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BUREAUCRATIC CONQUEST BUREAUCRATIC CULTURE:

TOWN AND OFFICE IN CHIAPAS, 1780-1832

A DISSERTATION

SUBMI1TED ON THE 9th DAY OF APRIL, 1999

TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF

TULANE UNIVER.SITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

BY

Jl-1-aleí .
A Polushin

Guillermo Náñez: Falcó' Ph.D

 UMINumber: 9971275

Copyright 1999 by
Polushin.Mfchael Arexander

Ali ñghts reserved.

UMf
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Copyñght 2000 by Bell & Howell lnfonnation and Leaming Company.
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© Copyñgbt by Michael A. Polushin. 1999
Ail Rights Reserved
BUREAUCRATIC CONQUEST.BUREAUCRATIC CULTURE:

TOWN ANO OFFICE IN CHIAPAS. 1780-1832

AN ABSTRACT

SUBMITfED ON THE 9th DAY OF APRII... 1999

TO THE DEPAR.TMENT OF HCSTORY

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF

TULANE UNIVERSITY

IN PAR.TIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENI' S

FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF P:m:I.OSOPHY

BY

d r:
MiChliiP01ushin
 ABSTRACT

This dissertation examines the formation of the State of Chiapas from its creation

as an intendancy within the Kingdom of Guatemala in the l780s to after its incorporation

into the Republic of Mexico. lt focuses on municipal office and municipal administration,

integral features ofBourbon reform on the provincial level and key components of state

govemment after 1824. A bierarchy of municipalities provided the foundation for the

Intendancy, with the intendant acting as the focal point for fiscal and political

administration. The regionalization of Chiapas was filcilitated by the reviva! of the

ayuntamiento of Ciudad Real and the introduction of a provincial treasury. Intendancy

reform was ambiguous since there was considerable jurisdictional overlap between venal

and salaried offices. Instead of quashing the socio-political pretensions of the local

merchant-bacendado elites of the ayuntamiento, the Bourbons enhanced their power by

including them inprovincial civil and ecclesiastical administration. The traditional

attitudes towards hierarchy status and legitimacy of elites ftom Ciudad Real explains

why they opted to separate from Guatemala and join Mexico after Independence.

Traditional attitudes towards officeholding were maintained in rural Chiapas

despite efforts to rationalize jurisdictions and municipal administration. Subdelegates

viewed their offices as property and engaged incormpt practices associated with pre-

refürm govemmeo:t. Rural Spanish. officials and Native American magistrates appropñated
traditional Habsburg political rituals to define their power, status, and legitimacy.After

the abolition of repúblicas de indios in 1821,ladinos and Spaniards tried to gain control

over municipal offices and the economic resources of rural communities.

The introduction of constitutional ayuntamientos following Independence acted as

a challenge to the power of elites of the capital city who wished to assert control over the

entire region. The motívation for holding oflice continued to be guided by self-interest and

traditional attitudes towards bierarchy status arul legitimacy that were central to

municipal arui politícal rivalñes in the 1820s.The seif-perception and activities of local

political bosses were similar to pre-Independence Spanish official and they were

increasingly involved inthe power struggles that plagued Chiapas, a process that led to

civil war in Chiapas in the I830s.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The amount of support. patience, and encouragement that I have received over the

years that made the completion of tbis dissertation poSS1"ble has been incredl'ble. Several

individuals were extremely generous with their time, their own work, their scholarly

expertise., and their ftiendsbip. I apologize to everyone found below for any errors in

presentation and interpretation found within this clissertation. These errors. moreover, are

in my mind the only completely new and oñginal aspect of the work, as they are truly

my own creation and therefore my sole respoDSilñlity.

I would first like to express my gratitude to Richard E. Greenlea( my advisor. Dr.

Greenleaf always served as a fine example as to the promise and possi"bilities within the

academic profession,. and bis role as mentor, teacher, and dissertation director within my

graduate education wil1 always be remembered. He always reminded me to be a histoñan

first before a Latín Ameñ and stressed the importance of archival research. This

dissertation actually entered its nascent stage as a research paper basecl on manuscript

collections ftom Tufane.>s Latin American hbrary for a seminar given by Greenleaf on

nineteenth-centuty Mex.ico duñng the fall temr., 1991.

I aiso need to expreE my tha:nks to James Boyden and Guillermo Náñez Falcón,.

two other ex:cellent scholars and mentors who compñsed. the remainder of my dissertation

ñ
committee.Boydens extraordinary knowledgeof bistory and bis abilities as both a

scholar and professor are only matched by bis compassion for bumanity.Boyden is truly

one ofthe most refined and decent persons within the academic profession that I bave

ever bad the pleasure and good fortune to consider as a close friend. The tireless effort and

education he has given students at the University of Texas at Austin. Yale, and Tulane

otfe'rs hope for the direction of humanity. Náiiez Falcón too is an excellent histoñan wíth

a generous heart, and bis breadth of knowledge of Latin American culture and

bibliography is astounding.

My journey into the world of Latin American bistory, however,. began several

years earlier.Ibave a deep sense of gratitude for the belp, suppo and direction that I

received ftom David Church Johnson. my advisor fer both my Honours and Masters

degrees in History undertaken at the University of Alberta. Johnson,s service to the tield

of Latin American bistory has never been limited to bis excellent work on late nineteenth-

century Columbia. He always extends bis support by convincing students of the value

and merit of salid scholarsbip, despite their seemingly tbankless, pugilist-like stubbomess

that occasionally bampers their development. Johnson will always be considered one of

the treasured memben of our extended family.The history department of the University

of Alberta was a good place to be during those times as the entire &culty was actively

involved with the education of history students, even if they were not their own. l also

need to tbank David Moss for sparking my interest inthe complexities of finance and

credit. I can now assure himwith. certaint.y tbat the History of British Banking inthe

m
eighteenth and early nineteenth century is not as far ftom the mechanisms of credit and

exchange found inlate colonial Chiapas as many people would like to tbink.. Special

thanks to C. Fred Judson of the Department of Political Science of the University of

Alberta who convinced me how a personal ínterest could become a focus of study.

At Tulane,. I had the honour of being taugbt by several other excellent scholars to

whom 1owe tbanks. 1am especially grateful to Colin MacLachlan. Hewas as generous to

me with bis exceptional knowledge of Latin American history as he was with bis books

(sorne of wbích I may even retum), the use of bis oftice, and bís sharp wit. Ralph Lee

Woodward Jr. is always supportive of the study of Coloníal and Modem Central

Ameri and I also thank himfor including me inconferences and informal discussions in

which 1was able to meet several scholars whose interests intersected with my own.

Maurice Brungardt made bis way from Loyola Urúversity to remind me in bis course of

the importance of South American history.I bave enjoyed our ongoing discussions

immensely inthe years that ha.ve followed. I also would like to thank George Bemst

Ricki Jani and Linda Pollock whose courses I consider as an important contribution to

my graduate education.

There are several other scholars that have been extremely generous to me over the

years with their own work: and time and have offered criticisms, encouragement and

suggestions.I am deeply indebted and gratefuI to Ida fam Barlow,. William

Beezley,. Shannon Bellam.y,. Daniel Castro,. Bill Connell, Vtrginia Guedea, Tunothy

Hawkins, Robinson HNicolas Johnson, W.George Lovell.. Murdo

LV

·--· _,
Philip MacLeod, David Metzger, Barbara Mundy, Eric Pallidini. Julio Pinto,Jaime

Rodríguez O., Ileana Schmid Renée Soulodre-La Fran Jan Rus, William B. Taylor.

Arturo TMichael Warren, and Eric Van Young. Enrique Gordillo and Osear

Peláez were an enormous help both at Tulane and in Guatemala. Dolores Aramoni

Calderón was extremely helpful in San Cristóbal de las Casas and not only gave me copies

of all her published wo but shared her brilliant insights into the cultures and history of

Chiapas.

The institutional assistance that I have received over the years has also been

extensive.My Ph.D. was supported inlarge part ftom a Tulane Graduate Scbool Tuition

Scholarship and a Graduate Scbool Fellowship. Special thanks to Ruth Bames and Kay

Orrill of Tulane's Graduate School for their professionalism. and for helping me contend

wíth wbat often seemed to be insurmountable bureaucratic barñers. Inaddition to Tulane

Graduate School Travel Grants and a Mellan Foundation Travel Grant awarded through

the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latín Ameñcan Studies, my research trips to Europe.

Guatemala.. and Mexico were helped by travel grants ftom the Lurcy Fund, an endowment

established by George Bernstein.. I thank hím again for bis generosity. I also would like to

thank Ioan Hughes, formerly of the History Department of Tulane, and Sue Inglés of the

Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies.

The research for the dissertation would have been imposSb

t le without the

knowledge and assistance of the several people working in the librarles and archives used

for this dissertation. Náñez Fálcon has done an incredible Job preserving the sanctity and

V
expanding the holdings of the Latin American Library at Tulane University as its director.

I am gratefül to the statf of the Latin American Lil>rary fol" their patience and help. I

would especíally like to thank Ruth Oliviera for her assistance with manuscripts. and I

will always remember with fondness the late Martha Robertson's passion for

manuscripts and rare books.David Combe, Professol" and Law Librari provided me

unlimited access to the rare book collection of the Tulane Law School Lil>rary, while

ensuring tbatIwas gainfully employed over the years.I am extremely grateful to the

respective directors arul staff of the Archivo General de Centro América (Guatemala),

Archivo Histórico de Chiapas, Gobierno del Estado (Tuxtla Gutiérrez), Archivo Histórico

Diocesano de San Cristóbal de Las C888Sy Archivo Municipal de San Cristóbal de Las

Casas, Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madñd), Archivo General de Indias (Seville),

Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), and the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris).

I have not intbe least forgotten the severa! friends and family members who have

lent me their support and who bave passed through the "green room"over the years. I

thank all of you.. William Wallace has been a great friend, not only lending bis moral

support, but also ensuñng that we bad the means of transport "to ma.k:e"groceries and

faundry. My pare Alexander and Mary Aileen Poluslún, have been extraordinarily

supportive of tbis Ion& drawn-out process, and have listened patiently to my unfounded

complaints. while helping out during periodic financial difficulties with assistance ftom

the bank: of paternal wef&re.

VI
 My deepest thanks are reserved for my best ftiend, fellow historian, and partner

in life Wendy F. Kasinec.Wendy's Iove, support, and patíence have been unwavering and

infinite. She has offered important critici comments and suggestions throughout all

stages of the dissertatio and her own work on Early Modem French municipal

institutions and finance has been a constant source for ideas and inspiration. I dedicate

this dissertation to her.

vii

. -· ·-·
 TABLE OF CONT.ENTS

lntroduction l

Claapter:

1- Mapping a Socio-Political Landscape: 18

Chiapas. 1781831

2 - Intendants Make Cbiapu: 44

Professional Ambition and .Reform, 1786 - 1812

3- "The Refined Hypocrisy of a Broker of Slander": 82

Political Culture and .Reform, 1790 - 1821

4 - From the Centre oí the Peripbery: 129

City and Oftice in Chiapu, 1710 - 1821

5- "Kinpof Their Districts": 168

lurisdictional Change aad Professional Ambition
in Runl Chiapas, 1790 - 1821

6 - A Subdelepte Goes OD Trial: 202

Power and Authority in Chiapas, 1790 - 1832

7 -Tbe Imagined Countryside: 232

Runl Co1B1Dunities in Chiapas, 1780-1132

8 - A Tale or Two Ciudades aad a Villa: 257

Urban and Political Rivalries, 1821-1832

Condusion 279

Endnotes 288

Bibliography 349
 IJSTOFl'IGURES

Fipre

1- Coatemporary Represmtatioa of Politial .Juridictiou: lS

Bouadaries Between Bishopria, Late lltla Century

2 - Modera Interpretatiom of Political Jurisdictions: 37

The Intendancy and its 'Dane Diltidl, 1716

3- Coatemponry Repraeatation of a Towa: 39

San Pedro Cheaalho, Late llth - Early lttla Centary

4- Chorograplaic Repnsentation of a District: 41

Tite Province of Les Zendales. Late llth Century

5 -CodaOsuna: 228
Conftnultioa of Native otraces by Spanish Viceroy

ix
 l

INTRODUCTION

This is a dissertation devoted to the development of the State of Chiapas, one of

the states of the modero Republic of Mexico. It considers how municipalities and

municipal office played a role in the process of the creation of the state, beginning inthe

eighteenth century when the area was created as an intendancy within the Kíngdom of

Guatemala. The dissertation is concerned tirst and fundamentally with the local responses

to intrusions of royal authority. Later, it examines how municipal officials of various

sorts in the area known today as Chiapas were shaped to confonn to the implementation

ofideas towards republican fonns of govemment found inMexico following its formation

in 1824. This work is a social history of institutions within the process of political change

that borrows heavily ftom methods of cu1turaI history and historical geography.

For centuri municipalities and municipal office bave played a central role inthe

history of Spain and the Spanish Americas and can be linked to Iberian traditions and

culture.Historians of the Americas recognize a difference between the Spanish and

English efforts to rule the Americas via the introduction of towns and theír offices. Wbat

truly distinguisbes the Spanish experience inthe Americas ftom the efforts of the English

colonists can be found inthe fi111damental spatial orientation of their respective colonies.

Whereas towns inthe sixteenth-centmy Spanish Indies were founded with the idea of a

supporting countryside, the English experience more than ISO years later was much
 2
different. English colonists were determined to force urban settlements to serve the

underdeveloped bínterland.lFrom the Spanish perspective., a hierarchy of Native

American towns and villages became the guidingorganízational principal bebind

encomiendas and congregaciones, the most promínent embodiments of both the material

and spíritual conquest of the Americas. Following the arrival of the Spaniards to the

Caribbean, encomenderos were rewarded with the right to demand labour and later tnoute

from a hierarchy of Native American towns.1On the mainlan congregaciones were soon

established to facilitate religíous conversion and to act as a counterweight to overweening

sociopolitical pretensions of aspiring encomenderos . Once encomiendas were ceded to the

Cro the Spaniards persisted in their etrons to organize the repúblicas de indios within

alca/dios and co"egimientos according to a ranking of cabeceras and sujetaJ , and the

status of municipal office within this hierarcbical scheme depended on the formal status

of a magistrate' s town. 1The prototypical constellation of individual offices overseeing

conciliar bodies was recreated from the top down to the lowest Ievel of govemment and

fiscal administration.

The attempts by the Spanish Crown to impose their scheme of an elaborate.,

hierarcbical system of municipalities ancl municipal offices upon the Americas are well

known to bistorians, and formed a key component of tbe effort to impose Spanish culture

upon Native Ameñcans.4 To be sure., this effort was a legacy of the deep-seated Spanish

traditions apparent during the reconquista of the lberian peninsula begü1ninginthe

eleventb. century ifnot much earlier.The Romans. forexampl were quite successtül

implanting tbeír cultural notions of civilization upon the Iberian and it is ftom
 3
civitas or city state tbat Western society has absocbed the chauvinistic term civilization -

tbat is. to live incities -often to legitimize its self-proclaimed superioñty over conquered

peoples.s By the end of the reconquista in the tifteenth century, the encomienda as a

reward in Spain was not a Ianded feudal fie( but a temporary grant given to the Military

Orders of Castile over conquered Moorish towns within a specific territory.6 During early

period of the reco however, Iberian municípalities became distinguishable ftom

those ofthe Roman era. Their leaders began to assert themselves politically, demanding

and receivíng charters from kings which entitled their inhabitants to certaín hl>erties and

rights (fueros) enshrined in royal charters that protected the munícipalities and their

conciliar governments ftom potential intrusions of any feudal lord.7 Wíth the development

of lberian cortes in the thirteenth century, representatives of chartered cities (ciudades)

and chanered towns (viOas) comprised the third estate of the parliamentary institution.

By the fifteenth century, the actual rights of municipalities became increasingly Iinked to

perceptions of political hierarchies and social status. Chartered cities tended to be the

only urban entities maintaining their autonomy and sending representatives to the quicldy

tading cortes.1As a collective group, members of Spanish Q)llllllamientos attached their

privileged socio-political status to the noble titles of their respective citíes.Thís expl

in part, why Spanish repúblicas by the end of the sixteenth century could be

distinguished according to their formal ranking as ciu or aldeas -a feature

that determined the socio-political status of their respedive municipal magistrates as

well.9
 4
Given the Spanish historical experience and subsequeut tradítioos with respect to

municipalities and their offices, it should be no surprise that municipalities arui numicipal

office became central features of tbe perlad beginning with tbe late Bourbons and

extending well into the experiment with republican govemment following Spanísh

American independence.The Spanísh Bourbons.anned with no shortage of Gallic

attitudes conceming the elimination of the power of traditional corporations.directed

their attention towards municipal councils within the context of the Spanish version of

Enlightened Despotism. After Napoleon Bonaparte' s invasion of Sp privileged cities

throughout the Spanish Empire asserted their collective belief ín the importance of

municipalities of rank when they determined to rule on bebalf of Ferdinand el

deseado.10 We are reminded in Peter Guardino's study of the formation of the state of

Guerrero that the Liberal ídeals associated with the constitutional ayuntamientos that

emerged throughout the Americas during the Cortes of Cádiz provided the basis of

republican government inthe emerging nation states of Spanish America inthe níneteenth

century.11

What then, exactly bappened to municipalities and municipal office during this

process of rapid historical cbange? Historians such as David Brading • John Lynch, and

Miles Wortman have descnbed the late eighteenth century as a peñod when the late

Bourbons tried to revamp the Spanish empire and its administration within the context of

enlig_lltened refonn. 12 Traditional corporatio such as municípalities and the churc

were now subject to increasing royal authority and regalism. The Bombo in their effort

to rationalize the imperial bureaucracy, began partitioningjurisdictionsand expanding