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Gabino Gainza and Central America’s Independence from Spain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
CENTRAL America owes its independence from Spain to a curiously inter-connected chain of events and people. The Captaincy-General of Guatemala, as it was known in the beginning of the nineteenth century, effected its transition from a colonial to a free status with a minimum of bloodshed. Also, its freedom was gained with atleast a semblance of legality rather than by a resort to violence. The key link in the chain of events and people that led to this outcome was a relatively unknown and discredited (in the eyes of Spanish official-dom) veteran officer of the Spanish Army named Gabino Gainza. By his attitude in a time of emergency, Gainza prevented violent measures from being taken to insure independence, and at the same time prevented similar measures from being taken that might have kept Central America loyal to Spain. Gainza is not an heroic figure, but Central America owes him a lasting debt of gratitude for not having tried to be one.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1957
References
1 For the provisions and effects of the Constitution of 1812 see: Beretta, Antonio Ballesteros y, Historia de España y su Influencia en la Historia Universal (Barcelona: Salvat Editores, S. A., 1934), VII, 86, 171 ff.Google Scholar; Marure, Alejandro, Bosquejo Histórico de las Revoluciones de Centro América (Paris: Librería de la Vda. de Ch. Bouret, 1913), I, 11–12 (hereafter cited as Marure, Bosquejo) Google Scholar, and Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Central America (San Francisco: The History Company, 1887), III, 7–10, 20–22, 25–28 (hereafter cited as Bancroft, Central America).Google Scholar
2 Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Mexico (San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft and Company, 1885), IV, 702–735 (hereafter cited as Bancroft, Mexico) Google Scholar. See also Robertson, William S., lturbide of Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 1952), pp. 49–128 (hereafter cited as Robertson, lturbide).Google Scholar
3 Boletín del Archivo General del Gobierno, 1938–1939 (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional), IV, 70, 71 (hereafter cited as Boletín). It will be noted that references to this primary source are given according to volume number and page. The reasons for this admittedly undesirable method of reference are to be found in the organization of the Boletín itself. It was authorized by the Guatemalan government in 1935, and is a quarterly that was designed to present in published form documents from Guatemalan history. The cross-reference to the legajos used is inadequate, and seems to contain typographical errors. The titles given the documents reproduced (some only in part) are often descriptive efforts by the editor rather than the original titles. The issues used for this article included ones with paste-over dates and copies that ran together because the covers (with dates and other identifying material) were absent, perhaps being lost when the issues were bound for library use. Since the pagination of each volume is consecutive, volume and page numbers are used as the surest and most simple methods of reference to a publication that is, despite its defects, an extremely useful compilation of primary source material.
4 Marure, Bosquejo, I, 11. Molina was a physician, had studied the humanities, and was an early advocate of democracy and independence. Bancroft, , Central America, III, 95 cites the Gaceta de San Salvador of October 3, 1851, to suggest that Molina’s liberalism was responsible for the liberalism of Francisco Morazán, the last president of the Central American Union.Google Scholar If this inference is correct, it is added evidence of Molina’s importance in Central American history. For further information on the Central American press at this time, cf. “Dos Siglos de Periodismo en Guatemala,” Anales de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia, XVII (June, 1942), 446–451.
5 Marure, , Bosquejo, I, 11. Cf. J. A. Villacorta Calderón, Historia de la Capitanía General de Guatemala (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 1942), p. 496 Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Villacorta, Historia). José del Valle was to be Minister of State for Iturbide, and later was elected as the third president of the Central American Union.
6 Villacorta, , Historia, p. 504.Google Scholar
7 Bancroft, , Central America, III, 26.Google Scholar
8 Boletín, IV, 111–112, 116. Cf. Villacorta, Historia, p. 499, and Bancroft, , Central America, III, 30–31.Google Scholar
9 Boletín, IV, 103, 114–116. Cf. Marure, Bosquejo, I, 12–13, where the date is given as March 9.
10 Bancroft, Central America, III, 25–26.
11 Ramón A. Salazar, Historia de Veintiun Años (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 1928), pp. 216–218. Cf. Luis Galdames, A History of Chile, translated and edited by Isaac J. Cox (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941), pp. 180–182, 474, 502.
12 Marure, Bosquejo, I, 12 states that Urrutia was influenced by the provincial assembly in his choice of Gainza, an indication that Gainza created a good impression upon his arrival in Guatemala City.
13 From this place of origin it took the popular name of the Plan of Iguala. It was also known as the Plan of the Three Guarantees from three of its provisions, which guaranteed the maintenance of the Catholic religion, independence, and the equality of American-born (criollos) and European-born (peninsulares) inhabitants of Mexico. A Spanish Bourbon king to rule independent Mexico was another clause, contingent upon finding a suitable and willing Bourbon prince (Ferdinand VII was the first choice under the Plan of Iguala). Robertson, Iturbide, pp. 72–77 gives the main provisions and evolution of the Plan of Iguala, and Bancroft, Mexico, IV, footnote p. 710 offers a more complete summary of its contents.
14 Although Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and Perote were still held by Spanish forces for varying periods of time. It is usual to refer to O’Donojú as the last viceroy of New Spain, but technically he was only appointed Captain General of New Spain, with all the privileges and distinctions of a viceroy. See Robertson, Iturbide, p. 104.
15 Agustín de Iturbide, whose ambitions were destined to embroil Central America in his dream of empire, had been a minor officer in the royalist forces of New Spain at the outbreak of the Mexican revolution. He had refused advantageous offers to join the rebels, and had risen to the rank of colonel by 1820. At that time he had a reputation as a capable officer, and in spite of stories of cruelty and dissoluteness that tended to mar his record, he obtained charge of an expedition against the revolutionists headed by Vicente Guerrero. Instead of proceeding against them, however, he proceded to join them and gathering disaffected government garrisons under his leadership, proclaimed his conservative plan for the independence of New Spain at Iguala. After a short rule by a provisional junta, Iturbide became Emperor Agustín I of Mexico in May, 1822, as the result of a combination of praetorian guard and manipulated mob tactics. The monarchy that he established was not to last for long. His expensively ostentatious personal rule alienated both the republicans and the barely tolerant monarchists, who had hoped for a Bourbon ruler. The revolt that ensued caused him to abdicate in March, 1823, and to depart into exile two months later. For a more complete account of Iturbide’s life and career, see Robertson, Iturbide.
16 The manifesto is given in full in Villacorta, Historia, pp. 502–504, quoting Molina, Pedro, Memorias acerca de la Revolución de Centro América (Guatemala: n. p., 1896), p. 56. Cf. Marure, Bosquejo, I, 13.Google Scholar
17 Hall, Basil, Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru, and Mexico (London: Edward Moxon, 1840), Part II, p. 32. Although the attack here mentioned was not made on part of the Captaincy-General’s territory, it is an indication of the defenselessness that also characterized the Central American coast in this period. Cf. Archivo Histórico Militar Mexicano (México: Taller Autografico, 1945), pp. 155–211, dealing with Lord Cochrane’s visit to the coast of Mexico in the winter of 1821–1822. The voyage ended with accusations of piracy leveled against his men, although he was visiting a friendly nation. The fears ascribed to the Captaincy-General of Guatemala would seem most logical in view of Spain’s impotence in the Pacific after Cochrane’s earlier defeats of her forces there. Cf. Bancroft, Central America, III, footnote p. 45, for a contemporary complaint about Spanish naval weakness in Central American waters.Google Scholar
18 Bancroft, , Central America, III, 24–25.Google Scholar
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22 Ibid., p. 13.
23 Villacorta, , Historia, p. 505 Google Scholar, quoting Montúfar, Manuel, Memorias para la historia de la Revolución de Centro América (Jalapa: n. p., 1832), p. 4.Google Scholar Cf. Boletín, IV, 111.
24 Marure, Bosquejo, I, 12–13.
25 Loc. cit.
26 Loc. cit.
27 Villacorta, Historia, p. 505. Cf. Marure, Bosquejo, I, 13.
28 Marure, Bosquejo, I, 11–12; Bancroft, Central America, III, 26–28.
29 Choice appointive positions were normally filled by peninsulares. Their favor was an important factor in the success or failure of local commercial enterprises.
30 Anales, op. cit., pp. 472–473.
31 Ibid., p. 447.
32 After the Mexican annexation of Central America, the Gaceta del Gobierno de Guatemala disappeared also, possibly because its views were displeasing to Mexico.
33 Romero, Matías, Bosquejo Histórico de la Agregación á México de Chiapas y Soconusco (México: Imprenta del Gobierno, 1877), I, 48–53, 59–65. Cf. Villacorta, Historia, pp. 509–513. Boletín, IV, 122–123, gives the matters considered by a meeting of an extraordinary cabildo, September 4, showing that Guatemala was aware of the schismatic effect of Mexican events before the news of Chiapas’ defection arrived.Google Scholar
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35 Villacorta, Historia, pp. 513–514, quoting Molina, Pedro, Memorias acerca de la Revolución de Centro America (Guatemala: n. p., 1896), p. 67, gives the demand and Gainza’s reply in full.Google Scholar
36 Marure, Bosquejo, I, 13. Cf. Vilkcorta, , Historia, p. 514.Google Scholar
37 Marure, , Bosquejo, I, 14.Google Scholar
38 Boletín, IV, 127–129. Cf. Marure, Bosquejo, I, 15. Urrutia, who must bear part of the blame for Gainza’s actions, refused to countenance the situation and left soon after for Havana. Also on September 15 the Yucatan peninsula declared for independence at Mérida, an added example of the pervasive influence of the Plan of Iguala. See Bancroft, , Mexico, IV, 740.Google Scholar
39 Boletín, IV, 128.
40 Ibid., pp. 133–136.
41 Ibid., pp. 140–152.
42 Ibid., pp. 127–128, 161–163.
43 Bancroft, Central America, III, 35–36, seems to disregard the nature of Gainza as revealed by his record, and the need for immediate action. Cf. Boletín, IV, 382, where the editor of the Boletín characterizes Gainza as a liar and a terroristic despot, without substantiating his charges.
44 As evidenced by his toleration of the press campaigns that made his attempts to distort the news about Iturbide doubly difficult. If Gainza’s loyalty to Spain until September 15 is conceded, the whole picture becomes more coherent. Few officials with his background would have wholeheartedly supported the Constitution of 1812 unless they were idealists, and there is little evidence to support the contention that Gainza was of such a caliber.
45 Bancroft, Central America, III, 25–26 and passim. Bancroft’s denigrations of Gainza’s character are to be found in many of his references to the last Captain-General of Guatemala. They are not all outright accusations, and he does not substantiate them. This leads to the conclusion that Gainza’s personality and deeds were so repugnant to him that like the editor of the Boletín (supra, footnote 43), he allowed his personal feelings to sway his judgment.