Character Catalog

Bartolina Sisa co-commanded with Túpac Katari a 109-day siege of the colonial city of La Paz, mobilizing up to 40,000 Aymara fighters. It stands as one of the largest Indigenous uprisings in the history of colonial America.

Bartolina Sisa built a network of women responsible for supplying troops, gathering intelligence, and relaying messages between the various fronts of the rebellion — a strategically vital role long underestimated by historians.

Following her husband's execution, Bartolina Sisa continued to embody Aymara resistance from her prison cell, refusing to give up information about the insurgent networks despite pressure from Spanish authorities.

The National Federation of Indigenous Peasant Women of Bolivia 'Bartolina Sisa' was founded in her honor, becoming one of the most influential Indigenous women's organizations in Latin America.

September 5th, the date of her execution, was adopted as the International Day of Indigenous Women at the 2nd Congress of CONAIE, establishing Bartolina Sisa as an international reference figure for Indigenous feminism.

The elders of Aymara communities in La Paz have passed down for generations the memory of 'Kurusa Wara' (the Star of the Cross), the nickname given to Bartolina Sisa, who commanded the troops with a wisdom said to have been granted to her by the spirits of the Pachamama.

The witness statements confirm that the said Bartolina, wife of Julián Apaza alias Túpac Catari, exercised effective command over numerous bands of Indigenous insurgents in the hills surrounding the city of La Paz.

Governor Segurola describes in his reports the double threat posed by the insurgent couple: Katari to the north, and 'his wife who governs the Indians of the south,' whose military effectiveness proved formidable throughout the 109-day siege.

The jailli (songs of victory and remembrance) evoke Bartolina as 'the mother who fed the fire of the rebellion,' linking her sacrifice to that of the Pachamama herself.

The Viceroy reports that following the capture and execution of Bartolina Sisa, the female ringleader of the insurgents, the final collapse of the Aymara uprising was expected, as her influence over the native population was considered of the utmost significance.

The presumed birthplace of Bartolina Sisa, in the Aroma Province on the Bolivian Altiplano. This region is where her Aymara community and the networks that would make the uprising possible were deeply rooted.

From these heights overlooking the colonial city of La Paz, Bartolina Sisa commanded her military front during the double siege of 1781. This terrain gave her a decisive tactical advantage over the Spanish defenders below.

It was on this central square of La Paz that Bartolina Sisa was paraded in chains and publicly executed on September 5, 1782. This place of martyrdom has become a site of remembrance for Bolivia's indigenous movements.

The vast Andean plateau surrounding Lake Titicaca formed the cultural and political homeland of the Aymara peoples. Across this immense territory, the insurgents' networks of resistance and communication spread and operated.

It was at Peñas, not far from La Paz, that Túpac Katari was captured and drawn and quartered in November 1781. Bartolina Sisa, still a prisoner, learned of her husband's death before her own execution a few months later.