Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua (born in Tamburco, 1744; died in Cusco, May 18, 1781) was a pioneering indigenous leader against Spanish rule in South America, and a martyr for Peruvian independence.

With her husband Túpac Amaru II, she led a rebellion against the Spanish and like him, suffered martyrdom of execution by the Spaniards when the revolt failed.

"[2] She has been described as the "celebrated wife of José Gabriel Condorcanqui Momento Maren (Túpac Amaru II)... who played a paramount role in the logistics of the rebel army in Cuzco in 1780 and 1781.

Her marriage certificate listed her parents as both being "Spaniards" (españoles), but there was considerable fluidity in the system of racial classification, and such a designation may have been a "sign of respectability.

"[7] On May 25, 1760, before her sixteenth birthday, Micaela married José Gabriel Condorcanqui, who later used the name Túpac Amaru II, in the church of Our Lady of Purification in the city of Surimana.

José Gabriel was a young mixed-race descendant of an important figure in Peruvian history, of the Inca Tupac Amaru I, executed by the Spanish in 1572.

As a regional trader over an extensive network, with 350 mules to carry trade-goods, he was in an excellent position to forge relationships with those he traded with and gather information about local conditions and concerns.

He came up with strategies and official applications to the authorities of Tinta Cusco and Lima so that indigenous people were freed from obligatory work in the mines and exonerated from compliance with forced labor.

An important series of letters in Spanish exchanged between them during the early period of the rebellion include endearments and pet names for each other, as well as concerns about the other's safety.

In a joint attack against the Spaniards, she encouraged Amaru to march on Cuzco quickly in order to surprise them and take advantage of their weakened city guard.

The Spanish attempted to use a hand-cranked garrote on her that had been designed for the occasion and first used on fellow rebel Tomasa Tito Condemayta, but because her neck was so slender she was instead strangled with a rope.

She implemented an efficient communications system, organizing a chasquis service on horseback that quickly carried information from one point to another in the rebel territory.

[14][15] A true legion of Andean fighters, [Quechuas] and Aymara worked together with Micaela in the uprising, carried out strategies and gave support to the troops.

Her goal was not only to let free her people from Spanish exploitation, but also to reestablish the role of indigenous women with their participation in social life and politics,[16] a tradition that the colonial system tried to abolish by making them victims of all kinds of abuses.

"The female involvement shocked the Spanish authorities because they were unable to bring up the customary gendered legal argument, which focused on the fragility and lack of education of women.

"[22] Micaela Bastidas fought against gender standards established by colonialism as a wife, a woman, and a member of an indigenous people who had been subjugated.