Celebrating Insurrection: The Commemoration and Representation of the Nineteenth-Century Mexican Pronunciamiento

10. Juan Bustamante’s Pronunciamiento and the Civic Speeches That Condemned It: San Luis Potosí, 1868–1869

I n the 1860s social groups in Mexico coexisted in the midst of intense disputes to control the political sphere. Divisions and fighting arose from the hub of the various political parties as members and followers sought to define the kind of government they believed the nation should adopt. The conservatives and the monarchists insisted on finding a prince from one of the European sovereign houses who, in addition to leading a country incapable of “governing itself,” could boast the kind of profile that would prove ideal to serve their particular interests. The liberals, on the other hand, both radical and moderate, were convinced that they could not go back on the reforms they had led in Mexico ’s institutional life. From these obstinate stances, the Mexicans began the second half of nineteenth century. The political groups of San Luis Potosí witnessed in the 1860s an escalation in the disputes to take control over their local institutions such as the city councils and the state congress. These disputes took place as much on the battlefield as in the political and intellectual arenas. Army officers, merchants, landowners, and politicians supported different political ideologies, such as conservative, pro-monarchist, liberal, and republican. They subscribed to or undermined the diverse political plans that emerged at that time; their support relied on the extent to which each plan flor de maría salazar mendoza Ten. Juan Bustamante’s Pronunciamiento and the Civic Speeches That Condemned It: San Luis Potosí, 1868–1869 Bustamante’s Pronunciamiento and Speeches That Condemned It 229 could benefit their group and personal interests. One of the means that allowed these groups to implement their plans was the pronunciamiento , which was a combination of military, intellectual, and political strategies “to force changes in government policies” or to attain government positions.1 These pronunciamientos were sometimes successful. In the case of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, experts in the analysis of the pronunciamiento claim that from the 1820s onward, a significant number of pronunciamientos took place as part of attempts to access positions of power or to pressure the government into modifying its policies.2 In this chapter I analyze the 1869 pronunciamiento of Juan Bustamante. Bustamante was elected governor in 1867 and a year later was demoted by the state congress because he no longer represented the interests of the local political class. Bustamante was forced to ask for a leave of absence, and several months later he and his supporters started a pronunciamiento to reclaim the governorship. As soon as the pronunciamiento began, his opponents redoubled their efforts to destroy his reputation and persecute him until they secured his definitive removal from local politics in 1869.3 Bustamante’s adversaries were numerous and had enough clout to turn the decisions and actions of other social actors against him. The majority of members of the state congress —the Second Constitutional Legislature of San Luis Potosí (1867–69)—joined to form a compact group of anti-bustamantistas . They used the debates that took place during the state congress sessions as a venue to hurl accusations against Bustamante and discredit him politically.4 One of the strategies used by Carlos Tovar, Bustamante’s substitute governor, was to take control of the 1869 Independence Day celebrations.5 The members of the Junta Patriótica, organizers of 230 Salazar Mendoza the event, offered him their support, as did the anti-bustamantista intellectuals. Their first task was to appease those of Bustamante ’s supporters who sought his restitution as the “legitimate” governor of San Luis Potosí. The Junta Patriótica organized a series of activities for 15 and 16 September that included a harangue consisting of two speeches. Members of the junta, following Governor Tovar’s instructions, chose two speakers to address the public with messages that touted the unity of Tovar’s government and discredited Bustamante’s pronunciamiento.6 Junta members chose the speakers carefully, because these men had the difficult task of persuading the audience that the pronunciamiento was unacceptable . The speakers were required to convince the listeners that the pronunciamiento and its political plan contradicted in every way the principles of democracy and freedom that “our parents” had fought for in their own way.7 In other words, the governor and the organizers of the civic celebrations took control of the festivities and turned these into their own political platform. In...