Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru

by Charles F. Walker, Liz Clarke

Overview

The Tupac Amaru rebellion of 1780-1783 began as a local revolt against colonial authorities and grew into the largest rebellion in the history of Spain's American empire-more widespread and deadlier than the American Revolution. An official collector of tribute for the imperial crown, José Gabriel Condorcanqui had seen firsthand what oppressive Spanish rule meant for Peru's Indian population and, under the Inca royal name Tupac Amaru, he set events in motion that would transform him into one of Latin America's most iconic revolutionary figures. While he and the rebellion's leaders were put to death, his half-brother, Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, survived but paid a high price for his participation in the uprising.

This work in the Graphic History series is based on the memoir written by Juan Bautista about his odyssey as a prisoner of Spain. He endured forty years in jails, dungeons, and presidios on both sides of the Atlantic. Juan Bautista spent two years in jail in Cusco, was freed, rearrested, and then marched 700 miles in chains over the Andes to Lima. He spent two years aboard a ship travelling around Cape Horn to Spain. Subsequently, he endured over thirty years imprisoned in Ceuta, Spain's much-feared garrison city on the northern tip of Africa. In 1822, priest Marcos Durán Martel and Maltese-Argentine naval hero Juan Bautista Azopardo arranged to have him freed and sent to the newly independent Argentina, where he became a symbol of Argentina's short-lived romance with the Incan Empire. There he penned his memoirs, but died without fulfilling his dream of returning to Peru.

This stunning graphic history relates the life and legacy of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, enhanced by a selection of primary sources, and chronicles the harrowing and extraordinary life of a firsthand witness to the Age of Revolution.
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190941154
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Series:	Graphic History Series
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Charles F. Walker is Professor of History and the Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, named one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times, among other works on Latin American history.

Liz Clarke is a professional illustrator based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I: The Graphic History

Part II: Context

Part III: The Primary Sources a. Diary b. Commander Córdoba report, 1784
c. Cádiz petition, 1814
d. Indiferente petition, 1814
e. Duran Martel letter, 1814
f. Legajo 1023, 1821
g. Diario Constitucional, Barcelona, 1821
h. Algeciras—amnesty rejected, 1822
i. Tupac Amaru to Rivadavia, 1822
j. Letter to Simón Bolívar, 1825
k. Angelis, "imposter," 1836
l. Clements Markham, 1862

Further Reading and Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

"a formidable teaching tool" — José Carlos de la Puente, Early American Literature

"An engaging text that will be of particular value to teachers who want to convey the human aspect of a tumultuous era as well as how it has been interpreted through history....Walker and Clarke should be applauded for their research and attention to detail....Perhaps the most important value of this genre is that it brings into stark relief the human experiences and suffering of the era of Atlantic Revolution in ways that traditional historical narratives simply cannot convey It is a very good example of the pedagogical value of graphic history. The book should also serve as a call to revisit the historical and pedagogical value of biography. Witness to the Age of Revolution shows how they can not only weave multiple historical themes into one narrative but also put a very human face on these events." — Mark Rice, The Americas

"A formidable teaching tool....The graphics are well crafted and their rich, comic-like aesthetics, truly powerful. Maps, family trees, primary documents, and other visual resources effectively condense large amounts of information and vividly convey Juan Bautista's plea, making the story easy to follow, even for students with little to no knowledge of the subject....Juan Bautista's experiences...put a human face to...epochal transformations....As he reminisced about his forty-year ordeal...[He] did not merely recount the recent colonial past, he also helped to resignify it, rendering it useful to the nascent Latin American nations struggling to gain (and legitimize) their independence from Spain." — José Carole de la Puente, Early American Literature

"This book manages to rescue one of the most elusive figures in Peruvian history and is a persuasive invitation to take his sources as a starting point to relocate his historical legacy in the debates about the past, present and future of the Peruvian republican project in its bicentennial.... The appearance of Witness to the Age of Revolution contributes to revitalizing the subgenre of graphic adaptations of central documents of Peruvian historiography, which in Peru has very little precedent." — Fernando Aguirre Perez, La Vaca Multicolor

"Part action comic, part historical biography: an attempt to correct the record and give a pivotal figure the prominence he deserves... [Witness to the Age of Revolution is] an educational hybrid, with vivid illustrations backed by scholarly context." — Kirkus

"Some stories, like the incredible odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, have to be seen to be believed. From his youth in the heart of the Incan Andes, where his half-brother led the massive indigenous struggle that nearly dislodged the Spanish Empire, to his decades-long exile in Spain and Morocco, where he befriended veterans of late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revolutions and wars of independence, and, finally, to his liberation in Argentina, where he was cast as a hero and encouraged to write his memoirs, this beautifully rendered graphic account of Juan Bautista's amazing journey is a vivid reminder that history offers epic dramas as riveting as any we might imagine." — Vincent Brown, author of Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War

"From unlikely protagonists, off-center pathways, and the most forgotten corners of the late colonial Spanish world, Walker and Clarke draw a vivid and compelling story." — Kenneth Mills, University of Michigan

"The life and times of an Inca 'Papillon,' witness to, and participant in the Age of Revolutions and the creation of modern Latin America. This beautifully illustrated and historically accurate graphic history of Tupac Amaru's brother and his controversial book makes this tragic history come alive." — Stuart B. Schwartz, Yale University

"Witness to the Age of Revolution is a perfect text to allow students and scholars to engage with Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru's harrowing journey. This colorful graphic edition brings alive a forgotten piece of history and will allow the reader to see and feel the towering peaks of the Andes, the violence of the revolution, and the cruelty of forty years in captivity." — Sarah E. Owens, author of Nuns Navigating the Spanish Empire

"In this riveting, original, and sumptuously illustrated book, the remarkable and surprising transatlantic life of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru is vividly reconstructed for students and scholars alike. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Age of Revolutions." — Gabriel Paquette, University of Oregon

"Juan Bautista's compelling story of resistance and survival is re-told by a master historian and illustrated in an active and energetic style that draws the reader and the viewer deep into the world of people who fought long and hard to topple a powerful empire that once spanned the globe. Students and teachers of rebellion and revolution and anyone with an interest in Latin American and Spanish history and culture will want to follow the gripping account of this rebel and the travails that he endured attempting to free his people from imperialism. This is history as the story of action and the triumph of hope." — Leo J. Garofalo, co-author of Documenting Latin America: Gender, Race, and Empire

"Part action comic, part historical biography: an attempt to correct the record and give a pivotal figure the prominence he deserves... [Witness to the Age of Revolution is] an educational hybrid, with vivid illustrations backed by scholarly context."—Kirkus

"With colorful illustrations and a creative edition, the Oxford University Press Graphic History Series includes for the first time a welcomed addition from Indigenous Latin America, accessible to a variety of specialists and nonspecialist audiences alike...Using the expressive narrative of an Andean memoir, full-color pictorial illustrations, and critical contextualization, this publication contributes to restoring life to a multiplicity of muffled voices in the history of Indigenous rebel activities and their aftermath at the outset of modern times in the Andes....Its flexible and visual format makes the book suitable for undergraduate students of Latin American history and should enjoy wide use in the classroom." — Alcira Dueñas, American Historical Review

From the Publisher

2020-05-27
Part action comic, part historical biography: an attempt to correct the record and give a pivotal figure the prominence he deserves.

As Walker, a history professor who has written widely on Latin American history, writes, Juan Bautista Túpac Amaru (1747-1827) “was an unlikely icon. He did not lead men into battle or give inspiring speeches. His memoirs are his only publication. He himself expressed surprise at his turns of fate, including his decades of harsh imprisonment and his return to freedom in Argentina as an old man.” That autobiography, in which he chronicles what he suffered, endured, and observed on three continents, in exile and imprisonment, demonstrates that he “had a ringside seat to the events of the Age of Revolution and rubbed shoulders with many of the era’s important figures.” He lived not only during a time when the New World was threatening to cast off the chains of the old, but also when the French Revolution was illuminating the hope of liberation. After his half brother, José Gabriel Túpac Amaru, died in the Inca revolution, Juan Bautista faced a lifetime of incarceration and misery. He was taken in chains on a deadly voyage across the Atlantic to Europe, where he would spend almost half of his life imprisoned. The graphic narrative of the first section, illustrated by Cape Town–based illustrator Clarke, is a swashbuckling account, as colorful and action-packed as a summer blockbuster. In the second and third sections, which are not illustrated, Walker provides the historical context, including primary sources and information about how and when Juan Bautista wrote the memoirs that he published; how and why they were discredited, with a single source labeling them “apocryphal” and their author an “imposter”; and how it took a century before their veracity was confirmed. This is a fascinating story, though younger readers of the graphic narrative may be jarred by the contrast between the illustrated first half and the academic second half.

An educational hybrid, with vivid illustrations backed by scholarly context.

Kirkus Reviews