Tomasa Tito Condemayta

Tomasa Tito Condemayta Hurtado de Mendoza (1729 – May 18, 1781) was a leading force in the indigenous uprising against the Spanish colonial rulers under Tupac Amaru II in the 18th century in Peru. She was cacica of her people in the 1770s, the most powerful such ruler in her region. During the uprising, she served as both a strategist and a military officer. She was executed for her role in the rebellion alongside Tupac Amaru II, his wife Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, and their son Hipólito Condorcanqui Bastidas.

Tomasa Tito Condemayta
Born	Tomasa Tito Condemayta Hurtado de Mendoza 1729 (1729) Cuzco, Viceroyalty of Peru
Died	May 18, 1781(1781-05-18) (aged 51–52) Cuzco, Viceroyalty of Peru

Personal life

Tomasa Tito Condemayta was born in 1729 to an Inca noble family in an area of Peru that is now the Acomayo province in the Cusco region.[1] Her parents were Sebastián Tito Condemayta, kuraka of the Tito Condemayta ayllu and godfather of Tupac Amaru II, and Alfonsa Hurtado de Mendoza.[1][2] Sources give contradictory information as to her domestic life. In a 2005 work, scholar David Garrett stated that she was married to Tomas Escalante and bore him a daughter, who wed the cacique of Papres, Evaristo Delgado.[2] In a 2008 article, Garrett stated that she was married to Faustino Delgado.[3]

Unusually for the area, the Tito Condemayta ayllu embraced a lengthy hereditary rule, and Tito Condemayta became cacica of her people after her father, standing as the most powerful in the area.[2]

Rebellion

When Tupac Amaru II and his wife Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua called for a rebellion against Spanish rule in Peru in 1780, Condemayta left her husband and children to join the rebels in Tinta. Her embrace of the rebellion was not universal within her family, as her son-in-law, Evaristo Delgado, remained loyal to the Spanish throne.[2]

Condemayta played an important role in the rebellion.[4] Together with Amaru, she mobilized indigenous women for the uprising. She was a military strategist as well as an officer leading her own women's battalion.[5][6] A wealthy woman, she also helped fund the rebellion, supplying silver and essential supplies.[7][8] In the battle of Sangarara, a women's army under Condemayta's command defeated a Spanish army. She also led the successful defense of the bridge Pillpintuchaka on the Apurimac against approaching Spaniards.[5][9] Thousands of women fought using slingshots and arrows against armored Spanish soldiers. Under her command, her troops held the Pilpinto pass for over a month.[8] In 1781, fortunes turned to the much better-armed Spaniards, and on April 7, Condemayta was captured, along with Tupac Amaru II and Bastidas Puyucahua and their sons Hipólito and Fernando.[10]

On May 18, 1781, Condemayta was executed after severe torture together with Tupac Amaru II and Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua and their son Hipólito Condorcanqui Bastidas in the main square of Cusco. She was the only native noble executed alongside the rebel leader.[2] After being asphyxiated slowly with a hand-cranked metal garrote especially constructed for the occasion, she was hanged to ensure she was truly dead.[10] Her impaled head was set up as a deterrent in Acos.

References and notes

1. Ananda, Cohen Suarez (2016). Heaven, hell, and everything in between : murals of the colonial Andes (First ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 158. ISBN 9781477309544. OCLC 916685000.
2. Garrett, David T. (2005). Shadows of empire : the Indian nobility of Cusco, 1750-1825. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 105, 183, 219. ISBN 052184634X. OCLC 57405349.
3. Garrett, David T. (April 2008). "'In spite of her sex:' the Cacica and the politics of the Pueblo in late colonial Cusco". The Americas. 64 (4): 547–581. doi:10.1353/tam.2008.0045 – via JSTOR.
4. Susan, Kellogg (2005). Weaving the past : a history of Latin America's indigenous women from the prehispanic period to the present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780198040422. OCLC 62268136.
5. Silverblatt, Irene (1987). Moon, sun, and witches : gender ideologies and class in Inca and colonial Peru. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0691077266. OCLC 14165734.
6. Marquez, Humberto. "Latin America: Women in history: more than just heroines." Interpress Service 9 Sept. 2009. Business Insights: Global. Web. 21 Oct. 2018.
7. Andrusz, C. (2013). Micaela bastidas A silenced leader (Order No. 1539792). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1415446200).
8. Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya (2004). "Latin America and the Caribbean". In Meade, Teresa A.; Weisner, Merry E. (eds.). A companion to gender history. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. pp. 481. ISBN 1405128895. OCLC 55771250.
9. Brewster, C. (2005). Women and the spanish-american wars of independence: An overview. Feminist Review, (79), 20-35.
10. Walker, Charles F. (2014). The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674416383.

Further reading

• Jerome R. Adams: Notable Latin American Women. Twenty-Nine Leaders, Rebels, Poets, Battlers and Spies. McFarland & Co., Jefferson (North Carolina) 1995. "The Revolt of the Incas", p. 71.
• Juvenal Pacheco Farfán: Tomasa T'ito Condemayta, heroína de Acos: hito histórico y paradigm de liberación de la mujer. JL Editores, Cusco 2008.
• Juan José Vega: Micaela Bastidas y las heroinas tupamaristas. Ediciones Universidad Nacional de Educación, Lima 1971. 23 pages.