Túpac Catari (Julián Apaza) (c. 1750–1781)

Túpac Catari (Julián Apaza) (b. c. 1750; d. 14 November 1781), leader of an Aymara insurrection in 1781, which laid siege to La Paz for six months. A commoner born in Ayoayo, Sicasica, Julián Apaza was orphaned at age twelve. He worked in the mines, traded coca leaves and cloth, and married Bartolina Sisa, with whom he had three children. Contemporaries described him as lighter in complexion than most Aymaras and of medium height.

Apaza first came to public notice in early 1781, when insurrection convulsed the provinces of Sicasica, Yungas, and Pacajes. Spanish officials mistakenly blamed the turmoil on Túpac Amaru, who rebelled in November 1780 near Cuzco. Ambitious, charismatic, and messianic, Apaza quickly rose to command the Aymara rebels north of La Paz. Speaking only Aymara, he combined Christian and native rhetoric and claimed to receive messages from God through a small silver box he carried. On some occasions he dressed like the Inca, at others like a Spanish official. He also changed his name to Túpac Catari, associating himself with the great indigenous leaders Túpac Amaru and Tomás Catari. Lacking any traditional claim to leadership, he proclaimed himself viceroy, saying he had received authority from Túpac Amaru.

Túpac Catari's greatest undertaking was the siege of La Paz, which began on 14 March 1781. With an army numbering from 10,000 to 40,000, he controlled access to the city and brutally killed those captured while trying to escape. On 18 July, General Ignacio Flores's army temporarily broke the siege but then had to withdraw. Thereupon Túpac Catari joined his forces with those of Andrés Túpac Amaru and again besieged La Paz. Unable to breach the defenses, they dammed the Choqueyapu River above La Paz to unleash a destructive flood on the city. The approach of another royal column under José de Resequín saved La Paz. Túpac Catari may have lost 5,000 at La Paz, while the besieged suffered two or three times more deaths, many from starvation and disease.

Túpac Catari withdrew toward the north, rejecting offers of pardon. At Peñas on 9 November, Tomás Inga Lipe, a former ally, betrayed him, and he was taken into government hands. Quickly interrogated and condemned, on 14 November he was tied to four horses and cruelly torn apart.

Lack of artillery handicapped Túpac Catari at La Paz, and rivalry between the Aymaras and Quechuas prevented successful integration of the rebel movements, although they occasionally cooperated. Túpac Catari declared his intention of driving the Spanish from Peru, but he also talked of liberating the Aymaras from Inca oppression.

See alsoAymara; Peru: From the Conquest Through Independence; Túpac Amaru.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best study is María Eugenia Del Valle De Siles, Historia de la rebelíon de Túpac Catari, 1781–1782 (1900). Also valuable are M. Rigoberto Paredes, Túpac Catari: Apuntes biográficos (1897, 1973); Alipio Valencia Vega, Julián Tupaj Katari, caudillo de la liberación india (1950); Lillian Estelle Fisher, The Last Inca Revolt, 1780–1783 (1966); Boleslao Lewin, La rebelión de Túpac Amaru y los orígenes de la independencia de Hispanoamérica, 3d ed. (1967), esp. pp. 509-526; Marcelo Grondín, Tupaj Katari y la rebelión campesina de 1781–1783 (1975); and Jorge Flores Ochoa and Abraham Valencia, Rebeliones indígenas quechuas y aymaras (1980).

Additional Bibliography

O'Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. La gran rebelión en los Andes: De Túpac Amaru a Túpac Catari. Cuzco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de las Casas," 1995.

                                       Kendall W. Brown