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The Burden of Citizenship: Artisans, Elections, and the Fuero Militar in Santiago de Chile, 1822-1851*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

James A. Wood
James A. Wood*
Affiliation:
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, North Carolina
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Extract

On December 13, 1845 the recently founded Santiago newspaper El Artesano Opositor (The Opposition Artisan) published a letter submitted by “twenty artisan friends of Cerda.” The letter related the tragic case of José Agustin Cerda, a young tailor, soldier in the civic militia, and member of an electoral association called the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán (Caupolicán Artisans Society), who had been arrested on November 12 by the city's military prosecutor on the charge that he was involved in an anti-government “conspiracy.” Claiming innocence, Cerda, according to his companions, denied his involvement in the alleged conspiracy “with noble arrogance.” As a result he was locked in iron shackles in a military prison, causing his legs to swell up and his illness-weakened lungs to struggle for air. A follow-up article in the newspaper announced that Cerda was still being held in that “unjust and inhumane” condition two months later, along with several other city residents who were linked to the electoral associations of the liberal opposition in Santiago. While the outraged authors of the letter to El Artesano Opositor singled out the Cerda case for its malicious effects on their friend, they clearly saw the incident as part of a larger problem: the routine and systematic mistreatment of all artisan militiamen by the conservative governing regime. Not content simply to demand the release of their colleague, the “friends of Cerda” demanded the complete reform of a political system that denigrated the honor, dignity, and patriotism of all the city's artisans. “Understand,” continued the letter in a provocative flourish, “that by attacking the innocent life of Cerda you attack the lives of all the artisans of the Republic.” “We should expect more,” it concluded solemnly, “from the men we elevate with our votes, defend with our blood, and maintain with our sweat and labor.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , January 2002 , pp. 443 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2002

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Footnotes

*

I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the following institutions: The Ford Foundation, La Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales–Chile, The Duke–University of North Carolina Program in Latin American Studies, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. I also want to thank Dr. Ronn Pineo and two anonymous reviewers at The Americas for their useful comments on an earlier version of this article.

References

1 “S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por veinte artesanos amigos de Cerda,” El Artesano Opositor, 13 December, 1845. José Agustin Cerda’s name appeared on the list of signatories of the Act of Installation of the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán published in the article, “Viva la democracia!,” El Diario de Santiago, 23 October 1845.

2 “A todos los ciudadanos artesanos,” El Artesano Opositor, 14 February 1846. Also on the “conspiracy” of 1845, see Toso, Sergio Grez, De la “regeneración del pueblo” a la huelga general: génesis y evolución histórica del movimiento popular en Chile, 1810–1890 (Santiago: Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos, y Museos, 1997), pp. 292–309.Google Scholar

3 “S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por veinte artesanos amigos de Cerda,” El Artesano Opositor, 13 December 1845.

4 The classic studies of the fuero militar in colonial Spanish America include McAlister, Lyle, The ’Fuero Militar’ in New Spain, 1764–1810 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Archer, Christon, The Army in Bourbon Mexico, 1760–1810 (Tuscon: University of New Mexico Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Kuethe, Allan, Reform and Society in New Granada, 1773–1808 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1978)Google Scholar; and Campbell, Leon, The Military and Society in Colonial Peru, 1750–1810 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1978).Google Scholar

5 On the application of the fuero militar to the pardo militiamen of late colonial Spanish America, see Kuethe, Allen, “The Status of the Free Pardo in the Disciplined Militia of New Granada,” Journal of Negro History 56:2 (April 1971), pp. 105–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Andrews, George Reid, The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800–1900 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1980),Google Scholar esp. the chapter “The Black Legions,” pp. 113–37; Sánchez, Joseph, “African Freedmen and the Fuero Militar. A Historical Overview of Pardo and Moreno Militiamen in the late Spanish Empire,” Colonial Latin American Historical Review 3:2 (Spring 1994), pp. 165–84Google Scholar; and Vinson, Ben III, “Race and Badge: Free-Colored Soldiers in the Colonial Mexican Militia,” The Americas 56:4 (April 2000), pp. 471–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 McAlister and Kuethe made the strongest arguments for militiamen receiving “preferential treatment” under the fuero militar. In Kuethe’s words, the institutional “esprit de corps” far outweighed the application of “impartial justice.” See McAlister, , The Fuero Militar, pp. 109–11Google Scholar; and Kuethe, , Reform and Society, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar There is almost nothing published on the negative impact of the fuero militar on militiamen. Christon Archer discussed the military authorities’ need to impose harsh punishments on militiamen for desertion in the 1790s. See Archer, , The Army, pp. 275–7.Google Scholar Ben Vinson’s recent article noted that there was “some debate regarding the actual worth of the privilege” of the fuero militar, yet goes no further with the idea, focusing instead on the role of militia service in the construction of racial identities in colonial Mexico. See Vinson, , “Race and Badge,” p. 472.Google Scholar Joseph Sánchez mentioned that under the fuero militar miltiamen “could be jailed in a military guardhouse, barracks, or defensive tower.” See Sánchez, , “African Freedmen,” p. 166.Google Scholar

7 One historian who did address the fuero militar in the context of postindependence was Charles Hale, who discussed José Maria Luis Mora’s attempts to abolish the fuero militar for the Mexican army (but not militia) as part of the general liberal assault on corporate privileges. Like the early state-builders in Chile, Mora attempted to expand Mexico’s civic militia as a counterweight to the power of the professional armed forces. See Hale, Charles, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821–53 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 141–4.Google Scholar

8 On Chilean constitutional politics in the early national period, see Collier, Simon, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808–33 (Cambridge University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Donoso, Ricardo, Las ideas políticas en Chile, ed. 2d. (Stgo: Editorial Universitaria, 1967), pp. 277–315 Google Scholar; and Solar, Domingo Amunátegui, La democracia en Chile/Teatro político, 1810–1910 (Santigo: Universidad de Chile, 1946), pp. 3–46.Google Scholar

9 Collier, , Ideas and Politics, p. 154.Google Scholar

10 Constitución política de Estado de Chile promulgada el 23 de Octubre de 1822 (Stgo: 1822), capítulo II, título 3, artículo 14.

11 Constitución Je 1822, artículo 15.

12 Constitución de 1822, artículo 16.

13 On women and citizenship in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century republicanism, see Kerber, Linda, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (University of North Carolina Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Scott, Joan Wallach, Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Arrom, Silvia M., The Women of Mexico City, 1790–1857 (Stanford University Press, 1985)Google Scholar; and Chambers, Sarah, From Subjects to Citizens: Honor, Gender, and Politics in Arequipa, Peru, 1780–1854 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

14 Constitución Política del Estado de Chile promulgada en 29 de Diciembre de 1823, Título II, artículo 11 : De los ciudadanos activos. The Moral Code established a series of grades of meritorious behavior within the structure of the national government. The civic merit clause in the Constitution of 1823 was based on the same principle as the more extensive Moral Code—namely, the inculcation of civic virtue in society, one of the central concerns of nineteenth-century republicanism. Of the more than twenty ways in which individuals could perform such “services to the fatherland,” the first was to serve in the national guard for a period of five or more years (national guard service was obligatory for adult males over the age of 18 according to article 230). The second was to be “a master or examined journeyman in a useful art or industry in which the primary materials are produced in the country.” Both of these types of service to the republic fell under the heading of contributions to the commonwealth, to the public good. As such they fit within the classical republican framework. Further down the list another sort of “meritorious” service was described. According to article 21 of Egaña’s code of “civic merit,” being “the father of more than six legitimate children” was another way of qualifying for the rights of citizenship. Presumably, fathering six or more legitimate children was a sign of a man’s independence (not to mention virility) and thus his capacity for citizenship.

15 “Constitución política de la República de Chile,” Parte II, capítulo 2, artículo 7: de los ciudadanos activos, El Vice-Presidente de la República a la Nación (Santiago: 8 August 1828).

16 “Constitución política de la República de Chile,” artículos 8 and 9,” in El Vice-Presidente de la República.

17 Reglamento de Elecciones Constitucionales iniciado en la Cámara de Diputados, sancionado por el Congreso Nacional, y mandado cumplir por el Poder Ejecutivo (Santigo: 16 December 1828).

18 Arana, Diego Barros, Historia General de Chile, vol. 15 (Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes, 1897), p. 212n.Google Scholar

19 Constitución Política de la República Chilena (Santago: 25 May 1833).

20 According to Simon Collier and William Sater, the emergency powers set up under the Constitution of 1833 were in effect about a third of the time between the years 1833 and 1861. See Collier, and Sater, , A History of Chile, 1808–1994 (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 55.Google Scholar

21 Reglamento de Elecciones por cuanto el Congreso Nacional con fecha de 30 de Noviembre último ha decretado y sancionado el reglamento de elecciones que sigue (Santiago: 2 December 1833).

22 The postponement of the literacy requirements in the 1833 Electoral Regulations became a major issue of contention in the Congress and the Santiago press in September, 1842. Samuel Valenzuela has suggested that such cautious treatment of the literacy requirements for suffrage by the government was the result of a significant plebeian electorate. See Valenzuela, J. Samuel, Democratización vía reforma: la expansión del sufragio en Chile (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ides, 1985), p. 60.Google Scholar

23 “Capítulo 1, artículo 14,” Reglamento de Elecciones (1833). The amounts shown above were for the Department and Province of Santiago. Other provinces had different levels set by the Regulation. All income requirements were intended to be temporary, effective only until a government-sponsored statistical survey was completed.

24 On the Chilean militia in the colonial and postindependence periods, see de Chile, Estado Mayor General del Ejército, Historia del Ejército de Chile (Santiago: Estado Mayor General del Ejército, 1980),Google Scholar vol. 1, El Ejército del Reyno de Chile, 1603–1810, pp. 135–46, 170–88; vol. 2, De la Patria Vieja a la Batalla de Maipo, 1810–1818, pp. 194–6, 205–8; and vol. 3, El Ejército y la organización de la República, 1817–40, pp. 106–7; Ponce, Roberto Hernández, “La Guardia Nacional de Chile: apuntes sobre su origen y organización, 1808–1848,” Historia 19 (1984), pp. 53–114 Google Scholar; and Nunn, Frederick, The Military in Chilean History: Essays on Civil-Military Relations, 1810–1973 (University of New Mexico Press, 1976), pp. 20–37.Google Scholar

25 See Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1835 (Santiago: 14 September 1835), cuadro 7.

26 See Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1846 (Santiago: 28 August 1846), cuadro 1.

27 Memoria de 1846, p. 10.

28 Lieutenant MacRae’s account is located in Lieutenant Gilliss, J. M., The U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the Years 1849–52, vol. 1: Chile (Washington D. C: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1855), pp. 304–9.Google Scholar

29 For general observations about the connection between elections and the national guard in nineteenth-century Chile, see Gil, Federico, The Political System of Chile (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966), pp. 38–40 Google Scholar; Valenzuela, , Democratización via reforma, pp. 51–81 Google Scholar; Valenzuela, , “Building Aspects of Democracy Before Democracy: Electoral Practices in Nineteenth-Century Chile,” in Carbó, Eduardo Posada, ed., Elections Before Democracy: The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America (London: MacMillan, 1996), pp. 202–23Google Scholar; and Collier, Simon, “Evolución política, institucional, social, y cultural de Chile entre 1829 y 1865,” in de Bello, La Casa, Bello y Chile (Caracas, Fundación de la Casa de Bello, 1981), pp. 32–4.Google Scholar All three authors agreed that the national guard provided government candidates with an unbeatable electoral machine.

30 See Proyecto de lei presentado por la Comisión Militar de la Cámara de Diputados—modificación de la artículos de la Ordenanza que imponen la pena de palos (Santiago: Imprenta del Progreso, 2 August 1850). The reform bill makes it clear that the national guard units were included in the proposed changes.

31 Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1842 (Santiago: 31 August 1842), pp. 9–11.

32 Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1845 (Santiago: 26 September 1845), p. 12.

33 Memoria de 1845, p. 12.

34 Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1843 (Santiago: 28 August 1843), p. 7.

35 Pedro Santoni found similar elite fears in Mexico City in the early national period. See Santoni, , “A Fear of the People: The Civic Militia of Mexico in 1845,” HAHR 68:1 (1988), pp. 269–88,Google Scholar esp. 2824. Also on the national guard in nineteenth-century Mexico, see Santoni, , “The Failure of Mobilization: The Civic Militia of Mexico in 1846,” Mexican Studies 12:2 (Summer 1996), pp. 169–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Thompson, Guy P.C., “Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: The National Guard, Philharmonic Corps and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847–88,” Journal of Latin American Studies 22:1 (1990), pp. 31–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Memoria que el Ministro del Estado en los departamentos de Guerra y Marina presenta al Congreso Nacional de 1841 (Santiago: 25 August 1841), p. 9.

37 Memoria de 1842, p. 9.

38 “Fuero militar de los cuerpos cívicos,” in Ricardo Castro, ed., Recopilación de leyes, decretos supremos, i circulares vijentes concernientes a la Guardia Nacional desde el 3 de diciembre de 1835 a 14 de diciembre de 1872 (Santiago: Imprenta Nacional, 1873), pp. 83–5.

39 The history of elections in nineteenth-century Latin America has undergone a revival in the past decade. See Posada-Carbó, ed., Elections Before Democracy; Annino, Antonio, ed., Historia de las elecciones en Iberoamérica, siglo XIX (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura, 1995)Google Scholar; Warren, Richard, “Elections and Popular Political Participation in Mexico, 1808–36,” in Peloso, Vincent and Tenenbaum, Barbara, eds., Liberals, Politics, and Power: State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (University of Georgia Press, 1996), pp. 30–58 Google Scholar; Peloso, Vincent, “Liberals, Electoral Reform, and Foreign Intervention in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Peru,” in Peloso, and Tenenbaum, , pp. 186–211 Google Scholar; and Guerra, Francois-Xavier, “The Spanish-American Tradition of Representation and its European Roots,” Journal of Latin American Studies 26:1 (1994), pp. 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On popular politics in the nineteenth-century, or pre-populist era, more generally, see Arrom, Silvia and Ortoli, Servando eds., Riots in the Cities: Popular Politics and the Urban Poor in Latin America, 1765–1910 (Wilmington DE: Scholarly Resources, 1996).Google Scholar

40 For a comparison with early nineteenth-century London, see O’Gorman, Frank, “Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies: The Social Meaning of Elections in England, 1780–1860,” Past and Present 135 (1992).Google Scholar

41 Letelier, Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt, “Liberalismo y modernidad: ideología y simbolismo en el Chile decimonónico: un marco teòrico,” in Krebs, Ricardo and Gazmuri, Cristían, eds., La revolución francesa y Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria 1990), pp. 303–34.Google Scholar For his complete interpretation of Chilean independence, see Jocelyn-Holt, , La independencia de Chile: tradición, modernización, y mito (Madrid: Mapire, 1992).Google Scholar

42 The best source on elite politics in the early 1840s is still Arana, Diego Barros, Un Decenio de la Historia de Chile, 1841–51, 2 vols. (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1905–6).Google Scholar

43 Loveman, Brian, Chile: The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism, 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 141–3.Google Scholar

44 On the Sociedad Patriótica and elite political maneuvering in the 1840–41 elections, see Arana, Barros, Un Decenio, vol. 1, pp. 144–48Google Scholar; Errázuriz, Isidoro, Historia de la Administración Errázuriz (precedida de una introducción que contiene la reseña del movimiento y la lucha de los partidos desde 1823 hasta 1871), (Valparaiso: Imprenta de la Patria, 1877), pp. 189–96Google Scholar; and Donoso, , Las ideas, pp. 287–88.Google Scholar

45 On the Sociedad Patrótica’s analysis of Chile’s electoral system, see “Noticia de una reunión de ciudadanos habida en esta capital los días 12 y 14 del presente mes con el objeto de acordarse de los candidatos para las próximas elecciones por un testigo presencial,” Santiago, 20 January 1840 (Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca Americana de José Toribio Medina, 2/65/23/17).

46 “Noticia de una reunión,” 20 January 1840.

47 “Circular del partido liberal sobre el derecho electoral,” Santiago, 24 May 1841 (Archivo Nacional, Fondo Benjamin Vicuna MacKenna, 34/ 11/329-30). Also on the activities of the Sociedad Patriótica, see “Carta de Don Nicolas Pradel a su hermano Don Bernardino sobre la presidencia de la República del General Pinto,” Valparaíso, 24 April 1841 (AN, FBVM, 34/4/310-11); and “Carta de uno de los miembros de la comisión liberal,” Santiago, 24 May 1841 (AN, FBVM, 34/8/318-22).

48 For a review of the recent historiography on nineteenth-century Latin America’s public sphere, see “Palti, Elias José, “Recent Studies on the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 36:2 (2001), pp. 255–66.Google Scholar

49 “Catecismo político: segunda pregunta: podremos llamar LADRON propiamente al jefe de milicias que quita a sus soldados los calificaciones para hacerlos votar a su arbitrio?” El Miliciano, 8 June 1841.

50 “Consejo útil a los artesanos: Adición al reglamento de elecciones,” El Miliciano, 13 June 1841.

51 El Hombre del Pueblo, 24 June 1841.

52 El Hombre del Pueblo, 24 June 1841.

53 On the Sociedad Democrática, see Arana, Barros, Un Decenio, vol. 2, pp. 71–76;Google Scholar Errazuriz, , Historia de la Administración Errazuriz, pp. 242–48;Google Scholar and Donoso, , Las ideas, pp. 290–91.Google Scholar

54 Reprinted in “El Diario,” El Diario de Santiago, 18 October 1845.

55 “Viva la democracia! Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán,” El Diario de Santiago, 23 October, 1845. On the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán, see Grez, , De la “regeneración,” pp. 292–310 Google Scholar; Illanes, María Angélica, La revolución solidaria: Historia de las sociedades obreras de socorros mutuos, 1840–1920 (Santiago: Prisma, 1990), pp. 18–23 Google Scholar; and Romero, Luis Alberto, La Sociedad de la Igualdad: los artesanos de Santiago de Chile y sus primeras experiencias políticas, 1820–51 (Buenos Aires, Torcuato Di Telia, 1978), p. 44.Google Scholar

56 “Viva la democracia!” El Diano de Santiago.

57 “Sociedad de Artesanos de Colo Colo,” El Diario de Santiago, 27 October 1845. On the Sociedad de Artesanos de Colo Colo, see also Grez, , De la “regeneración, p. 314;Google Scholar and lllanes, , La revolución solidaria, p. 44.Google Scholar

58 “Los artesanos, “ El Diario de Santiago, 26 July 1845.

59 “Los artesanos, “ El Diario de Santiago, 26 July 1845.

60 The liberal opposition was not the only contender for the political allegiance of the city’s artisans. In response to the disturbances caused by the liberals in 1840–41, pro-government forces established their own electoral association in 1845–6, the Sociedad del Orden, which supported its own artisan newspaper, El Artesano del Orden. The pro-government artisan paper also included letters to the editor, which generally praised the Bulnes Administration for improving the artisans’ standard of living. It is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this article to give the pro-government side in the polemic over artisan identity an equal hearing. For a thorough analysis of the conservative, pro-government artisan press and its relationship to the Santiago public sphere, see Wood, James A., “Building a Society of Equals: The Popular Republican Movement in Santiago de Chile, 1818–51,” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000), pp. 183–250.Google Scholar

61 “El Artesano Opositor, “El Artesano Opositor, 11 November 1845.

62 “El Artesano Opositor, “El Artesano Opositor, 11 November 1845.

63 “S.S.R.R. del Artesano Opositor por varios nacionales,”El Artesano Opositor, 16 December 1845.

64 “Varios nacionales,” El Artesano Opositor, 16 December 1845.

65 Ramón Mondaca was listed as President of the Sociedad de Artesanos de Caupolicán on the complete Act of Installation. See “Viva la democracia!,” El Diario de Santiago, 23 October 1845.

66 “Señores Editores del Artesano Opositor por Ramón Mondaca, cuartel de guías,” El Artesano Opositor, 7 January 1846.

67 “Ramón Mondaca, cuartel de guías,” El Artesano Opositor, 7 January, 1846.

68 “Declaración sobre el estado de sitio en la Provincia de Santiago por el Ministerio del Interior Manuel Montt, March 7, 1846,” (AN,FBVM, 34/39).

69 The vast secondary literature on the Sociedad de la Igualdad can be divided into two parts: nineteenth-century accounts and twentieth-century studies. The best (but also probably the most biased) nineteenth-century account is MacKenna’s, Benjamin Vicuña Historia de la jornada del veinte de abril de 1851: una batalla en las calles de Santiago (Santiago: Rafael Jover, 1878).Google Scholar Vicuña was the secretary of the association for an extended period of time. Also excellent for its insider’s perspective is Zapiola, José, La Sociedad de la Igualdad i sus enemigos (Santiago: Imprenta de Enrique Blanchard-Chessi, 1902).Google Scholar See also Arana, Barros, Un Decenio, vol. 2, pp. 361–75, 449–52, 470–77, and 502–505;Google Scholar and Errázuriz, , Historia, pp. 345–548.Google Scholar Twentieth-century studies of the Sociedad de la Igualdad include Jobet, Julio Cesar, Santiago Arcos Arlegui y la Sociedad de la Igualdad (Santiago: Imprenta Cultura, 1942), pp. 111–50Google Scholar; Romero, Luis Alberto, La Sociedad de la Igualdad: los artesanos de Santiago de Chile y sus primeras experiencias políticas, 1820–51 (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Telia, ]1978)Google Scholar; Gazmuri, Cristian, El ‘48’ Chileno: igualitarios, reformistas, radicales, masones y bomberos (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1992), pp. 73–115 Google Scholar; Illanes, , La revolución solidaria, pp. 27–50 Google Scholar; and Grez, , De la “regeneración, pp. 311–76.Google Scholar

70 On the Sociedad de la Igualdad as a precursor of the Chilean workers’ movement, see Necochea, Hernán Ramirez, Historia del movimiento obrero en Chile: antecedentes—siglo XIX (Santiago: Imprenta Real, 1951), pp. 78–100 Google Scholar; Jobet, Julio Cesar, Ensayo crítico del desarrollo económico social en Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1955), pp. 36–40 Google Scholar; Jobet, Julio Cesar, Precursores del pensamiento social de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1955–56), pp. 9–48 Google Scholar; and Valenzuela, Tulio Lagos, Bosquejo histórico del movimiento obrero en Chile (Santiago: El Esfuerzo, 1941), pp. 9–22.Google Scholar On the Sociedad de la Igualdad as a precursor to the Latin American workers’ movement, see Godio, Julio, Historia del movimiento obrero latinoamericano, vol. 1, Anarquistas y socialistas, 1850–1918 (Mexico City: Nueva Imagen, 1980), pp. 34–39 Google Scholar; and Bao, Ricardo Melgar, El movimiento obrero latinoamericano: historia de una clase subalterna (Madrid: Alianza, 1988), pp. 62–71.Google Scholar This idea even carried over into the work of Eduardo Galeano. See Galeano, , “The Precursors,” in Memory of Fire: Faces and Masks (New York: Pantheon, 1987), pp. 173–74.Google Scholar

71 On the importance of looking at the Sociedad de la Igualdad’s relationship to the past rather than the future, Marcelo Segali wrote “Hasta ahora, la Sociedad de la Igualdad y sus insurrecciones aparecen a los ojos de los historiadores como un rayo en un cielo azul y despejado. Un milagro. Una sorpresa. No fue así. La unidad militante … que fue la Sociedad de la Igualdad … tuvo sus antecedentes romántico socialistas con años de anterioridad. Su culminación en 1851, es el fin de un proceso largo.” See Segali, Marcelo, Las luchas de clases en las primeras décadas de la República de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Nascimiento, 1962), pp. 36–7.Google Scholar

72 “Guardia nacional,” four-part series, El Amigo del Pueblo, 11, 15, and 26 April and 13 May 1850.

73 Proyecto de Lei sobre Reforma de la Guardia Nacional, presentado a la Cámara de Diputados por el Señor D. Fernando Urizar Gárfias (Santiago: Imprenta del Progreso, 1850). On Congressman Urizar’s role in the Equality Society, see MacKenna, Vicuña, Historia de la jornada, 111, pp. 248–49.Google Scholar Urizar was a diputado from San Felipe (Santiago Province). He was partially responsible for spreading the Equality Society to San Felipe later in 1850, which provoked the November, 1850 sitio declaration.

74 “Convocación general en l de agosto,” (AN/Fondo Varios, 830/63–64).

75 El Amigo del Pueblo repeated the plea for the city’s artisans to write in with their personal stories of abuse in each article dedicated to the topic of guard reform. Article two (15 April) of the series , for example, concluded: “Invitamos a nuestros hermanos del pueblo a que nos comuniquen las observa-ciones que hayan hecho sobre los medios de remediar esos males que tan pesado hacen el servicio en los cuerpos cívicos.”

76 “Guardia Nacional,” El Amigo del Pueblo, 26 April 1850.

77 “Guardia Nacional,” El Amigo del Pueblo, 26 April 1850.

78 Proyecto de Leí sobre Reforma de la Guardia Nacional, presentado a la Cámara de Diputados por el Señor D. Fernando Urizar Gárfias (Santiago: Imprenta del Progreso, 1850).

79 Proyecto de Lei sobre Reforma de la Guardia Nacional.

80 Proyecto de Lei sobre Reforma de la Guardia Nacional.

81 “Convocación general en l de agusto,” (AN,FV, 830/63–64). See also the notes titled, “Folleto Presentado por [Manuel] Guerrero,” (AN/FV, 830/66A).

82 Vicuña MacKenna, Historia de la jornada. Vicuña MacKenna’s collection of material on the liberal opposition in the 1840s and 1850s (housed in Chile’s Archivo Nacional in the Fondo Benjamin Vicuña MacKenna) includes a wealth of material related to the Sociedad de la Igualdad, of which he was the Secretary. His diary from the period of the Sociedad de la Igualdad has also been published. See “Diario de don Benjamín Vicuña MacKenna desde el 28 de Octubre de 1850 hasta el 15 de Abril de 1851,” three-part series, Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografía 1:2, 3, and 4 (1911), pp. 161–193,44974, and 583–93.

83 MacKenna, Benjamin Vicuña, Historia de los diez años de la administración de Don Manuel Montt, 5 vols. (Santiago, Editorial Chilena: 1862–63).Google Scholar All five volumes deal with the civil war of 1851.

84 Lieutenant MacRae’s account is located in Gilliss, , The U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition, pp. 304–9.Google Scholar

85 Gilliss, pp. 306–7.

86 Gilliss, p. 129.

87 Manifiesto del Partido de Oposición a los pueblos de la República sobre la nulidad de que adolecen las elecciones hechas en los días 25 y 26 de Junio último (Santiago: Imprenta del Progreso, July, 1851).

88 Manifiesto del Partido de Oposición.

89 See, for example, document no. 6 of the Manifiesto, which described a case of voter registration fraud in Santiago’s San Isidro parish involving national guardsmen from Battalion One of the civic infantry.

90 For an unusual view of the civil wars of 1851 and 1859, see Zeitlin, Maurice, The Civil Wars in Chile (or the bourgeois revolutions that never were) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).Google Scholar

91 For recent studies of popular liberalism in nineteenth-century Spanish America that focus on rural society, see Mallon, Florencia,. Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)Google Scholar; and Guardino, Peter, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico’s National State, 1800–1857 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).Google Scholar