The Space of Heroism in the Historic Center of Cuzco

This paper examines the prolonged debates in Lima and Cuzco over how to memorialize the 1781 martyrdom of a transcendental political figure in Peru, José Gabriel Condorcanqui Tupac Amaru II. It took two centuries for a commemorative statue to be erected in Cuzco. Debates about physical memorialization of this precursor of Peruvian independence were complicated by the fact that the agonistic drama to be commemorated had played out in the heart of what was to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities. The monument was finally located in a new plaza at a considerable distance from the actual site - the Plaza de Armas - where the historic event had happened. The debates surrounding the memorialization of Tupac Amaru were based on conflicting opinions about the architectural character of Cuzco's historic Plaza de Armas and how to preserve it, as well as local and national politics and Peru's fraught race relations.