Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:28:07.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Indian Policy of Jujuy Province, 1835-1853*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

David Bushnell
David Bushnell*
Affiliation:
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The changing status of the Indian population in postindependence Spanish America has been a major theme of historical research and writing, with primary emphasis for obvious reasons on the cases of Mexico and Peru. Bolivia and Guatemala have received a secondary share of attention, but other countries have been relatively ignored. Certainly the case of Argentina is seldom cited save in connection with the ebb and flow of the frontier between Creole settlements and semiautonomous native peoples of the Pampa and Patagonia. The latter story, of course, has more in common with that of westward expansion in the United States than with the situation of settled Indian communities in Mexico or the central Andes. But there are some exceptions even in Argentina, involving native communities more akin to those of Cuzco or Chiapas than to the original inhabitants of Kansas and Wyoming or of the Argentine Pampa.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , April 1999 , pp. 579 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to express my appreciation for comments and moral support to Viviana Conti and the history group at the Universidad Nacional de Jujuy; to Gastón Gabriel Doucet, of the Universidad Católica Argentina; and to Gustavo Paz, of Emory University; as well as to the American Philosophical Society for financial support of research in Argentina. An earlier version of this article appeared in the Revista de Historia del Derecho 25 (1997).

References

1 Or even Buenos Aires, where a single native community, on the very outskirts of the capital city, was dissolved early in the independence period. For this and the other cases, see my Reform and Reaction in the Platine Provinces 1810–1852 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1983), pp. 9, 38, 91–92, 124, 137, 138 and 168–169.

2 Conti, Viviana, “Articulación económica en los Andes centromeridionales (siglo xix),” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 46 (1989): 426–428.Google Scholar

3 Boto de Calderari, María Salomé, “La política fiscal jujeña entre 1853–1885: instrumento de articulación social y territorial” (tesis de licenciatura, Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 1993), pp. 28–40.Google Scholar

4 All these antecedents are discussed in Doucet, Gastón Gabriel, “La abolición del tributo indígena en las Provincias del Río de la PLata: indagaciones en torno a un tema mal conocido,” Revista de Historia del Derecho 21 (1989), pp. 133–140,Google Scholar 178–181.

5 Ibid., pp. 140–164, 170–178, 183–184. On the tribute restoration, see below.

6 Ibid., pp. 164–170; Madrazo, Guillermo B., Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes: la Puna argentina bajo el marquesado de Tojo. Siglos xvii a xix (Buenos Aires: Fondo Editorial, 1982), p. 144;Google Scholar Paz, Gustavo, “Rebelión campesina y consolidación del estado en el norte argentino: la batalla de Quera, Jujuy, 1875” (paper presented at the Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Washington, DC,1995), pp. 17–20.Google Scholar

7 Doucet, , “La abolición del tributo,” pp. 155–157.Google Scholar

8 Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Salta (henceforth AHPS), Legislatura provincial, Actas de las sesiones, Libro V, f. 274; AHPS, Libro 335, Correspondencia del Gobierno, 9 de diciembre de 1825; Madrazo, , Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, pp. 145–146;Google Scholar Cornejo, Atilio, El derecho privado en la legislación patria de Salta (Buenos Aires: Coni, 1947), pp. 35–36 Google Scholar (where the quoted passage is found).

9 AHPS, Libro 335, letter from gobernador interino to Junta de Representantes, 13 October 1825.

10 Bushnell, David, Reform and Reaction in the Platine Provinces (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1983), pp. 15, 38 and 91–92.Google Scholar

11 Madrazo, , Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, p. 147.Google Scholar

12 AHPS, Carpeta 505, H. J. de Gobierno de la Provincia, Libro copiador de oficios, novena legislatura, law of 3 May 1834.

13 Law of 14 February 1829, in Registro Oficial (Salta), 1829, no. 3, pp. 34–35.

14 Archivo de la Legislatura de Jujuy (hereafter ALJ), Documentos, vol.1, “Comunicaciones del Ejecutivo … 1835,” letter of Guillermo Belmonte, Humahuaca, 24 April 1835; “Comunicaciones del Ejecutivo a la H. J. de Provincia Independiente de Jujuy 1835,” 2 May 1835; “Año 1835, Despachos de Comisión,” 7 May 1835; ALJ, Libro Primero de Actas de la H. J. G. Constituyente de la Provincia de Jujuy, año de 1835, f. 54; Compilación de leyes y decretos de la provincia de Jujuy desde el año 1835, 3 vols. (Jujuy, 1885–88), I, pp. 17–18.

15 Compilación, I, pp. 33–35.

16 Ibid., I, pp. 120 and 126–127; ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, 4 March, 13 and 20 December 1839, 2, 12, and 18 January 1840.

17 ALJ, Documentos, Libro 2, “Reglamento enfitéutico, [16 de abril de] 1839.”

18 Madrazo, , “El proceso enfitéutico y las tierras de indios en la Quebrada de Humahuaca (Pcia. de Jujuy, República Argentina). Período nacional,” Andes (Salta) 1 (1990), pp. 96–97.Google Scholar For the Rivadavian antecedents, see Anzoátegui, Víctor Tau, Manual de historia de las instituciones argentinas (Buenos Aires: La Ley, 1967), pp. 500–506.Google Scholar

19 Langer, Erick D., “El liberalismo y la abolición de la comunidad indígena en el siglo xix,” Historia y Cultura (La Paz) 14 (October 1988), p. 62,Google Scholar and personal electronic communication, 25 August 1997. On the more general problem of Indian communal lands in postindependence Spanish America, see the volume edited by Jackson, Robert H. Liberals, the Church, and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997).Google Scholar

20 Sánchez-Albornoz, Nicolás, Indios y tributarios en el Alto Perú (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1978), pp. 192 and 202–215.Google Scholar

21 Conti, Viviana E. and Santamaría, Daniel J., “Mecanismos de intercambio en períodos de transición: el caso de los arrendatarios de dos estancias de la Puna jujeña (1813–1819),” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 51:1 (1994),Google Scholar which also has information on the Quebrada; Madrazo, , “Proceso enfitéutico,” p. 100,Google Scholar and Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, p. 146.

22 Madrazo, , “Proceso enfitéutico,” pp. 102–103 Google Scholar (which refer to the 1850s).

23 The motive of using the lands as a guarantee in raising loans was explicitly recognized in the legislative debates: see ALJ, Borradores de Actas, Libro 2, 4 March 1839.

24 The problem of these land disputes is well discussed in ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, 20 December 1839 and 2 January 1840.

25 Compilación, I, p. 120.

26 Ibid. II, pp. 43–44.

27 Bernai, Irma, Rebeliones indígenas en la Puna (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Búsqueda, 1984), p.18.Google Scholar

28 Compilación, II, pp. 249–250 and 258; Madrazo, , “El proceso enfitéutico,” pp. 94 Google Scholar and 100–109. The words quoted are from p. 109.

29 ALJ, Decretos, carpeta 2, p. 33. The document cited here is a set of instructions from the governor to the jefes políticos of Tilcara and Humahuaca in July 1849; it is unlikely to be a unique case.

30 Archivo de Tribunales de Jujuy, caja 89, expediente 2993.

31 ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, f. 304 (session of 14 February 1851). In the legislative debate of 1851 concerning the “contribución directa” of the Puna, discussed below, one representative insisted, probably with some exaggeration, that the yield from emphyteutic leases “se invierte toda en beneficio de ellos mismos en Escuelas y obras públicas” (ibid., f. 293 [session of 5 February 1851]).

32 Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Jujuy (henceforth AHPJ), 1840, caja 2, letters from the jefe político of Humahuaca to the governor, 18 May, 23 and 24 August.

33 Letter of José Manuel Chañi, teniente juez, Purmamarca, 4 December 1852, in AHPJ, 1852, caja 3, cited by Madrazo, , Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, pp. 148–149.Google Scholar

34 AHPJ, 1849, caja 2, letter of 20 September from jefe político of Humahuaca to governor, citing a statement contained in a message from the latter.

35 Archivo de Tribunales de Jujuy, caja 89, expediente 2993.

36 Madrazo, , “El proceso enfitéutico,” p. 104.Google Scholar

37 ALJ, Documentos, libro 4, Actas, notas y proyectos de ley, año 1843. Of the total, not quite 1,000 pesos represented balance on hand at the start of the period.

38 ALJ, Documentos, libro 6, Notas y mensajes del Poder Ejecutivo, año 1846, “Estado jeneral qe presenta el Ministro de Hacienda de las entradas qe ha tenido el fondo público de esta Caja desde el 1° de Enero hasta el 31 de Diciembre de 1845.…” In this case the balance on hand at the start of the period was 2793 pesos, 6 reales.

39 AHPJ, 1855, caja 2, “Hacienda, Estado general … 1855” (in which again a considerable balance carried over is included with the revenues); ALJ, Documentos, libro 12, “Mensaje del Gobierno en la apertura de las sesiones … Enero 1° de 1857.”

40 Unfortunately, data on these sales have not been brought together for systematic analysis, but some concrete cases are mentioned in Madrazo’s article on emphyteusis. de Calderari, María Salomé Boto, “La política fiscal jujeña entre 1853–1885: instrumento de articulación social y territorial” (licenciatura thesis, Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 1993), p. 95,Google Scholar gives some official statistics on receipts for “venta de tierras fiscales” but they do not distinguinsh between the sale of former communal lands and sale of other public lands.

41 Bushnell, , Reform and Reaction in the Platine Provinces, pp. 25 Google Scholar and 128.

42 Sánchez-Albornoz, , Indios y tributos, pp.191–193;Google Scholar Bushnell, , “The Last Dictatorship: Betrayal or Consummation?,” Hispanic American Historical Review 63:1 (February 1983), 90–91;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Aken, Mark Van, “The Lingering Death of Indian Tribute in Ecuador,” Hispanic American Historical Review 61:3 (August 1981), 429–459;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Rodriguez, Mario, The Cadiz Experiment in Central America, 1808 to 1826 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 153 Google Scholar and 174; Woodward, Ralph Lee Jr., Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993), pp. 41 Google Scholar and 49–50.

43 ALJ, Documentos, libro 3, Documentos de las sesiones, borrador de actas, 6 February 1840.

44 AHPJ, 1840, caja 2, gubernatorial decree of 9 October 1840 (preamble).

45 Pavoni, Norma L., El noroeste argentino en la época de Alejandro Heredia, 2 vols. (Tucumán: Ediciones Fundación Banco Comercial del Norte, 1981), 1, p. 222.Google Scholar

46 ALJ, Documentos, libro 3, Documentos de las sesiones, borrador de actas, 27 January and 6 February 1840.

47 Compilación, I, p. 130. “Art. 1. The persons residing in the four Departments that make up the territory of the Puna, who voluntarily wish to be exempted from enrollment in the Militia of the Province, will pay as a direct tax for the maintenance of the State, a yearly fee that will not exceed three pesos per person.”

48 Ibid.

49 AHPJ, 1840, caja 2, decree of 24 October 1840 and letter from jefe político of Yavi, 30 December 1840.

50 ALJ, Actas, libro 2, f. 260 (session of 18 January 1851).

51 Delgado, Fanny A., “Ingresos fiscales de la provincia de Jujuy (1834–1852),” DATA: Revista del Instituto de Estudios Andinos y Amazónicos 2 (1992), 112 Google Scholar (table), and “Estructura política, administrativa y económica del Estado provincial: Jujuy (1834–1852),” in Campi, Daniel, coord., Jujuy en la historia, avances de investigación I (San Salvador de Jujuy: Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 1993), p. 91.Google Scholar

52 ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, f. 262 (session of 13 January 1851). On the internal political situation of Jujuy, see Bidondo, Emilio A., Historia de Jujuy 1535–1950 (Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra, 1980), pp. 360–361,Google Scholar and on other reforms of the same legislature, Bushnell, , Reform and Reaction, pp. 88, 167.Google Scholar

53 ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, f. 259 (session of 13 January 1851). “…the state of misery in which those indigenes find themselves …; almost all of them being of the class of shepherds, and the seasons of the last years so calamitous, not having other resources than the few offspring of their sheep and their personal labor, reduced to a state of absolute insolvency, there was experienced a great emigration, leaving the Puna deserted they go to Bolivia and to the valleys of Calchaqui in the Province of Salta or come to the Quebrada de Humahuaca, as the only recourse that they have found to escape said tax or contribution.…”

54 Ibid., ff. 259 and 294 (sessions of 13 January and 5 February 1851).

55 Ibid., ff. 261–262 and 293–295 (sessions of 13 and 18 January, 5 February 1851). The decline in population of the Puna, of which one cause was supposedly emigration due to the contribución directa, amounted only to about 2.5 percent in the decade of the 1840s; but it was also true that the population of the Puna (as of the Quebrada) was steadily declining as a proportion of the provincial total. Carrillo, Joaquín, Descripción brevísima de Jujuy, Provincia de la República Argentina, reprint ed. (San Salvador de Jujuy, 1988), p. 186.Google Scholar

56 ALJ, Actas, Libro 2, ff. 295–296 (session of 6 February 1851); Actas, Libro 3, pp. 14, 15, 31 and 33 (sessions of 22 February, 28 March, and 2 April 1851).

57 ALJ, Actas, Libro 3, session of the Comisión Permanente, 11 July 1851.

58 Bidondo, , Historia de Jujuy, pp. 361–362.Google Scholar

59 Piatt, Tristán, Estado boliviano y ayllu andino: tierra y tributo en el norte de Potosí (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1982), pp. 73–111;Google Scholar Sánchez-Albornoz, , Indios y tributos, p. 201.Google Scholar

60 Compilación, I, p. 415; ALJ, Actas, Libro 3, session of 21 March 1853.

61 AHPJ, 1853, caja 1 (2. Poder legislativo), law of 22 March; Calderari, Boto de, “La política fiscal jujeña entre 1853–1885,” pp. 74 and 84–85.Google Scholar

62 See, among others, the works of Bernal, Rebeliones indígenas en la Puna; Fidalgo, Andrés, ¿De quién es la Puna? (San Salvador de Jujuy: Ed. del Autor, 1988);Google Scholar and Paz, “Rebelión campesina,” which is an advance on his larger study still in preparation.

63 Paz, , “Rebelión campesina,” p. 18;Google Scholar Madrazo, , Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, pp. 143–144 Google Scholar and 149–150.

64 Compilación, I, pp. 259–260.

65 Madrazo, , Hacienda y encomienda en los Andes, pp. 151–152.Google Scholar

66 Compilación, I, p. 116.

67 Fidalgo, , ?De quién es la Puna?, pp. 14,Google Scholar 79; Pavoni, , El noroeste argentino en la época de Alejandro Heredia, 2, p. 137.Google Scholar It should be added that the right of Fernando Campero to the title of marquis (even supposing that titles were still legally recognized) was in dispute.

68 Pavoni, , El noroeste argentino en la época de Alejandro Heredia, 2, p. 131.Google Scholar The charge was made by the teniente gobernador of Orán, in another part of Salta province.

69 Ibid., II, pp. 131–132; Compilación, I, p. 35.

70 Compilación, I, pp. 197–198.