The burden of citizenship: Artisans, elections, and the fuero militar in Santiago de Chile, 1822-1851

Americas

Volumn 58, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 443-469

  Wood, James A ^a  

^a NORTH CAROLINA A AND T STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60949704787     PISSN: 00031615     EISSN: 15336247     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tam.2002.0030     Document Type: Review

References (101)

1. "S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por veinte artesanos amigos de Cerda," El Artesano Opositor, 13 December, 1845
2. José Agustin Cerda's name appeared on the list of signatories of the Act of Installation of the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán published in the article, "Viva la democracia!," El Diario de Santiago, 23 October 1845
3. "A todos los ciudadanos artesanos," El Artesano Opositor, 14 February 1846
4. Also on the "conspiracy" of 1845, see Sergio Grez Toso, De la "regeneración del pueblo" a la huelga general: génesis y evolución histórica del movimiento popular en Chile, 1810-1890 (Santiago: Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos, y Museos, 1997), pp. 292-309
5. "S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por veinte artesanos amigos de Cerda," El Artesano Opositor, 13 December 1845
6. The classic studies of the fuero militar in colonial Spanish America include Lyle McAlister, The 'Fuero Militar' in New Spain, 1764-1810 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1957)
7. Christon Archer, The Army in Bourbon Mexico, 1760-1810 (Tuscon: University of New Mexico Press, 1977)
8. Allan Kuethe, Reform and Society in New Granada, 1773-1808 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1978)
9. and Leon Campbell, The Military and Society in Colonial Peru, 1750-1810 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1978)
10. On the application of the fuero militar to the pardo militiamen of late colonial Spanish America, see Allen Kuethe, "The Status of the Free Pardo in the Disciplined Militia of New Granada," Journal of Negro History 56:2 (April 1971), pp. 105-17
11. George Reid Andrews, The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1980)
12. esp. the chapter "The Black Legions," pp. 113-37
13. Joseph Sánchez, "African Freedmen and the Fuero Militar: A Historical Overview of Pardo and Moreno Militiamen in the late Spanish Empire," Colonial Latin American Historical Review 3:2 (Spring 1994), pp. 165-84
14. and Ben Vinson III, "Race and Badge: Free-Colored Soldiers in the Colonial Mexican Militia," The Americas 56:4 (April 2000), pp. 471-96
15. McAlister and Kuethe made the strongest arguments for militiamen receiving "preferential treatment" under the fuero militar. In Kuethe's words, the institutional "esprit de corps" far outweighed the application of "impartial justice." See McAlister, The Fuero Militar, pp. 109-11
16. and Kuethe, Reform and Society, pp. 26-7
17. There is almost nothing published on the negative impact of the fuero militar on militiamen. Christon Archer discussed the military authorities' need to impose harsh punishments on militiamen for desertion in the 1790s. See Archer, The Army, pp. 275-7
18. Ben Vinson's recent article noted that there was "some debate regarding the actual worth of the privilege" of the fuero militar, yet goes no further with the idea, focusing instead on the role of militia service in the construction of racial identities in colonial Mexico. See Vinson, "Race and Badge," p. 472
19. One historian who did address the fuero militar in the context of postindependence was Charles Hale, who discussed José Maria Luis Mora's attempts to abolish the fuero militar for the Mexican army (but not militia) as part of the general liberal assault on corporate privileges. Like the early state-builders in Chile, Mora attempted to expand Mexico's civic militia as a counterweight to the power of the professional armed forces. See Charles Hale, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821-53 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 141-4
20. On Chilean constitutional politics in the early national period, see Simon Collier, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808-33 (Cambridge University Press, 1967)
21. Ricardo Donoso, Las ideas politicas en Chile, ed. 2d. (Stgo: Editorial Universitaria, 1967), pp. 277-315
22. and Domingo Amunátegui Solar, La democracia en Chile/Teatro político, 1810-1910 (Santigo: Universidad de Chile, 1946), pp. 3-46
23. Collier, Ideas and Politics, p. 154
24. Constitución politica de Estado de Chile promulgada el 23 de Octubre de 1822 (Stgo: 1822), capítulo II, título 3, artículo 14
25. On women and citizenship in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century republicanism, see Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (University of North Carolina Press, 1980)
26. Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia University Press, 1988)
27. Silvia M. Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1857 (Stanford University Press, 1985)
28. and Sarah Chambers, From Subjects to Citizens: Honor, Gender, and Politics in Arequipa, Peru, 1780-1854 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999)
29. "Constitución politica de la República de Chile," Parte II, capítulo 2, artículo 7: de los ciudadanos activos, El Vice-Presidente de la República a la Nación (Santiago: 8 August 1828)
30. "Constitutión politica de la República de Chile," artículos 8 and 9," in El Vice-Presidente de la República
31. Reglamento de Elecciones Constitucionales iniciado en la Camara de Diputados, sancionado por el Congreso Nacional, y mandado cumplirpor el Poder Ejecutivo (Santigo: 16 December 1828)
32. Diego Barros Arana, Historia General de Chile, vol. 15 (Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes, 1897), p. 212a
33. According to Simon Collier and William Sater, the emergency powers set up under the Constitution of 1833 were in effect about a third of the time between the years 1833 and 1861. See Collier and Sater, A History of Chile, 1808-1994 (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 55
34. Reglamento de Elecciones por cuanto el Congreso Nacional confecha de 30 de Noviembre último ha decretado y sancionado el reglamento de elecciones que sigue (Santiago: 2 December 1833)
35. The postponement of the literacy requirements in the 1833 Electoral Regulations became a major issue of contention in the Congress and the Santiago press in September, 1842. Samuel Valenzuela has suggested that such cautious treatment of the literacy requirements for suffrage by the government was the result of a significant plebeian electorate. See J. Samuel Valenzuela, Democratización vía reforma: la expansión del sufragio en Chile (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ides, 1985), p. 60
36. On the Chilean militia in the colonial and postindependence periods, see Estado Mayor General del Ejército de Chile, Historia del Ejército de Chile (Santiago: Estado Mayor General del Ejército, 1980)
37. Roberto Hernández Ponce, "La Guardia National de Chile: apuntes sobre su origen y organización, 1808-1848," Historia 19 (1984), pp. 53-114
38. and Frederick Nunn, The Military in Chilean History: Essays on Civil-Military Relations, 1810-1973 (University of New Mexico Press, 1976), pp. 20-37
39. See Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso National de 1835 (Santiago: 14 September 1835), cuadro 7
40. Memoria de 1846, p. 10
41. For general observations about the connection between elections and the national guard in nineteenth-century Chile, see Federico Gil, The Political System of Chile (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966), pp. 38-40
42. Valenzuela, Democratización via reforma, pp. 51-81
43. Valenzuela, "Building Aspects of Democracy Before Democracy: Electoral Practices in Nineteenth-Century Chile," in Eduardo Posada Carbó, ed., Elections Before Democracy: The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America (London: MacMillan, 1996), pp. 202-23
44. and Simon Collier, "Evolutión politica, institutional, social, y cultural de Chile entre 1829 y 1865," in La Casa de Bello, Bello y Chile (Caracas, Fundación de la Casa de Bello, 1981), pp. 32-4. All three authors agreed that the national guard provided government candidates with an unbeatable electoral machine
45. Pedro Santoni found similar elite fears in Mexico City in the early national period. See Santoni, "A Fear of the People: The Civic Militia of Mexico in 1845," HAHR 68:1 (1988), pp. 269-88, esp. 282-4
46. Also on the national guard in nineteenth-century Mexico, see Santoni, "The Failure of Mobilization: The Civic Militia of Mexico in 1846," Mexican Studies 12:2 (Summer 1996), pp. 169-94
47. and Guy P. C. Thompson, "Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: The National Guard, Philharmonic Corps and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847-88," Journal of Latin American Studies 22:1 (1990), pp. 31-68
48. Memoria de 1842, p. 9
49. "Fuero militar de los cuerpos cívicos," in Ricardo Castro, ed., Recopilación de leyes, decretos supremos, i circulares vijentes concernientes a la Guardia Nacional desde el 3 de diciembre de 1835 a 14 de diciembre de 1872 (Santiago: Imprenta Nacional, 1873), pp. 83-5
50. Antonio Annino, ed., Historia de las elecciones en Iberoamérica, siglo XIX (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura, 1995)
51. Richard Warren, "Elections and Popular Political Participation in Mexico, 1808-36," in Vincent Peloso and Barbara Tenenbaum, eds., Liberals, Politics, and Power: State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (University of Georgia Press, 1996), pp. 30-58
52. Vincent Peloso, "Liberals, Electoral Reform, and Foreign Intervention in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Peru," in Peloso and Tenenbaum, pp. 186-211
53. and Francois-Xavier Guerra, "The Spanish-American Tradition of Representation and its European Roots," Journal of Latin American Studies 26:1 (1994), pp. 1-36
54. On popular politics in the nineteenth-century, or pre-populist era, more generally, see Silvia Arrom and Servando Ortoll eds., Riots in the Cities: Popular Politics and the Urban Poor in Latin America, 1765-1910 (Wilmington DE: Scholarly Resources, 1996)
55. For a comparison with early nineteenth-century London, see Frank O'Gorman, "Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies: The Social Meaning of Elections in England, 1780-1860," Past and Present 135 (1992)
56. Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt Letelier, "Liberalismo y modernidad: ideología y simbolismo en el Chile decimonónico: un marco teórico," in Ricardo Krebs and Cristián Gazmuri, eds., La revolución francesa y Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria 1990), pp. 303-34
57. For his complete interpretation of Chilean independence, see Jocelyn-Holt, La independencia de Chile: tradición, modernización, y mito (Madrid: Mapfre, 1992)
58. rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 141-3
59. Isidoro Errázuriz, Historia de la Administración Errázuriz (precedida de una introducción que contiene la reseña del movimiento y la lucha de los partidos desde 1823 hasta 1871), (Valparaiso: Imprenta de la Patria, 1877), pp. 189-96
60. and Donoso, Las ideas, pp. 287-88
61. "Noticia de una reunión," 20 January 1840
62. "Circular del partido liberal sobre el derecho electoral," Santiago, 24 May 1841 (Archivo Nacional, Fondo Benjamin Vicuna MacKenna, 34/ 11/329-30)
63. Also on the activities of the Sociedad Patriótica, see "Carta de Don Nicolas Pradel a su hermano Don Bernardino sobre la presidencia de la República del General Pinto," Valparaiso, 24 April 1841 (AN, FBVM, 34/ 4/310-11)
64. and "Carta de uno de los miembros de la collusión liberal," Santiago, 24 May 1841 (AN, FBVM, 34/8/318-22)
65. For a review of the recent historiography on nineteenth-century Latin America's public sphere, see "Elías José Palti, "Recent Studies on the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Latin America," Latin American Research Review 36:2 (2001), pp. 255-66
66. "Catecismo político: segunda pregunta: podremos llamar LADRON propiamente al jefe de militias que quita a sus soldados los calificaciones para hacerlos votar a su arbitrio?" El Miliciano, 8 June 1841
67. "Consejo útil a los artesanos: Adición al reglamento de elecciones," El Miliciano, 13 June 1841
68. Errazuriz, Historia de la Administración Errázuriz, pp. 242-48
69. Reprinted in "El Diario," El Diario de Santiago, 18 October 1845
70. On the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán, see Grez, De la "regeneración," pp. 292-310
71. María Angélica Illanes, La revolución solidaria: Historia de las sociedades obreras de socorros mutuos, 1840-1920 (Santiago: Prisma, 1990), pp. 18-23
72. and Luis Alberto Romero, La Sociedad de la Igualdad: los artesanos de Santiago de Chile y sus primeras experiencias politicas, 1820-51 (Buenos Aires, Torcuato Di Telia, 1978), p. 44
73. "Viva la democracia!" El Diario de Santiago
74. and Illanes, La revolución solidaria, p. 44
75. The liberal opposition was not the only contender for the political allegiance of the city's artisans. In response to the disturbances caused by the liberals in 1840-41, pro-government forces established their own electoral association in 1845-6, the Sociedad del Orden, which supported its own artisan newspaper, El Artesano del Orden. The pro-government artisan paper also included letters to the editor, which generally praised the Bulnes Administration for improving the artisans' standard of living. It is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this article to give the pro-government side in the polemic over artisan identity an equal hearing. For a thorough analysis of the conservative, pro-government artisan press and its relationship to the Santiago public sphere, see James A. Wood, "Building a Society of Equals: The Popular Republican Movement in Santiago de Chile, 1818-51," (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000), pp. 183-250
76. "S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por varios nationales," El Artesano Opositor, 16 December 1845
77. and Errázuriz, Historia, pp. 345-548
78. Twentieth-century studies of the Sociedad de la Igualdad include Julio Cesar Jobet, Santiago Arcos Arlegui y la Sociedad de la Igualdad (Santiago: Imprenta Cultura, 1942), pp. 111-50
79. Cristian Gazmuri, El '48' Chilene: igualitarios, reformistas, radicales, masones y bomberos (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1992), pp. 73-115
80. and Grez, De la "regeneratión, pp. 311-76
81. On the Sociedad de la Igualdad as a precursor of the Chilean workers' movement, see Hernán Ramirez Necochea, Historia del movimiento obrero en Chile: antecedentes-siglo XIX (Santiago: Imprenta Real, 1951), pp. 78-100
82. Julio Cesar Jobet, Ensayo crítico del desarrollo económico social en Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1955), pp. 36-40
83. Jobet, Precursores del pensamiento social de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1955-56), pp. 9-48
84. and Tulio Lagos Valenzuela, Bosquejo histórico del movimiento obrere en Chile (Santiago: El Esfuerzo, 1941), pp. 9-22
85. On the Sociedad de la Igualdad as a precursor to the Latin American workers' movement, see Julio Godio, Historia del movimiento obrero latinoamericano, vol. 1, Anarquistas y socialistas, 1850-1918 (Mexico City: Nueva Imagen, 1980), pp. 34-39
86. and Ricardo Melgar Bao, El movimiento obrero latinoamericano: historia de una clase subalterna (Madrid: Alianza, 1988), pp. 62-71
87. This idea even carried over into the work of Eduardo Galeano. See Galeano, "The Precursors," in Memory of Fire: Faces and Masks (New York: Pantheon, 1987), pp. 173-74
88. On the importance of looking at the Sociedad de la Igualdad's relationship to the past rather than the future, Marcelo Segall wrote "Hasta ahora, la Sociedad de la Igualdad y sus insurrecciones aparecen a los ojos de los historiadores como un rayo en un cielo azul y despejado. Un milagro. Una sorpresa. No fue así. La unidad militante ... que fue la Sociedad de la Igualdad ... tuvo sus antecedentes romántico socialistas con años de anterioridad. Su culminatión en 1851, es el fin de un proceso largo." See Marcelo Segall, Las tachas de clases en las primeras décadas de la República de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Nascimiento, 1962), pp. 36-7
89. "Guardia nacional," four-part series, El Amigo del Pueblo, 11, 15, and 26 April and 13 May 1850
90. On Congressman Urizar's role in the Equality Society, see Vicuña MacKenna, Historia de la jornada, 111, pp. 248-49. Urizar was a diputado from San Felipe (Santiago Province). He was partially responsible for spreading the Equality Society to San Felipe later in 1850, which provoked the November, 1850 sitio declaration
91. "Convocatión general en 1 de agosto," (AN/Fondo Varios, 830/63-64)
92. El Amigo del Pueblo repeated the plea for the city's artisans to write in with their personal stories of abuse in each article dedicated to the topic of guard reform. Article two (15 April) of the series , for example, concluded: "Invitamos a nuestros hermanos del pueblo a que nos comuniquen las observaciones que hayan hecho sobre los medios de remediar esos males que tan pesado hacen el servicio en los cuerpos cívicos."
93. "Guardia Nacional," El Amigo del Pueblo, 26 April 1850
94. Vicuña MacKenna, Historia de la Jornada
95. Benjamin Vicuña MacKenna, Historia de los diez años de la administracián de Don Manuel Montt, 5 vols. (Santiago, Editorial Chilena: 1862-63). All five volumes deal with the civil war of 1851
96. Lieutenant MacRae's account is located in Gilliss, The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition, pp. 304-9
97. Manifesto del Partido de Oposición a los pueblos de la República sobre la nulidad de que adolecen las elecciones hechas en los días 25 y 26 de Junio último (Santiago: Imprenta del Progreso, July, 1851)
98. Manifesto del Partido de Oposición
99. For an unusual view of the civil wars of 1851 and 1859, see Maurice Zeitlin, The Civil Wars in Chile (or the bourgeois revolutions that never were) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)
100. For recent studies of popular liberalism in nineteenth-century Spanish America that focus on rural society, see Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)
101. and Peter Guardino, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State, 1800-1857 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)