Traditions and History

Traditions are important to any culture and are preserved in many different forms. For Peru, a major way of preserving tradition is through the weaving of textiles. Children learn to spin and weave at a young age, usually from their elders. For the design of the textiles, the weaver pulls from community traditions and their own personal experiences to create their own specific design and expresses their own view of the world. In the last decade, the tradition of using natural dyes for the textiles has made a comeback. These dyes are created using recipes and techniques that are learned from elders. The mantas is a specific textile that has lasted through the ages. They are popular because of their diverse utility, from caring babies and other things, protection from the cold, and as decorative shawls.

Textiles do more than pass on tradition through the creation of them, but also pass on the stories that the designs tell. In one textile design, it showed the dismemberment of Tupac Amaru II.

Dismemberment of Tupac Amaru II

Tupac Amaru II was an important figure in Peruvian history. Born as José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Amaru II lived in the province of Cuzco and was a mestizo, half-blooded Peruvian and Spaniard, who later became the Marquis of Oropesa. Because of his lineage, Amaru II was a strong supporter of the Indian cause and used his position to be the voice of the Indian people, who were being exploited in mines and mills. He later led a rebellion which failed after he was betrayed during a surprise attack on the Spanish army. He was sentenced to watch his family executed, his tongue cut out, his limbs bound to horses to be dismembered, and then beheaded. While his rebellion wasn't successful, it inspired the people, giving them a new state of mind.

Another important figure in Peruvian history was Garcilaso de la Vega, who inspired Amaru II with his book Royal Commentaries of the Incas. Vega wrote mainly about his Inca heritage and their history. His book that inspired Amaru II was outlawed by Charles III of Spain in Lima in fear that it will spark rebellion in the native people during Amaru's time.

Since the Spanish conquered Peru, they had been working to assimilate them into their own culture. One way to do this was to send Spanish painters to teach the natives. By teaching the natives to paint like them, the Spanish both assimilated them and also gave them a new medium to convey their stories besides orally or through textiles. Religious art was the main product of the Cuzco School, with warrior angels  and saints as the most common subjects.

Sculpture Painting