Tupac Amaru 2, the return of the Incarri

Faced with the invasion and occupation of the Tahuantisuyu in Peru by the Spanish conquerors, which had begun in 1533 and had advanced in a large part of the Inca territories, and against the despotism and cruelty of the new foreigners, the Incas who led the resistance took refuge in Vilcabamba.

Successive Incas managed to keep the rebellion active. In 1570 the leadership was assumed by Tupac Amaru, a suggestive name that in Quechua means bright serpent, in which amaru is the name of the serpent that represents infinity and Tupac means lord, magnificent, brilliant

When he began to exercise his power, Tupac Amaru decided to prohibit Christianity and close the borders with the Spanish colony.

"Coincidentally", shortly after (1572), a smallpox epidemic spread through Vilcabamba, killing many people. The conquerors often used the epidemics they caused to weaken the resistance of the peoples they sought to dominate. The Spanish took advantage of the situation, attacked in the midst of the plague and set the city on fire. Inca resistance was desperate. With inferior armaments and fighting bare-chested, they died - by the thousands. The Spanish army managed to control the situation. The Inca Tupac Amaru escaped into the jungle, but was captured and carried in chains to Cuzco. • Once in the capital, before thousands of painful and astonished looks, Tupac Amaru, the last Inca, was beheaded. His head was nailed to a pike and publicly exposed as a lesson to the people. He remained in the sight of thousands of pilgrims who for a long time came to Cuzco to venerate her. Tupac's martyrdom was fixed in the collective memory. Much later his name and image would reappear even more strongly.

"They say that he is in Cuzco And they also say that his hair is growing AND that his body is growing down from his head When he is whole again, the Final Judgment will take place" José María Argüedas

When the Spanish occupiers killed Tupac Amaru on September 24, 1572, they believed that the descent of the Incas had ended. It was not so. Although they killed all the sons of Tupac Amaru and of Mancu the Inca who preceded him, they forgot one of his female daughters: Juana Tupac Amaru.

Juana married a native chief (curaca) Diego Felipe Condorcanqui, whose surname suggestively means in Quechua "look of a condor." - The descendants of the Condorcanqui- Tupac Amaru He kept alive the memory of the Inca martyred for two hundred years. During that time the population of Peru had begun to recover in a very precarious way from its great sufferings. A new life, different and long-suffering, had been established in the old Tahuantisuyu, now transformed into the Viceroyalty of Peru. The 'Spaniards realized the difficulty of governing the immense and isolated territory and agreed to maintain some elements of the old administrative structure of the incanato, among them the organization of the local caciques or curacas. As the decades passed, the new generations of curacas began to look to the past, they searched their Inca roots and gradually, they distanced themselves from the culture of the Spanish. Among this new lineage of curacas was an Inca descendant: José Gabriel Condorcanqui Tupac Amaru.

In the last decades of the eighteenth century, exploitation continued unabated. The population was forced to buy useless and poor quality Spanish products and to pay heavy taxes. Forced labor in the mines continued to kill people. From a social and economic point of view, the situation was unsustainable. Condorcanqui was the interpreter of the sentiment of the people. It was the year 1780. The curaca Condorcanqui, whose condor look honored his surname, declared himself Inca under the name of Tupac Amaru II and summoned the peoples to fight against the oppressors. The war was fierce. In a few months, the vast majority of the ancient Tahuantisuyu peoples joined the armies of Tupac Amaru I I. He was the Incarl, the Inca who would one day come to save the Andean peoples from exploitation and misery. In 1781 Cuzco was besieged. The battles followed one another and finally, again, overcome by the best weapons and military organization of the colonial army, the rebels were defeated. Tupac Amaru II was taken prisoner with his family and sentenced to death. On May 18, 1781, after suffering horrible torture for a month, the 'last Inca was executed in the same square where his ancestor had died 200 years ago. The execution was extremely cruel. Tupac Amaru II, badly wounded and suffering from repeated torture, was forced to see his tongue being ripped out and his wife and children killed. Later he himself was dismembered and his members exposed in public places. As had happened with Tupac Amaru I, the head of José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Tupac Amaru II, the last Inca, was publicly exhibited as a lesson to future rebels. Despite his death, the memory of Tupac Amaru, the Incarí, survives beyond time. In reality, the mountain peoples know that, in truth, Tupac Amaru has not died. Somewhere, here or there, he is waiting to return and save the people from him. '

"The King of the Spanish captured Inkarí and held him prisoner somewhere. It is said that only the head of Incarí still exists. But from the head He is growing. Growing down towards his feet. And when all is finished . Incarí will return ", (collected by José María Argüedas).