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The Fiction and Fact of the Reform: The Case of the Central District of Oaxaca, 1856-1867*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Charles R. Berry
Charles R. Berry*
Affiliation:
University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
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Extract

Through the decades, historians who have dealt with the Mexican Reform either directly or in passing have formulated a series of generalizations which have come to be accepted as giving an accurate analysis of the movement. The tenor of their writings is that insofar as the economic program of the Liberals was concerned, more harm than good was done. According to the historians, the Reformers generally failed in their attempt to restructure the nation into one of small property owners by making available to the people the real estate held formerly by civil and ecclesiastical corporations. The properties disamortized in 1856 and then nationalized or confiscated in 1859 got into the hands of hacendados and land speculators or enriched corrupt politicians and military commanders. Indian communities were despoiled of their communal lands. The Church continued secretly to control a great portion of the property through simulated sales in which devout Catholics opposed to the Reform bought the properties of the Church and held the real estate until times became more settled and the ecclesiastical authorities could reclaim the patrimony. The common man derived little benefit from the forced redistribution of property; rather the wealthy landowners became wealthier. In political terms, the historians have considered the Reform as much more successful because the Liberals emerged victorious after twelve years marked by civil war and foreign intervention in Mexican affairs, and by their triumph broke the power of the conservative forces which would never again control the destiny of the nation. These historians have never offered much in the way of concrete proof to support their widely accepted and often repeated generalizations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , January 1970 , pp. 277 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1970

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Footnotes

*

This study is an outgrowth of research conducted in Mexico in 1965-1966 under an NDEA-Ful-bright-Hays Combined Fellowship. A version was read at the meeting of the Southern Historical Association in New Orleans in 1968. The author also wishes to acknowledge a grant from the Department of History of The University of Texas at Austin for the purpose of using a computer to analyze the property data collected in Oaxaca; and the valuable assistance of Mrs. Karen Jordahl, Austin, Texas, as computer programmer.

References

1 See, e.g., Priestley, Herbert I., The Mexican Nation, A History (New York, 1926), pp. 324–325 Google Scholar; Simpson, Lesley Byrd, Many Mexicos (3rd ed. rev.; Berkeley, 1964), pp. 242–243 Google Scholar; Cámara, Francisco López, La estructura económica y social de México en la época de la Reforma (Mexico City, 1967), pp. 201, 206–210Google Scholar; Parkes, Henry Bamford, A History of Mexico (rev. ed.; Boston, 1950), pp. 234–236 Google Scholar; Herring, Hubert, A History of Latin America from the Beginnings to the Present (3rd ed.; New York, 1968), p. 315 Google Scholar; Scholes, Walter V., Mexican Politics During the Juárez Regime, 1855–1872 (Columbia, Mo., 1957), p. 16 Google Scholar; Phipps, Helen, Some Aspects of the Agrarian Question in Mexico: A Historical Study (Austin, 1925), pp. 80, 86, 91–92.Google Scholar

2 Decree of March 23, 1858, Colección de leyes y decretos del estado libre de Oaxaca (26 vols, in 22; Oaxaca, 1 85 1–1909), II, 389–441. The population statistics are only estimates, based on a variety of sources, including Portillo, Andrés, Oaxaca en el centenario de la independencia nacional & (Oaxaca, 1910), p. 145 Google Scholar; Murguía, José María y Galardi, , Extracto general que abraza la estadística toda en su 1a y 2a parte del estado de Guaxaca & (2 vols.; ms. in the Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin), 1, 20 Google Scholar; María García, General José, “Apéndice’ to Murguía y Galardi’s “Estadística antigua y moderna de la provincia & de Guajaca,” Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadística, 7 (1859), 273 Google Scholar; Maillefert, Eugenio, comp., Directorio del comercio del Imperio Mexicano para el año de 1867 & (Mexico City, [1867]), p. 40 Google Scholar; Libro de Tesorería Municipal, 1 859 a 1867, Tomo VIII, expediente: Curiosas Noticias del Año de 1 865, “Censo de la Capital en 1865,” no pagination, in Archivo Municipal de Oaxaca.

3 Tabulations made from Portillo, Oaxaca en el centenario, passim.

4 The newspapers are La Democracia, 1856–1859; El Constituyente, 1859; La Victoria, 1860–1864, 1867–1868. Approximately 75% of the libros de protocolos, or notary records, of the period 1 856-1867, survive in the Archivo de Notarias, Oaxaca City. There are 34 volumes pertaining to the Central District and surrounding territory.

5 Oaxaca, Archivo del Estado, Ramo de Asuntos Varios, Carpeta negra, 1865, registro no. 725: “Xococotlán.—Adjudicación de terrenos.—1 863.”

6 Oaxaca, Archivo de Notarías, Protocolo del Escribano Felipe Sandoval, Año de 1856, hojas 158–170; 345 vuelta, 361–377; Año de 1862, bojas 96–97, 98–100; Protocolo del Escribano Ambrosio Ocampo, Años de 1855–56–57, hojas 292–295.

7 The remoteness of many of the Etla villages from Oaxaca City, the political center of the state, may account for the fact that a greater percentage of the Indian communities of Etla held land than did the pueblos of the Central District. That is, the Etla lands had been less accessible to the political authorities in previous decades and therefore remained in the possession of the Indians.

8 For specifics, see Balanza mercantil del departamento de Oaxaca correspondiente al año de 1843 (Oaxaca, 1844), passim; and the various memorias, or annual reports, of the state governors (Benito Juárez, Ramón Cajiga, Miguel Castro, Félix Díaz, José María Díaz Ordaz), 1 848–1873. López Cámara, op. cit., has determined that this depression touched all of Mexico, some areas more so than others.

9 Memoria que el gobernador del estado [José María Díaz Ordaz) presenta al primer congreso consti¬tucional de Oaxaca en sus sesiones ordinarias de 1858 (Oaxaca, 1858), p. 20 and document no. 13.

10 Ramón Fernández del Campo, Sitio de Oaxaca por el ejército francés (1864–1865). Ms. in the Biblioteca de la Universidad “Benito Juárez” de Oaxaca, Oaxaca City.

11 Iturribarria, Jorge Fernando, Historia de Oaxaca (4 vols.; Oaxaca, 1933–1956), 2: 1855 a 1861, 54, 62–63.Google Scholar

12 Scholes, op. cit., p. 16, fn. 3 2.

13 Of necessity, the foregoing breakdowns according to sex, nationality, and profession or occupation do not always reflect accurately the total number of persons involved. This is true in those cases where one person served in several capacities or held various positions. As an example, a lawyer who taught at the Institute may have held appointment as a judge, served as regidor and sindic in the ayuntamiento, acted as jefe político of one of the state–s districts, been elected to the state legislature and later to the national congress.

14 This man was Joaquín Vasconcelos, a wealthy landowner with some commercial interests, who was a direct ancestor, only a generation removed, of the famous Mexican educator, José Vasconcelos.

l5 Circular of January 1, 1864, signed by Ballesteros, José María, in Colección de leyes y decretos, 4, 47–49.Google Scholar

16 Gracida, Manuel Martínez Efemérides oaxaqucñas, 1853–1892 (2 vols.; Mexico City, 1892), 1, 244.Google Scholar

17 La Victoria, February 24, 1861, p. 1; Archivo de Notarías, Protocolo del Escrabano Felipe Sandoval, Año de 1861, hojas 112, 114–116 vuelta, 118–121.

18 La Victoria, February 24, 1861, p. 1.

19 The author realizes that entering into the argument of the success or failure of the Reform is a matter of whipping dead horses. Nevertheless, given the prevailing and deeply ingrained impressions that the Liberals failed, he thinks that it is necessary at least to broach the question.