Article contents
Survival of Indian Communities in Nineteenth-Century Bolivia: A Regional Comparison
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Extract
In describing the impact of haciendas on Indian communities of Meso-America and Andean America, historians generally have emphasized the hacendado's unrelenting appropriation of land and labor from native settlements, which were forced constantly to retreat in the face of this pressure. This view can be represented by James Lockhart's description of hacienda expansion. He saw the great estate as an ‘essentially unitary social institution [that] maintained constant its function as intermediary between growing Spanish towns and receding Indian villages. It evolved along two simple lines — constant rise in legal ownership of land and change in the balance of the labor force, as permanent workers increased and temporary workers decreased.1 As the hacienda expanded outward from the cities, said Lockhart, it gradually engaged the Indians in acculturative processes that made the great estate ‘the most powerful instrument of hispanization in Spanish-American culture’.2
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980
References
1 Lockhart, James, ‘Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish West Indies’ HAHR, Vol. 49 (08, 1969), p. 427.Google Scholar
2 Ibid., p. 425.
3 Conde, Roberto Corrés in The First Stages of Modernization in Spanish America (trans. from the Spanish by Talbot, Toby) (New York, 1974)Google Scholar described modernization as a process whereby Latin American nations became increasingly integrated into the North American and European economies through the development of an export product. This integration, in turn, produced significant internal political and social changes. In the late 1870s, Bolivian silver miners, as a result of new discoveries, increased production greatly. The effects of this silver boom occurred after 1880 and included the construction of railways connecting Bolivia to the Pacific coast and the emergence of silver miners as a national political force. This new governing elite destroyed the local power of Bolivia's caudillos, and, at the same time, forged a program of national consolidation. See Klein, Herbert S., Parties and Political Change in Bolivia (Cambridge, Eng., 1969), pp. 16–30.Google Scholar
4 It was common for a vecino of a city to hold not only a large encomienda but also to own lands near the city which were cultivated by his encomienda Indians. For example, Gerónimo de Soria, Alcalde Ordinario of La Paz in 1550, held the encomienda of Machaca la Grande, located in the province of Pacajes far to the west of La Paz city. From this encomienda, Soria annually received in tribute 2,000 pesos in silver plus clothes, animals and food. The cacique of Machaca also sent Soria eighteen peones to cultivate his ‘chacras’ in La Paz. Rodas, Alberto Crespo, El corregimiento de La Paz, 1548–1600 (La Paz, 1972), pp. 66–7.Google Scholar
5 For the population of La Paz in 1846, see Dalence, José Maria, Bosquejo estadístico de Bolivia (Chuquisaca, 1854), p. 201Google Scholar and in 1880, see Bravo, Carlos, La patria boliviana, estado geográfica (La Paz, 1894), p. 121.Google Scholar
6 Paredes, Manuel Rigoberto, La Paz y la provincia de Cercado (La Paz, 1955), pp. 122–32.Google Scholar
7 Bolivia, Comisión de Estadística, Archivo estadística, 7 de diciembre de 1874.Google Scholar
8 Carter, William E., Aymara Communities and the Bolivian Agrarian Reform (Gainsville, Fla., 1965), pp. 70–1.Google Scholar
9 Not even La Paz's population growth during the twentieth century (605,000 in 1973) affected the agricultural system of altiplano haciendas. Methods of cultivation remained dependent on ancient farming practices of resident peons. Since altiplano soil is only suitable for the cultivation of native products, hacienda owners retained the old system of cultivation as the cheapest method of producing for a limited market. See Keller, Frank, ‘Finca Ingravi — A Medical Survival on the Bolivian Altiplano’ Economic Geography, No. 26 (1950), pp. 37–50.Google Scholar During the twentieth century, La Paz became dependent on foreign sources of food and the development of Bolivia's eastern lowlands. See Zondag, Cornelius H., The Bolivian Economy 1952–65, The Revolution and its Aftermath (New York, 1966), pp. 141–64.Google Scholar
10 Forbes, David, On the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru (London, 1870), p. 61.Google Scholar
11 Klein, Herbert S., ‘Hacienda and Free Community in Eighteenth Century Alto Peru: A Demographic Study of the Aymara Population of the Districts of Chulumani and Pacajes in 1786,’ in Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 7 (11, 1975), p. 196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12 Pentland, Joseph Barclay, ‘Report on Bolivia, 1827,’ edited by Fifer, J. Valerie in Camden Miscellany, Vol. 35 (1974), p. 213.Google Scholar
13 ‘Padrón de Yungas de 1977’, expedientes, sueltos, ANB.Google Scholar
14 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística, Diccionaro geográfico, I, Departamento de La Paz (La Paz, 1890), p. 66.Google Scholar
15 Peñalosa, Luis, Historia económica de Bolivia, 2 vols. (La Paz, 1953–1954), ii, III–16.Google Scholar
16 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadísrica. Diccionaria geográfico, I, Departamento de La Paz, p. 70.Google Scholar Also see the description of Muñecas in Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, pp. 165–6.Google Scholar
17 Paredes, Manuel Rigoberto, La altiplanice (posthumous edition) (La Paz, 1965), pp. 46–57, 195–228.Google Scholar
18 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística. Diccionaria geográfico, I, Departamento de La Paz, p. 82.Google Scholar
19 Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, pp. 170–2, described the inhabitants of eastern Sicasica (which became the province of Inquisivi in 1842) as lazy farmers who paid little attention to their land and harvested only the small amount of corn, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables that grew spontaneously.Google Scholar
20 For a description of the settlement of Cochabamba and its economic ties to Potosí, see de Espinoza, Antonio Vasquez, Compendium and Description of the West Indies (1628), edited and translated by Clark, Charles Upson (Washington, 1942), pp. 618–9.Google Scholar
21 de Orsua, Bartolome Arzans y Vela, Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí (3 vols.), eds. Hanke, Lewis and Mendoza, Gunnar (Providence, 1965), i, 286.Google Scholar
22 Data on the crown's declining annual income derived from Potosí silver mines from 1556 to 1789 can be found in Moreyra, Manuel y Paz Soldan, En torno dos valiosos documentos sobre Potosí; Los quintos reales y las pragmáticas secretas sobre la moneda (Lima, 1953), pp. 36–46.Google Scholar
23 Manrique, D. Juan del Pino, ‘Descripción de la villa Potosí y de los partidos sujetos a su intendencia,’ in de Angelis, Pedro, Colección de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, 6 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1836–1837), ii, p. 7.Google Scholar
24 For a review of the Independence wars in Bolivia, see Arnade, Charles W., The Emergence of the Republic of Bolivia (Gainsville, 1957)Google Scholar and for the destruction caused to the Potosí mines, see Temple, Edmond, Travel in Various Parts of Peru, Including a Year's Residence in Potosí, 2 vols. (London, 1830), i, 308–10.Google Scholar Data from the Potosí mining bank showed that the bank's annual average silver purchase declined from 303,516 marcos in the period 1806 to 1810 to 162, 952 marcos in the period 1826 to 1830. Ruck, Ernesto O., Guía general (Sucre, 1865), p. 169.Google Scholar Population of Potosí was derived from Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 199.Google Scholar
25 Pentland, ‘Report on Bolivia,’ Camden Miscellany, p. 213.Google Scholar
26 In 1846, Cochabamba produced 476,794 fanegas of corn and 189,136 fanegas of wheat, while Chuquisaca produced 242,266 fanegas of corn and 60,400 fanegas of wheat. Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 269.Google Scholar
27 For a description of Cliza's and Ayopaya's agricultural economy, see Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, pp. 114–17Google Scholar and Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística, Diccionario geográfico, 2, Departamento de Cochabamba, pp. 12–13, 28–9.Google Scholar
28 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística, Diccionario geográfico, 2, Departamento de Cochabamba, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar
29 For a more complete explanation of the process of mestizaje see below.Google Scholar
30 Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 202, 222.Google Scholar
31 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística, Diccionario geográfico, 2, Departamenlo de Cochabamba, pp. 1–43.Google Scholar
32 Leonard, Olen E., Bolivia: Land, People and Institutions (Washington, D.C., 1952), pp. 119–20.Google Scholar
33 Dandler-Hanhart, Jorge Erwin, El sindicalismo camposino en Bolivia, los cambios estructurales en Ucureña (Mexico City, 1969), p. 45.Google Scholar
34 ‘Padrones de Cliza’ (1831–1871), ANB.Google Scholar
35 ‘Padrón de Cliza de 1844,’ expedientes, f. 38, ANB.Google Scholar
36 D'Orbigny, Alcides, Viaje a la América meridional, 4 vols., trans. Cepeda, Alfredo (Buenos Aires, 1945), iii, 167.Google Scholar
37 Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 116.Google Scholar
38 See Appendix I.Google Scholar
39 For the population of Cochabamba in 1846 see Dalence, Bosquejo, p. 201 and for 1880,Google Scholar see Bravo, La patria, p. 121.Google Scholar
40 Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística, Diccionario geográfico, 2, Departamento de Cochabamba, p. 27.Google Scholar
41 Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 316.Google Scholar
42 Ibid., pp. 171–82.
43 In 1846 the department of Potosí (most of Potosi's wheat production came from Chayanta) produced more wheat (192, 354 fanegas) than the department of Cochabamba (189, 136 fanegas). See Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 269.Google Scholar
44 For a description of Indian farming practices in Chayanta see ‘Governado de Chayanta al Sr. General Presidente del Departamento de Potosí Agosto de 1825,’ Archivo de Angel Justiniano Carranza, legajo 7–3–5, Archivo General de la Nación (Buenos Aires). (Hereinafter cited AGN.)Google Scholar
45 For the data on the number of haciendas in Tomina and Cinti, see Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadistíca, Diccionario geográfico, 3, Departamento de Chuquisaca, pp. 61–338. In the 1830s D'Orbigny described the inhabitants of Tomina's eastern counties as ‘algunas familias indígenas y mulatos’ (a few families of Indians and mulatoes) who lived in ‘cabañas de Cerillo’ (thatched hovels).Google ScholarD'Orbigny, Viaje, iv, 1473. In 1854, Cinti's population amounted to 43,477 and included only 12,322 Indians, and Tomina's population amounted to 47,748 and included only 14,216 Indians. República Boliviana, Censo de 1854.Google Scholar
46 See Appendix I.Google Scholar
47 For a description of the epidemic of 1856 and an analysis of its possible disease agents, see Balcazar, Juan Manual, Historia de Medicina en Bolivia (La Paz, 1956), pp. 265–74.Google Scholar
48 ‘Comisión de visita del norte,’ Gaceta del gobierno, 28 de mayo de 1860, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar
49 ‘Padrón de Chayanta de 1859,’ expedientes, ANB.Google Scholar
50 Censo de 1900, 2:35–6.Google Scholar
51 ‘Padrón de Chayanta de 1859,’ expedientes, ANB.Google Scholar
52 ‘Padrón de Chayanta de 1863,’ ANB.Google Scholar
53 Ibid., expedientes, f. 16.
54 ‘Padrón de Carangas de 1867,’ expedientes, f. 197, ANB.Google Scholar
55 ‘Padrón de Cercado de La Paz de 1867,’ expedientes, f. 2, ANB.Google Scholar
56 ‘Padrón de Sicasica de 1877,’ expedientes, f. 2; and ‘Padrón de Yungas de 1877,’ expedientes, sueltos, ANB.Google Scholar
57 Prior to the Spanish conquest, Cochabamba was a frontier zone of the Inca empire to which Incan lords sent colonists (mitimaes) to cultivate corn for shipment back to the altiplano population centers. For a description of the Aymara's ability to control different ecological zones see Murra, John V., ‘An Aymara Kingdom in 1567,’ Ethnohistory, Vol. 15 (Spring 1968), pp. 121–2.Google Scholar
58 For a description of Cochabamba's economic connections to Potosí, see de Espinoza, Antonio Vasquez, Compendium and Description of the West Indies (1628), trans. Clark, Charles Upson (Washington, D.C., 1942), pp. 618–19.Google Scholar
59 For a description of the migration of Indian laborers out of their communities and on to Spanish haciendas, see Pease, Franklin, ‘Una visita al obispado de Charcas’ [1950] Humanidades, No. 3, (1969), p. 102.Google Scholar
60 In 1793 the population of the department of Cochabamba amounted to 144,398 inhabitants, only 45 percent of whom were Indian. Mestizos formed 33 percent, whites 16 percent, mullatoes 5 percent, and blacks 1 percent. For this population data and for a description of the mestizo occupation of communal lands in Cochabamba see de Viedma, Francisco, Descripción geográfica y estadística de la provincia de Santa Cruz de la sierra (3rd ed.), prologue by Salinas, Hector Cossio, (Cochabamba, 1969).Google Scholar
61 For colonial compilations of population data on Bolivia see ‘Relación de los indios tributarios…fecha en el pardo a 1° de noviembre de 1591’, in de Mendoza, D. Luis Torres (ed.), Colección de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, con quista y organización de las antiguas posesiones epsañolas de America y Oceania, 42 vols. (Madrid, 1866), vi, 41–63Google Scholar and for 1628, see de Espinoza, Vasquez, Compendium, pp. 694–720.Google Scholar For 1846, see Dalence, Bosquejo, pp. 202, 222 and, for 1900,Google Scholar see Oficina Nacional de Inmigración, Estadística y Propaganda Geográfica, Censo general de la poblacicón de la repútblica de Bolivia según el empadronamiento de 1° septiembre de 1900. 2 vols. (La Paz, 1901–1904.)Google Scholar
62 For the best description of the early exploitation of altiplano Indians, see de San Miguel, Garci Diez, Visita hecha a la provincia de Chucuito en el año 1567 (palaeography by Soriano, Waldemar Espinoza) (Lima, 1964.)Google Scholar
- 43
- Cited by