Guy P. C. Thomson

Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: the National Guard, Philharmonic Corps and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847–88

In the archive of the now disbanded jefatura politica of Tetela de Ocampo is an account of the funeral ceremony of the Puebla State deputy and school teacher, Ciudadano Miguel Mendez, only son of General Juan Nepomuceno Mendez, caudillo maximo of the State of Puebla between 1857 and 1884. The Velada Funebre was held in 1888 in the cabecera of Xochiapulco (alias ‘La Villa del Cinco de Mayo’), a municipio of nahuatl speakers on the southern edge of Mexicos Sierra Madre Oriental, adjoining the cereal producing plateaux of San Juan de los Llanos. The ceremony took place in the ‘Netzahualcoyotl’ municipal school room and was organised by the municipalitys Society of Teachers. The description of the elaborately decorated room and baroque ceremony fills several pages

Patriotism, politics, and popular liberalism in nineteenth-century Mexico : Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra

This detailed local study of state formation in nineteenth-century Mexico focuses on the life of Juan Francisco Lucas, the principal Indian leader of the Puebla Sierra between 1854 and 1917. The book illustrates how, over seventy years, the Indian communities of the Puebla Sierra, through the leadership of Lucas, compelled their political leaders to execute the mandates of the liberal state on terms that were locally acceptable. The text also provides a detailed look at the patriotism, politics, and popular liberalism which flourished during this period in Mexican history. This is the first in-depth study to examine the great nineteenth-century divisions between liberals and conservatives and radical and moderate liberals over an extended time period and in a rural, multi-ethnic setting. The text also explores how these divisions reemerged during the Mexican Revolution. The volume shows the rise of Mexican nationalism and what rights and responsibilities it extended to individual Mexicans and independent communities. Through close attention to the political and human geography of the Puebla Sierra, Professor Thomson observes the continuities between the Sierras colonial past and the present, and the interactions between key political individuals and a complex physical environment.

Mid-Nineteenth-Century Modernities in the Hispanic World

Although by the turn of the twentieth century “modernism” (modernismo) had already been adopted by Hispanic writers and philosophers, with “modernization” entering common currency among U.S. social scientists during the 1920s, historians of Latin America have resisted using the terms “modernity” or “modernization” until quite recently.1 Concerned with defining the peculiar and particular experience of early European-native encounters and precocious postcolonial histories, “modernization” and “modernity” have seemed too imprecise and too deferential to classic European or Anglo-American models of development models to be considered useful for understanding the complexity of Latin American history. Instead, historians of Latin America have favored a more selective and empirical vocabulary for describing processes and dichotomies seen as peculiar to the Iberian world: “hispanization,” “luso-tropicalism,” “mestizaje,” “caudillismo,” “civilization and barbarism,” “development and dependency,” “caciquismo,” “apertura populista,” “authoritarianism,” and so forth. Yet it is hard to ignore the wealth of evidence that being and being seen to be “modern,” particularly in emulation of the United States, was what elites in Spanish America had sought since long before political independence.

Garibaldi and the Legacy of the Revolutions of 1848 in Southern Spain

During the spring of 1864, local leaders prepared the mountainous borderlands of Cárdoba, Granada and Málaga for an uprising against the Bourbon regime, to be led by Italian generals, if not by Garibaldi himself. The uprising was aborted once it became clear that the Italians were unwilling to risk a Spanish adventure. Three years earlier 20,000 men from the same region had risen in the revolt behind the Loja blacksmith Rafael Pérez del Alamo. The same towns would join the successful ‘Glorious Revolution’ of September 1868. The article attempts an explanation for this region’s democratic optimism. It focuses on the use made by local Democrat leaders of Carbonari organization and of party newspapers for the spread of political information and news of international affairs, particularly the Italian Risorgimento. Democrat exaltation in eastern Andalucía is placed within a wider analysis of the conspiratorial ties of national Democrat leaders with Progressive Liberals, with the ‘Democratic International’ (Mazzini, Garibaldi etc.), and with Spanish exiles in Portugal.

Narváez’s Return and Queen Isabel’s Visit to Loja in 1862

While the authorities worked to break the hold of the Garibaldinos in Antequera, Narvaez returned to his native Loja from his three-year exile in Paris. The Duke’s presence in Granada’s second city revitalised Catholic institutional life in the region and revived his family’s control of the Council. As Narvaez settled back into provincial domesticity, O’Donnell’s Liberal Union faced mounting problems with the exit from the cabinet of prominent reformists, Spain’s unfortunate involvement in Louis Napoleon’s Mexican adventure, and the revival of the Risorgimento culminating in Garibaldi’s attempted march on Rome. These developments prompted the renewal of Democrat clandestine conspiracy during the summer months of 1862, as we have just seen in Antequera.

‘The Second Loja’: Garibaldi and the Limits of Democracy in Eastern Granada, 1863–1864

This chapter explores the consequences in the borderlands Granada and Malaga of the collapse of O’Donnell’s five-year Liberal Union in February 1863 and the return of the Moderados to power. This reversal in the liberalising trends, if only promised, propelled Progresistas into five years of retraimiento (electoral abstention) where they joined the already proscribed Democrats. This convergence on the Left re-animated Spain’s clandestine and conspiratorial politics and coincided with a renewal of Mazzini’s ‘action’ strategy in Italy. As we have seen, news of events in Italy after 1859 contributed importantly to the democratic exaltation that preceded the Loja Revolution of July 1861. In 1863 and 1864, Democrats and advanced Progresistas again drew upon the analogy of Italy’s regeneration, and the inspiration of leaders such as Garibaldi, in a renewed struggle against ’Bourbon despotism’. The prospect that Garibaldi himself might lead the revolution in Spain on his return from England in May 1864 infused Democrat conspiracy in the region with additional enthusiasm and ‘alegria’.

Ballots, Conspiracies and Insurrection in Málaga and Granada, 1857–1859

The scale of executions in July, followed by the arrest of Democrats in cities throughout Spain and their confinement at Leganes (a mental asylum south of Madrid), lost Narvaez support among ‘Puritanos’ (moderates) in the moderado party. O’Donnell’s project for a Liberal Union regained momentum. On 12 October, Narvaez was dismissed over a disagreement with the Queen regarding her new favourite. With the Duke went intransigent Interior Minister Candido Nocedal. Their replacements, General Joaquin Armero, First Minister and Minister of War, and Manuel Bermudez de Castro, Minister of the Interior, signalled a modest liberalisation. The Royal amnesty in early December confirmed this trend. On 30 June 1858, after two further moderado ministerial crises, O’Donnell was finally invited to form a government. The Liberal Union, envisaged by Canovas since 1854, was finally launched.

The Moderado Restoration and Democrat Conspiracy, 1856–1857

The last months of the Bienio Progresista were marked by dithering in the Cortes over the new constitution, mounting Court and Army intrigue, increasing proscription of political activity and press censorship. The end began in early June with the closure of Barcelona’s progresista clubs by Military Governor, General Juan Zapatero. Espartero’s failure to defend freedom of assembly cost him what little support he still retained among advanced Progresistas and Democrats. With the Cortes suspended for a short summer recess, deserted by the only leader of sufficient notoriety to be able to confront O’Donnell, and no longer with any rights of public association, advanced Progresistas and Democrats returned to the politics of conspiracy.

The Sierra Bética: Conspiratorial Región

The geographical spread of the uprising was confined to towns within a day’s march from Loja where carbonari societies were strong and well organised. First-hand accounts record the presence in Loja in early July 1861 of rebels from 20 towns.1 The Military Commissions in Loja and Malaga then scoured towns, villages, cortijos and caserios throughout the Sierra Betica, the mountainous region running west from Alora to Santa Cruz de Alhama, and from Albunol and Velez-Malaga in the south to Priego, Rute and Montefrio in the north, bringing in men from 43 towns. We have seen how the trials in Loja were obstructed by the resistance of the Society and the protection received by Granada’s political elite. Chapter 8 explores Civil Governor Antonio Guerola’s efforts to break the hold of the ‘Garibaldino’ Society in Antequera, the intended hearth of the revolt, through the judicial process of espontaneamiento (confession to membership of a secret society in exchange for legal immunity). This chapter traces the conspiratorial geography of the broader region (see Map 2). Would the Military Commission in Malaga, combined with Guerola’s own police measures, be a match for the region’s most deeply embedded clandestine associations? What light do the trials and police investigations shed on the penetration of democratic ideas and associations in the smaller towns of the region by 1861?

The Advance of Democracy in Eastern Andalucía, 1860–1861

The abject and tragic failure of Camara’s fifth attempt at insurrection in three years revealed the weakness of clandestine organisation once police got on the scent. The insurrectionary wing of the Democrat party never recovered momentum that it had enjoyed under Camara’s leadership between 1855 and 1859. Yet with the foundation of Italy as a nation state in 1860, Democrats could now appreciate how failed insurrections had been a dynamic factor in the Risorgimento. Hence Sixto Camara’s reputation grew after his death, the newspaper campaign for the return of the martyr’s body to Madrid keeping the myth of insurrection and heroic sacrifice alive. On the local level Democrats in Loja observed how clandestine organisation had contributed to the defeat of Carlos Marfori, Narvaez’s candidate for Loja in 1858. The logic of clandestinity therefore remained while Garibaldi’s exploits in southern Italy showed how Spain’s own national regeneration might be achieved through inspired acts of daring.