The forgotten liberator: Buenaventura Martínez and Yucatán's Republican Restoration

Mexican Studies - Estudios Mexicanos

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 331-366

  Rugeley, Terry ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 67649516557     PISSN: 07429797     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/msem.2003.19.2.331     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (129)

1. The most complete accounts are Lázaro Pavía, El imperio en la península yucateca: Apuntes para la historia 1861 a 1867 (México: Eduardo Dublan, 1897)
2. Juan Francisco Molina Solís, Historia de Yucatán desde la Independencia hasta la época actual, volume II (Mérida: Compañía Tipográfica Yucateca, 1927)
3. Eduardo Urzaiz, Del imperio a la revolución, 1865-1910 (Mérida: Talleres Gráficos del Sureste, 1946)
4. and Albino Acereto, "Historia política desde el descubrimiento europeo hasta 1920," in Enciclopedia yucatanense, III (México: Gobierno de México, 1947)
5. Moisés González Navarro, Raza y tierra: La guerra de castas y el henequén (México: Colegio de México, 1970), especially chapter 6
6. and Allen Wells, Yucatán's Gilded Age: Haciendas, Henequen, and International Harvester, 1860-1915 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985)
7. Pavía, El Imperio, 46
8. Molina Solís, Historia de Yucatán, II, 400
9. Acereto, "Historia política," 318
10. and Urzaiz, Delmperio, 40
11. Among the most influential formulations of the influence of moral economies on rural revolt is James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), 193-203
12. William B. Taylor, Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979), 113-51
13. Two of the most important synthetic studies of nineteenth-century rebellion tend to follow moral economy readings: Leticia Reina, Las rebeliones campesinas en México (1819-1906) (México: Siglo XXI, 1980)
14. and John Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986)
15. Significantly, Reina's more recent edited volume allows far greater complexity and latitude in rural life; see Reina, La reindianización de América, siglo XIX (México: Siglo XXI, 1997)
16. Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2 vols (London: Cambridge University Press, 1986), I, 115-27
17. On Guerrero, see Peter F. Guardino, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State: Guerrero, 1800-1857 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)
18. on Veracruz, see Michael T. Ducey "Village, Nation, and Constitution: Insurgent Politics in Papantla, Veracruz, 1810-1821," Hispanic American Historical Review 79: 3 (August 1999), 463-93
19. on the Puebla sierra, see Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)
20. and Guy P. C. Thompson with David G. LaFrance, Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999)
21. on the Bajío, see John Tutino, "The Revolution in Mexican Independence: Insurgency and the Renegotiation of Property, Production, and Patriarchy in the Bajío, 1800-1855," Hispanic American Historical Review 73: 3 (1998), 367-413
22. and for a reappraisal of Mexican federalism, see Timothy Anna, Forging Mexico, 1821-1835 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998)
23. Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán (AGEY), Poder Ejecutivo (PE) 73, Censos y Padrones, 19 April 1949, Baca. Other census information does exist, but only in the form of aggregate numbers
24. See, for example, the quarrel over the right to jurisdiction over hacienda Tixkuncheil, in AGEY, PE 127, J, Juzgado de Mocochá, 15 January 1861
25. For social and cultural analyses of pre-Porfirian Yucatán, see Terry Rugeley, Yucatán's Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War, 1800-1847 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996)
26. and Rugeley, Of Wonders and Wise Men: Religion and Popular Cultures in Southeast Mexico, 1800-1876 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001)
27. The last known reference comes in April 1847, when Santiago Martínez served as padrino to Marcelino Lara, daughter of Anastasio Lara and Isidora Marrufo; see Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado (AHA), Mocochá, Bautismos, volume 23, 27 April 1847, 229
28. Centro de Apoyo a la Investigación Histórica de Yucatán (CAIHY), Libros, Documentos interesantes, ed. Crescendo Carrillo y Ancona, "Memoria del Secretario General del Gobierno del Estado de Yucatán" (Mérida: José Dolores Espinosa, 1862), various pages
29. José Isidro Martínez owned one home a block to the north of the plaza; see Archivo Notarial del Estado de Yucatán (ANEY), 23 June, 1868, 148
30. Buenaventura himself owned a home on the west side of the plaza; see ANEY 16 July 1869, 40-3
31. On the origins and nature of municipal politics, see Rugeley, "Rural Political Violence and the Origins of the Caste War," The Americas 53: 4 (1997), 469-96
32. AGEY, PE 53, Gobernación, Ayuntamientos, 11 November 1843, Baca. Eldest son Francisco also signed
33. Hemeroteca Pino Suárez (HPS), El regenerador, 17 February 1853, 2
34. Designation of the new juez de paz appears in AGEY, Libros Complementarios del Poder Ejecutivo, Correspondencia de los Gobernadores #23, 10 January 1853, 222. Rómulo Díaz de la Vega's overthrow of Governor Miguel Barbachano did not begin on 19 January of the same year, and was not completed until 7 August
35. AGEY, PE 107, Justicia, Motul, 23 October 1855; 5 November 1855. José Isidro Martínez was nominated as the first of three candidates, but the position inexplicably went to a fourth party, one Federico Castillo
36. AGEY, PE 5, Censos y Padrones, III, 4, 24 July 1840. The Mocochá complaints are attached to census information of the community, since the town had to demonstrate the requisite number of literate residents in order to qualify for their own junta
37. AGEY, PE 44, Gobernación, IV, 97, 24 February 1841. Specifically, the alcalde of Baca was imposing arbitrary fines on Martínez's hacienda peons
38. Some confusion exists regarding Buenaventura Martínez's birthdate, a confusion resulting from the parish's ambiguous baptism records. An 1834 baptism was originally recorded as "Juana Bautista Martínez," but was scratched out and replaced with "Buenaventura," while the 1836 entry lists "José Buenaventura Martínez." The two entries are identical in all other regards. Of the two, 1836 seems the more probable. The earlier entry possibly refers to a daughter who died in childbirth, and who in retrospect was confused with Buenaventura himself. See AHA, Mocochá, Bautismos, volume 21, 14 July 1834, 22-3; and 8 January 1836, 55
39. AHA, Mocochá, Matrimonios, volume 9, 28 January 1854, 69
40. AHA, Mocochá, Bautismos, volume 24, 13 June 1855, 71
41. To take only one example, María Inez Pasto married Leonardo Pech; see AHA, Mocochá, Bautismos, volume 31, 24 July 1834, 23-4
42. ANEY, Protocols of Motul, 10 April 1862, 126, will of Apolonia Basto
43. Buenaventura Martínez was promoted to captain in late 1860, after what was described as a long period as lieutenant; see AGEY, PE 123, G, M, 22 December 1860, Motul
44. Evidence regarding patterns of compadrazgo comes from AHA, Mochochá, Bautismos, volumes 25-26, various dates and pages
45. AGEY, Fondo Justicia-Penal, 98, exp. 62, 17 March 1859; exp. 72, 3 April 1859
46. AGEY, Fondo Justicia-Penal, 11, 27 September 1855, Baca
47. AGEY, PE 120, G, JP-Baca, 1 February 1859, from a petition of the creole townsfolk of Baca, including José Isidro Martínez as signatory
48. Rugeley, Yucatán's Maya Peasantry, 117-22
49. Details of this restructuring are found in HPS, Periódico oficial, 7 February 1866, 1-2
50. AGEY, PE 135, Gobernación, "Adhesiones," 3 July 1863, Baca
51. Apolonia Basto's will is dated 10 April 1862; see ANEY Protocols of Motul, page 162. This document was apparently a deathbed composition
52. AGEY, PE 137, Justicia, 10 November 1863, Baca
53. This, at least, is the number provided in the military roster found in AGEY, PE 138, Gobernación, Guardia Nacional, 3 February 1864
54. AGEY PE 138, G, Comandancia Militar-Motul, 1 August 1864
55. AGEY, PM 138, Militias, 8 August 1864, 19 August 1864
56. HPS, Periódico oficial, 10 February 1865, 2
57. AGEY, PE 138, Gobernación, Comandancia Militar, 3 September 1864
58. AGEY, PE 144, Subprefectura Política-Motul, undated list of deserters, 1865
59. AGEY, PE 144, Subprefectura Política-Motul, 8 June 1865
60. AGEY, PE 144, Subprefectura Política-Motul, 12 April 1865
61. See, for example, the spirited protests of Miguel Cícero in AGEY PE 145, Comisario Imperial, 2 June 1865, Mérida
62. AGEY, PE 159, Gobernación, Ministro de Fomento, various dates, March 1866
63. AGEY, PE 144, Subprefectura Política-Motul, 18 January 1865
64. AGEY, PE 148, Justicia, 4 January 1865, Baca
65. The Martínez raid on Mocochá is documented through several sources. All agree on the larger contours, although some details tend to vary, particularly regarding the exact hour, which some versions place at sunrise. Manners of expressing time were often vague among rural people, however, and the general idea seems to be that it began in the hours before dawn. Oddly enough, the most complete account comes from the official government mouthpiece, the Periódico oficial (13 June 1866, 4), found in HPS. A few supplemental details appear in AGEY, PE 162, Gobernación, Prefectura Política, 17 June 1866, Mérida. The tax-collectors' point of view emerges in AGEY, PE 157, Gobernación, Recaudación-Motul, 24 July 1866. Finally, a few captured participants give their own (probably falsified) accounts in AGEY, PE 165, Justicia, Justicia Militar, 24 June 1866
66. AGEY, PE 113, Gobernación, Comandancia Militar, 16 June 1866
67. AGEY, PE 166, Justicia, Juez de Paz, Baca, 12 June 1866
68. This document records the hearing on activities of one Enrique Santana, one of the original Martínez adherents arrested after the Mocochá raid; his death sentence was later communted to ten years of forced labor, only to evaporate altogether with the fall of the Empire. Despite its reputation for brutality, the late Empire of the southeast consistently inclined toward leniency with political prisoners. See also AGEY, PE 150, Gobernación, Court Martial, 23 June 1866
69. AGEY, PE 167, Comandancia Militar-Motul, 4 July 1867. In this document Martínez writes to request a pension for María Encarnación Pérez, the widow of one of his original followers
70. AGEY, PE 165, Justicia, Justicia Militar, 24 June 1866
71. ANEY, 26 June 1866, 121-2
72. This list is to be found in AGEY, PE 152, Gobernación, Comandancia Militar de Yucatán, 16 June 1866
73. AHA, Mocochá, Bautismos, volume 26, 17 January 1864, 13-4
74. AGEY, PE 166, Justicia, Juez de Paz, Baca, 12 June 1866
75. See Allen Wells and Gilbert M. Joseph, Summer of Discontent, Seasons of Upheavel: Elite Politics and Rural Insurgency in Yucatán, 1876-1915 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)
76. See Documentos históricos peninsulares (Mérida: CAIHY, 1996) II, 5, "Informe de las victorias de las tropas imperiales sobre las republicánas en Calkiní," 22 January 1867
77. Mocochá parish, for example, was utterly impoverished by 1859; see AHAY, PE 121, Iglesia, 12 December 1859, Mocochá
78. AGEY, PE 161, G, Subprefectura Política-Motul, 11 July 1866; PE 150, Gobernación, Milicia, 29 July 1866, 4 August 1866
79. CAIHY, Libros Manuscritos #161, "Libro copiador de cartas de la comandancia superior de la 7.a División Militar en Yucatán, de mayo 22 de 1866 a agosto 8 de 1866," 28 July 1866, 278
80. AGEY, PE 161, Gobernación, Subprefectura Política-Motul, 21 July 1866
81. AGEY, PE 150, Gobernación, Milicia, 7 August 1866
82. CAIHY, Libros Manuscritos #162, "Libro copiador de cartas de la comandancia superior de la 7.a División Militar en Yucatán, del 18 de agosto de 1866 a octubre 25 de 1866," 23 August 1866, 17
83. AGEY, PE 159, Gobernación, Prefectura Política-Campeche, 31 August 1866
84. CAIHY, Libros Manuscritos #162, 29-32, 64, 171-9
85. CAIHY, Libros Manuscritos #162, 17 August 1866, 383. A combined infantry-cavalry force of some 45 men were currently hunting Martínez
86. University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Salazar Ilarregui Papers (SI), GA210, folder 27: "Criminal contra los sargentos segundos del 9.o Batallón de Lima, Pablo Servian y Leonido Vázquez, cabos Fulgencio Zapata, Margarito Delgado y Felipe Chávez, acusados de haberse sublevado en marcha, en la villa de Hunucmá el treinta de diciembre último en la madrugada, dando muerte al subteniente del mismo cuerpo Segut," 3 January 1867, 62 ffs
87. UTA, SI, GA209-25, 1 January 1867
88. Martínez's plan appears in Archivo Histórico de la Defensa Nacional (AHDN), xi/481.4/9834, 14 January 1867, f. 20
89. UTA, SI, GA210, folder 27: "Criminal contra los sargentos segundos," 3 January 1867, 62 ffs
90. AGEY, PE 167, Subprefectura Política-Maxcanú, 21 January 1867; Subprefectura Política-Espita, 25 January 1867
91. AGEY, PE 167, Comandancia Militar, 4 July 1867
92. AGEY, PE 167, Subprefectura Política-Sotuta, 26 January 1867
93. AGEY, PE 167, Subprefectura Política-Maxcanú, 20 January 1867
94. AHDN , xi/481.4/9834, 14 January 1867, f. 20
95. Manuel Cepeda Peraza's lengthy report on the fall of the Empire in Yucatán remains an important source on the events of 1866 and 1867; see AHDN xi/481.4/9834, 1 July 1867, ff. 3-18; a published version of this appears in Historia documental militar de la intervención francesa en México y el denominado segundo imperio, ed. Jesús de León Torrel (México: Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, 1867), 799-809
96. AGEY, PE 84, G, GN, 22 December 1860
97. Daniel Cosío Villegas's ideas on the period appear in his monumental, multivolume Historia moderna de México (México: Editorial Hermes, 1955), and particularly in volume I, La república restaurada: La vida política
98. Laurens Ballard Perry, Juárez and Díaz: Machine Politics in Mexico (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978). Regarding the Yucatecan scene, see pages 101-6
99. CAIHY, Manuscritos, LVI, 56, 14 April 1867, Conkal. The news was carried here by the cura of Mocochá, who had just come from Baca
100. AGEY, PE 167, Jefatura Política-Valladolid, 16-28 November, 1867
101. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 8 April 1868, 2
102. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 10 January 1870, 1, 4
103. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 3 March 1869, 1. Encomiums to Manuel Cepeda Peraza continue for several numbers thereafter
104. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 10 January 1870, 1. The date of the presidente's note is 3 January 1870
105. ANEY, 16 July 1869, 40-3
106. HPS, Razon del pueblo, 11 March 1870, 4. The Buenaventura Martínez will does not exist, or at least I have been unable to find it. The reference cited above merely refers to a postponement in its execution
107. AGEY, "Colección de leyes," Eligio Ancona, III, 29 June 1869, 345
108. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 24 January 1876, 1-2
109. AGEY, Fondo Justicia, Penal, 98, 12 May 1873, 16 July 1873, Baca
110. AGEY, Fondo Justicia, Civil, no box number, 9 April 1876, Baca
111. ANEY 23 June 1868, 148. The nearby house of José Isidro Martínez, located on the north side of the same block, served as the reference point for Gamboa's title of purchase
112. This intriguing document is buried at the conclusion of the wholly unrelated papers of AHA, Mochocá, Bautismos, volume 26, 27 April 1869
113. ANEY, 22 February 1881, 138-40, testament of José Isidro Martínez
114. AGEY, Registro Civil, Baca, Nacimientos #1, 23 July 1868, 19
115. ANEY, Protocols of Motul, 24 October 1888, no page numbers. Regarding ownership of hacienda K'uxub, see AGEY, 22 February 1881, 138-140, testament of José Isidro Martínez. Apparently some of Buenaventura's sense of responsibility rubbed off on his son, since father José Isidro passed over his elder son Francisco to make José Pilar his executor
116. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 29 December 1970, 1
117. AGEY, Registro Civil, Baca, Difunciones, volume 6, 9 August 1885, 35. This brief entry actually reports the death of Francisco's son Benjamín, age 5, but also includes a few useful details on the father himself
118. ANEY Protocols of Motul, 24 August 1887, 70-1
119. AGEY, PE 217, Gobernación, 15 February 1881, Mérida. Like so many personal recollections of Yucatán's Caste War and civil wars, this tidbit of information appears in a pension request
120. Again, see Cepeda Peraza's account in AHDN, xi/481.4/9834, 1 July 1867, ff. 3-18
121. HPS, Razón del pueblo, 29 July 1881. The portrait has long since disappeared; no known likeness of Buenaventura Martínez has yet surfaced, despite a careful search of regional photo archives
122. AGEY, PE, Junta Municipal de Baca, 16 September 1878. This document, together with the Poder Ejecutivo papers from the 1870s and 1880s, is currently in process of reorganization: hence, no box number
123. Three instructive works on the use and abuse of national hero cults are Irene V. O'Malley, The Myth of the Revolution: Hero Cults and the Institutionalization of the Mexican State, 1920-1940 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986)
124. Roger Bartra, The Cage of Melancholy: Identity and Metamorphosis in the Mexican Character, trans. Christopher J. Hall (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1992)
125. and Eric Van Young, "The State as Vampire - Hegemonic Projects, Public Ritual, and Popular Culture in Mexico, 1600-1990," in Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico, ed. William H. Beezley, Cheryl English Martin, and William E. French (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1994), 343-74
126. CAIHY Libros Manuscritos #40, Actos de Cabíldo de Mérida, 6 March 1874, 371
127. AGEY, Congreso del Estado 87, volume I, expediente 24, 17 January 1898, Mérida
128. Tomás Aznar Barbachano, "Apuntes biográficos," in A la memoria del C. Lic. Pablo García (Mérida: Tipografía de G. Canto, 1895), 59-65
129. Manuel Mestre Ghigliazza, Gobernantes de Tabasco, 1821-1914, ed. Carlos R. Menéndez (México: Editorial del Gobierno del Estado de Tabasco, 1982, orig. 1926), 222-5