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C H A P T E R F I V E Consolidation THE PRINCIPAL BENEFICIARIES of Carrera's revolt were the aristocratic , conservative elite of Guatemala City. Galvez's decree of 26July 1838 had allowed those exiled in 1829 to return to Guatemala, and many of them had gained positions of responsibility in both the private and public sectors even before Carrera's April 1839 victory.Juan Jose de Aycinenaled their coagulation asa political force. Like Aycinena,many wereclergymen. Others headed important merchant or planter families. Discredited after their defeat by Morazan in 1829, by 1839 they had been accepted back into the social and economic life of the state, and they joined liberal members of the old elite, such asJose FranciscoBarrundia, ManuelArrivillaga, and Miguel Garcia Granados in directing the government. This class had suffered much since the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it still constituted an elite upper class. The economic interests of this class had been represented through its fuero, the Consulado, abolished by the liberals in 1829, but now restored in 1839. A comparison of those registered with the Consulado for the years 1799, 1823, and 1839 revealsthe leading merchantsand planters of Guatemala . The combined lists include 168 different family surnames, but only twelve of the surnames are common to all three lists.1 This startling statistic suggests the difficulty of economic survivalduring those forty years. Among the twelve familieswere important participants on both the liberal and conservative sides, as well as several who took no active part in the political activity, but all were major houses. On the other hand, the high 102 Consolidation / 103 rate of attrition among other merchant and landholder families illustrates the considerable dislocation of the period. Many Spaniards left the country at the time of independence. There is a notable decrease in the number of Basque names on the 1823 list. The civil disorders and wars of the 18205 and 1830$ further disrupted the economy. Meanwhile, there was a small flowof newcomers to enlarge the European resident class in the capital.2 Both liberals and conservatives would play prominent roles in the 1840$, but the Carrera victory initiated a strongly conservative reaction. Acting Chief of State Mariano Rivera Paz and his two ministers, Pedro Arriaga and Luis Batres, were firmly committed to this reaction. The constitutional convention, or Constituent Assembly as it was called, convened on 29 May with twenty-seven delegates, with a dozen more arriving later. It had a strongly conservative flavor and roughly half the delegates were clerics. They elected Father Antonio Larrazabal as its president by a vote of 17 to 8 over Father Fernando Antonio Davila, with 2votes for Miguel Larreinaga, but when Larrazabal refused to accept because of his ecclesiastical duties as vicario capitular of the archdiocese, they chose Davila by a vote of 19 to 5.3 Davila, a supporter of Carrera, had only recently arrived in the capital. He called upon the representatives, the government, the armed forces, and the elite (whom he called "lospudientes") to cooperate in creating a constitution that would lay the foundation for a new society. Rivera Paz announced that the convening of the assembly ended the period of his temporary government , promising an account of his administration at their first session. A solemn mass in the cathedral followed the installation ceremony.4 Pedro Arriaga read Rivera Paz's long memoria to the assembly on 31May, reviewing the past and offering a program for the future. Rivera Paz recalled how "our difficulties had brought us to the brink of the abyss," and that the passions of the first yearsof independence had been "the exaltation of everything new and the wish to destroy everything that existed." He said, "They banned moderation and prudence under the hateful names of servile and retrograde," so that "honorable and peaceable men fled from public affairs, persecuted by the revolutionary furor that led the country to the misery and disarray in which it is found." But now, he declared, society "by its instinct for self preservation is searching for reorganization." His review of the liberal rule suggested the emotionalism of the issues. There was neither personal security, nor respect for property, nor liberty, nor justice. The decrees on divorce and civil marriage produced a grand scandal, for they clashed with our customs and created misunderstandings. The honorable peasant, whose conscience had already been tortured in a thousand ways, now found insecure the honor of his daughters, even in the [18.222.163.31] Project...

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