Stafford, Racial Problems

Race, Integration, and Progress: Elite Attitudes and the Indian in Colombia, 1750-1870
Author(s): Frank Safford

Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Feb., 1991), pp. 1-33
Published by: Duke University Press
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Hispantic Amizet-icani Histor-ical Revietw 71:1
Copyright ? 1991 by Duke Uiniversity Press
ccc ool8-2168/91/$1.50
Race, Integration, and Progress:
Elite Attitudes and the Indian
in Colombia, 1750-1870
FRANK SAFFORD
I N the nineteenth century, elites in various Spanish Ameri-
can countries sought to create integrated nations by in-
corporating Indian populations into the general body of
the citizenry, economically, socially, and politically. Through much of the
colonial period, the Spanish crown had tried, with only partial success,
to maintain a policy of separation between the Amerindian population (la
repilblica de indios) and the dominant Hispanic culture (la repi'iblica de
espainoles). In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Spanislh separa-
tionist policy began to give way to a new integrationist current. In the
republican era, as creole elites sought to integrate and legitimize new
polities, the ideology and policy of incorporating Indians into the gen-
eral body of the citizenry became fully dominianit. The postindependence
incorporative process took two major forms: I) symbolic incorporation,
through legislative declarations that Indians were to be considered citi-
zens, with equal rights and duties before the law;' and 2) economic inte-
gration, through the conversion of non-alienable Indian comilmunity lands
to individual property.
The broad pattern sketched above is well known to Latin American
historians. The purpose of the present essay is to provide a sense of the
specific content, or texture, of the process as it worked in Colombia. The
essay contains three distinct but related segments. It first traces the devel-
opment of integrationist ideas in the late colonial period; it then- sketches
some features of republican efforts at economic incorporation through the
division of Indian community lands, from 1821 to 1850. A final section
1. E.g., for Mexico, Charles A. Hale, Mexicani Liber-alismit i/ the Age of Aioi-a (New
Haveni, 1968), 217-218, For Coloibmbia, see David Busliiiell, Thle Sarntandler Regilmze in/ GI-anl
ColomnZbia (Newark, DE,
1954),
174-175.
2 | HAHR
I
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I
FRANK SAFFORD
examines the attitudes of the Colombian elite toward Indians and their
integration into the dominant Hispanic society as the process of Indianl
integration neared its conclusion, at least in the eastern cordillera (185os-
i86os). Th-is section also compares elite attitudes toward Amerindians and
Afro-Colombians and tlheir integration into the domninant society. Thirougl
each section of tlhe essay run two central theemes: elite racial attitudes
toward the dominated groups and tlhe importance of the project of eco-
nomic Europeanization (or economic "progress") in conditioning tlhose
attitudes.
Before discussing the colonial background to republican integration-
ism, it would be well to note the various meanings of Indian incorporation
to tlhe elite in Colombia. These ideas are observable in gestation in late
colonial times and became fullv articulated in the republican era. On
one level, Indian incorporation meanit racial integration, that is, genetic
assimilation. Toward tlhe end of the eiglhteentlh centUrv, and tlhrouglhout
the nineteenth, elements of the elite hoped tlhat tlhe country's popula-
tion would become transformed, tlhrouglh miscegenation, into something
corresponding to a European plhenotype. The goal of whitening and Euro-
peanizing tlhe population tended to be stated a little obliquely, tlhouglh
nonetheless quite obviously, in public documents, but more baldly in pri-
vate.2
In the formally articulated agenda for national integration, everyone,
including subordinated racial groups, was to become a citizen and anl
effective participant in a market economy. In the pursuit of botlh goals, an
important element was primary education for everyone in tlhe society, even
peasants. Education h-ad an obvious importance for citizenship, or politi-
cal integration. But for the nineteenith-century elite an equally if not more
important function was econiomic. A critical econiomic aspect of education
was that it would teach Colombians higher standards of housing, clothiing,
and food. These higlher standards of consumption, in turn, would stimulate
(or require) a new work ethic. Quite obviously, the elite had in mind tlhe
inculcation of values, behavior, and life patterns associated witlh Western
Europe, tlhe seat of world civilization. For many, to approach European
models of work and consumption was an important ingredient of civili-
zation and successful nationhood. The aspiration to emulate European
economic models appears to have figured importantly in the concerns of
the Colombian elite about Amerindians (and also Afio-Colombians) an-d to
2. Il 1823, whein the Coloimibiani Conigress sought to enicotirage Euiropeall ilmllmligratioll
througlh granits of public lanids, Secretary of the Initerior Jos6 Manutiel Restrepo commiiiienited
inl his diary, "[T]iene esta concesi6n el objeto de fomenitar la poblaci6n blanica, la industria v
la agricultura." (Restrepo, Dior-io
politico y
,niilital-,
4
vols. [Bogota, 19541, I, 219.)
RACE AND PROGRESS: THE INDIAN IN COLOMBIA 3
have been at least as important as the goal of genetic, or phelnotypical,
homogenization.
The Evolution of Integrationist Ideas, Policy,
and Rhetoric to 1821
Amerindians in Colombia historically did not correspond to a single cate-
gory. Some-like those in the Choc6, or along the middle reaches of the
Magdalena River, or in the Caqueta and Putumayo territories were for-
est peoples, who were quite distant froml- the nodes of Hispanic society,
spatially as well as culturally. Because of this distance, they did nlot im-
pinge much on the consciousness of the Hispanic elite. Somewhat less at
the margin of elite thoughts were the cattle-herdiing denizenis of the Gua-
jira peninsula, who perennially bedevilled Hispanic administrators with
an active contraband trade. Then there were the peoples of the moun-
tainous riegions of southern Colombia, wlho lived by farming but were less
sedentary than the Spaniish governing class expected them to be. Still
another major variant was the former Chibcha or Muisca population of
the eastern cordillera. This sedentary peasant population-already suLb-
stantially integrated into Hispanic society, genetically and linguistically,
by the middle of the eighteentlh century-was the indigenouis population
best known to most of Colombia's national elite.
Republican attitudes toward these various indigenous cultures had
their roots in the eighteenth century. Colonial and republican elites, for
the most part, shared a sense of hopelessness about civilizing the less
sedentary forest peoples or bringing the Guajiros within the bounds of
Hispanic legal or cultural prescriptions.3 Only exceptionally, as in the opti-
3. Two pessimiiistic comiimenits about the possible initegrationi of such peoples, oine in
1789, the other in 1857, can be found in Fr-anicisco Silvestre,
Descripci6n
del
-eytqo
de Santot
Fe de Bogota (Bogota, 1968), 70-71, anid Coloniel Agustin- Codazzi, "Antigiiedades indhje-
nias," in Felipe Perez, Jeografia fisica i politico de los Estados Unlidos de Colomiibia, 2 vols.
(Bogota, 1863), II, 97-98, discussed below. Aniother- examiiple, in the earlv 1830s, chronio-
logically betweeni those of Silvestre anid Codazzi, was penniled by Franlcisco
Mosquera,
about
the Inidianis of the Choc6. Auithorities in the Choc6 were enicotuniterinig gr-ave difficulties in
arranginig ani effective mode of governmiiienit for "this wretched race, whiclh at the samiie timiie
would make themii equal to other citizenis." Mosquera repor-ted: "Los Ynidigenias disemiiniados
eni los miionites han abanidoniado las poblacionies
por
falta de sugeci6n, y ell la vida salvaje
que han adoptado enitregados a la emiibriaguez, su emiibrtutecimiiienito se auimenita, alejanido
la esperaniza de que stu generaci6n fuitura per-tenezea jambds a la clase de ciuidadanios. . .
Secuestrados de los racioniales, olvidani las pequiefias niocionies de miior-al, quie liabiani r-ecibido,
[y pierden el idiomiia espafiol]
qine
niunica bani poseido bieni. Stis hijos niacidos y criados eni
los bosques desconocen uino y otro, y no promiieteni a la sociedad sillo justos temiiores de ulna
especie que nio perteniece imias a los homiibres quie a las fieras." (Archivo del Conigr-eso, Bogotdi
[hereafter AC], Caim-ara, 1833, XIV, Decretos de las Cdimai-as de Provinicia, aprobados, fols.
99-100.)
4 | HAHR F FEBRUARY
I
FRANK SAFFORD
mistic 1820s, at the dawn of independence, were ther-e expressions of faith
in the possibility of incorporating these peoples into the dominant cul-
ture. With regard to tlhe sedentarv farmers of the eastern cordillera and
the mountainous regions of the south, on the other- hand, there occur-red a
significant change of attitudes in the second half of the eighteenth century,
as the Spanish policy of separating Indians and Spaniards increasingly was
challenged by advocates of integration. The first proponents of integrating
Indians and Hispanics supported the idea simplv as a practical recogni-
tion of an already existing reality. By i81o, it was increasingly reinforced
by liberal economic ideology, in whiclh individual property rights and the
unhampered exchange of property in a free mar-ket were cardinal points.
Until the middle of the eighteentlh centurv, the official policv throughl-
out colonial Spanish America had been to attempt to keep tlle Hispanic
population out of Indian communities. Early oin in the colonial era, pool
Spaniards anid mestizos had moved into higlhland Indiain communtiities. But
this process was officially disapproved and resisted uintil the latter half of
the eighteentlh centu-y.5 In New Graniada a kev point in the r-eversal of this
policy occurred with the revelatory visita of Andr6s Verduigo y
Oqtiendo
to 85 supposedly "Indian" pueblos in the jurisdictions of Tunja, Velez, and
Santaf6 de Bogota in 1755-57. Verduigo fouind that in these puieblos the
Indian population had greatly declined since the last svstemllatic suirvey in
1635 and that the Hispanic or "white" populationi (for the most part mes-
tizos) had become the majority. Of the total popuilation of the 73 puleblos
for which Verdugo thouight he had anl accuirate couniit, more than two-
thirds of the residents were "whites" (also referred to as vecinios). In the
jurisdiction of Velez, vecinos accouinted for more thani 90 percenit of the
inlhabitan-ts of communiities that had been thouight to be Indianl puleblos.
Even in the province of Tunja, where inidigenies composed two-fifths of
the population in Indian pueblos, there were at least half a dozen pueblos
wlhere the "wlhite" population ouitnunmbered them by more than ten to
one.6 Even those who remained "Indian" (in legal terms) had becomle cul-
4. The exceptionial optimilisimi of the 1820s foii(lI
explression
in the allocation of ioo,ooo
pesos per year- to efforts to get unncivilized ILi(lians to settle in fixedl comimiintiiiities. See
Gaceta de Colonmbia (Bogota), MaV 21, 1826.
5.
Magintis NIdroer, 'Las comintiiiidades
ini(ligenias
v la
legislaci6ni segr-egacioniista
enl el
Ntievo Reinio de Gr-aniada," Anniario Colooiibianio de Histor-ia Social
y
de la Cultm-a, 1
(lgG3)
62-88; Margarita Gonizilez, El resgiiardo eni el Nnevo Reiio de Granatiada (Bogotu, 1970),
18-19.
6. "Infor-me del Visitador- Real Doni Andr6s Ber-dtigo v Oquendo sob)re el estado social
y
econ6mico de la
poblaci6n inidigenia.
blanica v iestiza de las Provincias de
Ttionja
y Velez a
meldiados del siglo xviii," Antarta-io Coloosibianio de Histor-ia Social
y
de la Cnltnra, 1
(1963),
131-196. For- poptilationi totals see 167-168. See also Ger-minadi Colimieniar-es, La Pr-ovinicia de
Tnnja eni el Nnievo Reino de Gr-aniadai:
Enisayo
de histor-iai social (1539-1800) (Bogotd, 1970),
76, oin pueblos in the Pr-ovinice of Ttiinja in whiich vecinios outnumbered Inidianis hv teni to onie
at the time of the Veirdtigo visita.
RACE AND PROGRESS: THE INDIAN IN COLONIBIA 5
turally Hispanicized to a considerable degree. Verdugo reported thalt in
the pueblos he visited the Indians were "bien ladinos" and spoke Spanisl
well enough for him not to need ani interpreter.-
One important consequence of this demograplhic and cultural change,
according to Verdugo, was that in manv Indian pueblos the relatively small
Indian population with legal rights in the resgitardos had more land than-
they could farm, while the more numerous vecinos depended on renting
land from the Indian communities. He repeatedlv depicted the Indians as
lazy, unenterprising, and given to consuming in drink their income friom
land rentals, by contrast with the energetic "whites" who farmed the land
rented from the Indians.8 To Verdugo, vecino conitrol of this land had clear
economic benefits. Where "whites" were farming Indian lands, increased
alcabala and diez-.o collections much more than compensated for declin-
ing Indian tribute. Further, these Hispanic producers also contributed to
the growth of commerce as consumers of goods produced in Spain or in
other provinces of New Granada.9
While "white" use of Indian communitv lanid produced significant
social good in terms of increased production and consumption, in Ver-
dugo's eyes the productive vecinos were themselves victims of injustice.
He portrayed the Hispanics living in Indian commiiunities as being ex-
ploited in various ways. They had to rent their homes as well as the
land they cultivated from the Indians; and they were subject to the au-
thority of Indian comi-munity leader-s and to arbitrary exactions firom priests
and corregidores, who could threaten to have them expelled from the
Indian communities.10 Furthermore, Verdugo frequently noted, Hispanic
settlers, lacking land close to the Indian pueblos, in effect were denied
access to religious worship." Although acutely conscious that his recoill-
mendation broke radically witlh the historic Spanislh policy of separation,
Verdugo strenuously advocated accepting the overwhelming reality of the
Hispanic presence in formerly Indian communities by allowing "whites"
property rights in them.12
Verdugo's advocacy did not bring an immediate end to the historic
policy of separation. In 1766, for example, Francisco Antonio Moreno y
7. "Inforiie. . . Berdugo," 144.
8. Ibid., 145-146, 151, 153, i-56,
i6o.
9. Ibid., 155-156.
io. Ibid., i6i, 178, 191.
ii. Ibid., 134, 135, 142, 149, 159.
12. This initerpretation of Vercdugo departs fromii that founid in N'drner, "Las COIIILllli-
dades de indigeiuas y la legislaci6n segregacioinista eii el Nuevo Reiino de Grainada." l6rnier
seems to believe (p. 75) tlhat, althouglh Veidugo argued for ai inltegrationlist policy, he witl
one exceptioni continiued to implemiienit the segregationiist policv. As I r-ead Verdiugo's iii-
forne, he actually gr-ainted "whites' the r-ight to owni property in a llumlber of Inidiani pueblos.
See "Iiforiie. . . Berdugo," 157-160, 162-165.
6 | HAHR
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Escand6n, fiscal protector de indios of the Audiencia of Santafe, was still
ordering that mestizos not be given property rights in Indian resgular-
dos and that they not be permitted to live in the Indian commi-iunities.13
Later, in 1776-78, in a series of visitas ranging from Fusagasugdi, south
of Bogota, to various parts of the Correginmieinto of Tunja to the nortlh,
Moreno and the corregidor of Tunja, Jose Maria Campuzano, pursued a
commoon policy of resegregating Indians and those identified as Hispanic.
Their diagnosis of the situation was virtually the same as that of Verdugo.
Once again, in many putatively "Indian" commiiunities, those classified as
non-Inidiani had become a majority. In what had become a standard visita
litany, they declared that the Indians were renting land to Hispanic veci-
nos and were lazy and drunken. The vecinos, for lack of property rights,
were subject to exploitation by the Indians or were forced to live dis-
tant from community, church, and religion. In two respects, however, the
Moreno-Campuzano reports differed fromi that of Verdugo. Whereas the
latter had referred to the vecinos in Indian pueblos as whites, Moreno and
Campuzano frequently identified the vecinos as gentes de color (or some
similar variant). More importantly, Moreno continued to observe the long-
established policy of separation. In pueblos where Indians had become a
minority, community lands were sold to Hispanics, and the Indians were
moved to a neighboring coml-munity where they remiained a majority.
14
In
his summary report, Moreno, reflecting on the mestizo tide, suggested
that the longstanding policy should be reversed: "Your Majesty would
lose nothing, rather governml-ent would be much advanced, if the Indians
were Hispanicized and with [the end
ofl
their caste were erased the mllemi-
ory of their tribute." However, unlike Verdugo, he did not dare either to
impleml-ent such a reversal himself or to forcefully urge such a change. 15
Fromii that point onward, Spanish officials and creoles alike increas-
ingly advocated integrating the Indians, at least economically, with the
rest of the population. To the end of the colonial period, such proposals for
the economic integration of the indigenes frequently were accompanied
by seemiingly contradictory assertions of Indian inferiority, an inferiority
made ml-anifest, in the eyes of the Hispanic elite, by the Indians' poverty.
In 1781, the creole leaders of the Comunero rebellion demanded that
Indian communities be returned land earlier taken from them and that
resgutardos be given full property rights to their land. At the same timl-e,
13.
GonzMlez, El resgiuardo, 68.
14. The site reports of Moreino and Caimipuzaino aie prinited in Franlcisco Anltonio
Moreno y Escand6n, Indios i mtiestizos de la Nneva Grantada afiniales del siglo XVIII, Jorge
Orlanido Melo, ed. (Bogota, 1985).
15. Morenio's coniclusioni is prinited as anl appenidix in GoinzAlez, El r-esguardo. Tlle
quotatioin is at p. 144.
they pleaded for decreasing the Indiani tribute, with allusions to Indian
poverty and stupidity: "[F]ew anchorites would live in greater poverty in
dress and food." Clearly, the Comunero leaders concluded, the Indians'
"limited intelligence and slight faculties" did not permit themn to pay the
amount of tribute demanded of them. 16
Some writers of the 178os aind 1790s, Spainislh and creole alike, as-
suming Indian racial inferiority, called for their genetic assimilationl, along
with their legal and civic integrationi. The Spanish Capuchiin, Father
Joaquin de Finestrad, sent to set things right in the Socorro regioni after
the Coim-unero rebellion of 1781, believed it urgent to "civilize" the Ildialn
population, whiclh to himl- was a miatter of racial amalgamllation as well as of
ending their legal separation:
I believe firmily that . . . all the assistance and privileges that are
conceded and poured over theml- are not sufficient to extract theim-
from the miserable state of their uselessness. It is necessar y to up-
root the cause of their brutality, inactivity, and laziness, a perennial
source of drunkenness and other vices that dominate them. I aimi
firmly persuaded that it is necessary to graft them so that imiiper-
ceptibly their caste may be finished and they ml-ay pass to the legal
condition [estado] of zambos and miulattos. 17
Apparently the Comuneros' creole leaders and the anti-Coilmunero Fine-
strad could agree on the Indians' demonstrable inferiority.
The creole Pedro Ferim-in de Vargas, writing about 1790 while serving
as corregidor of Zipaquira, was no less conviniced that Indian stupidity was
demonstrated by their alleged economl-ic inactivity. He made even clearer
an intended connection betweeni the civil and economic integration of
Indians and their racial "extinction" (i.e., assimilation):
For the increase of our agriculture, it wouild be equally necessary to
Hispanicize our Indians. Their general indolence, their stupiditv,
and the insensibility that they show to all that miioves and inspires
other men, make one think that they come fromii a degenerate race
that worsens as it becomes miiore distant from its origin. . . . We
i6. Tbe Coimiuniero demanid is inot a comiipletelv explicit artictulationi of the integrationiist
goal, because it appears to ask tbat tbe Inidianis be given property rights in the resguiardo
land. It does not miiake a clear reference to individuial property rigbts, tbouiglb tbat miiay lbave
been what the authors had in minid. The statenmenit can be read, bowever, simiiply as a de-
fense of the resguardos against the seizuLre of tbeir communtiiiity land as carried otut by Morenlo
y Escand6n in 1778. For the passage, see Pablo E. Cirdenas Acosta, El movimiento coit-
nal de
178i
en el Ntuevo Reino de Granada (eivinidicaciotnes hist6ricas), 2 vols. (BogotA,
1960), II, 20.
17. R. P. Fr. Joaquin de Finestrad, "El vasallo instrulido en el estado del Nuevo Rein-o
de Granada y en sus respectivas obligaciones," in Los Comyluneros (BogotA, 1905), 135.
8 I HAHR
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FRANK SAFFORD
know from repeated experience that, amonig animals, races imi-
prove by crossing them, and it even can be said that this observa-
tion has beein made equally amiiong the people of whom we speak,
since the intermediary castes that come from the mixture of Indi-
ans and whites are stepping-stoines. In consequenice . . . it would
be very desirable that the Indianis be extinguislhed, fusing themii
with the whites, declaring them free of the tribute and other fiscal
burdens peculiar to them, and givinlg them property rights to their
land. Greed for their property will lead many whites and mestizos
to marry Indiani womeni. 18
When the imlperial cr-isis of i8o8-io intensified creole political activity,
for a time somie creoles continued to employ a well-established pejorative
rhetoric in referring to Indians. The cabildo of Socorro, in its instr-uctions
of October 1809 to the New Graniadani delegate to the Junita Suprelmia
in Spain, not only described the forest Indianis to their west as "onle or
anotlher horde of savages" but also said that the sedentary indigenies in
their midst were "stupid and so poor that thev seem niot to under-stand any
ideas beyonid the present momiienit." The Socorranios, witlh this premiise of'
Indiani stupidity, theln went oin to call for the distribution of rescsgiardo
lanids amoing them, so that "as property owniers thev iiay alieniate theml or
tranismit them to their heirs.
"
19
During these beginniinig vear-s of the inidepenidence era, however, elite
rhetoric on Indiani integration begani to change in several respects. Liberal
economic doctrines became more evident as theoretical uniderpinninlgs for
dividing resgiuardo lands amoing individuial property owners. And, in ap-
parent adjustment to new political realities, documents intended for gen-
eral public consuimption made less referenice to Indiani stupidity. Instead,
the emplhasis tended to be more on how colonial institutions discouraged
economic enterprise among Indianis, whereas liberal economic policies
would release their natural talents. Finally, while speaking less of Indianl
stupidity, creole leaders did recognize tlhe Indians' vulnerability by stipu-
lating that, once they becaml-e property owners, they should be protected
fromi alienating their property during a substantial transition period.
The assertion of liberal economic doctrine, with regard to the free
circulation of property, already had been an elemiient in the statemiient of
tlhe Socorro cabildo in 1809. Both liberal economiiic assertions and a less
i8. Pedro Ferimini de Vargas, "Memoria sobre la poblaci6n del reiino," in Petusatnieatos
politicos y ne-morias sobre la poblaci6n del Nuievo Reino de Grancla (Bogotci, 1953), 83.
19. "Instrucci6n
qLie
da el ImAUV iluLstle Cabbildo, JLlsticia v
Reginiiienito
de la Villa del
Socorro al diputado del Nuevo Revnio de Granada, a la
junta
SuLpr-einia v Central Guber-
nativa de Espafia e Indias," in Hoi-acio Rodl-iguLez Plata, Andr6s Maria Rosillo
y
Meruelo
(Bogotc, 1944), 48-54 (quotations Oll pp. 49 and 51), aind La antigtua Provitncia del Socorto
y
la independencia (Bogotc, 1963), 40-46 (quotations Oll pp. 40-41 anid 42).
RACE AND PROGRESS: THE INDIAN IN COLOTMBIA 9
pejorative attitude toward the Indians were notable in policy statements
on Indian land made in Santafe de Bogota in the first months of autono-
mous creole government, in Septemiiber i8io. On September i, Miguel
de Pombo offered the first systematic republican-era program for integrat-
ing the Indian by dividing resgiuardo land.-" Pombo's ideas, more clearly
than preceding dicta on this theme, were based on liberal economic ideas.
Rather than depicting Indianis as inhlerenitly stLipid, Pombo arguied thlat
they were victimlls of the Spanish systemii. "Although endowed with imiost
excellent qualities that made thenm so suitable for agricuilturie anld crafts,"
they had been "condemned by the absurd priniciples" of Spanish policy
to vegetate like plants, buit witlhout producinig any firuit." The Inclians
were unproductive because they were denied the economl-ic stimiiulus of
self-interest that caml-e fromii individual property holding. New Granadain
agriculture, Ponmibo argued, had not been able to prosper- because it hlad
been left in the hands of men kept "in a perpetual childlhood, who without
any property at all" had been obliged to farmii "commiillonl land and [h1ad]
been deprived of the stimulus of self-interest and the attraction of profit."
For this reason, their farming had been "marked bv the stamlp of tiimiditv."
If the Indian could farm his own property, "he would work with a differenit
ardor, with a different spirit, because he would be animilated by different
expectations."2'
Pombo, like other creoles who followed him in legislating the divi-
sion of resgutardo lands, realized that the newly independent Indian land-
owners would have to be protected fiom alienatinig tlheir lanid for somie
extended period Poimlbo suggested 25 to 30 vears. Yet, in a seemlling
paradox, he echoed Vargas of two decades before in h-oping tlhat outright
ownership of land by Indians would stimiutlate the greed of whites and mes-
tizos, enticing them to marry Indian womeen in order to get their lhands
on these properties.22
20. Miguel de Pomibo was of a distinigtuished Popaviin family )ut hlad I)een residenit in
Santaf6 de Bogotci dturing the decade I)efore i8io. He had been ani assistanit in the Expedi-
ci6n Botanica anid had headed the viceregal vacciniation caillpaigni. Cf Gtustavo Arboledla,
Dicciontario biografico y geneal6gico del atitgiuo
Departamento
del Camica (Bogota', 1962),
359, anid Rafael G6mez Hoyos, La revolicio6n
.ganiadinia:
Ildea-io de unoga aerieaci6n d de
tuoa
epoca,
1781-1821, 2 vols. (Bogotii, 1962), II, i96.
Oni his r-esidenlce in Sailtafe thiornl at
least 1799 onward, see Fr-anicisco Jos6 de Caldas, Popav 7dn, to Sanitiago Pezez de Arrovo v!
Valenicia, SantafW, Mar. 20, 1799, and subsequent letters, Cod-tas due Caldcis (Bogotfi, 1978),
48 anid passii.
21. "Discuriiso
politico
eni
qule
se imianiifiesta la niecesidad v la
importancia
de la extinci6n
de los estanicos de tabacos
agtuar-clienite
la abolici6n de los tributos de los indios con1 los
arbitrios que por alhor-a puedeni adoptarse
pparla
Ileniar el vacio
qcie
senitiriin los fondos p6blicos
eni estos raimios, Leido eni la juniiita supr-emia de Saintaf6e por- sui vocal el doctor- doni Migtuel de
Pombo, eni it de septieiibre de i8io," in El 20 dejiulio, Eduardo Posada, ed. (Bogotfi, 1914),
353-354, 356.
22. On this point Pombo niot oinlv echoed Vargas buit actually plagiar-ized him (patri-
10 I HAHR
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Pombo apparently recognized the danger that tlhe properties distrib-
uted to Indian owners eventually might end up swelling latifundiary hold-
ings, which would deaden agriculture quite as muclh as the resgutardos
had. Apparently influenced by late eighteenth-century Spanish critiques
of the latifundio, like a number of late colonial writers preceding him
(including Finestrad and Vargas), Pombo understood that New Granada
must avoid the accumulation of land in the hanids of a few.23 Yet, in coml-
mon with many other liberals of the period, he had a naive faith that the
free market would take care of the problem. He seemed to believe that
if mayorazgos were eliminated the free circulation of land in the market
would prevent the development of territorial monopoly. He envisioned a
country of many property owners, among whom competition would lower
prices, enabling New Granada to become an effective exporter.24
Pombo, unlike later republican legislators, understood that if the new
Indian property owners were to be brought into the economy as produc-
tive cultivators it would be necessary to do more than assign them land.
He called for the establishlnent of a funld to provide them with tools,
oxen, and seed, as well as primary schools and medical care. Unfortu-
nately, his means of financing the fuind raised the possibility of the verv
latifundiary accumulation against whiclh lhe warned. The "surplus" land
that was presumed to exist in some Indian communities would be sold to
"powerful landowners," who Pombo assumiied would bring settlers in and
cultivate the land "usefuilly." 25
Pombo's statement on the division of Indian communiial lanids is impor-
otically), albeit imiakinig onie crucial error in traniscriptioni. Vargas (1790): "La codicia de stis
heredades [i.e., pr-operties] haria qule muchos blancos v imiestizos se casaseni coin las inldias,
y al contrario, con1 lo
que
dentro de poqulisimiio tiemiipo nio habr-ia terrenio qule nio esttuviese
cultivado, eni lutgar que ahora la imiayor- par-te de los
qtue
perteneceni a indios se hlallan eria-
les." Pombo (i8io): "Estableciendo el inidio sobr-e este pi6 de consideraci6n y de for-tuniia, la
codicia de sus h1erederos [i.e., heirs] har-h qule imuv-chos blanicos y imiestizos se caseni coni las
indias . . ." (etc.). See Vargas, "Memoria sobre la poblaci6n," 83, anld Pomllbo in Posada, El
20 dejullio, 354.
23. Altlhough late eighteentlh-cenitury Spaniish cr-iticisimis of the latifuniidio ar-e associatecd
with Gaspar Melchor de Jovellainos, they evidenitly preceded the publicationi of his Ioiforroie
de ley agra-ia (1795) by some years. In New Granada, Finestr-ad wrote of the negative
economiiic effects of the latifundio arounid 1783, and Pedr-o Fer-miiin de Vargas did so about
1790. Oni the Ibei-iain backgr-ouind to Jovellanos's Iuiforic.ie, see Riclhar-d Her-r-, The Eigihteenith-
Centur^y Revoluition inh Spaini (Pr-inicetoni, 1958).
376-38o.
24. Migtuel de Pombo's emphasis oni developinig exports was very imuvlch in the spilit of
New Granada's creole
p,hilosophes
of the last two decades of the colonial period. It appear-s
in the wi-itings of Pedio Fei-ini de Vai-gas (1790) anid Fi-rancisco Jos6 de Caldas (iSoo-io)
anid, Imiost markedly, in those of Poimbo's uniicle, Jose Igiiacio, whlo was the initellecttual foi-ce
in the Conisulado of Cartagena.
25. In Poml-bo's plan, there wou-ld be sui-plu-s lanid because he wou-ld begiin by dividing
resgutordos
in
whiclh onily
a
small
Iimdian) population r-emiiainied,
See
Posada,
El
20
(Ie jlio,
355-356.
tant in that it presented the first full and clear exposition of the liberal
doctrine that individual property ownership was essential for the produc-
tive use of land, a doctrine that soon became an article of faith among the
nation's leaders. In calling for a protective period in which Indians could
not alienate land and in proposing that some resguardo land be set aside
for public purposes, Pombo also established a pattern for later legislation.
Soon after his statement, in fact, the Junta Suprema of Santaf6 de
Bogota issued a decree calling for the division of resguardo lands that ap-
parently was modeled on Pombo's ideas. The decree varied from Pombo's
statement in three ways. First, it reduced to 2o years the period of pro-
tection against Indians' alienation of their property. Second, while setting
aside land to provide primary schools for Indians, it eliminated refer-
ence to a fund for medical care, tools, oxen, and seed. Finally, whereas
Pombo focused entirely on the economic benefits of dividing Indian land,
the decree, somewhat paternalistically, also gave weight to the themes
of "equality and citizenship," manifest, among other details, in the aboli-
tion of Indian tribute.26 There is no indication that the i8io decree was
implemented. Given the divisions and confusions of early republican gov-
ernment in the Patria Boba, it seems unlikely that it was ever actually
applied.
Economic Integration of the Indians, 1821-1850
After Colombia definitively won its independence from Spain, creole
leaders again attempted to legislate Indian integration. The Congress of
Cuicuta in i81i went further than the i8io decree in asserting the theme
of civic equality for Indians. Not only did its law of October i821 call
for abolishing the tribute, it also held that Indians could not be held
for unpaid personal service and that they were capable of holding public
office. In a further gesture to raise Indian status, the law announced that
henceforth they would no longer be called indios but indigenas, an official
euphenmism frequently forgotten in practice.27 The Congress's treatment
of Indian community lands, however, was less favorable to the indigenes
than the 18io legislation. The i81i law made no provision for a period of
protection of Indians from immediate alienationi of their land-thouglh this
idea would be resurrected in later years. It also continued the policy of
putting aside some resguardo land to finance primary schools, now add-
ing also the support of priests. These last provisions, originally intenided
26. Ibid., 211-212.
27. Btishnell, The Santander Regime, 174-177. See also Congreso de Cl6cuta, 1821:
libro de actas (Bogota, 1971), 643-647.
12 | HAHR
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no doubt as beneficial to Indians, were later viewed by the Indianis as an
onerous burden.
Some efforts apparently were made to divide Indian communal lands
in the i82os enough to begin encountering some of the stanldard prob-
lems that cropped up in this process.28 Undoubtedly, however, the pro-
gram for integrating the Indians was further obstructed by the political
conflicts between Bolivarians and Santancleristas in the latter part of the
i82os. During the Bolivarian reaction (1827-30) the division of Indianl
comimunity lands continued to be at least a stated goal, but some other as-
pects of the integration programii went into reverse. The Bolivarian regime
claimed that the i81i law attempting to treat Inidianis as citizens had been
a failure: the indigenas had proven that they were not able to enjoy the
rights of citizenship, nor did they have the capacitv to fuilfill its duties.
In il828 Bolivar decreed the reestablislhment of the Incdian tribute, uncder
the name contriibucion
personal
.29 In southerni Colombia some wanited to
go still further toward colonial moldes of dealing withj Indialns. From the
Cauca region, in particular, came the complainit that Inidianis were givinlg
themselves over to idleness and drink and were refuisinig to work for hacenl-
dados, causing considerable losses to the latter as well as to the state.
The intenidant of the Departmiienit of Cauca, Toimias Ciprianio cle Mosquera,
advocated implanitinig a moldified, republican versioni of corregiclor control
of indigenious labor.30
The Bolivarian cr-isis (including the brief episode of the Uridanleta dic-
tatorship of 1830-31L) had passed by the miccddle of 1831. As a part of their
efforts to rieconstitute the republic, New Graniaclani legislators riesumed the
integrationist program. The Convencio6n Granadina, by law of Maiclh 6,
1832, once again abolished Indian tribute anid reinitiatecd the divisioni of
Indian lands. The 1832 law was especially importanit because, immedi-
ately after its enactment, the liquidationi of the r-esgiwardos became a higlh
priority of the government. Perhaps the most notable new wrinkle in the
28. Cf. Bushliell, The Sanitarndert Regim71e, 176-177.
29. Jose M. del Castillo [y Rada], "Esposici6n qule por orden del Liber-tador- hace el pr-e-
sidente del conisejo de miniistr-os al congreso constittivente, de los actos a ctie S. E. se refiere
eni su mensaje [Jan. 25, 1830],
Suiplemiiento
a la Gaceta de Colomtibia, 450 (Jani.
:31, 18:30).
For- Bolivar's decree of October 15, 1828, see Gaceta de Colo)71bia, 379 (Oct. 19, 1828).
30. Tomiiis Ciprianio de Mosquera, initenidanit of the Departmnenit of Cauca, in a report
favor-ing the reinstittutioni of the Inidiani tr-ibtute as well as laboi- coiitr-ols in the colonial iimode
(Oct. 13, 1828): "[L]os inidijeinas eni tiin estado casi salvaje eni quie se einctieiitr-ani poI el miial
trato coloinial, no hani heclho otira cosa que abaindoinai-se a stis placei-es brutales, iiiinoirairse eil
nuimero y retirarse de los poblados del Catica . . . . Eni iiutichos ptieblos se liani eiitr-egado
a la bebida de licoies espiiitu-osos, a que soni imtuv propeiisos, i a
qcje
tarnbien dafiiiiudoles
mnicho pasani doce seiimanias enitei-as eni este detestable vicio, sini
cltqe
ningigtia
inecesidad los
haga trabajar . . . . Los liaceindados lhani peirdido estos bi-azos i asi la agirictilttira hla padeciclo
mitcho." ("Indijeiias," Gaceta de Colomilbia, Nov. 9, 1828.)
1832 law was a provision that, in the process of division, between 8 anid
2o fanegadas of land from each resguardo be set aside for colonists (whom
everyone presumed would be "white"). The law also provided that from
one-twelfth to one-sixth of the riemaininig lanid of each resgutardo be riented
out to provide funds for a primary school. Anotlher important feature was
that the cost of surveying was to be paid by the Indian communities them-
selves; invariably this meant substantial amounts of additional land would
have to be sold to pay the surveyors. Finally, the 1832 law prohibited the
alienation of the Indians' individual properties for ten years.'3
When the creole elite began attempting to distribute resgiarrdo lands,
it ran into a host of problems. From the 182os onward the distribution
process was impeded by a lack of trained sur-veyors.32 Also, in the southern
provinces and the Socorro region, as well as in some other areas, Indian
community lands were mostly mountainous and
frequently
forested. These
were difficult and costly to survey, and it was hard to divide them equally.
Frequently, those pushing for the division of Indian lands contended that
the process was being slowed because the compensation for surveyors was
too low to attract their services.33 But the Indian communities, and those
in the elite who spoke for them, arguied that the cost of surveying was too
high for the communities to bear. Often the complaint was registered that
the surveyors reserved the best community land for their own compen-
sation, with the result that little good land was left to divide among the
Indians. Sometimes the cost of surveying was as great as the entire value
of the land in the resgutardo.34
One fairly common complication lav in determininig who ought to be
considered members of Indian commutnities and therefore deseiving a
share of community land. Many Indians who by family linkages belonged
to a community no longer lived there, having gone to live on haciendas
or on public lands. Often, it was contended, if these people were given
a share of land, the plots available would be completely insufficient for
anyone to farm.35
31. Coinsejo de Estado, Codificaci6u uacioulal de toclas las
Ieyes
dc Colomti-bial desde cl
ahio de 1821, lieclIa coniforme a la
ley
13 de 1912 (Bogoti, 1924- ), IV,
344-345.
32. Bushlnell, Tlhe Santtande- Regime, 117, niotes this anid somiie other probleimis inI his
tr-eatmenit of the 182os.
33. J. M. Manitilla, goverinor- of Bogoti pr-ovinice, in Cotnstittcionial dc Ctudinamtia-ca
(Bogota), Sept. i8, 1836. See also suibsequienit decree of the Cdiinara de Proviicia, ibid.,
Nov. 6, 1836.
34. See, oni the resguta-do of Guianie in the pr-ovince of Socorro, Governor Juan Nepo-
imiucenio Toscanio to Secr-etario de lo Initerior-, Junie 7, 1833, Archivo Nacioilal de Colombia,
Rep6blica (hereafter ANCR), Goberniacionies, Republica, tOllO 40, fol. 97.
35. E.g., oni Popavcin, AC, Cdimara, 1835, \71, Decretos de las Caimaras de Provincia,
fols. 418-435; oni Buenaventura, AC, Cimara, - 1833, tOllO VII1, Peticionies, fol. :320; Oll
Popayciu,
ANCR, Goberniacionies, Rep6blica, tOllmO 39, fol. 700.
14 | HAHR
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The question of who ought to be considered an "Indian" also took an-
other form. In the Indian pueblos in which numerous mestizos lived, there
had occurred considerable intermarriage. People questioned whether, in
cases of Indian-mestizo marriages, the progeny were to be considered
"Indian" and thus with a right to land, or mestizo and thus without such
right. The Indian custom of matrilineal determination of status was the
rule usually followed. But some claimanits sought to assert Spanish rules of
patrilineal descent. The question of who should be considered "Indian,"
with regard to rights to resguardo land, was still a live one as late as 1846.36
Although determining who deserved a share of Indian land was com-
plicated enough, the issues that most moved Indians to protest were those
involving substantial losses of community land to "whites." A number of
Indian communities vigorously objected to the appropriation of the best
land by surveyors, the sale of up to 20 fanegadas of land to colonists, and
setting aside land to finance primary schools. With regard to the latter two
issues, at least one Indian community turned the rhetoric of civil equality
against the creole legislators. The Indians of Guane, in the province of
Socorro, argued that taking the land for the colonists without any kind of
compensation was "contrary to our constitution and to the right of equality
that it concedes to the indigenes." In no parish of "Spanish Granadans,"
they pointed out, had it ever been seen that landowners had been de-
spoiled of their property to provide for colonization, except witlh indemni-
zation, and this only under the Spanish monarch. "How can the contrary
be tolerable, under the rule of a constituitioni that equially guarantees their
properties to all Granadans?" The Guane coiimmuniity also observed that
their lands alone, not those owned by "whites," were being used to sustain
primary schools. The government, in effect, was making the Indians pay
the whole cost of rural primary education. This, they argued, was another
denial of the principle of equality.37
Using a more antique, paternalist rhetoric, a priest who had served the
Indian pueblo of Pesca for 30 years argued that the separation of commu-
nity lands for colonists and support of the schools would simply feed the
greed of local "whites, as the indigenes know them." Further, the schools
being financed by Indian community lands would benefit primarily the
white colonists who were moving in, since the Indians tended to take their
children to the fields to work with them. For this reason, "you will not
find an Indigene learning to read and write."3 8
36. For two communiities in the easterni cordillera (Choachi anid Boavita), see AC,
Camara, 1833, VII, Peticiones, fols. 133-135, and AC, CQmara, 1834, III, Anitecedenites
de Leyes, fol. 145. See also "Iindijeinas," El ConIstitticionlal (Bogotc), Feb. 14, 1846, anid
"Resguardos de inidijenias," ibid., July 4, 1846.
37. ANCR, Gobernaciones, Repiiblica, tOllmO 37, fols. 400-403.
38. AC, Csimara, 1834, III, Aintecedenites de leyes, fols. 156-158. A simiiilar arguimenit
There were also, of course, problems pecuiliar to particuilar regions. In
the southern provinces of Pasto and Popayan, for example, Indians were
particularly hostile to the division of community lands. In these provinces,
many Indians engaged in shifting cultivation, with which the assignment
of particular plots was completely incompatible. Further, in these and
other mountainous regions, the amount of flat, easily tillable land in the
resguardos was so small that each family would receive a plot too tiny
to be usable.39 Objections of Indian communities in these provinces to
the division of their land were so strong that in Popayan Indians invaded
government offices and interrupted business, while in Pasto some local
administrators feared insurrection.40
A common response of government officials to Indian protests was to
argue that those who defended the existing arrangement of resguardo
lands were, in fact, a small elite within the Indian community. They con-
tended that those who exercised power in the communities had monopo-
lized the best community land and simply were resisting a more equal
distribution of property. There may have been some truth in this allega-
tion. It is noticeable, however, that the documents voicing this view were
generated by creole administrators, rather than by members of the Indian
communities.41
Just as there were local variations in the kinds of problems that
emerged, creole responses also varied. In Popayan the governor and the
camara de provincia proved willing to listen to complaints of Indians,
urging that in their province the distribution of community lands be suIs-
pended and the Indian tribute be restored.42 The retreat of the Popayan
(without discussioin of why Iindiains miiade less use of schools) was miiade by the Inidiain cabildo
of Choachi in the province of Bogotc. The enitire Choachi cabildo appears to have been
illiterate (i.e., uniable to signi the protest). (AC, Seniado, 1839, XI, Peticionies, fols. 4-5).
39. Rafael Diago, governior of Popavani, to Camllara de Provinicia, Sept. 17, 1833, anid
Sept. 15, 1834, in Constitucional del Cauica (Popayani), Oct. 5, 1833 anid Suplemiienito al #iii
(ca. Sept. 20, 1834); AC, Camara, 1834, III, Anitecedenites de leyes, fols. 151-152 anld 164.
See also Jos6 Maria Galavis, Memoria quie el Gober-ador de Neiva presenlta a la Cdoal-a de
Provincia en sti reuimi6n orditnaria de 1838 (Bogotc, 1838), 9.
40. Diago, governior of Popayvn, to Secretario de lo Initerior, Au'g. 27, 1833, ANCR,
Goberinacionies Repiiblica, tolmO 39, fols.
699-701; reports of the governior- of Pasto, Toimlas
Espaila, a- d of the jefe politico of the canitoni of Pasto, Mar. i, 1833, AC, Canlara, 1833, VI,
Peticionies, fols. 207-208.
41. E.g. Espafia, governor of Pasto, Nov. 2, 1833, ANCR, Goberniacionies, Rep6blica,
tomo 39, fol. 390. See also the argunmenit of Seniator Domiiniguez, a priest fromii Velez, in AC,
Diario de debates, Seniado, Mar. 3, 1840.
42. For the attitudes of Governior Diago, see his message to the Secretario de lo Inl-
terior, Aug. 27, 1833, ANCR, Goberniaciones, Repiiblica, tomo 39, fols. 699-701, anid his
report to the Camara de Provincia of Popayain, Sept. 17, 1833, ill Constituciolnal del Cailca,
Oct.
5,
1833. See also his message of Sept.
i5,
1834, in Cotnstituicional del Catuca, Suple-
mento al nuiimero 111. The Camilara expressed agreemiient with the governior oni Oct.
5,
1833
(Constitulcional del Cauca, Feb. i, 1833). For aniother statemenit of the Cinlmara de Provini-
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elite did not ml-ean that they rejected the aims of the liberal integrationist
program. Popayan's governor, Rafael Diago, while responsive to the Indi-
ans in his recomml-endations, nonetheless pronounced them a "miserable
class, whose habits it is not possible to extinguish, in order to call them
to the state of civilization in which the government has wished to place
thei."43 The Constitucional del Cauca, voice of the Popayan elite, ad-
mitted that the division of Indian lands represented a step toward "civili-
zation" and agreed that the tribute was "odious," as it syml-bolized their
earlier servitude. But even "the most beautiful theories" sometimes did
not work out in practice.44
By contrast with the governing group in Popaydin, the governor of
Pasto, Tomas Espafia, confronted with the same sorts of Indian protests,
was completely unsyml-pathetic. Over the objections of local jefes
politicos,
he wanted to push ahead with the distribution of resgucardo lands. Espafna
was particularly interested in "white" settlers' being able to get hold of
the lands the law allotted for colonization.45 His general attitude toward
the Indians is suggested by the fact that in 1833 he wanited to deny thema
the vote on the ground of illiteracy, even though the constitution then in
force held that illiteracy could not be a disqualification until 1850.46
While the distribution of Indian comiimuinity lands met resistance in
the southern provinces as well as in some other quarters, it proceeded
more rapidly in some areas. The process was alleged to be substantially
complete in Antioquia, for example, by the end of the 1830S.47
Through most of that decade there was a substantial elite consensus on
the desirability of dividing Indian lands, with the exception of the govern-
ing elemeiit in Popayan. In the province of Bogota, as late as 1838, pillars
of the Ministerial or government party, who later became known as Con-
servatives, were attempting to accelerate the division process.48 At the end
of the 1830s, however, soml-e in the political elite-even soml-e who had
cia, Oct. 1, 1834, see AC, CQimiara, 1835, VI, Decretos de las CQimiaras de Piovilncia, fols.
418-423, puiblished with a slightly different citatioii svstem by
J.
Le6n Helgtuera, in Au.ioario
Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura, 11 (1983), 342-349.
43. Diago to Initerior, Aug. 27, 1833, ANCR, Gobernaciones, Rep6blica, tollmo 39,
fol. 699.
44. "Inidijenias," Conistitiucional del Caiuca, Jan. 5, 1833.
45. Espafla to Initer-ior, Nov. L anid 2, 1833, in ANCR, Gobernlaciones,
Replhblica,
tollmo
39, fols. 388-390.
46. Espafia to Iinterior, Sept. 4, 1833, in ANCR, Gobernacioines, Repiblica, tollmO 39,
fol. 375.
47. Fraincisco A. Obreg6n, Esposici6ii
qpie
el Goberntador- de Antioquiia dirije a la
cdimara de la provincia en sils sesiones ordinarias de 1839 (Medellill, 1839), 7.
48. See the
proyecto
of Alejandro Osorio and Marianio Ospinia Rodriguez to accelerate
surveying of resguardos, discussed approvinigly in El Amigo del Piueblo (Bogotc), Sept. 23
aind 25 and Oct. 28, 1838.
been firm supporters of breaking uip the resguardos-began to recognize
the negative effects of this process. From 1839 through 1843 auithorities
in Bogota focused most particularly on the fact that Indians were rapidly
losing their newly acquired properties. The 1832 law had souight to protect
the Indians from alienating their individual plots for a period of ten years.
Nonetheless, "whites" had appropriated many of these properties throigh
emnpeuios-that is, by obtaining from the Indians, for small cash advances,
leases with indefinite terms that became tantamount to ownership. Fre-
quently,
"white" renters would demand compensation for improvements
they made on the land. When the Indian owner could not come up with
the cash, he might be forced to cede the land to the renter. In some cases
hacendados pressed Indian farmers into rental agreements by tlhreaten-
ing to deny them access to water, to markets, or to the land itself. Early
in 1840, tlhe government of President
jos6
Ignacio de Marquez becanlle
alarmed by the increasingly evident problem of tlhe alienation of Indian
land and called on the Congress to provide the Indians with additional
protection.4
Although he was not tlhe first to take up the cause, Alfonso Acevedo,
governor of Bogota province from 1842 to 1845, became the most notably
impassioned advocate of protecting Indians froml- the "avarice" of the mllany
whites battening off themi and suispended fuirther divisions of -esgluardo
land.50 Acevedo indicted the suirveyors for taking the best lands, leaving
the Indians only with tiny plots; the priests for deman-din-g Indian- land in
paymient for burials; and the jefes politicos for consenting to the alienationl
of land by Indians under their charge. All of these had brouight "complete
ruin on the indigenes." Later he added titnter-illos (village shysters) to his
list of villains. Once the chief cultivators of food for local niarkets, now
Indians by the hundreds, having lost their land, had become beggars aind
drunks. "We have here a cruel and ironic imiockery of the sacred rights of
property whiclh we so much boast of protecting." In Acevedo's view, "the
white race in the nineteentlh centuiry [had] proceeded with less juistice ...
than the conquistadores." l
49.
The
govei-iiiiieiit
was iiioved to act b a Dec. 3, 18:39,
report froim the jefe politico
of Ubate, in Bogotci province. (Message of Seciretairio de lo Initer-ior v Relacioines Exteirior-es
Eusebio Borrero to the Seniate, Apr. 9, 1840, in AC, Seniado, 1843, II, Provectos de lev
aprobados ell
3er
debate, fol. 252.)
50. See Constitinciotial de Cnntiditiara-ca, JdIlv 3, 1842, for a chalracteristic Acevedo
order tojefes politicos not to permit the alienationi of Inidiani land under ayv pretext, including
improvemenits or empeiio arranigemilenlts.
51. Acevedo, Mar. 30, 1842, as quoted by Secretario de lo Initer-ior v Relacionies Exteri-
ores Mar-iano Ospinia, Apr. 7, 1842, in AC, Senado, 1843, II, Provectos de ley aprobados ein
3er
debate, fols. 236-237, 240; statemiienit of Sept.
i5,
1842, in Con.stitucionloll de Ciund(litia-
marca, Sept. 15, 1842; ibid., Mar. 30, 1845.
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More judgmental about the Indians than Acevedo, and also more com-
mitted to liberal economic doctrine, Secretary of the Interior Marianio
Ospina Rodriguez nonetheless agreed with Acevedo on the need to pro-
vide special protection for the Indians, eveni thouiglh this conitradicted
economic principles. The latter wouild lhave to give way before the dem-
onstrated fact of Indian inferiority: "The Americani race, whether because
of its organization, or because of the abjection in which for three cen-
turies it has lived, [is] in the greater part of the Republic in a state of
inferiority in relation to the rest of the population." The Conlgress, Ospina
concluded, "must protect [the Indians'] inferiority againist the avarice of
the stronger race."52
Accordingly, the Conigress inl 1843 extenided the prohibition againist
the alienation of individual Indian properties to 20 years and attempted
to erect other protections. In practice, however, more anid more land
passed from Indian hands, legally as well as illegally. After 1845, the con-
cern began to shift somewhat from protectinig Indian land to emphasizinig
modernization. This may have reflected the general atmosphere of the
administration of General Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera (1845-49), whiclh
was notably less conservative and mor-e development-oriented than its pre-
decessor. At the local level, at least in Bogota province, a inew governor,
Pastor Ospina (the younger brother of Mariaino Ospina Rodriguez), was
in many ways a firm protector of Indiains and their lands,53 and during
his two years as governor only one resguardo was divided.54 But he was
also concerned to promote primary education, and under his governorship
there were considerable sales of land from already divided resgutardo.s
for financin-g rural schools.55 After a year in office, furthermore, Ospina
concluded that the earlier policy of prohibiting Indians from alienating
their plots had been a mistake. By 1846, he had reverted to anl essentially
liberal economic stance, assuming that the individuial, even if an Indian,
would know 1his own interests best. If the Indiain wanted to keep the land,
he would "make any sacrifice" to keep it; if he did not wish to farm, the
52. AC, Seniado, 1843, II, Provectos de lev aprobados ell
3ei
debate, fols. 237v-239.
53. Pastor Ospinia in hiis first year as governor, amiionig otlher protective efforts, (1) at-
temipted
to protect Inidiani properties fi-omii cattle invasions (Conistitlucionial de Clund(litnoomoarca,
Aug. 31, 1845); (2) tried to regulate the r-enital or sale of Inidiani lanid (ibid., Nov. 9, 1845);
(3)
ordered that Inidianis servinig in the army niot lose their lanid (ibid., Jall.
4,
1846);
(4)
at-
tempted to check empehos (ibid., Jani. 17, 1846); anid
(5)
nut'llified cessionis of Inidiani lanid to
curates (ibid., May io, 1846).
54.
Ibid., Oct. 11, 1847.
55. "Terrenos de escuelas,' circular of Pastor Ospinia to jefes politicos, Mav 12, 1846,
ibid., May 16, 1846. See also "Resguar-dos de inidijenias," in El Cotistitticiotnal, Sept. 15, 1846.
Sales of Inidiani lanids to support primary schools are reported ibid., Mar. 7, Apl-
5
anld 13,
May 16, Aug. 29, Nov. 21 anid 28, Dec. 6, 1846; anid in El Cotnstituicioool de Cuotiditnamoiarca,
Apr. 11 anid 21, May 11, 1847.
state should not attempt to force him to. For such individuals the sale of
land might provide a small capital to engage in other enterprises.56
The tide of economic liberalism rieached the high-water mark with the
Liberal presidential victory of 1849. The new government, among many
other measures, on June 22, 1850 decentralized policy on Indiani commu-
nity lands by granting to each province the right to find its own way. The
provincial chamber of Bogota moved quickly to act in accord with liberal
principles. In October 1851, it called for the immediate division of all
Indian lands and left Indians comiipletely free to sell their individual plots.
A burst of sales of Indian lands in Bogota province quickly followed.57
But many sales were still being recorded in the Bogota regioni in 1864,
after libeeral policy on the alienation of resgitardos became national law.58
Even after that point, however, there remained a good deal of regional
variationi. In the mountainous regions of southerni Colombia, a number of
resguardos survived until the 189os, wheni they too came under assault.59
Glenn Curry, in his more concentrated study of the demise of the res-
guardo in the Bogota region, takes a somlewlhat upbeat, revisionist view
of the process. The alienationi of individual plots, Curry contelnds, had its
positive aspects. Permittinig Indianis to sell their land enabled individual
Indians to profit from the sale of plots that were too smlall to cultivate
or that, for other reasons, they did not wislh to use. Further, he argues,
it should not be assumed that all Indiani lands were sold to hacenidados;
mlaniy sales were to other Indians, some of whonm became successful agri-
cultural entrepreneurs. Finally, he notes the Indianis' ability to use the
courts and in other ways to defend their interests. The fact that Indians
in the Bogota region did not protest much, he thiniks, must indicate that
they thenmselves were in favor of the direction of chanige.60
This conclusioni seems too optimistic. Certainly Indians outside the
Bogota region did protest. And in the province of Bogota, while somne
56. "Resgtialdos de inidijenias," El Cotistitiuciotnal, Sept. 15, 1846. InI his disseitationi oni
the br-eakup of resgtiardos in the Bogota r-egioni, Glennii Ctirry quotes this opinlioIn as deliv-
ered by Pastor- Ospinia in 1848. However, the opinlioIn appears, woird foir word, in 1846. In aniy
case, in 1848 Pastor Ospinia was nio loniger- governiior of Bogota provinice; his br-other Mar-ianio
was
goveriior
at that timiie. See Curry, "The Disappearanice of the Resguarcdos Iindigenias of
Cundinamarca, Colombia, 1800-1863" (Ph.D. diss., Vaniderbilt Uniiver-sitv, 1981), i8o.
57. See, e.g., imianiy sales of resgtiardo lanids recoilded in ANCR, Notaria 2a, Bogot;i,
1852, tomos 266 anid 267.
58. See inidex for Notaria 2a, Bogota, 1840-1879.
59. Helguera, Indigenisino in Colomt1bia: A Focet of the Natiotnal
Idenitity
Search. 1821-
1973 (Buffalo, 1974), 7.
6o. Curry, "The Disappearanice of the Resgtuardos," 176-180, 182, 196-197. Curr1y's
anialysis here in some ways parallels that of Florenicia Malloni in The Defetnse of Comminu-
nlity i.1 Peru' s Centtral Highlond(Is: Peosautit Struggle onid
Capitalist
Transition. 1860-i940
(Priniceton, 1983).
20 | HAHR
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entrepreneurial Indians undoubtedly bought plots from their peers, there
is evidence of substantial Indian land sales to non-Indians.6' Further, con1-
temporary writings attest to the negative impact of the Indians' losing their
land. By the middle of the 1840s, an elite-produced literature, elegaic
in tone, began to lament the demise of the Indiani farmer on the Sabana
de Bogota. Over and over, such pieces decried the replacement of Indi-
ans' intensive cultivation of food crops by extensive cattle grazing on elite
estates.62 (One peculiarity of this literature is that the same individuals
who spoke so warmly about Indians as agriculturalists on other occasions
wrote themii off as stupid.)
Elite Views of the Dominated at Midcentury
It is of particular inter est to examinie the conceptiolns of Colonmbianl writers
about Amerinidianis durinig the 185os aid i86os and to compare these
with the same writers' views of Afio-Colombianis. One reason is that
the integration of dominiated, noni-Europeani peoples into a domiinanit
European-modeled culture, economy, and polity remiiainied higlh on the
elite agenda. And this project seemed to be well advaniced, particularly
in the most popuilated areas of Colomlbia (the easternl cordillera, greater
Antioquia, the Cauca valley, and the Caribbean coast), thouiglh it remainied
unrealized for forest and other nomiiadic groups in more marginial regions.
How, at this juncture, with the lands of maniy Indiaii communllliities nlow
divided, did the domillnant grouips conceive of suclh integrationi? While the
project usuially was promulgated in term-ls of cultuiral and economiiic inte-
gration (there was low miuclih less emplhasis on political integrationi thanl
in the 1820S), the integrative process, nonietlheless, also had its racial or
genetic aspects.
In the second place, a certain consciousniess about race and culture was
beginning to develop. Elite views of the dominiated Amerindians (as well
as Afro-Colombianis) were rooted in, and in maniy ways extended, rather
blunt notions inherited from the colonial period. Yet, at midcentury, Euro-
pean writings on race were beginning to make at least a few amlonlg the
intellectual elite more self-conscious in their thinking about racial and cul-
tural groups. Ideas about race and culture were still by no means sophisti-
cated. But some Colombian intellectuals were beginning to move through
6i. E.g., sale of tlheir plots by
64
Inidiains of Chia, at 30 pesos each, to Sr. Jes6s Castro,
Jan1. 22, 1852, ANCR, Notar-ia 2a, Bogotci, toimio 266, fols. 22v-2:3x. See also imutiltiple sales
by Iindiains of Nemoc6n to Frtictuoso Aloinso Cuhillos, Jan,. 20-24, 1852, ibid., fols. 17-20,
24, 26-29.
62. See, e.g., Marianio Ospinia Rodrigtiez's commiiiienitary in
1845,
ill his Artic.lios esco-
gidos (Medellini, 1884), 193-195.
a zone between the total unselfconsciousniess of the late colonial years and
the nmore heiglhten-ed consciousniess developed in later social science.
Finally, the 185os anld i86os were one of those periodically recurrinlg
tinmes when upper-class Colomiibians seemled to take a particular inter-
est in discovering the country in wlhich they lived. An earlier episode of
such curiosity had occurred in the last two decades of the colonial era,
under the stimulus of Enlighteiinmenit influenices in general and the Ex-
pedici6n Botainica in particular. These two decades were anotller such
period. The official geographic survey knowni as the Con-isi6n Corografica
was one of its foci and one of its outstanding contributionis. In contrast
with the late colonial inquiry, which concenitrated heavily on scientific
study of the land and its resources, the imiidcentury examinationis, while
continuing this interest in economic potential, gave muclh mlore attentionl
to social characteristics. Elite curiosity about the featuires of New Grania-
dan society at this timle found expression in many travel descriptions anld
cuadros de costum-nbres as well as in geographies and graphic illustrations
of social types.
Several of the writers of greatest interest lhere were associated with the
Comisi6n Corografica, republican Colombia's first systematic geographic
study. Formally initiated in 1849, the project sought to develop a comlplete
description of the country's topograplhy and populations and of local and
regionial economic and commercial patterns. The Comisi6n Corografica
sent out into the various corners of the counitry research teams-including
illustrators, who painted watercolors of topographic features, char-acteris-
tic economlic activities, and socioracial types of the various regionis of the
counitry (e.g., "ILndio y mestizo, Provincia de Paimiploina"; "Notables de la
capital, Provincia de Santander"; "Mineros blanlcos, Provinicia de Soto";
"Tipo blanico e inidio nmestizo, Proviincia de Tundama").63 The first geog-
raphy produced by the Comisi6n concenitrates heavily oni demoograplhic
and economic facts and does not indulge in divagations oni sociocultural
peculiarities.64 But other participants in the project devoted a good deal
of attention to description of, and conmmentarv on, the behavior of the
various racial-cultural elements that formed the country's lower orders.
Among those affiliated with the Comisi6n Corografica who commienited
on racial or cultural questions were the Italian engineer, Colonel
AVustin
63. Two recenit editionis of these illtistr-ationis have heen
puhlished,
En blusca de un
pmis: La Comisi6n Corogr6fica: Selecci6n de
dibujo.s
de Carmelo Ferni,ndez, Enri-iqlue Pr-ice
y
Manuel Mariia Paz, co0 texto itrt-oduictor-io de Gonzalo Hern6n.dez de Alba (Bogoti, 1984)
anid Acuarelas de la Comisi6n Corogrdfica: Colomiibia 1i850-1859, Gtiilleirmlo Heil-iAidez cle
Alba, ed. (Bogotci, 1986). The formiler editioni is relatively slighlt (31 illustrations), the Iltter
ich imor-e extenisive (150 illtustrationis).
64. Jeogr-afta fisica i politica de las Proviuicias de la Nueva Gratnada
par
la ComisiOn
Corogr6fica bajo la direcci6n de Agustin Codazzi,
3
v'ols. (Bogoti. 1858-59).
22
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Codazzi (1793-1859), who directed the project; Manuel Ancizar (1812-82),
whose survey of Colombia's eastern and northeastern provinces in 1850-51
was published first in newspaper articles and SOOln afterward gathered in
book form in his Peregrinaci6n de Alpha (1853); and Felipe Perez (1836-
91), who, after Codazzi's death, took on the task of writing a national
geography based on descriptions provided by Codazzi and perhaps other
collaborators.
Some contemporaries not connected with the Comnision also devoted
attention to issues relating to racial and cultural integration. Notable
among these is Jose Maria Saimiper (1828-88), who began his political
career as a fiery liberal and ended it as a perhaps somnewlhat less fiery conl-
servative. Samper's most concentrated discussions of race appear in his
diagnosis of the ills of Latin America that he published as Ensayo soblre las
revoluciones politicas y la condicion social de las repiiblicas colombianas
(Paris, 1861).65 Eugenio Dfaz Castro (1803-1865), one of Colombia's lead-
ing midcenttiry writers of socially descriptive fiction, is also anl imiiportanit
figure for purposes of this analysis.
While all these authors could be descriibed as racist to one degree or
another, the content of their racism varied somewlhat. Not surprisingly,
given the period being discussed, they did not make a clear distinction
between race and culture. Codazzi, the oldest of the authors, camie closest
to ml-aking such a distinctioni. Discussing Coloml-bia's forest Indians, he
stated outright that he did not believe their "barbarity" was inhlerenlt in
their nature. To believe this, he said, would be to proclaim the doctrine
of the inequality of races and racial predestinationi, a doctrine which he
held contrary to his ideas about the "justice of God and the uniity of the
human family." Codazzi tended to give weight to the effects of the natural
environmenit, as well as of human agencies, in moldinig the cultures or be-
havior of peoples.66 On the other hanid, as I will indicate later, Codazzi was
not completely consistent in the practice of his faith. The muclh younlger
Perez, wlho was influenced by Codazzi, tended to emphasize both the role
of natural environmiient and the possible transforml-ative effects of humllan
actions. Ancizar gives no signl of havinig given considered thouglht to ques-
tions relatinig to race and culture. He seems to have associated certain
kinds of physical character-istics and cultural patternis with specific racial
groups; on the other hand, he placed a lot of faith in the tranisforml-ative
effect of education. The most clearly racist author was Saim-per, who at
65.
The edition cited here is a facsimile of the i86i Paris editioin, puhlished in Bogot.
in 1984.
66. "Aintigiledades iindlijeinas," dated Nov. 28, i857, app. to "Jeogirafia fisica i politica del
Tolima," in P6rez, Jeografia fisica i politica de los Estados Unidos de Coloimibia II, 96-99.
least as of i86o-6i was much influenced by Joseph Arthur Gobineau and
attributed many indwelling characteristics to particular racial types.
These authors' writings about Amerindians reveal a number of the-
matic continuities with elite discourse of the late eighteenth century,
treated above in the first section. First, as in the late colonial period,
the midnineteenth-century writers focused particularly on the economic
performance of Amerindians (and indeed also of Afro-Colombians) and
measured them by that performance. The concern for political integra-
tion, which had become a significant theme in the 182os, had receded to
the background. Second, as in the late colonial period, there continued to
be a pronounced tendency to treat Amerindians as stupid and to see lack
of economic drive as a proof of that stupidity. Finally, these intellectuals
continued to assume, as had some of their late colonial forebears, that
racial amalgamation between Amerindians and whites (or blacks) would
result in an improvement on the Amerindian original.
Most of the writers believed that Amerinidianis obstructed national
progress," a concept apparently including cultural improvement ("civili-
zation") as well as economic development. Ideas about econiomic progress
and cultural improvement actually tended to converge, since material con-
sumption was seen as an important componienit anid indicatol of "civili-
zation." By the middle of the nineteentlh century, the liberal economl-ic
framework was overwhelmiingly hegemonic among Colombia's dominant
class.67 Their version of the liberal economic ideology placed great weight
on the utility, indeed the primacy, of commerce and on the value of in-
creased consumption as a stimulus to economic activity. If, from the point
of view of economic activity, consumptioni was desirable, so also was in-
creased material consuml-ptioni necessary to establish Colombia among the
ranks of civilized nations. Indeed, in the eyes of the Colombiani elite,
material consumption amonig the general population was as importanit a
measure of "civilization" as was educationi. One of the importanit fuinctionls
of the latter, after all, was precisely to alert the "lower orders" to the pos-
sibilities of increased consumption. Througlh schoolinig they would learn
of the potential availability of "comnodidades" and would be induced to
work hard for them. Thus, for the intellectuals, there was a circular and
mutually reinforcing relationship between industriousniess and conlsumllp-
tion. Consumption was good because it required the lower classes to work;
hard work was good because it expanded the possibility of consumllption.
In their writings it was not clear whiclh of these goals-consumiiptioni or
67. See Frank Safford, "The Emergenice of Econiomic Liberalism in Colombia," in Gulid-
ing the Inivisible Hanid: Economtlic Liber-alism71 and the State in Latini Amnericani Historn,
Joseph L. Love and Nils Jacobsein, eds. (New York, 1988), 54-58.
24 | HAHR
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cultivating industriousness-had primacy. Both were essential hallmarks
of "civilization."
As Colombia's midcentury geographers and other writers surveyed
their country, they tended to divide its population into several categories.
The first division was between the "savage" (for the most part forest
Indians) and the "civilized," which included sedentary Indians and Afro-
Colombians as well as Europeans and mestizos.68 The "civilized" in turn
were divided into those who lived "decently," in terms of housing and
clothing, and worked hard in order to obtain such "comoclidades," and
those who were satisfied with survival at a low level of material consump-
tion and could not be induced to undertake svsteim-atic work. By and large,
as elite writers saw it, the white and mestizo populations fell into the
category of the nmeritoriously workinig and colnsuminig, while Indianls and
Afio-Colombians in general revealed their deficient "civilization" by being
content with low levels of mateirial consuimiptioin.
Concern for increased consumptioni was explicit in the first published
reports stemminig from the Comision Corografica-Manuel Ancizar's de-
scriptions of and commentaries on Colombia's northern provinces. Ancizar
tended to minimilize the persistence of an Indiani populationi, preferring to
consider most of the r ural people as "white." Nonetlheless, in a numiber of
communities he found peasants whom he identified as clearly "IIndiani."
Comparing his accounts of "whites" and "Indians," there is a fairly clear
association between "white" peasants and the possession of "colodlicia-
des," on the one hand, and Indians and the lack of such consumption,
on the other. Ancizar did concede that Indian peasants were hard work-
ing. Indeed, he noted that where they had disappeared, so also had
"painstaking cultivation of the land." However, they were not good con-
sumers, especially where housing was concerned. Speaking of predomi-
nantly Indian villages in the province of
Tunjja,
he noted, "As is customary
in the towns of the highlands, their material aspect and disposition in
no way corresponds to the rare beauty of the land around themn; the in-
digenous nature . . . does not attemiipt, nor does it conceive of, comufort
68. E.g., Perez, Jeogr-afia fisica i politica del Esta(lo del Caluca (Bogotci, 1862), Ap6n-
dice, "Iindios," 229-233, aind [by Agtistini Codazzi], "Descripci6n jeineial de los iinclios (lel
Caqueti," 315-326. See also P6rez, Jeografia ... Colomiibia, II, 29.
69. This, as well as the testimioinv of othei atuthors disctssed here, illdicates that there
were still peasanits in the easterni coildilleil swlhomi conitemiporaries icleintifiecl as "Indians"
accorcliing to plheinotypical anid ctilttiial (rasther thlan simply legal) criteria. Illtustratioins for
the Comnisi6n Corogrhfica also distinguish among white, mestizo, anid Inidiall types. It tllus
seemiis inicorrect to miiainitainl, as Curry dloes ("Disappearanice of the Resguardos,"
4o),
that in
the ninieteenith cenitturv Iindiains existed in the tegioni oilv as a legal categorv, niot identifiably
differeint fi-omii other-s by physical or culttural chlaracter-istics.
70. Maniuel Anicizar, PeregrinaciO i6 de
Alp/a por0
las
provitiias
del Nor-te de la Nulev
Graniada, eni 1850-51 (Bogotci, 1956), 315.
in homes, limlliting itself to putting up badly distributed and unsheltered
thatched huts or houses."71
Almost invariably, ml-ideentury authors depicted the Indian population
as less intelligent than Europeans or mestizos. They routinely attributed
the Indians' lack of spirit and enterprise in part to the (usually not speci-
fied) bad effects of the Spanish conquest and subsequent Spanish oppres-
sion. Nonetheless, the effects usually appeared to be indelible. Ancizar,
speaking of the Indians in the eastern highlands, declared that "the con-
quest did not produce in this unfortunate race any result but humiliation
and brutalization, killing even the root of . . . spirit
[and]
moral person-
ality."
7
Similar statements condem-ning Spanish colonial treatmnent of the
Indian can be found in the works of Codazzi, Perez, and Samper. The
latter blamied the colonial regime for keeping the Indians ignorant and
particularly (in accord with liberal doctrinie) for holdin-g them separate
from the Hispanic population, in protected indigenous commnunities.
Eugenio Diaz, a political conservative, was caustically critical of lib-
eral dogmas. Hence, he spoke of white exploitation of Indians in general,
including the contemiporary era as well as the colonial period. Diaz, in
his unbelievably boring and insipid costutnitb -ista novel, Los aguinaldios en
Chapinero, has the otherwise simple-ml-inded Indian gardener, Neuque,
muake a spirited (and implausible) reply to a white who has called himn
"miserable:" "Miserable . . . porque los blancos asi lo haln querido, des-
pojandonos de nuestras riquezas y sonsacaindonos nuestras tierras."74
Ancizar was miore discreet than the other authors about labelinig Indi-
ans as stupid or lazy. Frequently, however, he expressed shock that com-
munities that had ceased to be Indiani and were nlow inestizo or "white"
continued to practice a superstition-ridden religion that he preferred to
associate with Indians. Idolatrous practices had been permitted by the
church in order to bring the indigenes into the fold, Ancizar noted, "but
nlow that the indigenous race is being substituted by the Graniadani, dif-
ferent than the first in nature, in intelligeince, and ml-oral necessities, and
moreover galvanized by democratic institutions and modified in its man-
ner of existing by the freedom of industry . . . today the former system
lacks reason [for existing]."
As previously noted, Codazzi explicitly rejected the notioni of racial in-
equality. Nonetheless, his discussion of New Granada's forest Indians was
71. Ibid., 321.
72. Ibid., 26.
73. Codazzi, "Aitigiiedclades indijenas," in Perez, Jeogr-fia ... Colomnbia, II, 99; Perez,
Jeografia . .. Calica, 134-135; Saiipei,
E.say,o
sobre las rrevolliciooies, 46-48, 59.
74. Ei-geinio Diaz Castro, Novelas i cliadiros de costuoibre, 2 vols. (Bogota, 1985), I, 56.
75. Aincizai, Peregrinaci6o, 117;
see alSo 212.
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unqualifiedly negative. Noting that he had visited and studied Amerindiai
tribes all over the country, he concluded that "I have not found motives
for believing that in the years since the conquest . . . there has occuirred
in those people a transformation that is taking themii toward intellectuLal
and social improveml-enit." Where the Indiani crosses with Europeanls or
Africans, Codazzi continued, the progeny are enterprising, active, anid
educable. When such mixes cross again with Indians, the result is regres-
sive. Where Indians remain pure, "everything sleeps," and indeed they
become more "barbarous."76
In his discourse on how the Indians got that way and how to civi-
lize them, Codazzi wavered between historical understanding and racial
pessimism. Discussing the Goajiros, he first declared them "incapable of
civilization." He then went on to assert that Spanish despotism had foiced
them into nomadism and that unperturbed commerce with Europeans
ultimately would bring them to civilization. Similarly, the Andaquis, once
a sedentary culture, had been driven by the Spanish into the tropical
forest. The forest had overwhelmed themi with its uncointainable growth,
forcing them into the wandering life of the hunter. Both peoples had
had to adapt to circumstances. On the other hanid, Codazzi believed dif-
ferent peoples adapted in different ways. There were "weak races" and
others that were "strong in civilization." The former were those who ac-
quiesced in the power of nature; the latter knew that they could transform
nature. "Rudiml-entary peoples, who are unfamiiliar with intelligent indus-
try, [which] subjugates the physical world, are slaves of the matter that
surrounds them and molds them to its demands.7"77
Whereas Codazzi claimed that he rejected the inherent inequality of
races, Samper, as a follower of Gobineau, was among the least subtle
racists of the period. Saim-per repeatedly described highland Indians as
simply "stupid." He described the Indian of Pasto as "resistant to civili-
zation, unmoved by progress. He is a sedentary savage . . . with a stupid
look . . ., malicious, astute, untrusting . . . indolent in morality, but hard-
working and patient." His "Chibcha" counterpart in the eastern cordillera
was, in Samper's book, "frugal but intemperate, patient but stupid .
simple, profoundly ignorant . . . without any ambition whatever," amonig
other negative qualities.78
That such views of highland Indians were generally shared by whites
and im-estizos is suggested by the social description in Diaz's fiction.
Neuque, the Indian gardener, is told by a stoneml-asoni, "Miserable Indian,
76. Codazzi, in app. oni "Antigiiedades iindijeinas" (dated Nov. 28, 1857), in Perez,
Jeografia . .. de Colombia, II, 96.
77. Ibid., 97-99, 105.
78. Saropei, Enisayo sobre las revoluciones politicas, 87-89.
go and sleep on your chicha." And Diaz, on some other occasions senti-
mentally sympathetic with the Indians (as a doomed race), himself speaks
of Neuque sleeping, with "his soul stupified by the narcotic of ignorance."
Later, Diaz compares Neuque to a dog.79
Elite writers also tended to consider the Indians ugly. Ancizar, having
compared a boy bringing pigs to market to Apollo guiding the horses of
the sun, noted, however, that "the representative of Apollo had nothing
of beauty and much of the indigenous."80 In Codazzi's work, the esthetic
preference is clothed in "scientific" language. Codazzi noted a uniformity
of features and a lack of facial expressiveness among forest Indians, in
comparison with Europeans. This phenoml-enion, he hastened to explain,
was not inherent in race but was a product of experience. The inexpres-
siveness of forest Indians occurred because of their lack of frequent human
contact and their lack of education. Noting that donmesticated dogs showed
a greater "variety of forms and of color" and a greater facial expressive-
ness than wild animals, Codazzi found a similar greater variety amonig
humans in civilization. "If variety and moobility of features adorn animated
nature, we must admit also that the two increase with civilization, without
being entirely produced by it. In the great family of nations, no race so
possesses these advantages as the Caucasian or European." Codazzi, how-
ever, specifically denied that a racist conclusion should be drawn from this
observation. He further noted that lack of expressiveness was "less appar-
ent" in Africans than in native Americans and, following La Condamine,
argued that this reflected differences in education.8'
Most of these midcentury writers took comfort in the idea that the
Indian population was tending to disappear, as it was absorbed by Colom-
bians of European descent. Samper, though influenced by the concepts of
Gobineau, turned Gobineau upside down with regard to the implications
of miscegenation. Whereas Gobineau believed that race mixture brought
the decline of civilization, Samper saw Colombia's salvation in mestizaje.
Miscegenation, he believed, would have a happy result, "because obser-
vation proves that the white race is the most absorbent" as well as that
which "predominates in intelligence and moral faculties."82
None of the other midcentury writers treated here made such a bald
statement of racist "scientific" faith. But they appear to have cherished
it nonetheless. In his tour of the provinces north of Bogota, Ancizar fre-
quently expressed satisfaction that in many localities the Indian popula-
79. Diaz Castro, Novelas y cuadros de costtumlbre, I, 55-56, 69, 77.
8o. Ancizar, Peregrinaci6n, 94.
81. Codazzi, "Descripci6n jeineral de los iindios del Caquleta," in Perez, Jeografia . . .
Cautca, 318-319.
82. Samper, Eoisayo sobr-e las revoluciotnes politicas, loo.
28
|
HAHR I FEBRUARY I
FRANK SAFFORD
tions were disappearing, having beeni absorbed by whites.83 In the prov-
ince of Tunja, he announced,
the indigenous race forms the smaller number of inhalbitants, it
being admirable how rapidly it has crossed with and beeni ab-
sorbed by the European, since half a century ago the province of
Tunja presented a compact mass of Indians and very few Spanish
families. Today one notes in the new generation the progressive
improvement of the castes: the children are white, blond, of fine
and intelligent features and better built bodies than their elders.84
Ancizar found comforting proof of the progressive whitening of the
peasants of the eastern cordillera in the rosiness of their cheeks. (He seems
to have believed that native Americans could not have rosy cheeks.) Thus,
in Uvita: "Only exceptionally was the coppery face of some Indian noted
among the multitude of white people that formed almost the total of the
inhabitants, the women being notable for the carmine of their cheeks." Or
in La Paz, a town of recent foundation: ". . . almost all of European race,
or so mixed that you can't see the Indian: the womeni pretty . . . the chil-
dren truly lovely, with blond hair and cheeks of caimine."u85 In the passage
just quoted, as well as in soml-e others, Ancfzar recogniizes that a process
of mestizaje has taken place, that the Indians are still there, in part, even
though you "cannot see" them. Ancizar preferred, however, to tlhink of
the result of such fusion as simply "wlhite," ratlher thani mestizo. Hence
his irritation that "superstitious" religious practices that he associated with
Indians were being practiced by "white" peasants.
There is a similar ambiguity (or confusion?) on this matter in Dfaz's
writings. He sometimes describes the persistence of indigenous practices
among protagonists he has insisted on certifying as "white." In Bruna la
carbonera, he goes to some length to identify his tragic heroine as white.
Her genealogy is established by the fact that her father, a humble clharcoal-
maker near Bogota, hails from "the towns of the Northeast" (i.e., the
allegedly "white" population of the Socorro region). Further, his "beard
was black and thick, and in the white color of his face . . . was observ-
able the Spanish race." To make certain that no one failed to understand
her true racial identity, Diaz describes Bruna herself as follows: "The
rose color of her arms and cheeks, the abundance of her hair, the oval
of her face, and the dimples in her cheeks made her recognizable as the
daughter of a Span-ish family that had conserved all the characteristics
83. Aincizai-, Peregrinaci6n, 38, 93, io6,
114,
191, 214, 221, 342.
84. Ibid., 342.
85. Ibid., 214, 250; see also 199.
of the Latin race."86 Evidently Dfaz, like Ancizar, believed fiim-lly in the
"rosy cheeks" test.
Yet, Bruna and her family are described as weaving their riuanas on
an indigenous loom, practicing "la industria de sus mavores." One of the
characters describes Bruna as beinig dressed "like the most contemlptible
of Indians." And her family engages in practices that an elite intellectual
protagonist imagines to be of indigenous origin.87 Dfaz may have been
deliberately making the point that those in the lower orders that the domi-
nant class thought of as "Indian" ought really to be considered "white."
On the other hand, perhaps he simply falls into the New Yorker category
of "Our For-getful Authors." (Dfaz is said to have written his fiction straight
out, with little subsequent revision.)
Whereas midcentury writers took comfort in the "absorption" of the
highland Indian population iby the dominant European race, they were
less at ease about the Afro-Colombiani population. They apparently con-
sidered this group much less assimilable and in some ways threateninig.
Whereas elite writers conceived of the Amerinidian- population as pas-
sive and declining in numibers, Afro-Colombian-s were perceived to be
demographically dynamic. Perez remarked on the fecundity of blacks in
western Colomibia, noting that Afro-Colombian girls in the tropical low-
lands of Tumaco and the Choc6 began to bear children at the age of 12 oi
13.88 Samper raised the specter of an Afirican demographic takeover, whiclh
could be contained only through a compenisatory multiplication of mesti-
zos. Like some other writers in the period, Samper was disturbed bv the
fertility of Afro-Colombians, which, with Gobinieau as guide, he attributed
to a lack of equilibrium in their physical, moral, and intellectual faculties.
Blacks bred rapidly, he said, because in theml- the physical faculties "exer-
cise an almost exclusive rule" (in contrast with the "very high degree of'
moral and intellectual refinement" of the French, which had so notably
slowed their rate of reproduction).89 "The blacki race, which multiplies
with prodigious facility in fiery climates [climlas ardientes], would have
become the strongest, and Colombia would have become a second Afirica,"
if the Spanish had not been able to counterbalance them demograplhically
in eastern Colomibia through benieficent breeding with the docile (and
genetically passive) Indian population. Samper condemnied the Spanisl
policy of trying to keep Indianis in resguardos separate from the Europealn
population in part because it discouraged matinig betweeni Indianis and
86. Diaz Castro, Novelas I clladr-os de costumbre, ,1
220, 223.
87. Ibid., 249, 272, 283.
88. Perez, Jeografia . . . Cauica, 130, 168.
89. Saimiper, Eoisaw,o sobre las revoluicionies politicas, 68.
30 | HAHR
I
FEBRUARY
I
FRANK SAFFORD
Spaniards. "The important thing was to favor the crossing of the European
race with the indigenes, thus obtaininig a mixed society of good character:
white, strong, benign, intelligent."90
Afro-Colombians made elite commentators nervous not only because
of their demographic dynamism but also because, unlike the Amerindian
population, they were seen as a threat to the social order. Fear of black
insurrection and even dominance had becomiie a periodic concern amioing
the Colombian elite since the early 182os, wheln Sim6n Bolivar oftenl
voiced his gloomy predictions of imminienit "pardociacy." Bolfvai's anxi-
eties were induced primiarily by the Veinezuelani experience (along witlh
the specter of Haiti). But the dominant class in Colombia had fouind those
fears confirmed in some parts of tlheir own country, par-ticularly the Cauca
region, where a pereninial nightmiare of the local elite was the possible, anld
sometimes actual, mobilization of blacks. Activation of Afio-Colombians
in politico-military struggles, banditry, or other forms of violent social
conflict in the Cauca in 1823, 1840-41, 1843-44, and 1850-51 inspired
occasional terror in the region's upper classes.9' And the alarm, shared
from afar in Bogota, was reinforced there in i86i, when General Tomas
Cipriano de Mosquera invaded the capital with his army of negros cau-
canos.92 These preoccupations were reflected in Samiper's stereotypical
characterizations of the country's racial groups. Samper attributed Colom-
bia's political upheavals in part to the ease with which mulattos, whom he
considered inherently turbulent, could be riecruited inito rebellions.93
If Afro-Colombians inspired fear in the dominant class in a way that
the Amerindians did not, the judgment of elite writers about Colombian
blacks as economic actors appears to have been at once more negative and
more optimllistic than that regarding the Indiains. The actual economic be-
havior of many Afro-Colombians was distressing, but their strengtlh and
go.
Ibid., 63-64.
91. See Restr-epo, Diario politico y oflilitar, I, 211, 222, 231, 308, 323, 375; II, 25-26;
III, 155, 158, 345-346; anid letters of Manuiiel Jose
Mosqluer-a
to Manituel Maria
Mosqtuera,
May 19 anid Sept. 29, 1843, and to Matilde Pombo de Arboleda, Sept. 25, 1844, in Jose Maria
Arboleda Llorenite, Vida del Illmno. Sehor MamielJos6 Alosqniera, A-zobispo de Sta. Fe de
Bogota, 2 vols. (Bogota, 1956), II, 135, 218, 222-223. See also many of tbe letters ill Hel-
guera anid Robert H. Davis, eds., Archivo epistolao del Getneral Mosqtiera:
Corr-espotodeuicia
con el Genieral Pedro Alcduii-tara Herrdnl, 3 vols. (Bogota, 1972-78).
92. A commenitary in Eugenio Diaz's Brunoa la car-bonier-a that Mosqutera bad brougbt
"muclbisimiios niegros" is only onie of miianiy at the timiie. (Diaz Castro, Novelas
y
ctiad-os de
costuotsbre, I, 230.)
93. "Eil Colombia, cuianido las revolucioines . . . iio sonl promiovidas directamiieinte poI
los gobernanites, por los cl6rigos o por los jefes miiilitares
(y
esas soIn las mns fiectientes), las
sueleni bacer los miiulatos, o poI lo meinos eincueintran facil apovo eni ellos." Mtulattos, Samper
thought, did niot eniter into war becauLse of caste batred, but simply otut of extuberanice. "El
mu-lato es turbuleinto porque es mult-lato, es decir por exuberancia de savia." (Samiiper, En.sayo
sobre las r evoltuciones, 89-go.)
vigor endowed them with an untapped economic potential. The Afro-
Americans along the Pacific coast, in Perez's descriptions, were for the
most part even worse economic actors than Ancizar's Indians of the east-
ern cordillera. The Indians of the eastern cordillera worked, but they did
not consume in an appropriately European manner. Many blacks of the
Cauca region did neither:
Notable in these inhabitants of the Cauca is the scarcity of necessi-
ties, [as well as] the extreme ignorance in which they exist [and] the
uniformity of their life, which consists in eating, although badly,
drinking strong liquor, chatting incessantly, and dancing to the
sound of a drum.... If this strong and robust race had a love of
work and ambition for the amenities [comodidades] of civilized life,
it could enrich itself quickly and exchange its miserable huts for
comfortable and sheltered houses . . . its ugly nudity for elegant
clothing and its . . . ignorance for the first and most indispensable
rudiments of instruction.94
But Perez believed that the environment was responsible for the
lamentable indolence of the people in this region; they had no impetus
to work because the woods and rivers so readily provided them with suf-
ficient food. However, he could envision how the Pacific coast, and the
Afro-Colombians living there, might be energized economically. Because
the climate of the forested lowlands was too hot and humid for whites,
they could not operate there at present. But P6rez cherished the hope
that whites might discover gold in nearby mountains and that white colo-
nization and mining in the highlands would stimulate similar activity by
blacks in the tropical lowlands. In the long run, if enough forest were cut
in the lowlands, the climate would dry out and whites could move into
riegions that previously had been the exclusive pr-ovince of blacks.'5 Thus,
a double benefit might be achieved: the local black population would be
invigorated economically, and another region would be opened to white
settlement.
Perez found, in other parts of western Colombia, reason to believe
that, under the right circumstances, blacks might be led into enterprise.
He was impressed by the economic activity of Afro-Colombians in the Cali
region.96 On the coast, in the delta of the Iscuande River, he found a popU-
lation that appeared to him to be "quarteroon" and was "active, industri-
94. This passage refers to Tuiiiaco; lie applies similar rlietoric to the Cisoc6. (P6rez,
Jeografta . . . Catuca, 130-131, 158-159.)
95. P6rez found suppor-t for tlsis liope in the alreacldy-establisised pattern of Anstioqueflo
coloiiization in western- Colomiibia (ibid., 129-135, 156-159, 165-i68,
anid Jeografi . . .
Colombia, II, 493, 501, 503-504, 506).
96. Jeog1 afia . . .Cauca, 135.
32 | HAHR F FEBRUARY
I
FRANK SAFFORD
ous, intelligent . . . and without dispute the best sailors" on Colomibia's
Pacific coast.97
A Persistent Agenda
From the middle of the eighteenth century through the middle of the
nineteenth there were certain continuities in the attitudes of Colombia's
European-descended elite toward other racial groups whom they domi-
nated. The attitudes were founded on a solid bedrock of racism, which had
phenotypical (or esthetic) as well as cultural components. But, in tlhe eyes
of the elite, the perceived economic backwardness of the dominated was
an important measure of their inferiority. Forest Indians were hopeless,
because they could not be induiced to settle down and work. Sedentary
Indians sometimes were considered hard working, but they lacked Euiro-
pean ambition and a bent for European consuimptioni.
From the late eighteenth century onward, leading officials and elite ob-
servers in Colombia viewed the economic backwardness of the Indians as a
constraint on economic progress. The solution for this backwardiness lay in
integration of two sorts. One was formal economic integration, through the
division of Indian lands, which it was presumed would force the Indians
to adapt to the dominant Euiropean economic culture. The other soluition,
genetic integration, was not a formal programn but merely a hope or expec-
tation. The principal aim here probably was phenotypical improvemenlt,
a more European appearance. But this process, it was presumed, wouild
also serve the cause of economic progress.
Althouigh discuissed only in passinig in this essay, the economl-ic inte-
gration of the Afro-Colombian population also formed part of the elite
agenda, thouglh seemingly at a lower level of priority. (Slaves, after all,
didn't lhave land that might be appropriated.) The graduial abolition of
slavery, of course, may be seen as part of a program of economic integra-
tion (as well as a matter of morality, justice, or social order). It is evident,
however, from Felipe Perez's discussions of the black populations of the
Pacific coast that the true integration of many Afro-Colombians into a capi-
talist economy requiired more than simply abolishing slavery, a process
completed just after midcentury.
The concern for economic integration to enhance economic progress
was thus a constant running throughout the period fiom the late eigh-
teenth century to the second half of the nineteenth. Political integration
throuigh an at least formal civil equality was also advanced as a formal ob-
jective when the republic for the first timl-e was being founded on a souind
97. Ibid., 127.
basis during the 182os. But in subsequent years the Colombian dominant
groups tended to forget the goal of incorporatin-g Amerindians politically,
while continuing to pursue the aim of economic assimilation.
Though the division of Indian community lands had as its aim the
economic incorporation of the indigenes, it is not clear whetlher or to
what degree the political elite actually believed that they couild survive
in a competitive, free-market economy. That the country's leadership had
doubts is indicated by the temporary protections erected against the alien-
ation of the Indians' individual property until midcentury. By the 1840s,
it was becoming clear that many Indians were unlikely to prosper in their
new "liberty." By midcentuiry, genetic integration, the "disappearance" of
the Indian throuigh miscegenation, whether with whites or with blacks,
seemed to some elite writers the imiost likely path by which the Indians
would become integrated into European economnic modes.

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Race, Integration, and Progress: Elite Attitudes and the Indian in Colombia, 1750-1870

Author(s): Frank Safford

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