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The Pulperos of Caracas and San Juan During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Jay Kinsbruner
Jay Kinsbruner*
Affiliation:
Queens College
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The pulperos were the largest group of small, independent entrepreneurial storekeepers officially categorized and supervised in Spanish America during the colonial period and the nineteenth century. There are no studies of them. There were other small storekeepers, such as owners of bakeries or fish stores, who were far fewer in number, or artisan storekeepers, who occasionally were many in number but who were craft oriented rather than purely business oriented. What follows is a preliminary report. A final analysis and presentation must await an intensive, long-term study of the pulperos and bodegueros in Caracas, Medellín, or Buenos Aires, as circumstances permit, that will not be completed for several years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , 1978 , pp. 65 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank the City University of New York Faculty Research Award Program for a generous grant that facilitated the present research.

References

Notes

1. Federico Brito Figueroa, Historia Económica y Social de Venezuela, 2 vols. (Caracas, 1966), 1: 271–72.

2. Ibid., p. 169. With a view toward exploring child-rearing modalities and achievement values it would be instructive to refer to most pulperos as a lower-middle class. Frank Safford recently suggested that “if there was a middle sector in the nineteenth century, it consisted not of the mercantile or intellectual-professional elements, but of artisans and small tradesmen” (Richard Graham and Peter H. Smith, eds., New Approaches to Latin American History [Austin, 1974], p. 80). Ordinarily, I would agree, but when one enters the realm of emotional upbringing and development, the term “lower-middle class” becomes more accurate and illuminating. See especially the provocative suggestions in David G. McClelland, The Achieving Society (New York, 1967), pp. 46, 104, 212–13, 253, 333–35, 342, 345, 359, 363, 377, 457–58.

3. Mario Góngora, “Urban Social Stratification in Colonial Chile,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 55, no. 3 (August 1975): 421–48.

4. James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560 (Madison, 1968), pp. 84–85. Frederick P. Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650 (Stanford, 1974), has noted the presence of pulperías in Peru during the period he studied and he has devoted several paragraphs to the relationship between Negroes and pulperías. Since the pulperos formed a gremio, they are mentioned several times, especially for the seventeenth century, in Héctor Humberto Sampayoa Guevara, Los Gremios De Artesanos En La Ciudad De Guatemala (1524–1821) (Guatemala City, 1962).

5. F. Depons, Travels in South America, 2 vols. (London, 1807; reprint edition, 1970), 2: 74. This is an accurate translation of the French version.

6. Depons, Travels 2:116. Bowser has characterized the pulpería in Peru as “something of a small combined grocery store, delicatessen, and tavern” (The African Slave, pp. 108–9.)

7. “Representación del Prior y Cónsules para que el Tribunal del Consulado se le conserve la jurisdicción …,” reprinted in Mercedes M. Alvarez, El Tribunal Del Real Consulado De Caracas, 2 vols. (Caracas, 1967), 1: 307–12. Also see her brief description of bodegueros and pulperos in Comercio y Comerciantes (Caracas, 1963), pp. 50–51.

8. “Ynventario y Tasacion pasado á la Pulpería y Anexa la Fonda de Dn Gregorio Fernandez …, ” in Protocolos Notariales (hereafter cited as PN), San Juan, Caja 529 (1845), Archivo General de Puerto Rico (hereafter cited as AGPR). The inventory is for 1865 and should have been filed in a different caja.

9. PN, San Juan, Caja 204 (1845), ff. 1286–92, AGPR.

10. “Visitas De Tiendas, Bodegas, Pulperías y Platerías, 1799–1809,” in Archivo del Consejo Municipal (Caracas) (hereafter cited as ACM).

11. Gazeta del Gobierno De Puerto Rico, 6 de enero de 1827.

12. Depons, Travels 2:116; Actas Del Cabildo De San Juan Bautista De Puerto Rico, 1798–1803 (San Juan, 1968), p. 371. The tiendas de raya or pulperías on the landed estates in such areas as Mexico probably were not under cabildo jurisdiction and not licensed. The term “pulpería” may have been used casually in describing these company stores.

13. “Nota formada para la renovación de las licencias de los Establecimientos que existe en esta Ciudad,” Puerto Rico, Enero 30 de 1851, in Documentos de los Gobernadores de Puerto Rico (hereafter cited as DGPR), AGPR; “Tiendas (Licencias), 1809–52,” Caja 186, AGPR.

14. The 1818 census is in “Municipalidades, San Juan, 1816–20,” Caja 561, AGPR. The 1840 census is in a separate volume entitled “Año de 1840-Padrón.” The MS census material within the volume is for 1841 also.

15. John C. Super, “Querétero Obrajes: Industry and Society in Provincial Mexico, 1600–1810,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 56, no. 2 (May 1976): 197–216.

16. “Real Hacienda de Pulperías,” vol. 2423, año 1816, Colección Real Hacienda, Archivo General de la Nación (Caracas). Bowser, The African Slave, has noted that “many blacks and mulattoes also operated or owned pulperías,” and that “free coloreds operated both inns and pulperías throughout the period” (pp. 108–9, 319).

17. Ildefonso Leal, Historia De La Universidad De Caracas (1721–1827) (Caracas, 1963), p. 316. See also John V. Lombardi, People and Places in Colonial Venezuela (Bloomington, 1976), pp. 43–44. Article 203 of the Federal Constitution of 1811 of Venezuela said: “Del mismo modo, quedan revocadas y anuladas en todas sus partes las leyes antiguas que imponían degradación civil a una parte de la población libre de Venezuela conocida hasta ahora bajo la denominación de pardos; éstos quedan en posesión de su estimación natural y civil y restituidos a los imprescriptibles derechos que les corresponden como a los demás ciudadanos.”

18. Visita of 1809, ACM.

19. See Leal, Historia, 323–33.

20. Visita of 1809, ACM.

21. Lombardi, People, p. 62.

22. “Censos y Riquezas, 1801–20,” Caja 11, DGPR, AGPR.

23. Gazeta del Gobierno De Puerto Rico, 6 de enero de 1827.

24. “Nota formada para la renovación de las licencias …,” DGPR, AGPR. There is a visita of 1824 for the island in general that gives wonderful information about population and pulperías in the various towns. However, I have not been able to find any references to San Juan (Caja 224, DGPR, AGPR).

25. “Nota formada para la renovación de las licencias …,” DGPR, AGPR; Lawrence Anderson, The Art of the Silversmiths in Mexico, 1519–1936, 2 vols. (New York, 1941) 1: 222.

26. Almanaque Político y de Comercio Para 1826 (Buenos Aires, 1968), pp. 12, 181–98.

27. “Intendencia de Puerto Rico, 9 abril 1824,” Caja 225, DGPR, AGPR.

28. In Caracas, Agustín Armas, at thirty, was a pulpero in 1797 and he was still one in 1809. Miguel Amaral was a pulpero in 1797 and also in 1818, at sixty years of age. José Ascanio was one in 1809 and still a pulpero in 1818 at sixty. Miguel Alfonso was a pulpero in 1808 and 1821. José Figueroa continued as a pulpero from 1803 to 1816. Nicolás González was a pulpero in 1797 at thirty-one and continued to be one at least until 1816. There are many others with similar histories. In San Juan, Gabriel Cabrera was a pulpero at twenty-five in 1818 and he was a pulpero in 1826, perhaps thereafter also. José Estrella was a pulpero in 1841 and still one in 1851. Domingo Garrido was a pulpero in 1826 and continued as such until at least 1846. Agustín Mancebo was a pulpero in 1818 at twenty-five and was a pulpero in 1826. Domingo Peraza's known dates as pulpero run from 1818, when he was twenty-three, to 1826. Francisco Suárez was a pulpero in 1826 and nearly two decades later also. There were others. I am taking a very conservative view of the reliability of the various pulpero lists for Caracas and San Juan. My intuitive guess is that many more pulperos lasted in business longer than four or five years than I am willing to assert at this point.

29. PN, San Juan, Caja 530, ff. 286–91, AGPR. Although there are many errors, Estela Cifre De Loubriel's La formación del pueblo puertorriqueño: La contribución de los catalanes, baleáricos y valencianos (San Juan, 1975), is still an excellent source of information. All students of Puerto Rican social history are in her debt.

30. PN, San Juan, Caja 530, f. 65, AGPR.

31. PN, San Juan, Caja 446, ff. 466–68, AGPR. All monetary figures in this essay have been rounded off.

32. PN, San Juan, Caja 481, ff. 632–34, AGPR.

33. PN, San Juan, Caja 532, ff. 2–4, AGPR.

34. PN, San Juan, Caja 528, ff. 115–17, AGPR.

35. Lockhart, Spanish Peru, p. 85.

36. Incidentally, Lascabes was a natural rather than a legitimate child (from Haiti) and she bore Turull eight natural children (hijos naturales). PN, San Juan, Caja 527, ff. 797–99, AGPR; PN, San Juan, Caja 480, ff. 974–78, AGPR.

37. PN, San Juan, Caja 547, ff. 492–93, AGPR.

38. PN, San Juan, Caja 504, ff. 131–32, AGPR.

39. PN, San Juan, Caja 480, ff. 508–10, AGPR.

40. PN, San Juan, Caja 451, ff. 169–70, AGPR.

41. PN, San Juan, Caja 443, ff. 287–96, AGPR.

42. Mario Góngora, Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America (Cambridge, Eng., 1975), p. 160.

43. Escribanías, Caracas, 1835 (Felipe Hernández Guerra), ff. 251–56, Registro Principal (Caracas) (hereafter cited as RP).

44. Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, ff. 4–6, RP. During 1835 the Escribanías become Protocolos and come under the direction of the Registrador.

45. See pp. 66–67 above.

46. Escribanías, Caracas, 1805 (Ascanio), ff. 274–75, RP.

47. Perhaps Jonathan C. Brown (“Dynamics and Autonomy of a Traditional Marketing System: Buenos Aires, 1810–1860,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 56, no. 4 [November, 1976]:605–29) has found a similar phenomenon in Buenos Aires: “Others [wealthier merchants] put up the capital to establish general stores and bakeries in the city. Usually, business associations involved a financier who provided the cash needed for a commerical project and a working partner who undertook all the management.”

48. PN, San Juan, Caja 446, ff. 114–15, AGPR.

49. Escribanías, Caracas, 1800 (Aramburu), ff. 59–61, RP.

50. Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, ff. 11–13, RP.

51. PN, San Juan, Caja 36, ff. 732–37, AGPR.

52. Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, f. 8, RP.

53. PN, San Juan, Caja 443, ff. 140–42, AGPR.

54. PN, San Juan, Caja 453, folio numbers eaten away. Part of the contract has been destroyed, but the remaining information leaves little doubt that it was a pulpería.

55. Francisco Delgado and Miguel María Lliteres formed a private partnership, not officially recorded in 1851, to operate a pulpería in San Juan. (Such informality was permitted by the Código de Comercio, Libro Segundo, Título 1. The Código is not well known to Latin Americanists since it was promulgated in 1829 and applied during a period of several years to the few remaining Spanish colonies. It was sanctioned for Puerto Rico in 1832.) The capitalization of the operation was 4,000 pesos. Lliteres put in only 523 pesos. The business thrived, and by 1853 the two had acquired an additional store. In the latter year they decided to legalize their venture officially. In the event of liquidation, one-half the value of the stores would be divided according to the partners' investment and the remaining half would be divided equally between the two (PN, San Juan, Caja 532, ff. 2–4, AGPR). For this advantage, Lliteres surely was responsible for administering the stores. José Antonio de Castro and Antonio Padrón were residents of San Juan in 1828 when they decided to open a pulpería in Bayamón. The store was capitalized at 1,400 pesos. Padrón was the administrator of the store and he put in only 100 pesos. Profits were to be divided one-third to Castro and two-thirds to Padrón (PN, San Juan, Caja 443, ff. 138–39, AGPR).

56. I am not giving false names and addresses of the individuals interviewed since this was all done informally and the information obtained was used in a very preliminary manner.

57. PN, San Juan, Caja 481, ff. 632–34, AGPR.

58. As in the 1820 Caracas forced loan list. “Capitulares,” vol. 1, MS in ACM.

59. PN, San Juan, Caja 450, f. 101, AGPR.

60. PN, San Juan, Caja 480, ff. 469–71, AGPR.

61. PN, San Juan, Caja 531, ff. 21–23, AGPR.

62. PN, San Juan, Caja 451, f. 161, AGPR.

63. PN, San Juan, Caja 446, ff. 303–4, AGPR.

64. PN, San Juan, Caja 450, f. 209, AGPR.

65. Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, f. 8, RP.

66. PN, San Juan, Caja 446, ff. 74–76, AGPR.

67. PN, San Juan, Caja 451, ff. 169–70, AGPR.

68. PN, San Juan, Caja 529, AGPR.

69. “Padron de Santa Barbara, ” in “Año de 1840-Padrón,” a separate volume of MS material in AGPR. Pulpero men married at all ages, but many of the Spaniards were often some twenty years older than their wives, sometimes having their first child from their middle to their late forties.

70. PN, San Juan, Caja 483, ff. 282–84, AGPR. Cifre de Loubriel, Formación, p. 363.

71. Cifre de Loubriel, Formación, p. 339.

72. PN, San Juan, Caja 442, folios illegible, AGPR.

73. PN, San Juan, Caja 483, ff. 347–49, AGPR.

74. PN, San Juan, Caja 528, ff. 300–301, AGPR.

75. PN, San Juan, Caja 528, ff. 51–52, AGPR.

76. PN, San Juan, Caja 443, ff. 376–78, AGPR.

77. Monteverde was himself an isleño and his compatriots are supposed to have risen to positions of political power. While many isleño pulperos were surely royalist, I believe that those Caracas storekeepers who found political power or influence were above the category of pulpero. The best overview of the topic is Caracciolo Parra-Pérez, Historia De La Primero República De Venezuela, 2 vols. (2nd ed.; Caracas, 1959), especially pp. 487–520. Less useful is the well known Rafael María Baraly y Ramón Díaz, Resumen De La Historia De Venezuela, 3 vols. (Paris, 1939). For a fast-paced account with some interesting thoughts, see Juan Uslar Pietri, Historia de la rebelión popular de 1814 (Caracas, 1962).

78. Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, ff. 4–6, RP; Protocolos, Caracas, 1839, f. 8, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1800 (Texada), ff. 29–32, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1800 (José Domingo de Barcena, vol. 2, #287), ff. 200–202, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1805 (Ascanio), pp. 164–66, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1800 (Aramburu), ff. 174–78, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1835 (Correa), ff. 178–80, RP; Escribanías, Caracas, 1805 (Ascanio), ff. 184–86, RP. The San Juan data are from wills already mentioned and the cited censuses of 1818 and 1840. I am not counting López Penelas, with three children, as a pulpero or keeper of a tienda de mercería, since he was both. Atlántico Vargas, a fifty-year-old pardo, married to Juana Benitez, a forty-year-old parda, had four children in 1818: Josef Casimero, 5; Ana, 7; Marcelino, 24; Manuel, 2. I believe they were legitimate.