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The 1893 bogotazo: Artisans and Public Violence in Late Nineteenth–Century Bogotá*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

David Sowell
David Sowell
Affiliation:
David Sowell is Assistant Professor of History, Juniata College, University of South Carolina.
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Extract

Bogotá suffered its most severe outbreak of public violence of the nineteenth century on 15 and 16 January 1893. Indeed apart from the bogotazo of 9 April 1948, it was perhaps the worst violence that the Colombian capital has ever experienced.1 For twenty-four hours the city experienced serious social disorder, which was brought under control only by the use of regular army troops at a cost of an unknown number of casualties. Surprisingly, the January 1893 bogotazo has not been subjected to serious historical examination. The role of craftsmen in the outbreak of violence offers a window in the largely unknown course of artisan political activity in Bogotá after the decline of the Democratic Society of Artisans in the mid-century reform period. More broadly, whereas the relationship between wage labourers and violence has attracted many scholars, the propensity of the artisan class to engage in violent activities in nineteenth-century Colombia (and in Latin America as a whole) deserves more scholarly investigation. What were the causes and the nature of the 1893 riot? Were they typical of nineteenth-century urban violence? Finally, how does the 1893 riot fit within the broad sweep of Colombian collective violence?2 Before attempting to answer these questions it is necessary to look briefly, by way of background, at Bogotá in the late nineteenth century, its economy and society, at the nature of Colombian politics and, in particular, at the role of artisans in bogotano politics and in earlier episodes of urban disorder.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1-2 , June 1989 , pp. 267 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

1 The bogotazo of 9 April 1948 occurred in reaction to the assassination of the popular Liberal party leader Jorge Elicier Gaitán. It destroyed much of downtown Bogotá and resulted in hundreds of deaths, while igniting the nationwide outbreak ofLa Violencia. For a recent account see Braun, Herbert, The Assassination of Gaitán: Public Life and Urban Violence in Colombia (Madison, 1986).Google Scholar

2 Rural and urban violence during the colonial period, rural violence in the nineteenth century, and ‘modern’ incidents of collective violence have attracted considerable attention in Latin America, especially in Mexico, the Andean republics, Brazil, and Colombia. For the latter, considerable progress has been made towards a long-term understanding of collective violence. The late colonial period, especially the Comunero rebellion of 1781, is well synthesised in McFarlane, Anthony, ‘Civil Disorders and Popular Protests in Late Colonial New Granada’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 64, no. 1-2 (02 1984), pp. 17–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Various studies have sought to explain rural violence in the early national period, notably LeGrand, Catherine, ‘Labor Acquisition and Social Conflict on the Colombian Frontier, 1850–1936’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 16, pt. 1 (02 1984), pp. 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There is abundant literature on violence in twentieth-century Colombia, most of it focusing on La Violencia of the 1940s and 1950s. Gonzalo Sánchez offers a conceptual framework for La Violencia and its historiography in ‘La Violencia in Colombia: New Research, New Questions’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 65, no. 4 (11 1985), pp. 789–807.Google Scholar See also Sánchez, Gonzalo, Once ensayos sobre la Violencia (Bogotá, 1985).Google Scholar And for the urban environment, Medina, Medófilo, La protesta urbana en Colombia en el siglo veinte (Bogotá, 1984)Google Scholar and Winn, Peter, ‘The Urban Working Class and Social Protest in Latin America’, International Labor and Working Class History, No. 14/15 (Spring 1979), pp. 61–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 See Sowell, David, ‘“La teoria y la realidad”: The Democratic Society of Artisans of Bogotá, 1847–1854’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 67, no. 4 (11 1987), pp. 611–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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15 Miguel Perdomo Neira, a travelling curandero, sparked several days of unrest in the capital in May 1872. ‘Professional’ doctors took offence at the curandero's popularity and challenged him to demonstrate his skills, a challenge that set off several days of stone-throwing and attacks against the doctors by the ‘people’. After the incident, university students attempted to found a Democratic Society among the artisans to counter Perdomo's popularity. The editorialist ‘Captuso’ observed that most craftsmen refused to join the effort, seeking to avoid the political manipulation experienced by craftsmen in the 1850s. La llustración, 26 Jan. 1875.

16 La América, 27, 30 Jan. 1875.

17 La Ilustración, 26 Jan. 1875.

18 El Taller, 17 Jan. 1889.

19 Colombia Cristiana, 14, 21, 28 Dec. 1892; 4 Jan. 1893.

20 Ibid., 4 Jan. 1893. The editor, Enrique Alvarez B., made a similar statement in El Correo Nacional, 20 Jan. 1893.

21 El Orden, 11 Jan. 1893. Numerous artisans thanked Antonio María Silvestre, the director of El Orden, for his ‘act of justice’ in speaking in favour of the city's craftsmen. El Orden, 14 Jan. 1893.

22 El Relator, 17 Jan. 1893; El Correo Nacional, 1 Feb. 1893; El Telegrama, 14 Jan. 1893; El Barbero, 16 Jan. 1893.

23 El Relator, 17 Jan. 1893; El Correo Nacional, 17 Jan. 1893; El Telegrama, 14 Jan. 1893; El Heraldo, 2; Jan. 1893.

24 Details of the riot are drawn from various sources. Unless otherwise noted, the account that follows is a composite of information from: Archivo Histórico Nacional (hereafter AHN), República, Policía Nacional, Tomo 2, fols. 422–521r Tomo 3, fols. 409, 625–6; Diario Oficial, 2, 3 Feb. 1893; El Correo Nacional, 1 Feb. 1893; El Orden, 4 March 1893; Palacio, Julio H., Historia de mi vida (Bogotá, 1942), pp. 186–92Google Scholar; and Mejía, Alvaro Tirado, Aspectos sociales de las guerras civiles en Colombia (Bogotá, 1976), pp. 462–87.Google Scholar Gutiérrez published and had distributed a leaflet on the 16th which insisted that he had not meant to hurt or insult members of the artisan class, but he did not refute his earlier comments. El Telegrama, 16 Jan. 1893.

25 Diario Oficial, 2 Feb. 1893.

26 Ibid., 17 Jan. 1893.

27 Diario de Cundinamarca, 24 Jan. 1893.

28 El Correo Nacional, 1 Feb 1893.

29 AHN, República, Policía Nacional, Tomo 3, fols. 409, 625–6; Mejía, Tirado, Aspectos sociales, p. 463.Google Scholar About 50 prisoners reportedly were sent from Bogotá to the coast by steamboat. Diario de la Tarde, 7, 27, 28, Feb., 6, 8 April 1893; Diario Oficial, 4 Feb. 1893. One report alleged that the army drafted many prisoners into its ranks. El Telegrama, 19 April 1893.

30 Diario de Cundinamarca, 7, 14, 28 March, 21 April, 12 May 1893. Alfredo Greñas, an ardent enemy of the Regeneration, had published a mild analysis of the early riot on 16 January: El Barbero, 16 Jan. 1893. Governmental officials seized the opportunity to arrest the author and expel him from the country. Greñas sought refuge in Costa Rica, from where he continued his criticisms of the Regeneration government. For a discussion of Greñas's role as a cartoonist and political commentator, see Helguera, J. León, ‘Notes on a Century of Colombian Political Cartooning: 1830–1930’, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 6 (1987), pp. 268–72.Google Scholar

31 Diario de Cundinamarca, 7, 14 March 1893; El Heraldo, 8, 12, 22 April 1893.

32 AHN, República, Gobernaciones varios, Tomo 28, fos. 954–5; El Correo Nacional, 3 April 1893.

33 AHN, República, Policía Nacional, Tomo 2, fos. 520–ir; Diario Oficial, 2 Feb. 1893.

34 El Artesano, 8, 15, April, 2, 17 June 1893.

35 El Correo Nacional, 20 March, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 19, 21, 24, 28 April 1894; El Orden, 17 March, 14 April 1894.

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38 El Orden, 4 March 1893.

39 Ibid., 8 March 1893.

40 El Diario de Cundinamarca, 10, 14, 21 March 1893.

41 El Heraldo, 8, 12 April 1893.

42 Ibid., 8 April 1893.

43 Ibid., 12 April 1893; El Telegrama, 4 May 1893.

44 Informe que presenta el subsecretario del ministerio de gobierno de Colombia al congreso constitucional de 1894 (Bogotá, 1894), p. iv.Google Scholar

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46 McFarlane, , ‘Civil Disorders’, pp. 31–2, 43, 50, 53–4Google Scholar, and passim.

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