“The Peruvian Revolution”: History and Memory of Túpac Amaru in the Construction of a National Discourse: A View from Cuzco, 1837–39

Between 1837 and 1839, during a period of all out war within the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, a writer from Cuzco published a newspaper concerning science, art, history, and philosophy called El Museo Erudito. Taking this newspaper as its focal point, this presentation will examine how those in the periphery used history to form their own national discourses in the recently founded republic. Specifically, the paper will take up attempts to redefine and valorize the memory of the Túpac Amaru rebellion as a foundational experience of the new nation as written from a regional, rather than central, perspective. By publishing historical documents from the cabildo of Cuzco, El Museo Erudito sought to reconstruct the story of the rebellion as a key part of the Peruvian story.

Until this point, the Tupac Amaru rebellion had been taboo in the Peruvian public sphere. With the publication of these documents and their reframing as part of a longer history of the fight for independence, the editor of El Museo Erudito set the foundation for a more inclusive story of the nation. While it would take many years for this story to be incorporated into official national histories, this newspaper represents an early provincial attempt to construct a foundational mythology outside the narratives generated by elites in Lima. By looking to the writing of those outside the traditional corpus of nation-making authors, this paper posits Cuzco’s alternative historical discourse as vital to the eventual consolidation of Peru’s national story.