Tomasa Tito Condemayta was a cacica (local leader) from nearby Acos who also had a home in Sangarará. Instead, the rebels were led by a little-known figure in Peru's history: Tomasa Tito Condemayta, "the heroine of the Battle of Sangarará," said Arnedo. According to Arnedo and other locals, he was stationed with his troops nearby but didn't arrive until the battle was over. This is what made him start to organise," said Sangarará native Enrique Arnedo Oimas.īut Tupac Amaru II wasn't even present for the biggest victory of his own rebellion. He saw the exploitation, the abuse and the branding. "Tupac Amaru II saw how the Indigenous people were forced to work for the Spanish – dawn to dusk, 12 hours every day. Born José Gabriel Condorcanqui, and ostensibly of royal Inca blood, he was a travelling merchant, which gave him a precise understanding of the devastating economic and living conditions in the impoverished Andean villages – conditions imposed on them in brutal fashion by the Spanish authorities. Today in Peru, Tupac Amaru II is a near-mythical figure. This year's bicentennial celebrates the country's official independence, but those seeds of revolution were planted several decades earlier by Tupac Amaru II, and his campaign is viewed by many Indigenous as the true beginning of the long road to freedom from Spain. The Battle of Sangarará was one of the few major victories of his rebellion, and would eventually incite revolutions throughout much of South America – including Peru's own independence 40 years later. 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. What is less known are the beginnings of his brief Indigenous rebellion in the tiny Andean community of Sangarará. His body parts were sent to be displayed in the Andean villages from which he had drawn his support and troops. 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. 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.Įvery 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. Directly facing the church stand two statues – Tupac Amaru II and Tomasa Tito Condemayta – wielding weapons. Like many rural Peruvian towns, the plaza is eclipsed by an ancient and disproportionately large church. That's because this dusty village was an early and crucial stop on the road to Peru's eventual independence. But Román is one of a group of people who thinks this is a place worth discovering. 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. Currently, he's renovating his childhood home in the village to become a tourist hostel and pub. 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. 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. " Amigo, the battlefield was right here," said Rodolfo Román Sandoval, gesturing around the plaza of Sangarará, the Andean village where he grew up.
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