Archeologist Carlos Mamani Condori suggests this is because the Aymara tradition may see the passage of time as a continuum rather than in terms of prehistory and history.

[7] Pedro Cieza de León (1518–1554), the Spanish chronicler of Peru, wrote that the Aymara people he met did not know who had built the ancient city.

Charles Stanish writes,[12] Throughout their short reigns, Inca emperors were obligated to make a long pilgrimage to the Island of the Sun and the Island of the Moon to the ruined but ritually powerful city of Tiwanaku, sought to have some of their sons and daughters conceived and born in the lake area (and) offered precious objects to the cold waters.In 1438, Aymara warriors were, be it as mercenaries, volunteers or conscripts, present in the army of the Inca ruler, Pachacuti in the defense of Cusco during the Chanka–Inca War.

[14] Rather than one ethnically homogenous group, the Aymara consisted of sometimes warring clans of differing dialects, traditions and geographic distribution.

[11]: 87 [18] Unlike the many groups of indigenous peoples who lost every vestige of their civilization under Inca rule, the Aymara civilisation survived, at least partially.

[19][11]: 87 In addition to this direct punishment, the Aymara were increasingly subjugated by the building of civil, military, agricultural and religious infrastructure through their lands, removal of their sons to Cusco for education, taxation in the form of relinquishing sacred objects to the Inca.

[20][18] Christopher Colombus set sail from Castile, Spain, in August 1492 CE to find a western sea passage to the spice rich East Indies.

Twenty-nine years later, on 16 November 1532, explorer and conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, travelled south from La Isla Gorgona lured by stories of silver, gold and precious gems.

These grants from Spain gave the encomenderos the right to demand taxes and labour from the indigenous people in return for military protection and religious instruction.

In 1870, David Forbes, Mineralogist and voyager, wrote to the Ethnological Society of London, of his observations in Bolivia and Peru,Whatever may have been the condition of the Aymaras under the Incas, it became infinitely worse after the Spanish conquest; it is all but impossible to convey in words a true picture of the barbarous treatment which they, as well as the neighbouring Indian tribes, experienced at the hands of the Spaniards.

Treated infinitely worse than slaves, they were torn from their homes and families to be driven like cattle either to the Coca plantations and Gold washings in the Yungas, or hot unhealthy valleys to the east of the high Andes (where they rapidly fell victims to a climate altogether unsuited to their constitution), or to the Silver mines of Potosí, Chayanta, Oruro, &c. (where from forced labour, ill-treatment, and insufficient food, they succumbed equally fast, only to be replaced by fresh supplies similarly obtained).

[19] In 1542, the Dominican friar, Bartolomé de las Casas published his testimony of the abuse of the Aymara by the Spanish in his book, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indians.

[24] On 20 November 1542, in response to criticism, King Charles I of Spain issued the New Laws (Ordenanzas de Barcelona or Leyes Nuevas).

To this end, Toledo created provinces and aligned the population with them into new, concentrated settlements called "reductions" (reducciones de indios).

[28]: 88  This involved forced resettlement which caused disruption to aspects of life of the indigenous people such as importance of the extended family clan (allyu), authority of the clan and regional chiefs (curacas), land ownership, farming, language, rituals and sacred life (for example, sacred places known as huacas).

[32] On one hand, some clergy tried to adapt notable aspects of the Aymara people's spiritual life, for example, rituals or seasons of the year, with the liturgy and the liturgical calendar.

[35] Insurrection in the region occurred in an intermittent, semi-organised manner from as early as 1629 CE through to the Peruvian war of Independence (1809 – 1826) when Spanish colonial rule ended.

However, historians Julian Steward in 1946 and Steve Stern in 1987 warn that the history of this era is more complex then the romantic version involving Amaru with intricate and various associations between ethnic groups.

The meaning of colours have been adapted to represent different areas of indigenous culture: red (planet earth); orange (society); yellow (strength and morality); green (economy and ecology); blue (supernatural life); and, violet (self-determination).

A small isolated group of about 1000 people speak these languages in and around the village of Tupe, in Yauyos Province, in the remote highlands southwest of Lima.

[45] Development of the Aymara textile industry has led to expositions of luxury alpaca wool garments, silks, lace and delicately embroidered blouses.

[46] Another innovation drawing on the Aymara colorful aesthetic is buildings designed in a "Neo-Andean" style which has appeared in El Alto.

[48] Plants available to the traditional Aymara for through subsistence agriculture or trade were wild tomato (Solanum huaylasense); lucuma (Pouteria lucuma), a sweet fruit; a small orange fruit of the nightshade family which grows within a green calyx; qamasa and quinoa (Amaranthaceae) of the amaranth family for their seeds and leaves; purple corn (of the flint maize family); maca (Lepidium meyenii) a ginseng or turnip like vegetable; onion (Trichlora); olluco (Ullucus), a root vegetable that looks like a small potato; Yacón, a root vegetable called ground apple and cherimoya (Annona).

[56] See Evangelisation Aymara religion is a syncretic system of faith, bringing indigenous spirituality and Catholicism into close proximity.

Christian feast days which coincide temporally with Aymara spiritual events have associated, or even combined, meaning and ritual.

Human figuries of the Achachilas are found at The Witches' Market (calle de las brujes) in La Paz.

[59] The stillborn llama (sullus), mummified by exposure to the cold, dry conditions of the Altiplano, are sold in all sizes from tiny to near fully formed.

On 23 June 2023, 48 Aymara from the La Paz region were consulted in order to prepare a contribution to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2028 in Dubai (COP28).

[5] In the 1960s, peasant student activists and intellectuals in La Paz, developed a group on the basis of the ideology of Fausto Reinaga (1906 – 1994).

[68] Along Katarist lines, the Movement Towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos or MAS) political party evolved to support coco farmers, mine workers and the urban poor.