K'iche' uprising in Totonicapan, 1820: The places of subaltern politics (Guatemala)

In 1819 and 1820 the K'iche' towns of Totonicapan District in the Kingdom of Guatemala organized a movement in opposition to tribute payment and, after the reinstatement of the Cadiz constitution of 1812, worked to create a regional Indian government. The development and impacts of the movement offer an excellent opportunity to research the importance of the relations among places for a deeper understanding of subaltern political activity. Municipal and parochial archives, the Archivo General de Centroamerica, along with published primary and secondary sources, have been drawn upon to draft an account of Indian political history in Totonicapan District between 1810 and 1830, and to locate it in the tumultuous years before and after Central American independence.; The expansion of non-Indian power in Totonicapan Province, particularly through the creation of "Spaniard and Ladino" municipal governments in towns that previously held only Indian cabildos and through the ethnicized modernization promoted by the Bourbon reforms, fed into Indian discontent, but did not lead to ethnic conflict. The K'iche's who supported the uprising organized from the cofradias and the parcialidades and directed their ire toward Spanish administrators and Indian municipal officials.; The indigo crash of the early nineteenth century affected Indian and non-Indian grain and textile producers of Totonicapan, establishing conditions propitious for revolt. Economic woes, as well as crop failures, earthquakes and smallpox all pushed the fiche's of densely populated Totonicapan District to reject the reimplementation of head taxes. Early liberal ideas (particularly opposition to church taxes, Indian tribute and the caste system) and continued alliances with liberals had a great deal of impact on K'iche' political organizing between 1813 and 1830.; The 1820 uprising, and the K'iche' political actions of the early nineteenth century, grew from relationships among places that included Bengal, Madrid, Southern Mexico, Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City, as well as among the towns that participated. An analysis of the relationships among these places and of the relationships within them makes visible the political activity of K'iche's.