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Politics, Land, and Religion in Tierradentro (Colombia), 1905-1950

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Politics, Land, and Religion in Tierradentro (Colombia), 1905-1950 NEGOTIATING INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY: POLITICS, LAND, AND RELIGION IN TIERRADENTRO (COLOMBIA), 1905-1950 by Alejandra Boza Villarreal Bachelor in History, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2000 M. Sc. in History, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Alejandra Boza Villarreal It was defended on February 20, 2013 and approved by George Reid Andrews, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of History Alejandro de la Fuente, UCIS Research Professor, Department of History Paula M. Kane, Associate Professor and John and Lucine O’Brien Marous Chair of Contemporary Catholic Studies, Department of Religious Studies Dissertation Advisor: Lara Putnam, Associate Professor, Department of History ii Copyright © by Alejandra Boza Villarreal 2013 iii NEGOTIATING INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY: POLITICS, LAND, AND RELIGION IN TIERRADENTRO (COLOMBIA), 1905-1950 Alejandra Boza Villarreal, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 For decades after Independence more than half of continental Latin America’s territory remained beyond the nascent republics’ control. Indigenous populations inhabited most of these regions, and by the late-nineteenth century the Latin American states started to target them in an effort to secure national borders and consolidate territorial control. With only a few exceptions, states turned to international Christian missionary orders to help them in the “civilization” of these indigenous areas, and by the first decade of the twentieth century the missionaries were active in many of them, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. In spite of the missionaries’ widespread presence, there exist only a few studies about the impact they had on the indigenous populations they targeted and on the states’ nation-building projects. This study examines precisely these questions by focusing on the case of Tierradentro, a region in southwestern Colombia inhabited mostly by Nasa Indians, and where Catholic missionaries from the Congregation of the Mission initiated a mission in 1905 that survives until the present. This dissertation studies the transformations that indigenous authorities underwent in response to the new republican reality, the missionaries’ “civilizing” agenda and the ways in which indigenous demands shaped it, the Indians’ active participation in elections and political parties, their struggles to defend their communal lands, and the negotiation between Catholic and non-Catholic traditions that characterized the Indians’ ritual life. It utilizes documentation iv produced by the missionaries, local and national authorities, travelers, anthropologists, and the Indians themselves. This study argues that the Nasa Indians from Tierradentro managed to retain significant levels of political and cultural autonomy not by remaining isolated, but by actively engaging with a wide variety of local, national, and international actors. Starting in the 1970s Indians from Tierradentro and other localities used several of these strategies to build one of the most successful self-identified indigenous movements in Latin America. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 INDIANS AND NATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA ................................................. 5 1.2 CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS ............... 7 1.3 FRONTIERS, MISSIONARIES, STATE, AND RELIGION .............................. 10 1.4 THE CASE OF TIERRADENTRO ........................................................................ 14 1.5 RESGUARDO LEGISLATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY COLOMBIA, 1820S-1900 ................................................................................................................. 21 1.6 CHAPTER OUTLINE.............................................................................................. 27 2.0 INDIGENOUS AUTHORITIES IN REPUBLICAN TIERRADENTRO, 1820S-1950S ........................................................................................................................ 31 2.1 TIERRADENTRO FROM COLONIAL TIMES TO INDEPENDENCE .......... 32 2.2 FROM TERRITORIO TO MUNICIPALITY: BRINGING TIERRADENTRO INTO THE NATION, 1840-1907 ............................................................................ 40 2.3 NASA CACIQUES AND THE CIVIL WARS IN TIERRADENTRO, 1811-1903 ................................................................................................................... 44 2.4 PEQUEÑOS CABILDOS: ACCOMODATION AND AUTONOMY .................. 54 2.5 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 68 vi 3.0 BRINGING THE MISSION TO TIERRADENTRO, 1905-1950 ................................. 72 3.1 CONSERVATIVE HEGEMONY AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE MISSIONS, 1900-1920 .............................................................................................. 73 3.2 ORGANIZING THE MISSION OF TIERRADENTRO, 1905-1950 .................. 77 3.3 BEYOND RELIGION: THE MISSIONARIES’ CIVILIZING AGENDA ......... 90 3.4 SCHOOLING THE NASA INDIANS ................................................................... 103 3.5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 118 4.0 POLITICS IN EARLY-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TIERRADENTRO, 1900-1950 121 4.1 PARTISAN AFFILIATION IN TIERRADENTRO, 1903-1950 ........................ 122 4.2 ELECTIONS IN TIERRADENTRO .................................................................... 132 4.3 MANUEL QUINTÍN LAME: PARTISAN POLITICS, ELECTIONS, AND “RACE WAR” ........................................................................................................ 147 4.4 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 161 5.0 RESGUARDOS IN TIERRADENTRO, 1900-1940S .................................................... 164 5.1 TIERRADENTRO’S RESGUARDOS UNDER CONSERVATIVE HEGEMONY, 1903-1920S ..................................................................................... 166 5.2 ATTACKING RESGUARDOS IN THE 1920S .................................................... 175 5.3 ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND INDIGENISTAS IN DEFENSE OF RESGUARDOS, 1930-1946 .................................................................................... 189 5.4 INDIGENOUS POLICIES IN THE LIBERAL REPUBLIC, 1930-1946 .......... 199 5.5 INDIGENOUS POLICY DURING LA VIOLENCIA AND BEYOND, 1948-1980S ............................................................................................................... 216 5.6 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 221 vii 6.0 THE NASA INDIANS’ CULTURE: CATHOLICISM AND NON-CATHOLICISM IN TIERRADENTRO, 1905-1950 .................................................................................. 227 6.1 CATHOLIC EVANGELIZATION BEFORE THE VINCENTIANS, 1613-1905 ................................................................................................................. 231 6.2 VINCENTIAN EVANGELIZATION IN TIERRADENTRO, 1905-1950 ........ 243 6.3 THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS’ TAKE ................................................................... 256 6.4 INDIGENOUS RITUAL LIFE IN MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TIERRADENTRO .................................................................................................. 264 6.5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 275 7.0 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................. 280 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................ 285 TABLES ............................................................................................................................ 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 310 PRIMARY SOURCES ..................................................................................................... 310 SECONDARY SOURCES ............................................................................................... 317 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Cabildo Positions in Tierradentro According to Different Sources, 1887-1950s ......... 285 Table 2. Cabildos in Tierradentro, 1887-1941............................................................................ 287 Table 3. Missionaries in Tierradentro, 1613-1905 ...................................................................... 292 Table 4. Vincentian Personnel in Tierradentro, 1905-1950 ........................................................ 296 Table 5. Presidential Elections in Tierradentro, 1918-1930* ..................................................... 301 Table 6. Elections of Representantes a la Cámara in Tierradentro, 1896-1933 ........................ 302 Table 7. Elections of Diputados to Cauca’s Asamblea in Tierradentro, 1904-1933 .................. 302 Table 8. Elections of Consejeros
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