¹ Recent years have seen a renewed interest in this period. Some of the nation-wide studies include Anna, Timothy E., Forging Mexico, 1821–1835 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998);Google Scholar Costeloe, Michael P., The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835–1846: Hombres de bien in the Age of Santa Anna (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Stevens, Donald Fithian, Origins of Instability in Early Republican Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991);Google Scholar Di Telia, Torcuato S., National Popular Politics in Early Independent Mexico, 1820–1847, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996).Google Scholar

² This is also the problem that serves as the center of Mark Thurner’s study of Andean societies in nineteenth century Peru, Thurner, Mark, From Two Republics to One Divided: Contradictions of Post-colonial Nationmaking in Andean Peru (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), pp. 16–17 and passim.Google Scholar

³ Guardino, Peter, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico’s National State: Guerrero, 1800–57 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 95–103, 159–68,Google Scholar has shown how political mobilizations in Guerrero often centered around local political power and attempts to restrict the creation of ayuntamientos.

⁴ The classic geographic study of the region is Batalla, Angel Bassols, Romero, Santiago Rentería, Wadgymar, Arturo Ortiz, Remedios Hernández, A., Lemus, Carlos Bustamante and Patricia, Sosa F., Las Huastecas en el desarrollo regional de México, (Mexico City: Editorial Trillas, 1977);Google Scholar Escobar, Antonio, De la costa a la sierra: Las Huastecas 1750–1900 (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S., 1995), pp. 37–93 Google Scholar gives an overview of the colonial land situation. The best recent work on the historical geography of the region may be seen in Hoffmann, Odile and Velázquez, Emilia, coordinadoras, Las llanuras costeras de Veracruz: La lenta construcción de regiones (Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1994).Google Scholar

⁵ The early years of Spanish rule in the region was especially harsh, in part because the early government under Nuño de Guzman found exporting huastecos as slaves to the Caribbean was the fastest way to get rich. As in all of the tierra caliente, European epidemic diseases had an even more dramatic impact than in the altiplano.

⁶ For example, Muñoz, Manuel Ferrer, “Pueblos indígenas en México en el siglo XIX: La igualdad jurídica, ¿Eficaz sustituto del tutelaje tradicional?” in Los pueblos indios y el parteaguas de la independencia de México, Muñoz, Manuel Ferrer, ed. (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1999), pp. 96–100;Google Scholar or Peralta, Rina Ortiz, “Inexistentes por decreto: disposiciones legislativas sobre los pueblos de indios en el siglo XIX. El caso de Hidalgo,” in Indio, nación y comunidad en el México del siglo XIX, Antonio, Escobar O., ed. (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S, 1994), pp. 160–69.Google Scholar

⁷ The crown originally conceived of the colony as consisting of Indian rural communities producing a surplus to sustain the colonial state. Spanish settlers were to live in cities where the settlers would have their own town councils while Indians kept to the rural repúblicas. As the colony evolved more non-Indians settled in the countryside and even in indigenous villages, however, the laws prohibited them from participating in elections in the government of these villages. The law also failed to keep non-Indians from seeking to influence them indirectly.

⁸ For a classic description of the history of the república see, Beltrán, Gonzalo Aguirre, Formas de gobierno indígena (Mexico City: Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1953)Google Scholar; Pastor, Rodolfo, Campesinos y reformas: La Mixteca, 1700–1856 (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1987).Google Scholar For a discussion of the formation of repúblicas in some of the pueblos mentioned in this text see Martínez, Bernardo García, Los pueblos de la sierra: El poder y el espacio entre los indios del norte de Puebla hasta 1700 (Mexico City: Colegio de México, 1987).Google Scholar

⁹ Pastor, , Campesinos, pp. 283–84.Google Scholar I describe inequality in land distribution in Ducey, Michael T., “Liberal Theory and Peasant Practice: Land and Power in Northern Veracruz, Mexico, 1826–1900,” in Liberals, the Church, and Indians Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America, Jackson, Robert H., ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997), p. 71–72;Google Scholar see also Kourí, Emilio, “The Business of Land: Agrarian Tenure and Enterprise in Papantla, Mexico, 1800–1910” (Harvard University: Ph.D. thesis, 1996),Google Scholar chs. 4 and 5; Schryer, Frans J., Ethnicity and Class Conflict in Rural Mexico (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp.30–33 and 38–42Google Scholar discusses twentieth century social stratification in some of the towns included in this study.

¹⁰ Pastor, , Campesinos, pp. 200,Google Scholar 243 describes how the Spanish state had already begun the process of stripping communal goods from the repúblicas and that there were already strong tensions between the cabeceras dominated by ladino-ized Indians and sujetos in the late eighteenth century. For a discussion of the eighteenth century in this region see my article, “Viven sin ley ni rey: Rebeliones colonialesen Papantla, 1760–1790,” in Procesos rurales e historia regional (Sierra y costa totonacos de Veracruz, Chenaut, Victoria, ed. (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S., 1996), pp. 15–50.Google Scholar

¹¹ See article 310 of the Constitution of Cádiz, even then the new regulations stated that towns with less than a thousand could petition their provincial deputation to request one. “Bando del Virrey Venegas en que se publica la Real Orden de 8 de junio con el decreto de 23 de mayo referente a la elección de ayuntamientos,” in La Constitución de 1812 en la Nueva España, Obregón, Luis González, ed., Series “Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación,” (Mexico City: Tip. Guerrero Hnos., 1912), p. 222.Google Scholar

¹² The constitution of the state of Puebla did not establish a minimum number of inhabitants for an ayuntamiento, Constitución Política del Estado Libre de Puebla, articles 132 and 133. In Veracruz the state constituent congress emitted a law establishing ayuntamientos even before the state constitution was finished raising the population minimum to two thousand, “Decreto número 43 de 17 de marzo de 1825 Creación de Ayuntamientos,” in Colección de Leyes y Decretos de Veracruz, 1824–1919, Carmen Blázquez Domínguez y Ricardo Corzo Ramírez, coordinadores (Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1997), vol. 1, p. 248. (Hereafter CLDV. Articles 159 and 160 of the Constitución Política del Estado de México of 1827 established town councils in communities with at least four thousand inhabitants but included clauses permitting them in towns that did not meet the population requirement with the consent of the state congress.

¹³ One example of this formulation may be found in Von Mentz, Brígida, Pueblos de indios, mulatos y mestizos: 1770–1870. Los campesinos y las transformaciones protoindustriales en el poniente de Morelos (Mexico City: C.I.E.S.A.S, 1988), p. 56.Google Scholar The Indian Tribunal, corte de indios, was a special court designed to enable indigenous villagers to initiate lawsuits without the difficulties associated with the normal courts.

¹⁴ For a detailed account of the war of independence in the region see Ducey, Michael T., “Village, Nation, and Constitution. Insurgent Politics in Papantla, Veracruz, 1810–21” Hispanic American Historical Review 79:3 (August 1999), pp. 463–93.Google Scholar See Chávez, Alicia Hernández, La tradición republicana del buen gobierno (Mexico City: El Colegio de México and Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1993), pp. 26–7Google Scholar for a quick discussion of the internal divisions within the late colonial pueblo.

¹⁵ On the plan de Iguala and the role of municipalities see Anna, Forging Mexico, pp. 81–83, 88–89. According to Anna, the municipal government was one of the concessions that the conservative leadership of the plan had to make to win followers in the provinces. In the region studied here, the war of independence ended in a negotiated truce that ultimately left many issues of local power undecided. Ducey, “Village, Nation,” pp. 475–81; Escamilla, Juan Ortiz, Guerra y gobierno: Los pueblos y la independencia de México (Mexico City: Instituto Mora, 1997)Google Scholar describes how the war created a push towards autonomy in the pueblos of New Spain.

¹⁶ Hernández, , Tradición, pp. 33–38.Google Scholar Antonio Escobar Ohmstede, “La conformación y las luchas porel poder en las Huastecas, 1821–53.” Secuencia 36 (nueva época) (1996), pp. 11–14; and by the same author, “Del gobierno indígena al Ayuntamiento constitucional en las Huastecas hidalguense y veracruzana, 1780–1853, Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 12:1 (winter 1996), pp. 13–17. Antonio Annino, “Cádiz y la revolución territorial de los pueblos mexicanos 1812–1821,” in Historia de las elecciones en Iberoamérica, siglo XIX: De la formación del espacio político nacional, Annino, Antonio, ed. (México City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1995) p. 177 Google Scholar also sees the introduction of the constitutional ayuntamiento as a “conquest of self government” by indigenous pueblos.

¹⁷ Thurner, , From Two Republiçs to One Divided, p. 18 Google Scholar notes for example that Peruvian power holders essentially sought to suppress Indian identities, the failure of which allowed “subalterns” to manipulate both colonial and national identities.

¹⁸ Archivo Judicial de Huejutla, (AJH) 1836 Petition of Juan Argúmedo en representación del común de naturales de Santa Ursula Huitzilingo [sic].” Individuals with the titles of gobernador, pasados, or principales often signed these documents. The “jueces de paz, viejos y demás principales…” initiated a petition from the sujetos of Huazalingo in 1840, see petition April 30, 1840, BCEM 1842/91/118/l–5v, 6–8v, 10–1 lv. See also the petition of “los jueces de paz de las visitas y rancherías de la comprensión de esta cabecera, el gobernador de indígenas de la misma por sí y a nombre del común” February 20, 1839, BCEM 1842/103/118/4.

¹⁹ Petition of “los jueces de paz y viejos con los demás naturales de… Huazalingo,” April 4, 1840, BCEM 1842/91/118/6. Thomson also finds that sujeto communities retained the political apparatus of Indian control in the mountains of Puebla. Thomson, Guy P.C., “ Agrarian Conflict in the Municipality of Cuetzalán (Sierra de Puebla): The Rise and Fall of ‘Pala’ Agustín Dieguillo, 1861–1894,” Hispanic American Historical Review 71:2 (May 1991), pp. 216–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ Petition of “los jueces de paz y viejos con los demás naturales,” Huazalingo,” April 30, 1840, BCEM 1842/103/118/ f. 6v. For more examples of colonial titles surviving after independence see, “Poder del común de indígenas de San Felipe,” May 20, 1835, AJH 1835 and “Poder que otorgan los indígenas y el Juez selador de San Miguel, Antonio de San Juan … a favor de Don José María Ávila,” September 30, 1853, AJH 1853, fs.. 15–16. Justices of the Peace were the representatives of town government in the sujeto villages.

²¹ Powell, for example, once suggested that as late as 1856 Indian villagers were not aware of the fact that Mexico had become independent! Powell, T.G., “Los liberales, el campesinado indígena y los problemas agrarios durante la Reforma,” Historia Mexicana 24:1 (1972), p. 658.Google Scholar

²² Subdelegado Gómez Escalante to the diputación provincial, September 23, 1820, Biblioteca del Congreso del Estado de México, Toluca, (hereafter BCEM) 1820/19/1/lv.

²³ Gómez Escalante later revealed that the Indians were willing to work, but only when paid “triple the normal wage in this region.” BCEM 1820/19/l/2v. Perhaps this also points to why the república survived: the local elite relied on them to mobilize labor for their benefit. The diputación dismissed Gómez Escalante’s request to re-establish forced labor “que por ningún pretexto obligue a los indios a trabajar contra su voluntad.” f. 3v. Thomson, Guy P.C. and David, G. LaFrance, Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources Books, 1999), pp. 11–13 Google Scholar describes the continued use of labor drafts in the early republican period.

²⁴ Petition against the alcalde primero of Huazalingo, November 7, 1820, BCEM 1820/60/2/7. The constitution referred to is that of Cádiz, which specified that the parliament must approve all contributions in article 338. It does not specifically prohibit any tax. Gómez Escalante suspended Alarcón from his post after the legislature investigated. The signatories included the regidores of San Juan, Tlamamala, Santo Tomás and San Pedro Huazalingo. Later the town council sent a request for guidance to the legislature concerning the powers alcaldes had over the sujetos.

²⁵ Rugeley, Terry, Yucatán’s Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

²⁶ Archivo Municipal de Misantla (henceforth AMM), “Libro de 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 farmers and non-Indian cattlemen can be found going back to the early colonial period.

²⁷ See for example the case of the town of Meztitlán which tried the tax communal land in the 1830s only to be frustrated by the refusal of Indian villagers to assist the land assessment. Prefect José M. de Ahedos, Meztitlán, Oct. 21, 1837, BCEM 1842/93/118/2. The local tax administrator complained that when he confronted the municipality with the fact that they had not registered the communal land in the tax roles, the council replied “that it is not the owner of the immense and precious Vega de Meztitlán.” I discuss the legal control of the lands of the ex-repúblicas in greater detail in Ducey, “Liberal Theory,” pp. 66–73.

²⁸ Hernández, , Tradición, p. 38.Google Scholar Also seen in Rugeley, , Yucatán’s Maya, p. 39.Google Scholar

²⁹ Rugeley notes that the new town councils relied on the repúblicas to collect taxes, Yucatán’s Maya, p. 93.

³⁰ Petition “Los jueces de paz de visitas,” Yahualica, February 20, 1839.BCEM 1842/103/118/4. The tax was similar to the real de comunidad of the colonial period. The tax was a half real head tax.

³¹ It is interesting to note that the indigenous leaders used the recent order by the state Junta tie Instrucción Pública that schools be established “wherever they are judged necessary.” BCEM 1842/103/U8/4V.

³² The villagers described themselves as “indigenous justices of the peace and other principales.” They also protested the fines and imprisonment suffered by villagers who had failed to pay the tax. “Petition to the Junta departamental from los jueces de paz indígenas y demás principales de 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 report on the petition is dated May 3, 1840.

³³ Petition to the Junta departamental from los jueces de paz indígenas y demás principales de los pueblos de Huazalingo sujetos a… Yahualica” no date BCEM 1842/91/118/3.

³⁴ Negros bozales was a colonial term used to refer to slaves recently brought from Africa. It also implied that they were not Christian. See petition BCEM 1842/91/118/3. The secretary of the council also slighted the indígenas because he “refused to give paper to Indians to write our children while he does give it to the gente de razón.” The term used to refer to non-Indians was the colonial term “gente de razón,” literally people with reason.

³⁵ From the same petition cited above, BCEM 1842/91/118/7v, “hasta el día anda en rehenes algún dinero de los fondos entre unos y otros funcionarios.”

^* Prefectos and sub-prefectos were district level officials acting as representatives of the executive branch of government with powers to supervise local governments. In Veracruz these officials were called gefes [sic] de cantón or gefes de distrito. Later the term jefe político generally replaced these titles however, for the sake of simplicity, I have used prefect to refer to these officials regardless of time period.

³⁶ Letter of prefect of Meztitlán, Manuel María Cannona, January 20, 1841, Archivo Histórico del Estado de México (henceforth cited as AHEM) 075.1/149/17/ f. 20, Carmona described Del Rosal as “the only mover behind the continuous complaints of the natives of Huazalingo.” However an earlier report called the petition “justified.” January 8, 1841, f. 17v.

³⁷ See Falcón’s, Ramona exploration of this issue in “Force and the Search for Consent: The Role of the Jefaturas Políticas of Coahuila in National State Formation,” in Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico Nugent, Daniel and Joseph, Gilbert, eds. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994), p. 119.Google Scholar In the state of Mexico the prefects had the legal authority to intervene in municipal land and tax affairs, Ortiz Peralta, “Inexistentes,” p. 164. The legal codes in Veracruz gave these officers broad powers of “supervision” over local government. See “Ley para la organización, policía y gobierno interior del estado” in CLDV 1:281–85.

³⁸ “Consulta del Ayuntamiento de Huazalingo a la diputación” BCEM 1822/66/8/2. San Francisco was also one of the leading centers of dissidents in the colonial period. The disorders of 1822 were said to have had their origin in 1819 when San Franciscanos participated in a tumult against the head town.

³⁹ Letter of Trinidad Rodríguez to the sub-prefect of Huejutla, February 21, 1838, Yahualica, BCEM/1838/74/89/1-23. The prefecture seat was also often a bone of contention between competing towns.

⁴⁰ The Ugalde family later married into the Andrades, who held the post of prefect of Huejutla for much of the period.

⁴¹ Petition “Los jueces de paz y viejos con los demás naturales de los cinco pueblos de Huazalingo…” April 30, 1840, BCEM 1842/91/118/f. 6–6v.

⁴² Agustín Viniegra, sub-prefect of Huejutla, November 7, 1843, BCEM 1843/255/128/f. 5.

⁴³ “Aviso al público” July 5, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/f. 17–18v. The subprefect observing the ire of the protesters towards the paving projects indicated that they were “enemies of the comfort and beautification of the town.” Agustín Viniegra Sub-Prefect of Huejutla, July 10,1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/3v. There is another famous case of rural protest against sidewalks in 1914 when Zapata met Villa at Xochimilco. Zapata commented, “The men who work hardest are those who enjoy sidewalks the least. Only sidewalks. And speaking for myself, when I walk on one of those sidewalks, I start to fall down.” While historians have sometimes interpreted this as an example of the “rustic” character of these rebels and their inability to handle modern society, Zapata’s comment is also a criticism of how modern urban states allocate resources to projects that peasants see as irrational. The text of the Xochimilco conference may be found in Manuel Ramírez, González, ed., Fuentes para la historia de la revolución mexicana, (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1954), vol. 1, p. 115.Google Scholar For some of the standard interpreters of this text see Camín, Héctor Aguilar and Meyer, Lorenzo, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution: Contemporary Mexican History, Fierro, Luis Alberto, trans. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993), p. 56 Google Scholar, and Krauze, Enrique, Mexico: Biography of Power, Heifetz, Hank, trans. (New York: Harper Perennial, 1997), pp. 294–95Google Scholar

⁴⁴ ”As a gift to peace the Juez de Paz of this municipal seat and that of Santa Cruz should be suspended, given that, far from fulfilling their duties, they abuse the authorities and disrupt the harmony that has always reigned.” Agustín Viniegra, sub-prefect of Huejutla, July 10, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/6.

⁴⁵ Francisco Sánchez, Huejutla July 6, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/19. The first justice of the peace of Huejutla denied that “public tranquillity had been disturbed … in spite of the efforts of said gentle men.” Agustín Viniegra wrote that judge Núñez “is himself the one who is disrupting the peace with his advice to the residents of Santa Cruz, Nexpan, Tetlama and Vinazco that they not pay the municipal tax.” Agustín Viniegra Sub-Prefect of Huejutla, July 10, 1843, BCEM 1843/19l/127/2v. Viniegra claimed to have seen letters the judge had sent to the other visita towns asking for support in the lawsuit.

⁴⁶ Schryer, , Ethnicity and Class, pp. 85–86.Google Scholar Notes the extensive use of labor demands during the nineteenth century. Thomson, and Lafrance, , Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism, pp. 12–13 Google Scholar also notes that demands against labor service mobilized Indian militants in the 1850s and 60s.

⁴⁷ Francisco Sánchez, Huejutla July 6, 1843, BCEM 1843/191/127/18v.

⁴⁸ Thomson and LaFrance, Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism, notes that when the radical liberal Nahua leader, Juan Francisco Lucas, served as Jefe Político, the de razón residents in the town of Zautla protested bitterly when he made them pay a tax that formerly only Indians had supplied, p. 229.

⁴⁹ Thomson and LaFrance, Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism, describe the conservative project created by Alamán to eliminate the destabilizing force of municipal politics. González, Andrés Lira, “Indian Communities in Mexico City: The Parcialidades of Tenochtitlán and Tlatelolco, 1812–1919” (Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1981), p. 24 Google Scholar; Guardino, , Peasants, pp. 152–53, 160–61Google Scholar and passim.

⁵⁰ Lic. Fuentes, Pascual González, Memoria de los secretarios de relaciones y guerra, justicia, negocios eclesiásticos e instrucción pública del gobierno del Estado de México leída a la Honorable Legislatura en las sesiones de los días I y 2 de Mayo de 1849 (Toluca: Imprenta de J. Quijano, 1849), p. 2.Google Scholar By 1849, the original state constitution of 1827 had been restored after the centralist interlude.

⁵¹ See for example Thomson, and Lafrance, , Patriotism, Politics and Popular Liberalism, pp. 45–46.Google Scholar

⁵² Tenenbaum, Barbara, ‘“They Went Thataway: the Evolution of the Pronunciamiento, 1821–1856,” in Patterns of Contention in Mexican History, Jaime Rodriguez O., ed. (Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington: 1992), p. 194 Google Scholar; Vázquez, Josefina, “Political Plans and Collaboration Between Civilians and the Military, 1821–1846,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 15:1 (1996), pp. 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Guardino, Peasants, p. 159 who comments on the peasant use of pronunciamientos. Telia, Di, National Popular Politics, has systematically described the role of “popular mobilizers,” p. 73–104, 116–20, 206–12Google Scholar however there is an urban bias to his material.

⁵³ Letter from Constantini to Bazaine, in García, Genaro, ed., Documentos para la historia de México: La intervención francesa en México según el archivo del Mariscal Bazaine (Mexico City: Librería de la Viuda de Ch. Bouret, 1906), vol. 18, p. 112.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ I discuss these pronunciamientos, and others, at length in Ducey, “Village Riot,” 230–245. In the 1833 rebellion, the pronunciados overturned town councils and replaced them with the council that had been voted out the previous year. Andrade, August 11, 1833, Huejutla, AHEM 091 and 091.2/172/4/17–18.

⁵⁵ Trinidad Ballato, juez de paz de Huautla, informe de February 22, 1838. On the events associated with the “plan de Cuernavaca of 1834 see AHEM 091.2/178/4/5–162 which contains extensive reports from the different municipalities of the region.

⁵⁶ Simultaneously there were supporting declarations from Xilitla and Tamazunchale Indian 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 ayuntamientos in Mexican political thought see, Villoro, Luis, El proceso ideológico de la revolución de independencia (Mexico City: Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1953).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ The uprising in the Yucatán also colored the perceptions of the Huasteca events: “the events in the Yucatán on a large scale and those of the Huasteca on a small scale, reveal the class of barbarities that occur in an uprising of Indians.” “Guerra de Castas,” El Siglo XIX, July 8, 1848, p. 4. The minister of relations accused the Huasteca rebels of aspiring to the “extermination of the white race,” May 26, 1848, AGN Gobernación, vol. 225, exp. 20, f.60. The rebels made an interesting formal denial of this accusation see “Impreso Suelto” Tampico 1 de enero de 1850 found in AGN Gobernación Sin sección, vol. 383 exp. 13, f. 3.

⁵⁹ Trens, Manuel B., Historia de Veracruz, (Mexico City: Editorial La Impresora, 1950), 4:561.Google Scholar Valdéz was “a colored dude” according to 4:559.

⁶⁰ Trens, Historia, 4: 559.

⁶¹ Andrade to the Ministro de relaciones interiores y exteriores, February 11, 1848, AGN Gobernación vol. 225(1) exp. 20, f. lv.

⁶² Governor Manuel G. Othón to Ministro de relaciones interiores y exteriores, September 26, 1846, AGN Gobernación vol. 324, exp. 1, f. 1–3. The Ciudadela affair was a revolt in Mexico City led by conservative military officers against the Vice President Vicente Gómez Farías’s attempt to seize Church property in order to pay for the war against the United States. The rebels in the Huasteca potosina declared themselves in favor of Gómez Farías in the affair.

⁶³ Ponciano Arriaga, prefecto de Tancanhuitz to Juan José Ferrasas, Francisco Peña y Pedro Ferrasas of Tamazunchale, Sept. 14, 1846, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección 324/1/1–6. Arriaga called on the rebels to return to order stating that rebellion was justified only “in times when despots rule.” Arriaga laterwarned against the return of the ousted officials on the grounds that it would cause disturbances, f. 8. Alan Knight has noted the strong xenophobic tendency of Mexican nationalism in the popular classes in the nineteenth century, “Peasants into Patriots: Thoughts on the Making of the Mexican Nation,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 10:1 (1994), p. 141.

⁶⁴ Arriaga, Manuel Ramírez, Ponciano Amaga, el desconocido (Mexico City: Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, 1965), pp. 184–86.Google Scholar Arriaga’s role in the constitutional convention of 1856 has been much commented as an example of social liberalism and a precursor of agrarianism, Meyer, Jean, Problemas campesinos y revueltas agrarias (1821–1910) (Mexico City: Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1973), pp. 74–80,Google Scholar Heroles, Jesús Reyes, El liberalismo mexicano (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1974), vol. 3.Google Scholar See Guerra, François-Xavier, México: del antiguo régimen a la Revolución, (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1988), vol. 1, pp. 268–72Google Scholar for an interesting counterpoint from the usual interpretation of Arriaga’s ideology.

⁶⁵ For the case of Tlacolula, Manuel Francisco Herrera to Juan Múgica y Osorio, Huachinango, May 15,1848, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 170; for Rancho Abajo see Andrade to Ministro de relaciones interiores y exteriores, June 12, 1848, f. 156; San Lorenzo and San Nicolás see the letters of rebel leaders, ff. 126–30.

⁶⁶ Juan Manuel Maldonado, Tantoyuca, to the jefe político de Tampico, July 24, 1848, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección vol. 357, f. 129

⁶⁷ BCEM 1849/405/181/6. This document also illustrates how the ayuntamientos of the larger towns often acted with the cabecera’s interest in mind. Andrade also noted that the “vecindario de esta cabecera” bore the brunt of the operations against the U.S. and the “indígenas insurrectos.” f. 1.

⁶⁸ Proclamation of Hilario Galván June 5, 1848, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357 f. 127.

⁶⁹ AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 127. Galván probably refers to the alcalde of Tamiahua who was also one of the landlords involved in a rent dispute with his tenants.

⁷⁰ AGN Gobernación, vol. 342, exp. 7, f. 87 v. Ignacio Franco owned a considerable amount of land. Besides the properties in the Tamiahua region involved in the dispute, he also owned the Hacienda del Capadero in Chiconamel (it later became an independent municipality in 1869). AJH, libro de 1852, f. 5–9 records the sale of the land for 17,000 pesos to a group of twenty three residents. The estate was further divided into smaller lots in subsequent years, see AJH libro de 1869, fs. 75, 78–9. The authorities blamed Velázquez as a “picapleitos” (lawsuit chaser) whose hand was behind every action of the rebels.

⁷¹ See several letters from juez primero de San Nicolás, Juan Antonio Francisco, to temente de justicia de Rancho Abajo, May 28,1848 and June 26,1847, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 126–126v. See also Ramón Núñez’s report that the juez de paz of Ixcatepec and Pedro del Angel were communicating with Luciano Velázquez in 1846. AGN Gobernación, vol. 342, exp. 7, f. 70.

⁷² Juan Manuel Maldonado, July 24, 1848, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 129v.

⁷³ Juan Manuel Maldonado, July 24, 1848, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 130.

⁷⁴ AGN Gobernación Sin Sección 342/7/71.

⁷⁵ Meade, Joaquín, La Huasteca veracruzana (Mexico City: Editorial Citláltepetl, 1966). 2:51.Google Scholar During the rebellion, Juan Meriotegui, still serving as sub prefect, was killed. This was the same Mejia who involved Mariano Olarte in the conspiracy to seize Tampico for the federalist cause in 1835.

⁷⁶ AGN Gobernación Sin Sección 357/164 Andrade, May 29, 1848; Siglo XIX, July 25, 1869, mentions Hernández’s role in the statehood movement. Siglo XIX reported on his assassination in what the paper believed was an act of revenge that conservatives (and former imperialists) from Chicontepec had organized. Hernández also adjudicated a large rancho (valued at 3,000 pesos) belonging to the municipality of Huautla during the Reforma, AJH libro de 1856, p. 7. As Escobar has noted, the statehood ambitions of elite families led them to flirt with the insurrection in its early stages. Escobar, “La conforma-ción,” p. 25.

⁷⁷ AGN Gobernación Sin Sección 357/166. According to a letter from a resident in Mexico City, Hernández 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 reports stated that Hernández had recruited 200 men in Mexico, later documents placed the number at 80. AGN Gobernación sin sección, 357/ 147.

⁷⁸ AGN Gobernación 324/l/13–15v, mentions the presence of Indian officials during negotiations and the continued existence of república de indios posts. Velázquez addressed his communiqués to the indios principales, f. 87v.

⁷⁹ For a detailed description of the role of Juan Nepomuceno Llorente see “Hijos del pueblo y ciudadanos: Identidades políticas entre los rebeldes indios del siglo XIX,” chapter in Construcción de la legitimidad política en México: sujetos, discurso y conducta política en el siglo XIX., Connaughton, Brian, Illades, Carlos, and Toledo, Sonia Pérez, eds. (Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, El Colegio de México and El Colegio de Michoacán, 2000)Google Scholar and Reina, Leticia, Las rebeliones campesinas en México (1819–1906) (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1980),Google Scholar which includes a full text of Llorente’s plan.

⁸⁰ Escobar, , “Conformación,” pp. 24–26;Google Scholar Meyer, , Problemas campesinos, p.l75.Google Scholar

⁸¹ “Impreso Suelto” Tampico, 1 de enero de 1850, I encountered this broadsheet in AGN Gobernación Sin sección, vol. 383 exp. 13, f. 3. See also the letter of the prefect of Tuxpan, Anastacio María Llorente, April 18, 1848, Temapache, AGN Gobernación Sin Sección, vol. 357, f. 118.