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1. The Aymara in the Civil War of 1899: Enemy or Ally of the Liberal Party?
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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16 1 The Aymara in the Civil War of 1899 Enemy or Ally of the Liberal Party? From December 1898 through April 1899, Creole and Aymara indigenous forces allied themselves with the Liberal Party in an effort to seize leadership of the country from President Severo Alonso and the ruling Conservatives. On April 10, 1899, the Liberal Party defeated the army and took control of the nation. This Creole-Aymara alliance, then, helped transfer power from one political party to another. Moreover, the rise of liberalism and the wartime experience itself promised social and political change. As the war neared its end and the Liberal Party’s victory drew close, Pablo Zárate Willka, a cacique apoderado (Aymara community authority) who supported the alliance between the Liberal Party and Aymara leaders, articulated his vision of Bolivian society under liberalism in the “Proclamation of Caracollo,” dated March 28, 1899, which circulated widely among the highland offices of provincial governments. Addressed to each individual canton or provincial capital in the highland region and emanating from the general command in La Paz, Zárate Willka’s missive outlined the changes to be implemented as a result of the war. Directing his message at all residents and the landowners in favor of federalism and the Liberal Party, Zárate Willka underscored how the war had created common ground for Creoles and Indians in the name of the Bolivian nation: “All the indigenous people and the whites rose up to defend the Republic of Bolivia from the disgusting traitor Alonso.” He continued: “With great emotion, I order all the indigenous people to respect the towns- the aymara in the civil war of 1899 | 17 people and not to abuse them, since the indigenous people rose up in combat [against the Conservatives] and not against the townspeople. In the same way, the whites or townspeople should respect the Indians because we are all from the same blood, we are all children of Bolivia, and we should love each other like brothers.”1 Zárate Willka not only emphasized this newly created common ground between Creoles and Aymaras but also quelled any suspicions of race war, underscoring the two groups’ shared status “as children of Bolivia.” In referring to the common identity of all Bolivians, Zárate Willka attempted to level the colonial legacy of stark racial divisions and envisioned a modern nation of “Bolivians.” The war, according to Zárate Willka, would produce a greater sense of national unity and cooperation between Indians and Creoles and thus minimize racial strife. In the aftermath of the war, Liberal politicians, judges, and authorities repealed federalism and minimized their former alliance with the Aymara communities, criminalizing them as proponents of race war intent on attacking the Creole population of Bolivia. Yet the way through which the Liberals condemned the Aymaras reflects important developments in the postwar context. Rather than immediately condemn the Aymaras for leading a supposed race war, individuals within or aligned with the Liberal Party employed the legal system to resolve the situation. The new government committed considerable time and human resources in this project, putting the accused Aymaras on trial in several legal proceedings that lasted from one to four years; the “objective” legal system would restore public order. José M. Mendoza, a lawyer for a complainant in one of these trials, underscored the judiciary’s importance in maintaining social structure: “The vigorous maintenance of the justice system is crucial. Moral standards, the social order, and the unity and strength of the nation depend on it. Even the smallest deviation from the maintenance of justice would mean for us a return to a state of savagery and primitiveness.”2 The Peñas trial, examined in this chapter, lasted from 1899 until 1903, during which time complainants accused Aymaras of looting, theft, and murder and of challenging Bolivian national sovereignty by establishing an Indian government under the cacique apoderado Juan Lero. The judges were charged with disconnecting the Aymaras’ wartime support from the Liberal Party’s victory, which they did by underscoring the supposed desperate state of the “primitive” Aymaras, whom they found to be very much in need of the “civilizing forces” of liberal tutelage. Paradoxically, the Aymaras’ participation in the Civil War of 1899 earned them the right to a legal process that would ultimately marginalize them from the Bolivian nation. [54.198.37.250] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:00 GMT) 18 | the aymara in the civil war of 1899 The new government...