Bartolina Sisa

Bartolina Sisa Vargas ( 1750 – 5 September 1782) was an Aymaran woman and indigenous heroine who led numerous revolts against the Spanish rule in Charcas, then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and present-day Bolivia. Alongside her husband, the indigenous leader Túpac Katari, she participated in the organisation of indigenous military camps that took part in the siege of La Paz. She was betrayed and turned in to the Spanish authorities, who later executed her.

Honouring the date of her death, the International Day of Indigenous Women is celebrated every 5 September since 1983 in Bolivia. Bartolina Sisa is often the name used by many indigenous organisations in Bolivia, such as the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, the primary union of peasant women in the country.

Biography

Bartolina Sisa was born around the year 1750 in the indigenous community of Q'ara Qhatu (Caracoto in Spanish), a village in the Real Audiencia of Charcas, Viceroyalty of La Plata, the daughter of José Sisa and Josefa Vargas. She was still a young child when her family moved to Sica Sica, where they traded coca leaves and worked in the production of woven goods. As it was common for peasant families of the region, she traveled across the Altiplano selling the goods produced by her family. Also in Sica Sica lived Julián Apaza, later to be known as Túpac Katari, whom Sisa married and with whom she had four children.

Siege of La Paz

Bartolina Sisa, her husband and other indigenous leaders like José Gabriel Condorcanqui. Jose was later known as Túpac Amaru II, and the brothers Damasio and Tomás Katari were joined together in their ideals of indigenous empowerment and managed to gather around 150,000 indigenous, mostly Quechuas and Aymaras, to join their cause.

On 13 March 1781 Sisa and Túpac Katari establish a siege around the city of La Paz, then capital of Charcas and seat of the colonial Real Audiencia with a force of some 20,000 men, later to be joined by other 80,000. The city is located on an enclosed valley with limited access, and the siege was able to completely block all movement to and from the city. During this time, Sisa organised military camps around all the mountain passes that led to the city and acted as main command of the indigenous forces. The Spanish forces received help from other indigenous communities that were opposed to Katari and that ultimately led to his capture: they were executed by hanging in September, 1782.

Bartolina Sisa was captured and executed by the Spanish on September 5, 1782. Also, in 1983 the Second Meeting of Organisations and Movements of the Americas, meeting in Tiwanaku, decided to celebrate the International Day of the Indigenous Woman every 5 September, the same day of her execution.