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September 5th is Indigenous Women's Day, commemorating Bartolina Sisa, an Aymara woman who fought against the Spanish Empire and was publicly and cruelly executed in 1782. The date was established at the Second Meeting of Organizations for the Legitimate Rights of Native Nations to commemorate one of the great Indigenous uprisings against Spanish exploitation. 

On the nights of March 1781, the hilltops surrounding La Paz were lit by bonfires, and the loud, hoarse sound of the Aymara troops' "potutos" (ox horns) dominated. On March 13 of that year, what would become the most significant military event of the indigenous uprisings against Spanish colonialism at the end of the 18th century began: the siege of La Paz, led by Bartolina Sisa and Tupac Katari.

Awakening to the struggle 

With a childhood marked by trade, Bartolina Sisa and her family were able to escape the servitude to which the indigenous population was subjected by feudal lords. Furthermore, through her family's numerous trips to bring and take coca and textiles from the land, Bartolina observed the conditions of submission and harassment in which many Indigenous people lived in the Yungas, Sicasica, and La Paz districts. In 1769, at the age of 19, Sisa formed her own commercial movement and became independent from her parents.

A similar fate befell Julián Apaza, whose nom de guerre was Tupac Katari. Born in Ayoayo and orphaned at an early age, the young man was soon recruited to serve in his town's church and lived for a few years in the rectory. This allowed him to observe the exploitation of the land workers and the plundering of their meager produce. At 17, he was recruited to serve in the mita mines of Oruro, where he remained for two years. There he witnessed the "inhuman treatment meted out by foremen, stewards, and soldiers, with whips, blows, and arquebuses," as Alipio Valencia Vega describes in his book Bartolina Sisa (1978). Upon returning to his community, he learned about the growing trade in coca and local textiles and decided to take up the trade.

With a shared commitment, Sisa and Apaza met at one of the tambos along the trade route and married in 1770. During their trading trips, the couple had contact since the early 1770s with Gabriel Condarkanki ( Tupac Amaru ), a descendant of the Incas born in Tinta; his wife, Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua ; and Tomás Katari and his brothers, from Chayanta. In this way, ten years in advance, they began planning the indigenous uprisings of 1780 and 1781 against Spanish rule, starting in Chayanta, followed by Tinta and, finally, the siege of La Paz.

Women in the Aymara uprisings

Journalist Mariana Ari, in her article « The 'other' women of the Sisa-Katarist rebellion (1781-1782)», states that «in both the Amarista and Sisa-Katarist insurrections, women were not only commanders, generals and soldiers but also creators of ideology, both through their actions and discourse ». Although this surprised the Spanish, the participation of women in the insurrection was in accordance with the foundations of the pre-colonial indigenous family, where men and women were equal in terms of working the land.

During the Aymara uprisings of the early 1780s, Bartolina Sisa commanded and obtained the obedience of her troops alongside her husband, Tupac Katari. She was named viceroy of the Inca and intervened with ideas and advice on the development of the insurrection. When La Paz was besieged in March 1781, in order not to neglect the two main camps, Katari took charge of El Alto, and Sisa of Pamjasi, in a complementary capacity.

Although the Spanish possessed firearms and superior warfare techniques, Katari and Sisa's troops aroused fear not only because they numbered 80,000 combatants, but also because of their outstanding offensive. For this reason, the royalist army resorted to inciting treason within the indigenous troops. Thus, Bartolina Sisa was captured on July 2, 1781.

In prison, the Spanish tried to get Sisa to confess, but instead received one of her most famous statements. When they questioned her about her motivations for rebellion, she replied: "So that, once the white face was extinguished, only the Indians would reign."

On November 10, 1781, Tupac Katari was surprised and captured by the captain of the Savoy Infantry, Mariano Ibáñez, as a result of another betrayal within his troops. Two days later, he was sentenced to a cruel death in the Plaza de Peñas. This news reached Bartolina Sisa, and her own death sentence was declared a year later, on September 5, 1782, by the magistrate Francisco Tadeo Díez de Medina. 

“When the Spanish invaders realized that Indian women were fighting alongside their male counterparts on equal terms ,” writes journalist Mariana Ari and hands were to be nailed to pillories with the corresponding label, and they were to be posted for public censure in the places of Cruz Pata, Alto de San Pedro, and Pampajasi, where she was camped and presided over her seditious meetings.”

In 1983, at the Second Meeting of Organizations and Movements of the Americas, it was decided that every September 5th would be celebrated as the International Day of Indigenous Women in their honor . Bartolina Sisa was perhaps the most famous name among the women who fought in the indigenous uprisings, but by no means the only one. Other notable names included Tomasa Titu Condemayta, Micaela Bastidas Puyucagua , Manuela Condori , Gregoria Apaza , and many other renowned and unsung heroines. September 5th commemorates them and invites us to reflect on the current situation of indigenous women around the world.