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Survival of Indian Communities in Nineteenth-Century Bolivia: A Regional Comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

In describing the impact of haciendas on Indian communities of Meso-America and Andean America, historians generally have emphasized the hacendado's unrelenting appropriation of land and labor from native settlements, which were forced constantly to retreat in the face of this pressure. This view can be represented by James Lockhart's description of hacienda expansion. He saw the great estate as an ‘essentially unitary social institution [that] maintained constant its function as intermediary between growing Spanish towns and receding Indian villages. It evolved along two simple lines — constant rise in legal ownership of land and change in the balance of the labor force, as permanent workers increased and temporary workers decreased.1 As the hacienda expanded outward from the cities, said Lockhart, it gradually engaged the Indians in acculturative processes that made the great estate ‘the most powerful instrument of hispanization in Spanish-American culture’.2

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Lockhart, James, ‘Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish West IndiesHAHR, Vol. 49 (08, 1969), p. 427.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 425.

3 Conde, Roberto Corrés in The First Stages of Modernization in Spanish America (trans. from the Spanish by Talbot, Toby) (New York, 1974)Google Scholar described modernization as a process whereby Latin American nations became increasingly integrated into the North American and European economies through the development of an export product. This integration, in turn, produced significant internal political and social changes. In the late 1870s, Bolivian silver miners, as a result of new discoveries, increased production greatly. The effects of this silver boom occurred after 1880 and included the construction of railways connecting Bolivia to the Pacific coast and the emergence of silver miners as a national political force. This new governing elite destroyed the local power of Bolivia's caudillos, and, at the same time, forged a program of national consolidation. See Klein, Herbert S., Parties and Political Change in Bolivia (Cambridge, Eng., 1969), pp. 1630.Google Scholar

4 It was common for a vecino of a city to hold not only a large encomienda but also to own lands near the city which were cultivated by his encomienda Indians. For example, Gerónimo de Soria, Alcalde Ordinario of La Paz in 1550, held the encomienda of Machaca la Grande, located in the province of Pacajes far to the west of La Paz city. From this encomienda, Soria annually received in tribute 2,000 pesos in silver plus clothes, animals and food. The cacique of Machaca also sent Soria eighteen peones to cultivate his ‘chacras’ in La Paz. Rodas, Alberto Crespo, El corregimiento de La Paz, 1548–1600 (La Paz, 1972), pp. 66–7.Google Scholar

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26 In 1846, Cochabamba produced 476,794 fanegas of corn and 189,136 fanegas of wheat, while Chuquisaca produced 242,266 fanegas of corn and 60,400 fanegas of wheat. Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 269.Google Scholar

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29 For a more complete explanation of the process of mestizaje see below.Google Scholar

30 Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 202, 222.Google Scholar

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43 In 1846 the department of Potosí (most of Potosi's wheat production came from Chayanta) produced more wheat (192, 354 fanegas) than the department of Cochabamba (189, 136 fanegas). See Dalence, Bosquejo estadístico, p. 269.Google Scholar

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46 See Appendix I.Google Scholar

47 For a description of the epidemic of 1856 and an analysis of its possible disease agents, see Balcazar, Juan Manual, Historia de Medicina en Bolivia (La Paz, 1956), pp. 265–74.Google Scholar

48 ‘Comisión de visita del norte,’ Gaceta del gobierno, 28 de mayo de 1860, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

49 ‘Padrón de Chayanta de 1859,’ expedientes, ANB.Google Scholar

50 Censo de 1900, 2:35–6.Google Scholar

51 ‘Padrón de Chayanta de 1859,’ expedientes, ANB.Google Scholar

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53 Ibid., expedientes, f. 16.

54 ‘Padrón de Carangas de 1867,’ expedientes, f. 197, ANB.Google Scholar

55 ‘Padrón de Cercado de La Paz de 1867,’ expedientes, f. 2, ANB.Google Scholar

56 ‘Padrón de Sicasica de 1877,’ expedientes, f. 2; and ‘Padrón de Yungas de 1877,’ expedientes, sueltos, ANB.Google Scholar

57 Prior to the Spanish conquest, Cochabamba was a frontier zone of the Inca empire to which Incan lords sent colonists (mitimaes) to cultivate corn for shipment back to the altiplano population centers. For a description of the Aymara's ability to control different ecological zones see Murra, John V., ‘An Aymara Kingdom in 1567,’ Ethnohistory, Vol. 15 (Spring 1968), pp. 121–2.Google Scholar

58 For a description of Cochabamba's economic connections to Potosí, see de Espinoza, Antonio Vasquez, Compendium and Description of the West Indies (1628), trans. Clark, Charles Upson (Washington, D.C., 1942), pp. 618–19.Google Scholar

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60 In 1793 the population of the department of Cochabamba amounted to 144,398 inhabitants, only 45 percent of whom were Indian. Mestizos formed 33 percent, whites 16 percent, mullatoes 5 percent, and blacks 1 percent. For this population data and for a description of the mestizo occupation of communal lands in Cochabamba see de Viedma, Francisco, Descripción geográfica y estadística de la provincia de Santa Cruz de la sierra (3rd ed.), prologue by Salinas, Hector Cossio, (Cochabamba, 1969).Google Scholar

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62 For the best description of the early exploitation of altiplano Indians, see de San Miguel, Garci Diez, Visita hecha a la provincia de Chucuito en el año 1567 (palaeography by Soriano, Waldemar Espinoza) (Lima, 1964.)Google Scholar