Indian Communities and Ayuntamientos in the Mexican Huasteca: Sujeto Revolts,

Pronunciamientos and Caste War

Author(s): Michael T. Ducey
Source: The Americas, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Apr., 2001), pp. 525-550
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1007832
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The Americas
57:4 April 2001, 525-550
Copyrightby the Academy of American
FranciscanHistory

INDIAN COMMUNITIESAND AYUNTAMIENTOS

IN THE MEXICAN HUASTECA:
SUJETOREVOLTS,PRONUNCIAMIENTOSAND
CASTE WAR
M
nation
exico'stransitionfroma colonialsocietyto anindependent
was extremely difficult and civil war seemed to threatenat every
turn duringthe first half of the nineteenthcentury.'Independence
required the creation of a new republican order to replace the colonial
system of corporateidentities and racial domination.The creationof a new
liberal orderbased on individualcitizenship was a contested process where
competing political actors sought to preserve colonial privileges even as
they used the new constitutionalsystem to their advantage.2The indigenous
communities,the majorityof the populationat independence,posed a chal-
lenge to the new society of citizens. The objective of this paperis to explore
the fate of indigenous communitiesunderthe new system and how Indians
manipulatedit in order to survive. The following pages discuss how inde-
pendence affected villagers by first describingwhat the change to a new lib-
eral ordermeant for local town governments.Then using case studies from
the gulf region of Mexico, the paperwill draw connectionsbetween indige-
nous village politics and the pronunciamientosthat frequentlydestabilized
the nationalgovernment.Pronunciamientosin the provinces had a profound
effect that over time tended to create more opportunitiesfor discontented

I Recent years have seen a renewed interest in this period. Some of the nation-widestudies include
Timothy E. Anna, Forging Mexico, 1821-1835 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998);
Michael P. Costeloe, The CentralRepublic in Mexico, 1835-1846: Hombresde bien in the Age of Santa
Anna (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1993); Donald FithianStevens, Origins of Instabilityin
Early RepublicanMexico (Durham:Duke University Press, 1991); TorcuatoS. Di Tella, National Pop-
ular Politics in Early IndependentMexico, 1820-1847, (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press,
1996).
2 This is also the problem that serves as the center of MarkThurner'sstudy of Andean societies in
nineteenthcentury Peru, Mark Thurner,From Two Republics to One Divided: Contradictionsof Post-
colonial Nationmakingin Andean Peru (Durham:Duke University Press, 1997), pp. 16-17 and passim.

525
526 INDIAN COMMUNITIES
AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

villagers to enterpolitics.3Finally,the paperwill discuss how these political

divisions played out in the series of rebellions of the late 1840s known as
"caste war of the Huasteca."

The towns discussed in this study are located near the Gulf of Mexico, in
the regions named after the principal ethnic groups inhabiting them: the
Huasteca and the Totonacapan.4The names are somewhat misleading since
the Huasteca also included Nahua, Otomi and Tepehua speakers. These
communitiesare spreadover a territorythat stretchesfrom the lower ranges
and piedmont of the Sierra Madre Oriental to the waters of the Gulf of
Mexico. The land forms partof the semi-tropicaltierracaliente of the east-
ern lowlands.While these are lowlands, they are not flatlands,nor were they
easily traversed.The rainy season turnedthe coastal plains into impassable
swamps and the complete lack of roads worthy of the name limited the
region's ties to largermarkets.Today the towns studied here are located in
the states of Hidalgo and Veracruz,but before 1853, the lowland region
where many of the events of the "castewar"took place was underthe juris-
diction of the state of Puebla. The state of Hidalgo was carved out of the
state of Mexico in 1869.

One of the legacies of the colonial period was the drastic decline in
Native American population and the slow introductionof non-Indianset-
tlers.5By the end of the colonial period, the native populationwas recover-
ing and a settlementpatternof large haciendas in the relatively flat coastal
plains and native communitiesin the hills had been firmly established.Still,
the leading characteristicof the region was its low population density and
the subsequentshortageof laborers.Laborsupply and the fact thatthe major
marketswere located on the other side of the SierraMadre Orientalmeant

3 PeterGuardino,Peasants, Politics, and the FormationofMexico's National State: Guerrero,1800-

57 (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1996), pp. 95-103, 159-68, has shown how political mobiliza-
tions in Guerrerooften centeredaroundlocal political power and attemptsto restrictthe creationof ayun-
tamientos.
4 The classic geographic study of the region is Angel Bassols Batalla, Santiago RenterifaRomero,
ArturoOrtiz Wadgymar,Remedios HernandezA., Carlos BustamanteLemus and PatriciaSosa F., Las
Huastecas en el desarrollo regional de MWxico,(Mexico City: EditorialTrillas, 1977); Antonio Escobar,
De la costa a la sierra: Las Huastecas 1750-1900 (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S., 1995), pp. 37-93 gives an
overview of the colonial land situation.The best recent work on the historical geography of the region
may be seen in Odile Hoffmann and Emilia Velhzquez,coordinadoras,Las llanuras costeras de Vera-
cruz: La lenta construcci6nde regiones (Xalapa:UniversidadVeracruzana,1994).
5 The early years of Spanish rule in the region was
especially harsh,in partbecause the early gov-
ernmentunder Nufio de Guzman found exporting huastecos as slaves to the Caribbeanwas the fastest
way to get rich. As in all of the tierracaliente, Europeanepidemic diseases had an even more dramatic
impact than in the altiplano.
 MICHAEL T. DUCEY 527

that commercial agricultureconsisted of extensive cattle estates character-

ized by tenantbased productionand little capital investment.In the hills of
the Sierra Madre Oriental (the Sierra Huasteca), there were land conflicts
between indigenous communities and non-Indian estates but the villages
were generally successful in defending their access to land and there were
comparativelyfew privateestates.
Observershave often describedthe status of Mexico's indigenous popu-
lations under the new constitutionalsystem in the darkestterms possible.6
One of the central challenges that the aborigines faced was the loss of the
local governments that controlled the day to day administrationof their
lives. Throughoutthe colonial period, in order to gain the acquiescence of
their native subjects the Spanish conceded some degree of autonomyto the
Indianpopulationallowing them to form native governments(repablicasde
indios). These were town governmentsconsisting of officers elected by the
native populationand supervisedby districtlevel Spanishofficials and non-
Indianparishpriests.'The repdiblicasmanagedmost of the internalaffairsof
the community collecting tribute taxes, administeringjustice, policing the
ruralpopulation,and regulatingvast economic resourcesof land and labor.8
In exchange for this limited autonomy, the colonial government used the
repdblicasas an instrumentto extract tributeand labor from the colonized
population. Spanish supervisorsheld reptiblicaofficers responsible for the
promptcollection of taxes and the loyalty of the inhabitants.As a result, the
reptiblicade indios was Janus-faced:on the one hand, it was part of the
administrativesystem of New Spain and, on the other,it was one of the few
institutionsstaffedby the Indiansthemselves. Duringthe colonial periodvil-

6 For example, Manuel FerrerMufioz, "Pueblos indigenas en Mexico en el siglo XIX: La igualdad
juridica,iEficaz sustitutodel tutelajetradicional?"in Los pueblos indios y el parteaguas de la indepen-
dencia de Mgxico, ManuelFerrerMufioz,ed. (Mexico City: UniversidadNacionalAut6nomade Mexico,
1999), pp. 96-100; or Rina Ortiz Peralta,"Inexistentespor decreto: disposiciones legislativas sobre los
pueblos de indios en el siglo XIX. El caso de Hidalgo," in Indio, nacidn y comunidaden el Mdxico del
siglo XIX,Antonio EscobarO., ed. (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S, 1994), pp. 160-69.
7 The crown originally conceived of the colony as consisting of Indianruralcommunitiesproducing
a surplusto sustainthe colonial state. Spanishsettlerswere to live in cities where the settlerswould have
their own town councils while Indianskept to the ruralrepdiblicas.As the colony evolved more non-Indi-
ans settled in the countrysideand even in indigenous villages, however, the laws prohibitedthem from
participatingin elections in the governmentof these villages. The law also failed to keep non-Indians
from seeking to influence them indirectly.
8 For a classic descriptionof the history of the reptiblicasee, Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrin, Formas de
gobierno ind(gena (Mexico City: InstitutoNacional Indigenista, 1953); Rodolfo Pastor, Campesinosy
reformas:La Mixteca, 1700-1856 (Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico, 1987). For a discussion of the
formationof repdiblicasin some of the pueblos mentionedin this text see BernardoGarciaMartinez,Los
pueblos de la sierra: El poder y el espacio entre los indios del norte de Puebla hasta 1700 (Mexico City:
Colegio de Mexico, 1987).
528 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

lages were not the egalitarian"closed corporatecommunities"that histori-

ans and anthropologistshad once imagined.9

Conflictswithinthe repdblicasoftenemergedover long standinggeographic

lines. Throughoutthe eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies,conflicts between
the cabeceras(or head towns: the towns where the repdblicagovernmenthad
its seat) and the sujetos (towns subjectto the governmentin the head town)
constantlyemerged.Therewas an ethnicelementto this division as well since
the non-Indianpopulationtendedto settlein the headtowns.'0Priestsandroyal
officials sponsoredcandidatesand as a result "ladino"Indians(hispanicized
Indians)often held key repdblicaposts. In short,the indigenouscommunities
of the late colonialperiodexperiencedexternalpressuresfromSpanishadmin-
istratorsand internaldivisionsbetweenthe economicallyandpoliticallyprivi-
leged and those left out. The earlyMexicanRepublicinheritedthese tensions.

During the nineteenthcentury,the constitutionof Caidiz(1812) replaced

the indigenous semi-autonomousrepdblicaswith ethnicallyblind municipal
governments(known as ayuntamientosin Spanish).Although the constitu-
tion of Caidizestablished a ratherlow minimum populationrequirementof
"one thousand souls" for town councils, in practice they sprang up where
ever pueblos de indios had existed previously."The 1824 federal constitu-
tion that replacedthe system of Caidizleft the organizationof local govern-
ments up to the states which in turn increased the populationrequirement
but permittedconsiderablediscretionto ignore the limit.12The colonial order

9 Pastor, Campesinos,pp. 283-84. I describe inequality in land distributionin Michael T. Ducey,

"LiberalTheory and Peasant Practice:Land and Power in NorthernVeracruz,Mexico, 1826-1900," in
Liberals, the Church,and Indians Peasants: CorporateLands and the Challenge of Reform in Nine-
teenth-CenturySpanish America, Robert H. Jackson, ed. (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico
Press, 1997), p. 71-72; see also Emilio Kourf,"TheBusiness of Land:AgrarianTenureand Enterprisein
Papantla,Mexico, 1800-1910" (HarvardUniversity:Ph.D. thesis, 1996), chs. 4 and 5; FransJ. Schryer,
Ethnicityand Class Conflict in Rural Mexico (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1990), pp. 30-33
and 38-42 discusses twentiethcenturysocial stratificationin some of the towns included in this study.
10 Pastor,Campesinos,pp. 200, 243 describes how the Spanish state had alreadybegun the process
of strippingcommunal goods from the reptiblicasand that there were already strong tensions between
the cabecerasdominatedby ladino-ized Indiansand sujetos in the late eighteenthcentury.For a discus-
sion of the eighteenthcenturyin this region see my article, "Viven sin ley ni rey: Rebeliones coloniales
en Papantla,1760-1790," in Procesos rurales e historia regional (Sierra y costa totonacas de Veracruz,
VictoriaChenaut,ed. (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S., 1996), pp. 15-50.
11 See article 310 of the Constitutionof Cidiz, even then the new regulationsstated that towns with
less than a thousandcould petition their provincial deputationto request one. "Bandodel VirreyVene-
gas en que se publica la Real Ordende 8 de junio con el decreto de 23 de mayo referentea la elecci6n
de ayuntamientos,"in La Constitucirnde 1812 en la Nueva Espaila, Luis Gonzalez Obreg6n,ed., Series
"Publicacionesdel Archivo Generalde la Naci6n," (Mexico City: Tip. GuerreroHnos., 1912), p. 222.
12 The constitutionof the state of Puebla did not establish a minimumnumberof inhabitantsfor an
ayuntamiento,ConstitucidnPolitica del Estado Libre de Puebla, articles 132 and 133. In Veracruzthe
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 529

had strictly limited political rights in the repdblicas (such as voting and
holding office) to "sons of the town"but the new orderextended citizenship
to all residents.In practice,the new ayuntamientosin the largermunicipali-
ties with significant numbersof non-Indianresidentstended to come under
the dominationof mestizos and creoles while the smaller towns with more
homogeneously indigenouspopulationstendedto elect Indiansto municipal
posts. Not all municipalitiescame underthe sway of non-indigenouspoliti-
cians but after independencethe exclusively indigenous membershipof the
local governmentno longer existed.

IN THEMEXICANREPUBLIC
REPlUBLICAS

One of my original motivations for studying post independencemunici-

palities was to understandthe natureof social movementsin the countryside,
particularlythe sources of the numerous regional rebellions that involved
large numbers of communities in the nineteenth century. Historians have
often suggested that when independence eliminated paternalisticcolonial
institutions,such as the reptblica and the IndianTribunal,peasant commu-
nities lost an importantsource of protection.When pueblos de indios ceased
to pay tribute, the government lost its incentive to protect them and land
hungryhacendadosexpandedtheir holdings at the villagers' expense.'3The
abandonmentof colonial paternalismthereforecaused the rebellions of the
nationalperiod. The informationfrom the Huastecaindicates thatthe social
and political conflicts of this period were much more complicatedthanpre-
viously thought. The issue of who was to control the land and labor
resourcesof the "extinguished" was at the centerof local politics
reptblicas
in the new republic.As the paternalistprotectionsof the colonial state faded
away, however, the control of local resources did not immediatelyfall into
the hands of the non-Indianelite.

state constituentcongress emitteda law establishingayuntamientoseven before the stateconstitutionwas

finished raising the populationminimumto two thousand,"Decretondimero43 de 17 de marzo de 1825
Creaci6n de Ayuntamientos",in Colecci6n de Leyes y Decretos de Veracruz,1824-1919, Carmen
Blizquez Dominguez y Ricardo Corzo Ramirez, coordinadores (Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana,
1997), vol. 1, p. 248. (HereafterCLDV Articles 159 and 160 of the Constituci6nPolitica del Estado de
Mixico of 1827 established town councils in communities with at least four thousand inhabitantsbut
included clauses permittingthem in towns that did not meet the populationrequirementwith the consent
of the state congress.
13 One example of this formulationmay be found in BrfgidaVon Mentz, Pueblos de indios, mulatos
y mestizos: 1770-1870. Los campesinosy las transformacionesprotoindustrialesen el poniente de More-
los (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S, 1988), p. 56. The Indian Tribunal,corte de indios, was a special court
designed to enable indigenous villagers to initiate lawsuits without the difficulties associated with the
normalcourts.
530 INDIAN
COMMUNITIES
ANDAYUNTAMIENTOS

The region studiedin this paperproduceda long and popularinsurrection

against the viceregal government during the war of independence. Insur-
gents recruitedfollowers by exploiting the tensions between Spanishadmin-
istratorsand the repdblicasde indios and within the repdblicasthemselves.14
Independence and the new political order that accompanied it failed to
resolve the discontent within the communities and it raised new political
challenges for the indigenouspueblos. The change from colonial repdblicas
de indios to municipalities had several implications: on the one hand, the
constitutional arrangementaddressed some of the dissatisfaction within
Indian communities by increasing the autonomy of local government and
removing the hated local officials who intervened in repdiblicaaffairs. On
the other hand, the new councils replaced the local traditionsof political
access with generalrules set by state governments.The new rules permitted
non-Indiansto have a voice in affairsthathad once been exclusively indige-
nous. Independenceopened the political system while offering the local elite
the possibility to influence native villages. This situationwas indicative of
the fact that the war of independenceitself ended in an ambiguousway. The
ruraldissidents did not triumphover their local enemies, but they were able
to fight them to a standstill.The agreementthat ended the war, the plan de
Iguala, was an attempt to include both the remaining insurgents and the
troops fighting for Spain into a single governing coalition. Significantly
rebels demandedtheirown town councils as a solution to the divisions in the
countryside.'5
Alicia Hernaindezhas documentedthe rapidcreationof municipalitiesin
1813-14 and 1820-21 and Antonio Escobarhas outlined this process in the
Huasteca.'6The works of Hernmindez and Escobar illustrate the divergent

14 For a detailed account of the war of

independencein the region see Michael T. Ducey, "Village,
Nation, and Constitution.InsurgentPolitics in Papantla,Veracruz,1810-21"Hispanic AmericanHistor-
ical Review 79:3 (August 1999), pp. 463-93. See Alicia Hernindez Chavez, La tradicidnrepublicanadel
buen gobierno (Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico and Fondo de CulturaEcon6mica, 1993), pp. 26-7
for a quick discussion of the internaldivisions within the late colonial pueblo.
15 On the plan de Iguala and the role of municipalitiessee Anna, Forging Mexico, pp. 81-83, 88-89.
According to Anna, the municipalgovernmentwas one of the concessions that the conservative leader-
ship of the plan had to make to win followers in the provinces.In the region studiedhere, the war of inde-
pendence ended in a negotiatedtruce that ultimatelyleft many issues of local power undecided.Ducey,
"Village, Nation,"pp. 475-81; Juan Ortiz Escamilla, Guerray gobierno: Los pueblos y la independen-
cia de Mjxico (Mexico City: InstitutoMora, 1997) describes how the war createda push towardsauton-
omy in the pueblos of New Spain.
16 Hernindez, Tradicidn,pp. 33-38. Antonio EscobarOhmstede, "Laconformaci6ny las luchas por
el poder en las Huastecas, 1821-53." Secuencia 36 (nueva 6poca) (1996), pp. 11-14; and by the same
author, "Del gobierno indigena al Ayuntamientoconstitucional en las Huastecas hidalguense y ver-
acruzana, 1780-1853, Mexican Studies/EstudiosMexicanos 12:1 (winter 1996), pp. 13-17. Antonio
Annino, "Cidiz y la revoluci6n territorialde los pueblos mexicanos 1812-1821," in Historia de las
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 531

approachesinherentin the changes in local politics. While Hernandezsug-

gests that the councils offered an opportunityfor greaterpolitical participa-
tion in the new constitutionalframework,Escobar stresses the construction
of a new system to dominatethe ruralpopulationof Mexico. Over time the
new municipalitiestended to benefit local non-indigenouselites who came
to dominatetown offices. This is particularlytrue of the larger municipali-
ties that already had well-established populations of non-Indians.In some
cases, such as the Andradesin Huejutlaor the Ntifiez family in Ozuluama,
creole families were able to controllocal offices for decades at a time. Dom-
ination, however, was not complete and the new non-Indianelites were not
able to establish the level of unquestionedlegitimacy enjoyed by the colo-
nial state. One key issue left undefinedwas who would controlthe resources
of the colonial
reptblicas.
In spite of the fact that colonial Indianinstitutionsdid not have a formal
legal existence, in practice they continued to regulate communal life for
much of the indigenous peasantry.Indigenous villagers remained loyal to
the old and relied on them to organize their political lives. The
reptiblicas
initial objective of integratingthe old colonial identities into a single politi-
cal organism did not become reality in the villages." Non-Indian govern-
ments found that the repdblicas continued to be a necessary intermediary
between the state and the indigenous population.Traditionalforms of gov-
ernmentabandonedthe town halls of the head towns only to re-emerge in
the outlying villages and hamlets. The new order superimposedthe head
town versus subject village split on the new dichotomies of town council
versus repiblica de indios and Indianversus white. The controlof local gov-
ernmentbecame a critical issue that involved questions of race, particularly
in the largermunicipalitieswhere non-Indiansdominatedthe councils.

The Indians' tenacious attachmentto local political traditionscreated a

dual system of authoritywhere the ancient repidblicasde indios survived at
the sub-municipallevel and the representativesof the indigenous villagers
still presentedthemselves as the spokesmen of the "com6n de indigenas."
The colonial titles of gobernador,viejos, pasados, and principalesappearon
the petitions of nineteenthcenturyvillagers. The titles of "pasado"or "gob-
ernadorpasado"were partof the traditionof indigenous governmentwhere

elecciones en Iberoamerica,siglo XIX: De la formaci6n del espacio politico nacional, Antonio Annino,
ed. (Mexico City: Fondo de CulturaEcon6mica, 1995) p. 177 also sees the introductionof the constitu-
tional ayuntamientoas a "conquestof self government"by indigenous pueblos.
17 Thurner,From TwoRepublics to One Divided, p. 18 notes for example thatPeruvian
power hold-
ers essentially sought to suppressIndianidentities, the failure of which allowed "subalterns"to manipu-
late both colonial and nationalidentities.
532 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

the elders made decisions even if they held no official post. Once a man had
held a high post in the repdblica he became a "pasado"with customary
rights to representthe community and intervene in Indian government in
spite of having left office. Throughoutthe nineteenthcentury,Indian offi-
cials continuedto have influence as representativesin dealings with higher
levels of governmentand in controllingcertainresources.

Indian villagers organizedas the comdn de indios hired lawyers and ini-
tiated lawsuits. Significantlythe lawsuits originatedin the sujeto communi-
ties.'"Petitions from the HuastecaHidalguensereveal that the repdblicasde
indios now controlled the indigenous hamlets in the hinterland of each
municipality.Often the leaders of the indigenous repdblicasheld low level
posts within the municipalitiesas justices of the peace and sub-regidores.In
1840, the "justicesof the peace, elders and othernatives of the five towns of
Huazalingo" began a dispute with Huazalingo's municipal government.,9
Other signatories of the documents included Don Martin Leonardo, past
Indian governor, and Don Diego Martin, justice of the peace of Santo
Tomais,the currentalderman,and the "elders of the town of Chiatipan."20
The actors present themselves both as officials holding "constitutional"
posts and as representativesof the "extinguished"repdblica.The repdiblicas
had always served as the point of contact between the indigenous world and
the "superiorgovernment."Now the repdiblicaelders held the posts that
served as the nexus between the hamlets and municipal governments.The
shift to a constitutionalordermerely pushed the repdiblicasout of the head
towns and into the sujetos.

One should not confuse this conservatism with a general rejection of

18 Archivo Judicialde Huejutla,(AJH) 1836 Petitionof Juan

Argdimedoen representaci6ndel comiin
de naturalesde Santa Ursula Huitzilingo [sic]." Individuals with the titles of gobernador,pasados, or
principalesoften signed these documents.The "jueces de paz, viejos y demis principales..."initiateda
petition from the sujetos of Huazalingo in 1840, see petition April 30, 1840, BCEM 1842/91/118/1-5v,
6-8v, 10-11v. See also the petition of "los jueces de paz de las visitas y rancherfasde la comprensi6nde
esta cabecera,el gobernadorde indigenasde la misma por sify a nombredel comdin"February20, 1839,
BCEM 1842/103/118/4.
19 Petition of "los jueces de paz y viejos con los demis naturalesde... Huazalingo,"April 4, 1840,
BCEM 1842/91/118/6. Thomson also finds that sujeto communities retainedthe political apparatusof
Indiancontrol in the mountainsof Puebla. Guy P. C. Thomson, "AgrarianConflict in the Municipality
of Cuetzalin (Sierra de Puebla):The Rise and Fall of 'Pala' Agustin Dieguillo, 1861-1894," Hispanic
AmericanHistorical Review 71:2 (May 1991), pp. 216-17.
20 Petition of "los jueces de paz y viejos con los demis naturales,"Huazalingo,"April 30, 1840,
BCEM 1842/103/118/ f. 6v. For more examples of colonial titles surviving after independence see,
"Poderdel comdinde indigenas de San Felipe," May 20, 1835, AJH 1835 and "Poderque otorgan los
indigenas y el Juez selador de San Miguel, Antonio de San Juan ... a favor de Don Jos6 Maria Avila,"
September30, 1853, AJH 1853, fs. 15-16. Justices of the Peace were the representativesof town gov-
ernmentin the sujeto villages.
 MICHAELT. DUCEY 533

change or an ignoranceof the transformedpolitical order.21At the end of the

independencewar,the villagers had won a partialvictory in terms of greater
political rights and autonomy.They quickly graspedthe utility of constitu-
tional rights in their struggle against the old colonial taxes. In the early
1820s, landlords and officials found that, at first, they could not bend the
new municipalities to their will. According to the former colonial district
official, Jos6 G6mez Escalante,the new constitutionalorderwas undermin-
ing the agriculturaleconomy.
Constitutionalmayorshaveimbuedthe Indianswiththe ideathatsincethey
arenowcitizens,theyarefreeto decidewhetheror nottheywishto go to the
fieldswheretheyareneededevenif theyarepaid... Theyuse freedomonly
so thattheyarenotmadeto work,or give personalserviceswithoutpay,and
even [withpay] they refuse[to work]causingthe destructionof agriculture
forthe lackof laborers.22

G6mez Escalante'scommentsillustratedthe darkerside of colonial paternal-

ism and how the modification of the Indians'political rights constituteda
challenge to the establishedeconomic order.In spite of the new liberalorder,
local officials sought to retainthe colonial labor draft.23
It also points to the
emergenceof local politicos who quickly informedthe Indiansof theirrights.
In an even more remarkablecase, the sujeto towns of Huazalingo sub-
mitted a complaint to the provincial legislature against the alcalde Ignacio
Alarc6n for "failing our sage and adoredconstitution."The villages of Chi-
atipan,Santo Tomais,San Juan,San Pedro and San Agustifnpointed out that
"article338 of our wise constitution"prohibitedthe "old contribution"but
Alarc6n had continued to collect it and whipped villagers who refused to
pay. The villagers, who only signed first names indicating that they were
probablyindigenous, also protestedAlarc6n's demandof "services without
paying even a half real, treatingus like slaves, [and] punishing us with the

21 Powell, for example, once suggested that as late as 1856 Indian

villagers were not aware of the
fact that Mexico had become independent!T. G. Powell, "Los liberales, el campesinadoindigena y los
problemasagrariosdurantela Reforma,"Historia Mexicana 24:1 (1972), p. 658.
22 Subdelegado G6mez Escalante to the diputaci6nprovincial, September23, 1820, Biblioteca del
Congreso del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, (hereafterBCEM) 1820/19/1/lv.
23 G6mez Escalantelaterrevealed that the Indianswere willing to work, but only when paid "triple
the normalwage in this region."BCEM 1820/19/1/2v. Perhapsthis also points to why the rep6blicasur-
vived: the local elite relied on them to mobilize labor for their benefit. The diputaci6ndismissed G6mez
Escalante'srequestto re-establishforced labor "que por ninguinpretexto obligue a los indios a trabajar
contra su voluntad."f. 3v. Guy P. C. Thomson and David G. LaFrance,Patriotism,Politics, and Popu-
lar Liberalismin Nineteenth-CenturyMexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra (Wilming-
ton, Del.: ScholarlyResources Books, 1999), pp. 11-13 describes the continueduse of labor draftsin the
early republicanperiod.
534 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

lash."24The rhetoricof resistanceto slavery was partof standardliberal dis-

course in Mexico and these complaints were a republicancritique of colo-
nial racialcategories.Indigenouspeasantsseized on the promisesof the con-
stitution to protest traditionallabor demands. In the Yucatain,for example,
TerryRugeley has noted that villagers immediatelybegan to use their con-
stitutionalrightsto refuse "Indian"burdenssuch as clerical taxes.25The tran-
sition to the new town councils endowed Indians with rights but it also
raised the question of whether the town councils could use the faculties of
the old rep6blicasystem.

Misantlais one of the few municipalitiesthat conserved most of its town

council minutes for the early republic.Before 1856, the municipalityrecog-
nized the continuedexistence of a "communityof Indians"with elected rep-
resentatives. The com6n de indigenas (the Indians' commons or Indian
community) continuedto hire lawyers and pressed claims against the town
council. One dispute that emerged demonstratesthe evolving relationship
between the two institutions.In 1830, the town council rentedout the cattle
belonging to the VirginMary (the town's patroness)to a mestizo, setting the
numberof cattle to be paid in rent.The Indiansprotestedthe introductionof
cattle close to their fields and demandedthat they be removed. The council
compromisedby offering to impose a one-peso fine for each head of cattle
that wandered into the Indians' fields.26The town council recognized the
continuedexistence of the Indiancommunityand sought to placate it.

Land was anotherarea where Indianinfluence continuedafter the estab-

lishment of independence. The new municipalities did not inherit control
over all of the lands formerlyowned by the colonial repdiblicas.While town
councils controlled land that the repdiblicashad used as rental propertiesin
the colonial period, they did not gain possession of the vast holdings known
as "tierrasde repartimiento."27 In spite of legislation giving municipalities

24 Petition
against the alcalde primeroof Huazalingo,November 7, 1820, BCEM 1820/60/2/7. The
constitutionreferredto is that of Cidiz, which specified that the parliamentmust approve all contribu-
tions in article 338. It does not specifically prohibitany tax. G6mez Escalante suspendedAlarc6n from
his post afterthe legislatureinvestigated.The signatoriesincludedthe regidoresof San Juan,Tlamamala,
Santo Tomaisand San Pedro Huazalingo.Laterthe town council sent a requestfor guidance to the legis-
latureconcerningthe powers alcaldes had over the sujetos.
25 TerryRugeley, Yucatdn'sMaya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War(Austin:Universityof
Texas Press, 1996), pp. 47-8.
26 Archivo Municipalde Misantla(henceforthAMM), "Librode sesiones,"
April 20 1833, f. 24. The
town used the cattle of the virgin to pay for the virgin's feast day celebration.Conflicts between Indian
farmersand non-Indiancattlemencan be found going back to the early colonial period.
27 See for example the case of the town of Meztitlainwhich tried the tax communalland in the 1830s
only to be frustratedby the refusal of Indian villagers to assist the land assessment. Prefect Jose M. de
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 535

power over the administrationof communal lands, town officers proved

unable to intervene in how Indians used their property.This became espe-
cially noticeable when municipalities tried to tax or privatize communal
lands used by villagers.

In the statesof VeracruzandMexico six or eight years elapsedbetweenthe

establishmentof the town governmentsand the promulgationof regulations
spelling out how they were to function.HernandezChaivezhas noted thatthe
state constitutionsfailed to define the municipality'srole, allowing for "usos
y costumbres"to thrive.28This situationadded an element of ambiguity to
local politics whereinthe old repdblicasstaffedby village elders continuedto
exercise authorityand economic power, at the same time thatthe town coun-
cils were formally in charge. It also left an opening for them to claim
repdblicapractices,such as labor service, for themselves.While the big men
in town may have controlledthe new town councils they soon realized that
to tap into the resourcesof the old rep6blicasthey had to reach some sort of
modus vivendi with the representativesof the indigenouscommunities.29

An unambiguouscase of the survival of the repdblicas appearsin 1839

when the residents of the sujetos of Yahualicapresenteda petition against
the local municipal half-real tax. The signatories included "thejustices of
the peace of the visitas and hamlets in Yahualica'sjurisdiction,the governor
of Indiansof the same in theirown name and in the name of the commons,"
who invoked the institutionalmemory of the indigenous community when
they recalled how the tax originated:
In 1823the towncouncilassembledthe Indiancommonswiththe objectof
presentingtheprojectto proportiona taxthatwouldformthemunicipalfund
... saidtax wouldhaveno otheruse butto paythe secretaryof said
(dirbitro)
council,cover the expensesof the secretariat,
andpay the school teachers.
Theycheerfullyresolvedto acceptsaidtax.30
The town had treatedthe indigenouscommunityas a separatecorporatebody
that needed to be consulted before they adoptedthe tax. The villagers now

Ahedos, Meztitlin, Oct. 21, 1837, BCEM 1842/93/118/2. The local tax administratorcomplained that
when he confrontedthe municipalitywith the fact that they had not registeredthe communal land in the
tax roles, the council replied "thatit is not the owner of the immense and precious Vega de Meztitlain."I
discuss the legal control of the lands of the ex-repldblicasin greaterdetail in Ducey, "LiberalTheory,"
pp. 66-73.
28 Hernandez,Tradici6n,p. 38. Also seen in
Rugeley, Yucatdn'sMaya, p. 39.
29 Rugeley notes thatthe new town councils relied on the
reptiblicasto collect taxes, Yucatdn'sMaya,
p. 93.
30 Petition"Losjueces de paz de visitas,"Yahualica,February20, 1839, BCEM 1842/103/118/4. The
tax was similarto the real de comunidadof the colonial period.The tax was a half real head tax.
536 INDIAN COMMUNITIES
AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

pointed out thatthe municipalityhad failed to fulfill its obligationto the vis-
itas since it hadneverpaid theirschoolteachers.They threatenedto cease pro-
viding the tax unless the town paid the teachersin their hamlets and added
that any revenue left be used to supportthe reconstructionof theirchurch.31
The dissidents significantly noted an importantdifference in the way the
municipalityoperatedin the 1820s from the 1830s. While in the 1820s taxa-
tion was imposed with the consent of the "indigenousresidents,"by the late
1830s the town governmentno longer attendedto the interests of its con-
stituents in the remote villages. In short, the Indians sought to revoke the
council's tax or at least redirectit to those expenses they deemed valuable.

In neighboringHuazalingo,a similarprotestagainstpaymentof the half-

real municipal tax occurred within months of the Yahualica petition.32
Impugningthe distributionof resources,the Indians complainedthat while
they paid the tax they did not receive the services they expected. Only teach-
ers in the head town received salaries from the tax funds while the remote
schools remainedvacant.33Town officials requiredthat sujeto village Indi-
ans serve as unpaidmail runnersand imposed fines on Indianchildrenwho
could not attendschool. The Indianseven chargedthat while the head town
received medicine, the municipalitydenied aid to the visitas duringa cholera
epidemic: "Themunicipalitytreatsthe outlying villages as if we were brutes
or negros bozales without humanity."34 In subsequentpetitions the villagers
accused the non-Indianofficials of "usingmunicipalfunds to capitalizetheir
commerce and lend to other white residents."35 Two local officials, Wences-
lao Ugalde and JoaquinVargasraised the ire of the community when they
abused anyone who complained against the head town. The prefect* in

31 It is
interesting to note that the indigenous leaders used the recent order by the state Junta de
Instrucci6n that schools be established "wherever they are judged necessary." BCEM
Ptiblica
1842/103/118/4v.
32 The villagers described themselves as "indigenousjustices of the peace and other principales."
They also protestedthe fines and imprisonmentsufferedby villagers who had failed to pay the tax. "Peti-
tion to the Juntadepartamentalfrom los jueces de paz indigenas y demis principalesde los pueblos de
Husalingo [sic] sujetos a... Yahualica" no date, the paper carries a seal dated 1840-41, BCEM
1842/91/118/1 ff. The prefect's reporton the petition is dated May 3, 1840.
33 Petition to the Juntadepartamentalfrom los jueces de paz indigenas y demaisprincipalesde los
pueblos de Huazalingosujetos a... Yahualica"no date BCEM 1842/91/118/3.
34 Negros bozales was a colonial term used to refer to slaves recently broughtfrom Africa. It also
implied thatthey were not Christian.See petitionBCEM 1842/91/118/3. The secretaryof the council also
slighted the indigenas because he "refusedto give paperto Indiansto write our children while he does
give it to the gente de raz6n."The term used to refer to non-Indianswas the colonial term "gente de
raz6n,"literally people with reason.
35 From the same petition cited above, BCEM 1842/91/118/7v, "hastael difaanda en rehenes algi6n
dinero de los fondos entre unos y otros funcionarios."
* Prefectos and sub-prefectoswere district level officials acting as representativesof the executive
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 537

Meztithinattributedthe political fermentto local non-Indianpoliticians who

were fishing in troubledwaters:CaptainJos6Antonio Lara,a local landlord,
and the parish priest of Yahualica,Don Jos6 Rosalino Del Rosal.36These
cases demonstrateseveral elements repeatedon a granderscale during the
political disordersof the 1830s, 40s, and 50s. In all of these tax conflicts the
divisions thatemerged were both ethnic and territorial.The petitionersorig-
inated from the village hinterlandsand challenged the distributionof power
between their largely Indianhamlets and the more mestizo head towns.

The cases discussed above also suggest that the decade of the 1820s wit-
nessed an opening of the political system during which local communities
explored the new system of constitutionalrights, ethnic equality and town
councils. The number of petitions and conflicts over tax burdens and
resource distributionin the 1830s indicates disillusionmentwith the ethni-
cally neutralmunicipality.The 1830s saw indigenous villagers entrenching
themselves in traditionalforms of governmentin the visita hamlets as they
lost influence in the town councils. In the process, villagers living in the
hamlets had more control and contact with the than they had in
reptiblicas
colonial times. In otherwords, the reptiblicasof the nationalperiodwere not
merely the old colonial institutionsbut I would speculate they were more
sujeto orientedand probablyeven more indigenous than their antecedents.

THESTRUCTURE
OFDISCONTENT:
HEADTOWNS
ANDHAMLETS

The conflicts that emergedfrom within the municipalitiesover the impo-

sition of tax burdensand the distributionof the benefits generatedby taxes
and personal service, solidified along deep divisions in ruralsociety. As in
the colonial period, there were internaldifferences between the head towns
and the sujetos.Therewere new stresses as well since state governmentshad
left the prefects'powers over the local municipalitiesill defined.37As a result

branch of government with powers to supervise local governments. In Veracruzthese officials were
called gefes [sic] de cant6nor gefes de distrito.Laterthe termjefe politico generallyreplacedthese titles
however,for the sake of simplicity,I have used prefectto referto these officials regardlessof time period.
36 Letterof prefect of Meztitlain,Manuel Maria Carmona,January20, 1841, Archivo Hist6rico del
Estadode Mexico (henceforthcited as AHEM) 075.1/149/17/ f. 20, CarmonadescribedDel Rosal as "the
only mover behind the continuous complaintsof the natives of Huazalingo."However an earlierreport
called the petition "justified."January8, 1841, f. 17v.
37 See RamonaFalc6n's explorationof this issue in "Forceand the Searchfor Consent:The Role of
the JefaturasPoliticas of Coahuilain National State Formation,"in EverydayForms of State Formation:
Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modem Mexico Daniel Nugent and Gilbert Joseph, eds.
(Durham:Duke University Press, 1994), p. 119. In the state of Mexico the prefects had the legal author-
ity to intervenein municipalland and tax affairs,Ortiz Peralta,"Inexistentes,"p. 164. The legal codes in
Veracruzgave these officers broad powers of "supervision"over local government. See "Ley para la
organizaci6n,policifay gobierno interiordel estado"in CLDV 1:281-85.
538 INDIANCOMMUNITIESAND AYUNTAMIENTOS

there was often tension between prefects and the municipalities.In 1835, the
national governmentfurtherconfused the division of powers on the local
scene when it raised the minimumof inhabitantsrequiredfor a town to have
an independentmunicipality,therebyabolishing dozens of town councils.

Challenges to the old colonial head towns sometimes accompaniedthe

establishmentof the municipalities.In 1822, the town of Huazalingoexpe-
rienced several disorderswhen a sujeto town, San Francisco,refused to rec-
ognize the municipal government because of a new tax levied to fund
salariesfor the new municipalofficers. The council wrote the provincialleg-
islaturerequestingguidance on whetherthe "six towns where there is only
a regidorshouldrecognize this municipalityor govern themselves."In a fine
example of the ambiguities of the constitutionaltransition,the legislature
approvedthe taxes imposed by the town but postponedany decision on the
relationbetween the new town council and the six sujeto towns pending the
state's constitutionalconvention.38Sujeto towns frequently challenged the
authorityof municipalities to impose taxes, demand labor and dispose of
communityresources.The decade of the twenties was a period when munic-
ipalities sought to define their powers over subject towns and the Indian
population, while the villagers disputed the privileges claimed by district
and head town officials.

Political divisions at the district level help explain how villagers mobi-
lized. In Huazalingo,villagers complainedaboutthe treatmentthey received
at the hands of the district officials in Yahualicaand requesteda change of
jurisdictionto Huejutla,pointing out that the formertown was fartheraway
and much less prosperousthan Huejutla.39The officials in the district seat
dismissed the pleas, stating that FranciscoUgalde, a landownerandjustice
of the peace in Huazalingo,manipulatedthe Indiansinto initiatingthe peti-
tion because he wanted to increase the influence of Huejutlaby having the
seat of the regional court changed.40 "The Indians are just machines mobi-
lized by any upstart'sdesire," complained the authoritiesin district head
town. In spite of this view of Indians as mere political cattle led from one
cause to the next, when Yahualica officials assembled the villagers they

38 "Consultadel
Ayuntamientode Huazalingo a la diputaci6n"BCEM 1822/66/8/2. San Francisco
was also one of the leading centers of dissidents in the colonial period. The disordersof 1822 were said
to have had their origin in 1819 when San Franciscanosparticipatedin a tumultagainst the head town.
39 Letter of Trinidad Rodriguez to the sub-prefect of Huejutla, February 21, 1838, Yahualica,
BCEM/1838/74/89/1-23. The prefectureseat was also often a bone of contention between competing
towns.
40 The Ugalde family later marriedinto the Andrades,who held the post of prefect of Huejutlafor
much of the period.
 T. DUCEY
MICHAEL 539

refused to withdrawtheir petition. In a second petition, the sujeto town per-

sisted in theirrequestand addedcomplaintsthatthe town council was taking
actions against the people promotingthe change.41

Huejutla also experienced internal divisions when, in 1843, the Indian

hamlets of Vinasco, Xuchil, Tetlama, and Santa Cruz petitioned the state
governmentfor tax relief because they did not receive any benefits from the
municipal taxes they paid. Town officials diverted funds for their own use
and they did not send teachers to their communities.42In this case, the
cabecera council respondedto the charges by presentingthe state govern-
ment with accountsof theirexpendituresindicatingthat,while they may not
have diverted the funds to their own pockets, the town council dedicated
almost all its funds to serve the municipal seat. The local governmentspent
its money on cabecera schools and paving their streets.43That the munici-
pality found funds for paving stones but not for hiring teachersin the sujeto
hamlets reveals much about the town council's priorities.In their defense,
the officials pointed out that the municipalitypaid scholarshipsso that fif-
teen sujeto childrencould study in the head town. The sub-prefect,Agustin
Viniegra, complained that the petitions sent to the state government were
merely the result of the agitation of the thirdjustice of the peace, Antonio
Ntiiez, in the visitas of the town." Judge Ntifiez reportedlyused the threat
of a possible rebellion to give emphasis to his complaints.45Viniegra

41 Petition"Losjueces de
paz y viejos con los demaisnaturalesde los cinco pueblos de Huazalingo..."
April 30, 1840, BCEM 1842/91/118/ f. 6-6v.
42 Agustin Viniegra,sub-prefectof Huejutla,November 7, 1843, BCEM 1843/255/128/f. 5.
43 "Avisoal pdiblico"July 5, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/f. 17-18v.The subprefectobservingthe ire of
the protesterstowardsthe paving projectsindicatedthatthey were "enemiesof the comfortand beautifica-
tion of the town."AgustinViniegraSub-Prefectof Huejutla,July 10, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/3v.There
is anotherfamous case of ruralprotestagainst sidewalks in 1914 when Zapatamet Villa at Xochimilco.
Zapatacommented,"Themen who work hardestare those who enjoy sidewalksthe least. Only sidewalks.
And speakingfor myself, when I walk on one of those sidewalks, I startto fall down."While historians
have sometimesinterpretedthis as an exampleof the "rustic"characterof these rebelsandtheirinabilityto
handlemodem society,Zapata'scommentis also a criticismof how modem urbanstatesallocateresources
to projectsthatpeasantssee as irrational.The text of the Xochimilco conferencemay be found in Manuel
Gonzalez Ramirez,ed., Fuentespara la historiade la revoluciknmexicana,(Mexico City: Fondo de Cul-
turaEcon6mica, 1954), vol. 1, p. 115. For some of the standardinterpretersof this text see HectorAguilar
Camin and Lorenzo Meyer, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution:ContemporaryMexican History,
Luis AlbertoFierro,trans.(Austin:Universityof Texas Press, 1993), p. 56, and EnriqueKrauze,Mexico:
Biographyof Power, HankHeifetz, trans.(New York:HarperPerennial,1997), pp. 294-95
44 "As a gift to peace the Juez de Paz of this municipal seat and that of Santa Cruz should be sus-
pended,given that,far from fulfilling theirduties, they abuse the authoritiesand disruptthe harmonythat
has always reigned."Agustin Viniegra,sub-prefectof Huejutla,July 10, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/6.
45 Francisco Sanchez, HuejutlaJuly 6, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/19. The firstjustice of the peace
of Huejutladenied that "public tranquillityhad been disturbed. . . in spite of the efforts of said gentle
men."Agustin Viniegrawrote thatjudge Ntifiez "is himself the one who is disruptingthe peace with his
540 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

remindedhis superiorsthat the insubordinationwas not only a local affair

since the tax protestaffected all revenuecollection and thatincome from the
national "directcontribution"declined along with the municipaltaxes.

Anotherburdendemandedby the head towns was personallabor service,

a tax imposedexclusively on Indianvillagers.46 The municipalitiesof the thir-
ties and forties extensively used this prerogative, formerly belonging to
Indianrep6blicas,to maketheirmunicipalbudgetsgo further.In Huejutla,for
example, the council rebuiltthe parishchurchin 1843 at almost no expense
because "theIndiansof the town seat did the work for free."47As noted in the
1839 petition in Huazalingo,one of the sources of indigenousangerwas the
use of runnersto deliverletterswithoutpaying them.The labordraftwas also
an indicationof how the non-Indiandominatedcouncils sought to keep cer-
tain elements of the old colonial orderintactfor their own benefit.48

Efforts to limit the power and independenceof local governmentaccom-

panied the attempt to establish centralist rule. In 1835, the centralists
replaced elected state governmentswith "departments"ruled by governors
appointedfrom Mexico City. Centralistpolicy raised the minimumpopula-
tion requiredfor the formationof municipalitieswith elected councils and
thus reducingthe numberof local governments.Effectively the new admin-
istrationeliminatedall councils save those in the districtseats where the pre-
fects resided.The new regime saw the municipalitiesas threateningthe con-
centration of authority in Mexico City precisely because local councils
served as the building blocks of pronunciamientosand rebellions. Central-
ists hoped that by eliminating town councils they could limit the ability of
dissidentsto organize.The leading conservativeintellectualand advocateof
centralism, Lucas Alamain, charged that demagogues easily exploited
municipalitiesto gain supportof the common people.49

advice to the residentsof SantaCruz,Nexpan,Tetlamaand Vinazcothat they not pay the municipaltax."
Agustin ViniegraSub-Prefectof Huejutla,July 10, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/2v. Viniegraclaimed to
have seen letters the judge had sent to the other visita towns asking for supportin the lawsuit.
46 Schryer,Ethnicityand Class, pp. 85-86. Notes the extensive use of labordemandsduringthe nine-
teenth century. Thomson and LaFrance,Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism, pp. 12-13 also
notes that demandsagainst labor service mobilized Indianmilitantsin the 1850s and 60s.
47 FranciscoSanchez, HuejutlaJuly 6, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/18v.
48 Thomson and LaFrance,Patriotism,Politics and
Popular Liberalism,notes that when the radical
liberal Nahua leader,JuanFranciscoLucas, served as Jefe Politico, the de raz6n residentsin the town of
Zautlaprotestedbitterlywhen he made them pay a tax that formerlyonly Indianshad supplied,p. 229.
49 Thomson and LaFrance,Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism,describe the conservative
project created by Alamin to eliminate the destabilizing force of municipal politics. Andres Lira
Gonzdlez, "IndianCommunitiesin Mexico City: The Parcialidadesof TenochtitlinandTlatelolco, 1812-
1919" (Ph.D. dissertation,State Universityof New York,Stony Brook, 1981), p. 24; Guardino,Peasants,
pp. 152-53, 160-61 and passim.
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 541

Furthermoreconservatives believed that the municipalities were too

"popular"in nature noting that the social origins of the council members
made them untrustworthy.They complained that many alcaldes did not
speak Spanish and were illiterate.For example, in 1849 the state of Mexico
reporteda lack of qualified citizens to serve on councils in remote towns.
Commenting on this situation, the governor declared that he "would will-
ingly limit municipalities only to district head towns [the seats of prefec-
tures], if it were not for article 159 of the constitution."'5Complaintsabout
the "popular"characteristicsof local officials were a coded way of speaking
aboutethnicity.Conservativessought to restoreethnic boundariesthatchar-
acterized colonial government, where Indian society would be semi-
autonomousbut clearly subordinateto white administrators."5

A final characteristicof the above cases is the frequent appearanceof

political intermediaries.Local officials generallybelieved that these figures
were the masterminds, "m6viles," behind Indian political action. Parish
priests, landowners,and sometimes dissident municipal officials sought to
give voice to peasantdiscontentfor their own objectives. The villagers now
had new routesto express theirdiscontentand one way for politicians on the
outs to "get in" was to give voice to village anger. It built upon a colonial
tradition of political activity where the powerless searched for potential
allies in the elite to press theircauses in exchange for theirloyalty.Whatwas
new in the post independenceperiodwas the large numberof potentialallies
that the fracturedpolitical system producedwho courteddissident Indians.

New intermediariesintroducedthe village to the politics of pronunci-

amiento and regional rebellions as the nineteenthcenturywore on. There is
an emergingconsensus thatpronunciamientoswere more thanmere military
revolts, thatthey involved a politicalprocess thatincorporatedmunicipalities
as political actors.52Organizersof these movements sent theirpolitical plans
to municipal councils throughoutthe Republic searchingfor supportfrom

50 Lic. PascualGonzilez Fuentes,Memoriade los secretarios de relaciones y guerra,justicia, nego-

cios eclesidsticos e instruccidnpublica del gobierno del Estado de Mixico leida a la Honorable Legis-
latura en las sesiones de los dias 1 y 2 de Mayo de 1849 (Toluca:Imprentade J. Quijano, 1849), p. 2.
By 1849, the original state constitutionof 1827 had been restoredafter the centralistinterlude.
51 See for example Thomson and LaFrance,Patriotism,Politics and
Popular Liberalism,pp. 45-46.
52 BarbaraTenenbaum,"'They WentThataway:the Evolution of the Pronunciamiento,1821-1856,"
in Patternsof Contentionin Mexican History,Jaime RodriguezO., ed. (ScholarlyResources Inc., Wilm-
ington: 1992), p. 194; Josefina Vazquez, "PoliticalPlans and CollaborationBetween Civilians and the
Military, 1821-1846," Bulletin of Latin American Research 15:1 (1996), pp. 19-38. See also Guardino,
Peasants, p. 159 who commentson the peasantuse of pronunciamientos.Di Tella,National Popular Pol-
itics, has systematicallydescribedthe role of "popularmobilizers,"p. 73-104, 116-20, 206-12 however
there is an urbanbias to his material.
542 INDIAN COMMUNITIES
AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

"publicopinion."In these communiques,organizersaskedlocal politiciansto

"second"their political objectives. Indeed, one observerin the 1860s wrote
to the French Marshall Bazaine that the cause of the frequent pronunci-
amientosof independentMexico was the abilityof militaryrebels "toencour-
age the illusions and simplicity of one or anothermunicipalitypromising
unrealizablerewards."53Militaryrebels offered to promotethe projectsof the
local townspeople in returnfor support.For example, in an 1832 pronunci-
amientothe militaryrebels of Tampicosent lettersinviting towns throughout
the region to join their rebellion.To attractthe neighboringcoastal town of
Pueblo Viejo they offered to open it to internationaltrade, a project the
town's merchantshad long desired. Town councils and sujeto communities
became sources of supportfor rebellionsas politiciansoffered to addressthe
demands of the local elite and villagers by establishingnew politicaljuris-
dictions, tax relief and increasedautonomy.These revolts were not peasant
movements but they had an impact on villagers for several reasons. They
revealedthe internaldivisions within the local landedand commercialinter-
ests who dominated local offices. Increasingly local politicians turned to
small town Indiansfor support,supplies and even armedmen, giving them
an educationin how to play politics. Villagerslearnedthatthey could topple
local officials with relative ease using armed intimidationand making the
right alliances with regional and nationalpolitical factions.

Locally pronunciamientoswere not merely attemptsto get on the band-

wagon of national political events. As they evolved, politicians used the
revolts to challenge local political arrangements.Pronunciamientosignited
competition between towns and local politicians that lasted into the 1840s.
"Seconding" declarations supported by advocates of pronunciamientos
included articles concerning strictly local issues that individual councils
added to advancetheir own interests.Some communitiesparticipatedin the
rebellions with the hope of changing districtcapitals to allow local authori-
ties more control and autonomy for their own followers. In other cases,
towns challengedprefects with the aim of placing their own favored sons in
the post. This appearsto be partof the motivationbehind the 1833 and 1834
movements in which Jos6 Gregorio Morales was able to mobilize the vil-
lagers of Zacualtipainto back his bid to win the post of sub-prefect.54 The

53 Letter from Constantini to Bazaine, in Genaro Garcia, ed., Documentos para la historia de
MWxico:La intervencidnfrancesa en MWxicosegainel archivo del Mariscal Bazaine (Mexico City: Libr-
erfa de la Viuda de Ch. Bouret, 1906), vol. 18, p. 112.
54 I discuss these pronunciamientos,and others, at length in Ducey, "VillageRiot," 230-245. In the
1833 rebellion, the pronunciadosoverturnedtown councils and replacedthem with the council that had
been voted out the previousyear.Andrade,August 11, 1833, Huejutla,AHEM091 and 091.2/172/4/17-18.
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 543

pronunciamientoof 1834 was also remarkablebecause its level of violence.

The movement also sought to carryout a culturalcounter-revolution,order-
ing the councils to begin each meeting with a mass and thatthe schools teach
the Catholic catechism in each town they occupied.55
The political competitionthateruptedduringthese movements within the
local elite also exacerbatedtensions between sujetos and municipalseats as
in the attemptsby Huazalingoto become independentof the district seat in
1838 via a pronunciamientounder the direction of Wenceslao Ugalde.
Another example comes from Meztitlhn where the town of Chapulhuacan
revolted in favor of GeneralSantaAnna afterthe districtcapital declaredits
loyalty to the government of Bustamantein 1832. The prefect begged for
assistance to put down the revolt since the ChapulhuacanIndians, "people
without civilization or politics," would destroy Meztitlhnotherwise.56
Pronunciamientossought the supportof municipal governmentsin their
search for political legitimacy. Town councils became the unofficial organs
of "publicopinion"from the earliest days of the war of independence.His-
panic legal traditionsaw town councils as the originalorgansof popularsov-
ereignty,so it was quite naturalfor politicians to appealto the councils when
they sought to re-writethe social contract.57The 1830s saw the populariza-
tion of "public opinion." Indigenous villagers found that they too could
express theirdesires in the context of nationalpolitical movementsby influ-
encing municipalinstitutionsthey knew intimately.

CASTE WAR AND LOCAL POLITICS

In 1848-49 a serious insurrectionswept through the Huasteca and the

northernpartof the state of Veracruzwhich contemporariescharacterizedas
a "CasteWar,"a racially motivated, incoherent,and vengeful outburst.'"In

55 TrinidadBallato,juez de paz de Huautla,informe de February22, 1838. On the events associated

with the "plan de Cuernavacaof 1834 see AHEM 091.2/178/4/5-162 which contains extensive reports
from the differentmunicipalitiesof the region.
56 Simultaneouslythere were supportingdeclarationsfrom Xilitla and TamazunchaleIndian towns
that bordered on Huejutla. Included in a letter of Mariano Reyna, Tula, April 26, 1832, AHEM
091.6/183/3/39, 40-41.
57 For a discussion of the role ayuntamientosin Mexican political thoughtsee, Luis Villoro, El pro-
ceso ideoldgico de la revolucidnde independencia(Mexico City: Secretariade Educaci6nPtiblica,1953).
58 The uprisingin the Yucatanalso colored the perceptionsof the Huastecaevents: "theevents in the
Yucatanon a large scale and those of the Huasteca on a small scale, reveal the class of barbaritiesthat
occur in an uprising of Indians.""Guerrade Castas,"El Siglo XIX, July 8, 1848, p. 4. The ministerof
relationsaccused the Huastecarebels of aspiringto the "exterminationof the white race,"May 26, 1848,
AGN Gobernaci6n,vol. 225, exp. 20, f. 60. The rebels made an interestingformal denial of this accusa-
tion see "ImpresoSuelto"Tampico 1 de enero de 1850 found in AGN Gobernaci6nSin secci6n, vol. 383
exp. 13, f. 3.
544 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

the next few pages I would like to presentsome observationsconcerningthe

connections between this social rebellion of the mid-nineteenthcenturyand
the politics of town government.The observations focus on the Huasteca
rebellion of 1848-49 that involved a wide range of pueblos stretchingfrom
the District of Huejutlaand Yahualicato the Gulf of Mexico.

While the so-called caste war originatedin 1845 as an agrarianprotest

against haciendas in the Sierra de Tantima,it soon became clear that the
rebels perceived the structureof local government as the source of their
problems.While at first glance this rebellion might seem to conform to the
agrarian model suggested by John Tutino, the rebellion did not remain
within the coastal lowlands where the tenants on the private estates
demanded land. Even in the lowlands, the movement was centered in the
sujeto communities.The revolt exhibited a strongcurrentof rivalrybetween
visitas and head towns. The movement shifted from attemptingto influence
the courts on land issues to demandingthe right to control the appointment
of local officials. Rebels then set out to punish officials they accused of
accumulatingwealth at the expense of the sujetos. The movement tapped
into local intra-elitedivisions and attractedmore allies from a broadrange
of towns and social classes as the political possibilities of the rebellion
became evident. As a result, the revolt spreadbeyond the area of agrarian
discontent,becoming a region-wide revolt with threateningimplicationsfor
the nationalgovernment.

One of the principalobjectivesof the peasantrebels was to changethe bal-

ance of power within municipalitiesand districtsto favor sujeto communi-
ties. The rebels set forth various complaintsin terms of municipalpolitics.
They overthrewtown councils, carriedout reprisalsagainstmunicipalseats,
and appointeda new district prefect in Tantoyuca.Lucas Vald6z, the rebel
appointee,later claimed that he acceptedthe post only because he sought to
moderaterebel actions. Vald6z saw the cause of the uprisingin "the hatred
thatthe inhabitantsof San Nicohis and the hamletshave for those of Tantima
Realizing thatthe abusesof the municipalauthorities
[the municipalseat].""'59
were the roots of this dangerous situation, the governmentmilitary com-
mandergave direct ordersto the Tantimamayor to accommodatethe rebel
demandsand "stopextortingthe local citizens.""

As the rebellion spread beyond its "agrarian"center in Veracruzto the

59 Manuel B. Trens, Historia de Veracruz,(Mexico City: Editorial La Impresora, 1950), 4:561.

Valdez was "a colored dude"accordingto 4:559.
60 Trens, Historia, 4: 559.
 MICHAEL
T. DUCEY 545

HuastecaHidalguenseand the SierraMadreOriental,the organizingprinci-

ple followed the patternof sujetos against head towns. The key organizers
were often the ever-presentjustices of the peace and subregidoresfrom the
sujeto towns. Rebels consistently"deposedthe legitimateauthoritiesin each
pueblo they occupied"6'and replaced them with individualsto their liking.
When the movement spreadto the HuastecaPotosina it followed the same
pattern.The revolts coincided with the disordersof the Pronunciamientode
la Ciudadela(1847) in Mexico City andthe Americanwar enablingthe insur-
gents to use anti-Americansentimentsto justify their actions against local
officials.62The rebels accusedthe councils of TancanhuitzandTamazunchale
of not defendingthe country.A crowd of "500 Indians"reportedlyexecuted
two Spaniardsand attemptedto kill membersof the districtoffices. Presum-
ably therewere no Americanspresentand the crowd had to settle for the tra-
ditionalpatrioticact of persecutingsome local Spaniards.PoncianoArriaga,
servingas prefect,persuadedthe communitiesto returnto orderbut only after
acceding to their demandsfor new elections and replacingthe sub prefect.63
Arriagasoon advocatedthat the State of Mexico establish "procuradoresde
pobres"to serve as advocatesfor the underclasswho would hopefully direct
peasantenergies into the courtsratherthanarmedrebellion.6

The fact that internalmunicipaltensions emerged as an importantaspect

of the rebellion should not surpriseus. Rebel activity largely came from the
dependenttowns and hamlets of the district.The rebels burnedthe munici-

61 Andrade to the Ministro de relaciones interiores

y exteriores, February11, 1848, AGN Gober-
naci6n vol. 225(1) exp. 20, f. Iv.
62 GovernorManuel G.
Oth6n to Ministrode relaciones interioresy exteriores,September26, 1846,
AGN Gobernaci6nvol. 324, exp. 1, f. 1-3. The Ciudadelaaffair was a revolt in Mexico City led by con-
servative military officers against the Vice PresidentVicente G6mez Farfas'sattemptto seize Church
property in order to pay for the war against the United States. The rebels in the Huasteca potosina
declaredthemselves in favor of G6mez Fariasin the affair.
63 PoncianoArriaga,prefecto de Tancanhuitzto JuanJose Ferrasas,FranciscoPefiay PedroFerrasas
of Tamazunchale,Sept. 14, 1846, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n 324/1/1-6. Arriagacalled on the rebels
to returnto order stating that rebellion was justified only "in times when despots rule." Arriaga later
warned against the returnof the ousted officials on the grounds that it would cause disturbances.f. 8.
Alan Knighthas noted the strongxenophobictendency of Mexican nationalismin the popularclasses in
the nineteenthcentury,"Peasantsinto Patriots:Thoughtson the Making of the Mexican Nation,"Mexi-
can Studies/EstudiosMexicanos 10:1 (1994), p. 141.
64 ManuelRamirezArriaga,Ponciano Arriaga, el desconocido (Mexico City: Sociedad Mexicanade
Geograffa y Estadfstica, 1965), pp. 184-86. Arriaga'srole in the constitutionalconvention of 1856 has
been much commented as an example of social liberalism and a precursorof agrarianism,Jean Meyer,
Problemascampesinosy revueltasagrarias (1821-1910) (Mexico City: Secretariade Educaci6nPiiblica,
1973), pp. 74-80, Jesuis Reyes Heroles, El liberalismo mexicano (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura
Econ6mica, 1974), vol. 3. See Francois-XavierGuerra,Mixico: del antiguo regimen a la Revolucion,
(Mexico City: Fondo de CulturaEcon6mica, 1988), vol. 1, pp. 268-72 for an interestingcounterpoint
from the usual interpretationof Arriaga'sideology.
546 INDIAN COMMUNITIES AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

pal seats of Tantimaand Ozuluamawhile the armytook its reprisalson small

communities like San Nicolis, Rancho Abajo, and Tlacolula.65The army
officers also recognized the role of sujetos in the rebellion by placing their
garrisons in the hamlets of Rancho Abajo, San Lorenzo, and San Ger6n-
imo.66More evidence of the sujeto-head town division emerges from the
town council of Huejutlaand from Andrade'sproposalto rewardthe people
who had remainedloyal duringthe momentof crisis by requestinga tax hol-
iday. The town asked the nationalgovernmentfor tax relief for Huejutla,but
only for the municipalseat. "Wedo not ask that the governmentextend this
favor to all the inhabitantsof the municipality,because although everyone
cooperatedin the re-establishmentof order . .. none have done as much as
those residentsof the head town."67The petition recognized that the munic-
ipal government seats were the center of loyalty to the state and the local
elite duringthe mass uprisingof 1848-49.

Rebel documents refer to the head town of Tantimaas the "pueblo ene-
migo."68The perceptionthat local officials thrivedby the exploitationof the
hamlets inspired rebel actions. Hilario Galvain,one of the leaders in Ver-
acruz, trumpetedhis accomplishmentsto his followers: "the destruction...
of the rural and urbanpropertiesof the most cruel and bloody enemy you
had in the area of Tamiahuawhose wealth he obtained from the sweat of
your brow, the administrationof justice, and other public offices."69 The
lawyer hiredby the rebel communitiesin Veracruz,LucianoVelazquez,also
promisedto topple the influentiallandownersfrom theirpowerfulpositions.
"I swear,"he wrote to his clients in Tancoco, "thatMr. [Ignacio] Franco,
with all his power, will not continue in the future to dispose of the destiny
of the pueblos at his whim."'0Thus the rebels designed their activities
against local officials to readjustthe structureof power in their favor.

65 For the case of

Tlacolula, Manuel FranciscoHerrerato JuanMtgica y Osorio, Huachinango,May
15, 1848, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 170; for RanchoAbajo see Andradeto Ministrode
relaciones interioresy exteriores, June 12, 1848, f. 156; San Lorenzo and San Nicolas see the letters of
rebel leaders, ff. 126-30.
66 JuanManuel Maldonado,Tantoyuca,to the jefe politico de
Tampico,July 24, 1848, AGN Gober-
naci6n Sin Secci6n vol. 357, f. 129
67 BCEM 1849/405/181/6. This documentalso illustrateshow the ayuntamientosof the largertowns
often acted with the cabecera's interest in mind. Andrade also noted that the "vecindario de esta
cabecera"bore the bruntof the operationsagainst the U.S. and the "indigenasinsurrectos."f. 1.
68 Proclamationof Hilario Galvin June 5, 1848, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357 f. 127.
69 AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 127. Galvin
probablyrefers to the alcalde of Tami-
ahua who was also one of the landlordsinvolved in a rent dispute with his tenants.
70 AGN Gobernaci6n,vol. 342, exp. 7, f. 87v. Ignacio Francoowned a considerableamountof land.
Besides the propertiesin the Tamiahuaregion involved in the dispute, he also owned the Hacienda del
Capaderoin Chiconamel (it later became an independentmunicipalityin 1869). AJH, libro de 1852,
 MICHAELT. DUCEY 547

When one observes the participantsin the rebellion, the political nature
of peasantdiscontentbecomes clearer.The leadershipbehind both the land
suits broughtby the villagers againstthe estates and the rebellionitself came
from the sujeto communities.Municipalofficials at the lowest level served
as the organizersof the movement. Towardsthe end of the rebellion, troops
capturedcorrespondenceof the rebels indicatingthat the aldermenandjus-
tices of the peace coordinatedthe activities of the rebels. They used their
positions to call on the sujetos to raise money for Velizquez's legal activi-
ties or to raise troops to storm the towns." The commanderof one of the
government expeditionary forces repressing the revolt, Colonel Juan
Manuel Maldonado,identified all the hamlet alcaldes as "the tyrantswho,
with their consent or by force, pledged their subjects to take up arms.'72
Colonel Maldonado replaced the local sub-regidores and justices of the
peace in the sujeto communities of Pastoria, Naranjal, Puerta Vieja, San
Ger6nimo,Carbajal,La Pitalla, RanchoAbajo and San Lorenzo in an effort
to restore order.73Before the rebellion the prefect of Tampico de Veracruz
blamed the increasing disorders in the region on an excess of municipal
democracy.In the 1846 election the Indianshad won control of the posts of
regidores and sindicos who then spent their energies on supporting
Velizquez's lawsuits.74
These small town functionarieshad gained experience previously as the
local leadership for national political movements and pronunciamientos.
Herrera,one of the leaders from Chicontepec,was well connected to feder-
alist circles and had participatedin a rebellion organizedby the radicalfed-
eralist, Jos6Antonio Mejia, in 1842.75PedroHernandezthe "principalmotor
of the insurrectionin Huautla,"was no strangerto politics, having held the
post of treasurerfor the municipalityand later he participatedin the 1853
movement in favor of forming a new state of the Huasteca.76 According to

f. 5-9 records the sale of the land for 17,000 pesos to a group of twenty three residents.The estate was
furtherdivided into smallerlots in subsequentyears, see AJH libro de 1869, fs. 75, 78-9. The authorities
blamed Velazquezas a "picapleitos"(lawsuit chaser) whose hand was behindevery action of the rebels.
71 See several letters from juez primerode San Nicolas, JuanAntonio Francisco,to teniente de jus-
ticia de RanchoAbajo, May 28, 1848 and June26, 1847, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 126-
126v. See also Ram6n that the juez de paz of Ixcatepec and Pedro del Angel were com-
Ntifiez's report
municatingwith Luciano Velazquezin 1846. AGN Gobernaci6n,vol. 342, exp. 7, f. 70.
72 JuanManuel Maldonado,July 24, 1848, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 129v.
73 JuanManuel Maldonado,July 24, 1848, AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 130.
74 AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n 342/7/71.
75 Joaquin Meade, La Huasteca veracruzana (Mexico City: Editorial Citlaltepetl, 1966). 2:51.
During the rebellion, JuanMeriotegui, still serving as sub prefect, was killed. This was the same Mejia
who involved MarianoOlartein the conspiracy to seize Tampicofor the federalistcause in 1835.
76 AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n 357/164 Andrade,
May 29, 1848; Siglo XIX, July 25, 1869, men-
548 INDIAN COMMUNITIES
AND AYUNTAMIENTOS

prefect Andrade,Hernmindez also aspired to win the post of prefect. In one

of the strangerevents of the rebellion, Hernmindez went to Mexico City in
May 1848 to recruita number of followers to invade the Huasteca.He sup-
posedly had backing from the merchants in Zacualtipain,particularlyone
SaturninoRuiz, to recruitsoldiers for their cause in Mexico City."

The justices of the peace, tenientes de justicia and regidoreswho appear

as organizerswere often Indian, such as Hernmindez, De la Cruz, and Juan
Antonio Francisco. In some cases, the rebel leaders representedthe visible
tip of the colonial reptiblicade indios that continuedto function within the
municipalities, as in Tamazunchalewhere rebels who negotiated with the
governmentin 1847 used titles from the colonial rep6blica.78 The dichotomy
between municipalitiesin the head towns and Indian-dominatedauthorities
in the sujetos served as the organizingprincipleof the regional insurrection.
The villagers merely stretchedtheir ties to incorporateneighboringvillagers
into a popularregion wide initiativeto re-configurehow state power existed
at its most basic level.

Finally the rebellion became a serious political challenge to the national

state because members of the local elite divided over the uprising. Juan
Nepomuceno Llorente,a memberof one of the wealthiest land owning fam-
ilies of Tantoyuca,supportedthe rebellion in its early stages. To Llorente
went the honor of writing the most radicalpolitical plan, in which he called
for the distributionof all privatelands to indigenouscommunities.Ironically
while the indigenous villagers placed their demands in terms of municipal
reform, granting more rights to sujeto hamlets, their elite ally placed it in
terms of Indian land rights.79Antonio Escobar has demonstrated that

tions Hernindez's role in the statehoodmovement. Siglo XIX reportedon his assassinationin what the
paperbelieved was an act of revenge that conservatives (and formerimperialists)from Chicontepechad
organized. Hernindez also adjudicateda large rancho (valued at 3,000 pesos) belonging to the munici-
pality of Huautladuringthe Reforma,AJH libro de 1856, p. 7. As Escobarhas noted, the statehoodambi-
tions of elite families led them to flirt with the insurrectionin its early stages. Escobar,"La conforma-
ci6n," p. 25.
77 AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n 357/166. According to a letter from a resident in Mexico City,
Hernindez was promising his recruits that the parish priest of Molango had 50,000 pesos which the
rebels would take to pay them. While the first reportsstated that Hernindez had recruited200 men in
Mexico, later documentsplaced the numberat 80. AGN Gobernaci6nsin secci6n, 357/ 147.
78 AGN Gobernaci6n324/1/13-15v, mentions the
presence of Indian officials during negotiations
and the continued existence of repdiblicade indios posts. Velazquez addressedhis communiquesto the
indios principales,f. 87v.
79 For a detailed descriptionof the role of Juan Nepomuceno Llorente see "Hijos del pueblo y ciu-
dadanos: Identidadespoliticas entre los rebeldes indios del siglo XIX," chapter in Construccidnde la
legitimidad politica en Mixico: sujetos, discurso y conducta politica en el siglo XIX., Brian Con-
naughton, Carlos Illades, and Sonia Perez Toledo, eds. (Mexico City: UniversidadAut6noma Metro-
 MICHAELT. DUCEY 549

Llorente'sreal interestin the rebellion was to increase his own influence in

the region by controlling the appointmentof local officials. Llorente ulti-
mately abandonedthe rebels and later assisted the government but in the
early stages he stymied the state's response to the uprising, enabling the
rebels to expand their sphere of influence.

The popularpress of the period interpretedthe caste war of the Huasteca

in terms of racial revenge while modernhistorians,Jean Meyer and Leticia
Reina, have attributedit to agrariandiscontent. Finally Escobar,noting the
behaviorof Llorente,has put it into the context of elite political ambitions.80
However if we take the point of view of the participantsinto account we
must conclude that local structuresof politics and their connections to state
and national governmentwere foremost in their considerations.The "caste
warriors"of the Huasteca saw themselves as political participantswho
sought to reorganizelocal politics in orderto survive andprosper.Indeedthe
rebels issued a printedproclamationfrom Tampicodenouncingthe effort of
the press to brandtheir movement as one aimed at race revenge.8'

CONCLUSIONS

The indigenousresponses to political change underthe Mexican republic

were diverse. While villagers retained the old reptblicas de indios as a
means of resistance they also learned new ways of playing the political
game. This feature reveals an importantfact about the new municipality.
Non-Indianelite men may have dominatedthe town councils but to create a
system of effective rule in the hinterlandof each head town, they had to
allow for indigenous traditionsand a certain amount of autonomy.One of
the continuitiesbetween the colonial periodand the nationalperiod seems to
have been that the power of the state was always a negotiated product, a
result of village resistanceand state accommodationto local tradition.

The republicanperiod also opened new fields of action for disenfran-

chised villagers. New political actors served as potential allies for villagers.
Prefects often complainedthat the villagers were easy "prey"for unscrupu-
lous lawyers "picapleitos"and agitators who stirredup villagers for their

politana,El Colegio de Mexico and El Colegio de Michoacin, 2000) and Leticia Reina, Las rebeliones
campesinas en Mixico (1819-1906) (Mexico City: Siglo VeintiunoEditores, 1980), which includes a full
text of Llorente'splan.
80 Escobar,"Conformaci6n,"pp. 24-26; Meyer, Problemas campesinos, p.175.
81 "ImpresoSuelto" Tampico, 1 de enero de 1850, I encounteredthis broadsheetin AGN Gober-
naci6n Sin secci6n, vol. 383 exp. 13, f. 3. See also the letter of the prefect of Tuxpan,Anastacio Maria
Llorente,April 18, 1848, Temapache,AGN Gobernaci6nSin Secci6n, vol. 357, f. 118.
550 AND AYUNTAMIENTOS
INDIANCOMMUNITIES

own ends, but this was also a two way street in which villagers used the
ambitionsof these political middlemento make their demandsheard.

The changes that came with independenceexacerbatedtensions already

existing within the pueblos. Municipalseat-sujetoconflicts had been one of
the constants of eighteenth century New Spain. Ironically the constitution
resolved an old dispute:the sujetos now definitively controlledthe repdblica
de indios but the rep6blica's power was now strictly customary.The new
system added more pressuresto the system by adding even strongerethnic
dimensions to the alreadyexisting cabecera sujeto split.

The abstractidea that the difficult years of independentMexico were due

to the conflict between "colonial traditions"and modem state building is a
truism that becomes understandableonce we consider village society.
Repuiblicaversus municipalitybecame a synonym for the difficult transition
to a modem or liberal definition of the nation. Ultimately the constitutional
rules that sought to erase the colonial traditions failed to do so. In the
process indigenousvillagers at least forced the local elite to make some con-
cessions to the local traditionsof village life.

Universityof Colorado at Denver T. DUCEY

MICHAEL
Denver Colorado