Kawsay Ukhunchay Visits the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection at OSU
Gayle Strenge (pictured above on the left) invited us to explore Latin American textiles in the Ohio State Historic Costume and Textiles Collection, including rare Nazca textiles (pictured below).
We were also able to view a storytelling tapestry from Cuzco, Peru up close (see below). This tapestry depicts the rebel leader Tupac Amaru being quartered by four Spanish horses in the main plaza of Cuzco to suppress massive indigenous rebellions against colonial powers in the 16th through 18th centuries. There were three rebel leaders who all suffered the same fate– Tupac Amaru I in 1572 (Cuzco), Tupac Amaru II (Cuzco) and Tupac Katari (La Paz) in 1781. To confirm if it is Tupac Amaru I or II in this tapestry, we would have to do more research. (Amaru and Katari in Quechua and Aymara respectively refer to the mythic anaconda and the myth of Inkarí, the foretelling of the return of the last Inka king to restore proper order to the world).
