This is the official report on the judging of submissions to the second national competition that was organized to choose a design for a statue of Túpac Amaru II, the indigenous hero of Peruvian independence, to be erected in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco. The report explains that both entities involved in the decision for the competition—the ruling commission and the Comisión Nacional del Sesquicentenario de la Independencia del Perú—had agreed, by majority vote, that the competition was “void,” because none of the thirteen designs submitted was considered suitable. The report also states that next time “specific criteria will be established for a new competition that will perhaps be open to an international audience, given the importance of Túpac Amaru throughout the Americas.”   

This eloquent report highlights the ongoing frustrations involved in one of the most controversial and eventful Peruvian competitions of the 1970s; the competition was launched three times, and was cancelled on each occasion. The fourth attempt finally succeeded in choosing the design submitted by the sculptor Joaquín Ugarte y Ugarte (1917–84), but his equestrian statue was never installed in the Plaza de Armas, which was deemed by Cuzco residents as too colonial for the subject, and was eventually erected in 1980 in a plaza that was created expressly for the purpose. 

After languishing in the relative obscurity of traditional Peruvian historiography, Túpac Amaru’s image was appropriated by the self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas during its first phase (1968–75), a time when the government was creating pioneering social reforms and exploring the use of icons as symbolic expressions of the regime and its aims. As stipulated by the Decreto Ley 18280, the May 1970 law [see in the ICAA digital archive (unattributed) “Declaran de interés nacional la erección de un monumento a Túpac Amaru en Plaza de Armas, Cuzco” (doc. no. 1139054)], a competition was organized whose ultimate goal was to erect a statue of the indigenous hero of Peruvian independence [on that subject, see (unattributed) “Convocan a concurso: monumento a Túpac Amaru se levantará en el Cuzco” (doc. no. 1053438), and by Juan Mendoza Rodríguez “Examinan proyectos para el monumento a Túpac Amaru en Cuzco” (doc. no. 1139072)] in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco, where he was executed. The law also decreed that a portrait of Túpac Amaru was to be placed in all educational institutions; this led to a simultaneous effort to create a painting contest, but it too was declared void.

[As complementary reading about Túpac Amaru II, see the following articles in the archive: by General EP Felipe de la Barra “¿Cómo fue Túpac Amaru?” (doc. no. 865441); (unattributed) “Convocan a concurso de pintura para perpetuar la imagen plástica del mártir José Gabriel Condorcanqui” (doc. no. 865422); by Alfredo Arrisueño Cornejo “Declaran desierto el Concurso de Pintura ‘Túpac Amaru II’” (doc. no. 865498); (unattributed) “En busca de la imagen arquetípica de Túpac Amaru” (doc. no. 865702); by Daniel Valcárcel “El retrato de Túpac Amaru” (doc. no. 1052165); and by A. O. Z. “Túpac Amaru: ¿verdadero retrato?” (doc. no. 865460)].