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142 chapter five The Citizen Cacique After the Guayochería In September 1887, Andrés Guayocho’s community on the isla of San Lorenzo lay in ruins, its burned shells of buildings and silent plaza returning to cattle pasture, its people dead or dispersed. Few could have guessed that within a few years, that same isla would host a revived Mojo settlement that would not only achieve Guayocho’s goal of autonomy from the carayana and indigenous authorities of Trinidad, but maintain it for three decades. The new community would not appear overnight, however, and for information on the early movements of Mojo refugees, we must turn to carayana sources from Trinidad. Most of the principal carayana actors in the Guayochería disappeared from the scene quite rapidly. On October 25, Napoleón Vaca died of a “malignant fever,” and on November 5, Daniel Suárez died from the same illness.1 Miguel Antelo may have remained in Trinidad into the early 1890s, but he eventually moved to Baures, where he became an important patron by 1902, and corregidor by 1906.2 José María Urdininea did not remain in Trinidad for long either. On January 1, 1888, he wrote to the minister of government saying that it was necessary for him to resign the post of prefect owing to a dislocation he had suffered, and that he would appoint the police intendant Marcelino Marañón as interim prefect. Urdininea stayed in office until the end of March, when he received word from the minister that he had been named prefect of Santa Cruz. He eventually returned to Sucre, where he became a respected writer and public figure, and where he died in 1909.3 Despite the end of the fighting, many Trinitario Mojos continued living far to the southwest of Trinidad. On January 23, Urdininea wrote The Citizen Cacique • 143 to the minister of government about the peaceful situation in Beni, and noted: “The natives remain submissive and very deferential to authority, devoted to their farming and manning boats, without noting the smallest indication of revolt among them, even though a part are still far away on the banks of the Río Sécure after the flood of 1853, for other motives, and lately because of the turbulence and hostilities of last year, causing a scarcity of hands for work, especially in this capital.”4 The situation had begun to change by July 9, when acting prefect Mara- ñón informed the minister that some of the Mojos were moving closer to Trinidad once again. Marañón wrote that in February, some fifty emaciated Indians had left the refugee settlement of San José because of diseases and the sterility of the land, and had settled in San Ignacio. In June, Indians from San José moved to San Francisco, Rosario, and Recreo on the west bank of the Mamoré, and sent emissaries to Trinidad “to convince themselves that they are guaranteed their constitutional rights, in order to be able to accommodate themselves in the places of farming and pasture that they possessed.” Prudencio Nosa, who had been elected leader of one group of refugees in Father Arteche’s presence, was still respected among them and went to speak to Marañón in Trinidad. The acting prefect advised Nosa to return to enjoy the fertility of his properties, to exchange his produce for “articles necessary for social life,” and to live closer to the Mamoré and Ibare rivers, with their commerce with the outside world. Nosa said that his people wanted exactly that and added that he wanted to reclaim his grandchildren, the children of his daughter Nicolasa and Nicanor Cubene, “who remained orphans and they and their possessions in the power of strangers.”5 At the end of 1888, the new prefect, Santos M. Justiniano, informed the minister of government about the situation of the Trinitario refugees. The prefect wrote that he had told the Trinitarios “that in the future they will enjoy constitutional guarantees, and their children will have easy access to primary and secondary education.”6 In other words, he promised them that they would be able to enjoy the full rights of citizens under liberalism, which is exactly what they wanted. Many refugees, including some of the Nosa family, accepted the offer. Although the fate of the Cubene children is unknown, both Prudencio Nosa and his son Alejandro were satisfied that it was safe to return to the west bank of the Mamoré. In 1902...

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