This heroine of the Independence of Peru was born in Abancay in 1745, her parents being Manuel Bastidas and Josefa Puyucawa. At the age of 15 she married the cacique José Gabriel Condorcanqui (Túpac Amaru II) with whom she had three sons: Hipólito, Mariano and Fernando.

On 4 November 1780, the date of the uprising of Tupac Amaru, after the arrest of Corregidor Arriaga and his execution, Micaela gathered armies and wrote proclamations.

While Tupac Amaru made his triumphal march in Puno, the military operations in Cuzco were in charge of his wife Micaela Bastidas, who engaged notable neighbours, chieftains and clergymen, carrying out a great proselytising work, organising militias and all kinds of efforts to isolate Cuzco and cut off royalist communications in the capital of the Viceroyalty.

Key to the Peruvian independence movement, she is believed to have been Tupac Amaru's main advisor, along with the Council of Five. She helped her husband in the government of the chiefdoms of Surimana, Pampamarca and Tungasuca.

Tupac Amaru was taken prisoner and condemned to death. On 18 May 1781 he was dismembered. Micaela Bastidas was ordered to be hanged and died that same day in Cusco. Her body was dragged and quartered, just as her husband had been.

The Nation recognises José Gabriel Túpac Amaru and Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua as precursors, heroes and martyrs of the Peruvian Emancipation and pays them tribute of gratitude for their sacrifice.