The Shining Serpent of the Andean people

Danilo Anton 

Tupac Amaru, which in Quechua means, Shining Serpent, Incari, was the last Inca who held for several years the independence of the Andes nations in the selvatic mountainous valley of Vilcabamba. 
After several battles and some pitfalls, the Spaniards seized the resistant kingdom and took Tupac Amaru chained to Cuzco where he was beheaded. 
His head was exposed to the sight of people for several months.
Two centuries later, in 1780, a Quechua curaca descendant of Tupac Amaru, named Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, rebelled against the Spaniards using the legendary name of Tupac Amaru . 
After a bloody and protracted war the new Tupac Amaru was defeated.  
In May 18, 1781, after suffering horrible tortures for a month, the last Inca was quartered in the same place where his ancestor had died 200 years earlier. 

The Shining Serpent head was severed, nailed down in a spike and publicly displayed for everyone to see.
Since then, the mountain villages are well aware that Tupac Amaru, the Incari Quechua, the Sacred Serpent, is immortal. 
It is common belief gathered by José María Arguedas: “ they say he is in Cuzco, and also say that his hair is growing and his body is growing down from his head.  The Judgment Day will come when he is whole again”.   .
In 1780, following the example of Condorcanqui, the Aymara of the highlands and the neighboring valleys of present Bolivia revolted against the Spaniards. 
The leader of the uprising was Julian Apasa, who thereafter took the name of Tupac Katari (Quechua: Tupac=Shining and Katari = Serpent).
Tupac Katari assembled an army of 80,000 men and besieged La Paz for 109 days. Finally, the rebellion was suppressed.  
Katari’s wife, Bartolina Sisa, was hanged, the Aymara leader was tortured, his tongue cut,  and finally tied to four horses and quartered. As it had happened to Tupac Amaru, his head was exposed publicly. 
Entering the XXI century, a new rebel movement of the Aymara of Bolivia appeared with a strength and dynamism that has surprised many. The leader was called Felipe Quispe, and the organization Tupac Katari.
Evo Morales, an Aymara Uro was elected several times for the presidency of the country. We must not be surprised.
Somehow, in La Paz, in Cuzco and Oruro, the ancient sacrified heads are starting to grow new bodies.
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones.