This transcript is one of the very few records of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910–77) speaking about intellectual matters, despite the fact that his self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas (1968–75) paid particular attention to its cultural policies. The speech, which Velasco obviously did not write—no president does—might have been written by Carlos Delgado Olivera, one of the main ideological thinkers of the regime. The Museo de la Cultura Peruana was actually never built (it should be noted, however, that the extremely precarious institution that currently bears that name was created in 1946).
A year after the start of the agrarian reform (1969), this was the first official reference to Túpac Amaru II (1738–81)—the Inca chieftain who led the revolution of the Andean people against the Spanish Empire in 1780—as a national hero. This presidential speech was given at the thirty-ninth Congreso Internacional de Americanistas in August 1970. Some people were incensed when the historian Daniel Valcárcel (1911–2007) announced that the indigenous harbinger of Peruvian independence “never wore a hat” as he does in the regime’s official images. Those associated with the government interpreted that (apparently academic) observation as an attack on the regime’s most iconic symbol, and a violent debate ensued.
[As complementary reading about Túpac Amaru II, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: by General EP Felipe de la Barra “¿Cómo fue Túpac Amaru?” (doc. no. 865441); (unattributed) “Convocan a concurso: monumento a Túpac Amaru se levantará en el Cuzco” (doc. no. 1053438); (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)].