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+ C H A P T E R T H R E E The Carrera Revolt RAFAELCARRERACAME into the world in the poor, Candelaria barrioof New Guatemala, probably on 24 October 1814, the son of Simon Carrera and Juana Turcios. There is a slight disagreement over the exact date of his birth, for although his baptismal certificate says that he was born on the twenty-fifth, he celebrated his birthday throughout his presidency on 24 October, the latter date also appearing on his tombstone.1 He received holy baptism on 26 October in the parish church at the hand of Father Antonio Croquer.2 We don't know much about his family or early life. An anonymous pamphlet published in the 18408 argued that Carrera was the illegitimate son of Colonel Antonio Aycinenaand a servant in his household, a scandal supposedly covered up by Antonio's brother, Father Miguel Aycinena, but there is no evidence to support this idea and it has been universally rejected by other historians.3 The most thorough research on Carrera's family was done by a distant nephew of Carrera, ManuelCobos Batres, who traced Carrera's ancestry to Captain Juan Perez Dardon, who served with Guatemala's conquistador, Pedro de Alvarado. Perez Dardon's great-greatgranddaughter , Josefa Perez de Palencia y Lopez de Portillo, married a recent immigrant from New Spain,Jose de laCarrerain 1664 (seeFigure 2). The Spanish bloodline was mixed with mestizoand mulatto blood in subsequent generations, to give Rafael a distinctly Indian appearance. Cobos argues on the basis of genealogical research that the percentage of Negro or Indian blood in his line was relativelysmall, but his arguments are not 56 The Carrera Revolt / 57 convincing.4 Whatever the true percentage of mixed racial background, Carrera was a Ladino in Guatemalan terms, but, according to contemporary accounts, with rather stronger Indian physical characteristicsthan his older brothers. His father was a mule driver and his mother a domestic servant, who later had a small cordage shop in the main market.5 The firstborn of the family, Eustaquio Santos deJesus (1805-?), apparently played no major role in Carrera's revolt, but by 1842 was serving him as a military secretary and aide, looking after his brother's personal financial affairs and rising to the rank of colonel by i847.6 More important was Sotero (180750 ), who worked as a harness maker and tinsmith in Guatemala City and in 1834 was admitted to the Literatureand Arts Sectionof the Guatemalan Academy of Sciences (which replaced the old University of San Carlosunder the liberals).7 Sotero would join younger brother Rafael early in the revolt and remain an important military commander and corregidor throughout the 18405. Another older brother, LaureanoJose (1812-38) gave his life in the revolution.8 His sister Agueda was four years older than Rafael, and three more sisters—Juana deJesus, Maria Sabina, and MariaVisitacion— were born after him. Twoolder half sisters, illegitimate daughters ofSimon Carrera prior to his marriage to Juana Turcios, also lived in the household, but none of these women played any known significant role in Guatemalan history.9 This large family by modern standards was of only average size in early nineteenth-century Guatemala. It might havebeen normal for several to have died in infancy, but this did not occur, suggesting hardy stock.10 Rafael Carrera spent his early years in a disadvantaged section of the capital, where the depression of the last years of the colonial period caused an increase in suffering and crime. The diputacion provincial reported in 1821 that the city had among its "40,000 souls a libertine and bloodthirsty rabble" and that its criminal records were more horrible "than those of all Europe." In 1819 the city's hospital admitted 704 wounded persons (546 men, including seventy soldiers, and 158 women), of which nineteen died. In 1820 the figure exceeded nine hundred.11 Violenceand crime were common among the rabble and were a constant concern to the elite, who legislated repeatedly against the bearing of arms by non-Spaniards to no avail.12 Carrera grew up in this poor, violent environment, amid the turbulent political events accompanying restoration of the Cadiz Constitution in 1820, independence from Spain in 1821, annexation to Mexico in 1822, and independence from Mexico and formation of the United Provinces in the following year. Riots, armed uprisings, and street crime were a part of his boyhood experience. The rhetoric of the political factions was abundant, but it provided little tangible benefit to the...

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