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The Enduring Power of Patronage in Peruvian Elections: Quispicanchis, 1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2015

Natalia Sobrevilla Perea*
Affiliation:
University of KentCanterbury, United Kingdom

Extract

Political patronage was at the very basis of society's functioning in nineteenth-century Latin America, yet we still know very little about its inner dynamics. Recent analyses of national politics have questioned the idea that Latin American elections were restrictive and fraudulent, or that there was no effective citizenship. These studies have widened the understanding of political participation, and have argued persuasively for the agency of those who had been previously reduced to the background. Leading scholars have stressed the importance of early widespread suffrage and electoral mobilization in Latin America, noting that detailed analysis of local power struggles promise to reveal the dynamics of social structures and electoral politics. This new literature has also firmly established that in Latin America the process through which this happened was not linear, as generous voting rights were often restricted over time.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2010

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References

Research was funded by the University of London and was made possible thanks to the generosity of Ada Arricta and Marta Solano at the Instituto Riva Agüero in Lima and the staff of the Archivo Regional del Cuzco. A previous version was presented in LASA Puerto Rico, March 2006 as “Las Elecciones a la diputación de Quispicanchis en 1860.” I am grateful to Eduardo Posada-Carbó, Iñigo García-Bryce and the two anonymous reviewers of The Americas for their comments, as well as to Richard Warren for his help editing the final manuscript. I am particularly indebted to Vincent Peloso for his unwavering support. His insights have greatly improved this work. All shortcomings remain my own.

1. For an excellent review of historiography on elections see Irurozqui, Marta, “La Ciudadanía en debate en América Latina. Discusiones historiográficas y una propuesta teórica sobre el valor público de la infracción electoral,Documento de Trabajo 139 (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruano, 2004), p. 15.Google Scholar See also the comparative studies by Annino, Antonio, Historia de las elecciones en Iberoamérica, siglo XIX (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1995),Google Scholar Malamud, Carlos, Elecciones y partidos políticos en América Latina y la Península Ibérica, 1830-1930, (Madrid: MAPFRE, 1995),Google Scholar and Carbó, Eduardo Posada, Elections before Democracy: Tíje History of Elections in Europe and Latin America (London: MacMillan, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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4. Ibid., p. 28.

5. For him as a historian, see Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, “Soldier and Scribe: Manuel de Mendiburu and Biography” paper presented at the workshop, “Writing the Republic: Historical Writing in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America,” University of Warwick, 7 November 2008.

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10. For slaves voting see Barriga, y Alvarez, , El Perú y los gobiernos del General Echenique y de la revolución por Tim-oleón (Lima: Imp. Monterola, 1855), p. 69;Google Scholar Fuentes, Manuel Atanasio, Aletazos del murciélago (Paris: Imp. Laine y Havard, 1866), p. 8;Google Scholar and Monsalve, , “Del sufragio a la sociedad civil: Pánicos morales, utopías liberales y las campañas electorales limeñas de 1850 a 1858,” in Drinot, Paulo and Garofalo, Leo, eds. Más allá de la dominación y la resistencia (Lima: IEP, 2005), pp. 215-237.Google Scholar

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13. During the many years of their political and military careers, Castilla and San Román were as often enemies as they were friends.

14. The parliamentary debates are reproduced in Convención Nacional de 1855-1856. Actas Oficiales y Extractos de las Sesiones en que fue discutida la Constitución de 1860 (Lima: Empresa Tipográfica “Unión,” 1911 ).

15. Por details on constitutional change see Gálvez, José, “La Contención Nacional y la Constitución de 1856” in Pensamiento Constitucional (Lima), no. 6, 1999, p. 657.Google Scholar

16. Ibid.

17. Letter from Ramón Castilla to José Sebastián de Goyeneche, Lima, 13 October 1856 in Archivo Castilla, vol. V (Lima: Instituto Libertador Ramón Castilla, 1966), p. 162.

18. “Acta de Protesta,” Arequipa, 30 April 1855, signed by Manuel Arredondo Barreda, rector of the University and its corporation followed by 10,000 signatures, published in El Católico, Lima, 12 May 1855.

19. Acta de la Revolución de Arequipa 31 Octubre 1856, El Registro Oficial del Departamento, no. 21, Cuzco, 8 November 1856, p. 59.

20. Details on this uprising can be found in Sánchez, Hipólito, Veneer o Morir (Arequipa, no editorial: 1857).Google Scholar

21. More on the closing of the Convention in Basadre, , Historia de la República, tomo III, pp. 1142-1150.Google Scholar

22. Letter from Ramón Castilla to Manuel Ortiz de Cevallos, Sacacha, 20 November 1857 in Archivo Castilla, vol. VI, p. 129.

23. de San Román, Miguel, de Zevallos, Manuel Ortiz, Morales, Manuel y Cano, Luciano María, “Mensaje del Consejo de Ministros al Congreso Extraordinario de 1858İn Mensajes de los Presidentes del Perú (Lima: Imprenta Gil, 1941), p. 321.Google Scholar

24. This total includes the 94 deputies that were ‘owners’, the 68 substitutes and the 50 senators, see Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo y sus Representantes 1822-2000 (Lima: Congreso de la República, 1998), pp. 355-359, 678, 688. Under the electoral regulations of 1855 and 1857 the representatives were elected and 50 were selected at random to be Senators after Congress was installed, see Chiaramonti, , Ciudadanía y Representación, p. 310.Google Scholar

25. For more details on this Congress see Basadre, , Historia de la República, vol. 3, pp. 1153-1163.Google Scholar

26. Ibid.

27. La Zamacueca Política, no. 26, Lima, 20 April 1859.

28. Capitals from the original, La Opinión en Triunfo, periódico político y popular, no. 2, Cuzco, 9 July 1859.

29. Castilla, RamónDecreto de 11 de Julio de 1859, Convocando a elecciones para Congreso y poniendo fin al existente,” in Documentos Relativos al Decreto de 11 de Julio de 1859 (Lima: Imprenta del El Comercio, 1859), pp. 1112.Google Scholar

30. La Zamacueca Política, no. 47, Lima, 13 July 1859.

31. Letter from Juan Manuel del Mar to Manuel Ortiz de Zevallos, Lima, 11 July 1859, Archivo Castilla, vol. VIII, 1974, pp. 148, 149.

32. Mcndiburu’s biographical information can be found in his manuscript Memoirs in the Archivo Histórico del Instituto Riva Agüero.

33. For more derails of the economic policies implemented during the Echeniquc administration, see Pcrea, Natalia Sobrevilla, “Entre el Contrato Gibbs y el Contrato Grace: la participación británica en la economía peruana (1842–1890),Histórica, Lima, vol. 27, no. 2, December 2003.Google Scholar On the revolution see, “El proyecto Liberal, la Revolución de 1854 y la Convención de 1855,” in McEvoy, Carmen ed., La Experiencia Burguesa Peruana (Madrid, Frankfurt: Vcu-vert Verlag, Iberoamericana, 2004).Google Scholar For the consolidation see Quiroz, Alfonso, La deuda defraudada, consolidación de 1850y dominio econòmico en el Perú (Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 1987).Google Scholar

34. Mücke, Ulrick, “Elections and Political Participation in Nineteenth-Century Peru: The 1871-1872 Presidential Campaign,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 33:2 (May 2001), pp. 311-346, esp. p. 318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35. Forment, Carlos, Democracy in Latin America, 1760-1900, Volumen 1 Civic setywod and Public Life in Mexico and Peru (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).Google Scholar

36. The only times when he was not a member of Congress were 1855, 1849, and 1839. There is no reference to Mar’s experience as a legislator in any of Mcndiburu’s letters, but information appears in Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, pp. 348, 352, 358, 362.

37. See Guía de Forasteros, 1849.

38. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, LI September 1859, Colección Mendiburu Archivo Histórico del Instituto Riva Agüero (CMAHIRA) 129-2.

39. Ibid.

40. Gervacio Mercado had represented Canchis in Congress in 1853, Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 352.

41. Justo Mar was the representative for Canas İn 1855 and for Anta in 1860, Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, pp. 136, 362.

42. The networks described by Zavala are very similar to those studied by Boìssevain, Jeremy in Friends of Friends: Networks, Manipulators and Coalitions (Oxford: Blackwell,1974).Google Scholar

43. A review of the most important tax payers in Quispicanchis for the years there arc records 1845 and 1865 reveals that the only landowners were Farfán and Jara. Archivo Regional del Cuzco (ARC) Extracto de la Matricula de Predios Rústicos de la Provincia de Qttispicanchis actuado por el sub-prefecto Dn. Francisco Hermosillo y su apoderado fiscal D.D. Ángel ligarte. Semestre de Navidad 1845 and Padroncino de predios rústicos que empiezan a regir desde el semestre de San Juan inclusive del presente año de 1865, Provincia de Qttispicanchis.

44. Letter from Miguel Zavala, CMAHIRA 129-2, fis. 2, 3. Although no letters from any of these men survives, the Prefect made several references to them.

45. In the notary records of Juan Chacón y García held at the ARC a contract signed 1858 shows that Mariano Chacón y Becerra had this post and that he was involved in selling of church land following the decree of February 1856. In this contract it is noted that land, such as the one in this deed could be sold with no public auction or governmental license as long as it was valued under 300 pesos.

46. From these the only one who was a landowner in Quispicanchis was Ramón Nadal, who in 1845 had been the collector of the Indian head tax in Quispicanchis, see Extracto de la matricula de Indígenas de la Provincia de Qttispicanchis actuada por su Sub-prefecto Dn. Francisco Hermosilla y Apoderado Fiscal Dr. Dn. Angel Ugarte, Navidad 1845, f1. 143a, in ARC. ValcarcePs family owned mills in this cereal producing valley see Padroncillo de predios rústicos.

47. Utter from Juan Manuel del Mar, Lima, 24 August 1859, CMAHIRA 190-6.

48. The emphasis is from the original. Letter from Miguel Zavala, 11 September 1859, CMAHIRA 129-2, fl. 3.

49. Barrionuevo was elected and confirmed as the deputy for Chumbivilcas, the underlining is from the original, Ibid.

50. Ibid., fl. 4.

51. Letter from Juan Manuel del Mar, Lima, no date but due to the context it must have been written in 1859, CMAHIRA 190-214.

52. Ibid.

53. Letter from Francisco Garmendia, Cuzco 11 September 1859, CMAHIRA 22-1.

54. The information on Garmendia can be found in the ARC, the papers of the Consejo Provincial del Cuzco 1860-1867, a document that shows he rented large houses in the city of Cuzco where schools functioned. The Padroncillo de predios rústicos shows him as the owner of the hacienda Lucre, later the locale of an important textile factory.

55. For his queries on the Indian vote see Chiaramonti, “A propósito del Debate Herrera-Gátvcz.,” p. 326.

56. Oliva, Roberto Cáceres, “Los Prefectos del Cuzco siglo XIX,Revista del Archivo Histórico del Cuzco, No. 15, (2000), pp. 121-128,Google Scholar has a complete list of all the Prefects, and the Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 356, has him as a Deputy in 1858-1859. By the 1870s he had become a prominent supporter of Pardo. Carmen, Mc Evoy, “Estampillas y Votos: El rol del correo político en una campaña electoral decimonónica,” Histórica (1994), vol. XVIII, no. 1, p. 116.

57. Utter from Francisco Garmendia, Cuzco, 11 September 1859, CMAHIRA 22-1.

58. For his career in Parliament see Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, pp. 337, 356. For his stance on Indigenous voting see Chiaramonti, Ciudadanía y representación, p. 313.

59. Letter from José Enrique Gamboa, Cuzco, 25 September 1859, CMAHIRA 5-1.

60. Jose Astete was a landowner in Quispicanchis ARC Padroncillo de predios rústicos for 1865 and Extracto de la Matricula de Predios Rústicos for 1845. Pedro Astete had been the representative for Quispicanchis in 1849, 1851-1852, and 1853, Barrióme Astete held the post İn the National Convention between 1855-1857 see Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, pp. 135, 341, 347, 351. Bartolomé Astete was the Prefect of Cuzco during two revolutionary conjunctions for six months in 1843, and between 1854 and 1855, both times appointed by General Miguel de San Román see Cáccres Oliva “Los Prefectos del Cuzco siglo XIX,” p. 125.

61. Letter from Zavala, Miguel, 11 September 1859, CMAHIRA 129–2., fi. 3.Google Scholar

62. Letter from Gamboa, José Enrique Cuzco, 25 September 1859, CMAHIRA 5–1.Google Scholar

63. Utter from Gamboa, José Enrique Cuzco, 11 November 1859, CMAHIRA 5–3.Google Scholar

64. Letter from Gamboa, José Enrique, Cuzco, 17 December 1859, CMAHIRA 5–4.Google Scholar

65. Letter from Larrea, José Enrique , Cuzco, 17 September 1859, CMAHIRA 390–1.Google Scholar

66. Oliva, Cáceres, “Los Prefectos del Cuzco,” p. 124.Google Scholar

67. Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 337, Evoy, Me, “Estampillas y Votos,” p. 118,Google Scholar and Muecke, Ulrich, “Elections and Political Participation,” p. 325.Google Scholar

68. Letter from Enrique Gamboa, José, Cuzco, 11 October 1859, CMAHIRA 5–2.Google Scholar

69. Letter from Garmendia, Francisco, Capana, 13 October 1859, CMAHIRA 22–2.Google Scholar

70. Letter from Larrea, Juan José, Cuzco, 11 October 1859, CMAHIRA 390–2.Google Scholar

71. Ibid.

72. Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 356, 685.

73. In 1858, Luna had been the representative for Quispicanchis where he was an important landowner. Letter from Manuel Aurelio Olirmela, Cuzco, 13 October 1859, CMAHIRA 65–1.

74. Letter from Aurelio Orihuela, Manuel, Cuzco, 25 November 1859, CMAHIRA 65–2.Google Scholar

75. Letter from Chacón y Becerra, Mariano , Cuzco, 13 September 1859, CMAHIRA 564–1.Google Scholar

76. Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, for the details of San Roman’s participation in Congress.

77. Very little is known of San Román, who was elected president with the backing of the liberals in 1862 and died in office in 1863. He began his career at independence and was a fixed participant in all the events of the first half of the nineteenth century. He was well known for his ability to recruit men both in Cuzco and Puno and in the 1840s he organized a veteran’s association.

78. Letter from Zavala, Miguel, Cuzco, 27 October 1859, CMAHIRA 129–3.Google Scholar

79. This is how San Román was referred to. See Ibid.

80. This was an irreverent reference to San Roman’s rank of Grand Marshall.

81. Letter from Enrique Gamboa, José, Cuzco, 11 November 1859, CMAHIRA 5–3.Google Scholar

82. For descriptions of violence in elections during this period see Ragas, José, “Cultura política, Representación y Modernidad en el Perú: La campaña electoral de 1850,” Licenciatura Thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2004), and Monsalve, “Del sufragio a la sociedad civil”.Google Scholar

83. Gootenberg, PaulPopulation and Ethnicity in Early Republican Peru: Some Revisions” in Latin American Research Review 26:3 (October 1991), p. 124.Google Scholar

84. For the 1845 numbers see ARC Extracto de la matricula de Indígenas de la Provincia de Qttispicanchis, fl. 141, for the 1876 Census see Chiaramonti, Ciudadanía y representación en el Perú, p. 319.

85. For voting regulations and their changes see Gamboa, Los filtros electorales,” pp. 179261.Google Scholar

86. Actas de Elecciones Provincias de Apurimac, Ayacucho y Cuzco in ACP, also quoted in Chiaramonti, Ciudadanía y representación en el Perú, pp. 318, 319.

87. Letter from Enrique Gamboa, José, Cuzco, 17 December 1859, CMAHIRA 5–4.Google Scholar

88. Letter from Valcarcel, José to Mendiburu, Manuel de Cuzco, 17 December 1859, CMAHIRA 78–1.Google Scholar

89. Letter from Zavala, Miguel, Cuzco, 25 December 1859, CMAHIRA 129–4.Google Scholar

90. Letter from Enrique Gamboa, José, Caüapampa, 17 January 1860, CMAHIRA 5–5.Google Scholar

91. Letter from Chacón y Becerra, Mariano, Cuzco, 26 March 1860, CMAHIRA 564–1.Google Scholar

92. The underlining is from the original, letter from Zavala, Miguel, Cuzco, 25 January 1860, CMAHIRA , 129–5.Google Scholar

93. Letter from Nadal, Ramón, Cuzco, 2 March 1860, CMAHIRA 248–1.Google Scholar

94. Letter from Valcarcel, José, Cuzco 25 January 1860, CMAHIRA 78–2.Google Scholar

95. Gamboa does not appear in the records for 1845, but by 1865 he owned the hacienda Callapacpa valued in 600 pesos. See ARC Padroncillo de predios rústicos 1865, fl. 1.

96. ACP, Actas de Elecciones de las Provincias del Cuzco, not numbered. Santiago Muñiz appears as an important landowner both in the records for 1845 Estracto de la Matricula de Predios Rústicos and those for 1865, see Padroncillo de predios rústicos for 1865, ARC.

97. Letter from Gamboa, Jose Enrique, Cuzco 17 January 1860, CMAHIRA 5–5.Google Scholar

98. For details on Astete see footnote Letter from Gamboa, Jose Enrique Cuzco 17 January 1860, CMAHIRA 5–5.Google Scholar

99. Chiaramonti describes this process and how it became stronger after 1855, Ciudadanía y representación en el Perú, p. 305. See also Vincent Peloso, “Liberals, Electoral Reform, and the Popular Vote İn mid-nincteenth-century Peru,” in Vincent, Peloso and Barbara, Tenenbaum, cds. Liberals, Politics and Power, State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996), p. 202.Google Scholar

100. Letter from José Enrique Gamboa, Cuzco 17 January 1860, CMAHIRA 5-5.

101. Ibid.

102. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, 25 December 1859, CMAHIRA 129-4.

103. Ibid.

104. Letter from José Enrique Gamboa, Cuzco 16 February 1860, CMAHIRA 5–6. Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 362 lists Manuel Luna as the representative for Huancavelica, but the Actas de Elecciones Provincias de ApurimaCy Ayacucho y Cuzco in ACP, show him as the representative for Urubamba, as do the letters of Mendiburu.

105. Letter from Manuel Aurelio Orihuela, Cuzco 25 December 1859, CMAHIRA 65–3.

106. Ibid.

107. Ibid.

108. Letter from Manuel Aurelio Orihuela, Cuzco 11 January 1860, CMAHIRA 65–4.

109. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco 11 February 1860, CMAHIRA 129–6.

110. Ibid.

111. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, 25 Decembre 1859, CMAHIRA 129–4.

112. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, 25 January 1860, CMAHIRA 129–5.

113. Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo, p. 136. When the new voting regulations were discussed in the Convention Mesa voted as the liberal Calvez brothers for an inclusive direct vote for all males. See Convención Nacional de 1855–1856. Actas Oficiales, p. 112. He had also defended the State Council, but advocated representation should be elected by the departments, see Soria Lujan, Daniel, “La defensa política de la Constitución del Perú en el Siglo xix (1839–1855),Revista de estudios históricos-jurídicos 23 (2003), pp. 525545, csp. p. 539.Google Scholar

114. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, 25 January 1860, CMAHIRA 129–5.

115. Letter from Miguel Zavala, Cuzco, 12 June 1860, CMAHIRA 129–9.

116. Letter from Juan José Larrea, Cuzco 11 August 1860, CMAHIRA 390–4.

117. This was the case of Evaristo Gomez Sanchez from Arequipa who from 1829 on had been a member of every Congress, except 1839, 1851, and 1855 as well as vice-president Juan Manuel del Mar who had represented Cuzco since 1832, with only three exceptions. All the information on members of Congress can be found in the Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo.

118. Mariano Loli, Manuel Osores and Jose Nicolas Rebaza Colección Documental: El Poder Legislativo.

119. Letter from Domingo Valle Riestra, Tacna, July 1860, CMAHIRA 82–2.

120. In Trujillo Manuel Amadeo Alzadora worked see CMAHIRA 516-1, from Arequipa he received news from Jose Bustamantc CMAHIRA 589–3, and Zavala sent him an acta with more than 700 signatures CMAHIRA 129–11.

121. Pardo y Aliaga, Felipe Proyecto de Constitución Política con notas y comentarios de José Antonio Lavallc (Lima:Tip Alfaro, 1859)Google Scholar and Bartolomé, Herrera Proyecto de Constitución Política (Lima, no editorial 1860).Google Scholar

122. For details on the electoral debate see Basadre, , Historia de la República, vol. 3, pp. 11671179.Google Scholar

123. Ibid., p. 1167.