SOLDADOS HISTÓRICOS EN UN PANEL DE ARTE RUPESTRE, PUNO, PERU: LOS CAUDILLOS DEL SIGLO XIX Y EL COMENTARIO POLÍTICO ANDINO

Abstract

The historiography of the late colonial and early republican Andes has traditionally been dominated by the voices and concerns of literate elites of Spanish descent. Hence the records produced by rural Andeans themselves are particularly valuable, including those that did not utilize the written word. This paper describes Pinturas de Japuraya, a rock art painting discovered in 2009 near Tiquillaca in the department of Puno in southern Peru. The main panel portrays a line of marching soldiers, musicians, and officers whose uniforms are unusually detailed, pinning the image to a time frame between 1821 and 1852, and most likely between 1835 and 1842. Later, additional soldiers were scratched into the rock near the original pictograph, and parts of the pictograph were intentionally defaced. This portrayal offers insight into how military forces led by powerful Hispanic warlords were seen through native eyes in the south-central highlands at a historical moment of great turmoil and factionalism.