18th August 2021
A battle between Peruvian rebels and Spanish colonisers in the tiny Andean community of Sangarará was the beginning of a doomed but influential uprising.
"Amigo, the battlefield was right here," said Rodolfo Román Sandoval, gesturing around the plaza of Sangarará, the Andean village where he grew up. Set 3,800m high in the Andes and dramatically ringed by mountain peaks, the place had a sleepy feel; there were more sheep crossing the street than people, and the silence was broken only by the occasional barking dog or braying donkey.
Román remembers when electricity came to town; and told me that as late as the mid-1990s, the people of Sangarará still used a barter system in lieu of money. Currently, he's renovating his childhood home in the village to become a tourist hostel and pub. There's not much in the way of tourist infrastructure here yet, save a few rustic hostels and a pollo brasa (rotisserie chicken) restaurant with some of the best salsa picante I've ever tasted. But Román is one of a group of people who thinks this is a place worth discovering. That's because this dusty village was an early and crucial stop on the road to Peru's eventual independence.
Like many rural Peruvian towns, the plaza is eclipsed by an ancient and disproportionately large church. Directly facing the church stand two statues – Tupac Amaru II and Tomasa Tito Condemayta – wielding weapons. The rebellious spirits of these two figures remain deeply embedded in Sangarará's culture, as this was the site of one of the fiercest conflicts – and one of the most important Indigenous rebellions – in Peruvian history.
Every Peruvian knows the story of how, in 1781, the rebel leader Tupac Amaru II was executed by the Spanish Empire in Cusco's central plaza. Forced to watch his wife and son killed in front of him, his tongue was then cut out, and he was drawn and quartered then beheaded. His body parts were sent to be displayed in the Andean villages from which he had drawn his support and troops.
What is less known are the beginnings of his brief Indigenous rebellion in the tiny Andean community of Sangarará. A battle on 18 November 1780 between the Peruvian rebels and the Spanish colonisers in this town marked the true start of Tupac Amaru II's doomed but deeply influential uprising, which ended in March 1783.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210817-the-indigenous-rebellion-that-inspired-perus-independence