The Political Culture in the Presidency of Quito at Independence: a Regional Comparison
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THE POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE PRESIDENCY OF QUITO AT INDEPENDENCE: A REGIONAL COMPARISON By CARMEN ANHALZER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1992 . Hay hombres que luchan un dia y son buenos. Hay hombres que luchan un ano y son me j ores. Hay hombres que luchan muchos anos y son muy buenos Pero hay quienes luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescindibles (Bertold Brecht, citado por Mercedes Sosa.) A la memoria de mis padres y a mis hijos. TABLE OF CONTENTS page ABSTRACT iv CHAPTERS I INTRODUCTION 1 II INSURGENCY IN QUITO 6 Economic Stagnation 20 Government by Consent 2 4 Sovereignty Reclaimed 27 Hegemony of the Patriciate 30 Culture as Text 4 0 Fear of Decay 46 Enlightened Ouitenos 53 Separatist Movement 59 III PLANTERS AND MERCHANTS IN GUAYAQUIL 8 5 The Coastal Economy 87 Patterns of Conflict 105 Political Emancipation 130 IV VECINOS IN PORTOVIEJO 186 Legitimacy in Portoviejo 196 A Provincial Economy 202 Weak Presence of the State 210 Forms of Resistance 217 Reforms in Portoviejo 226 V INSURGENCY IN PORTOVIEJO 289 VI CONCLUSIONS 316 BIBLIOGRAPHIC SKETCH 327 REFERENCES 33 3 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 34 6 iii Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE PRESIDENCY OF QUITO AT INDEPENDENCE: A REGIONAL COMPARISON By Carmen Anhalzer December, 1992 Chairman: Dr. David Bushnell Major Department: History This dissertation compares the political culture of three regional groups in the Presidency of Quito (modern day Ecuador) at the time of independence in the early 1800s: the aristocracy in Quito, merchants and planters in Guayaquil, and vecinos in Portovie j o--mostly middling merchants and Indians. Great emphasis has been placed on culture and language as a pre-requisite for understanding the political beliefs and aspirations of each of these groups. For this purpose, the study incorporates some of the most recent thinking on the relation between language, politics, and experience. The study aimed to identify the origins of regionalism in Ecuador during its preliminary steps towards nation-state building. In the process of so doing it has incorporated the analysis of political beliefs IV and practices of sectors hitherto marginalized from the history of this period, i.e. Indians and mestizos in Portoviejo. Part of the finding of this research is that regional differences were already significant during the late colonial period. The coast had a more secularized culture than Quito's, including non-elite groups from Portoviejo. These differences prefigured conflicts surfacing in the second half of the nineteenth century, in the liberal-conservative contention. v . CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this research has been to study the political culture of different regional groups during the independence period in the Presidency of Quito, modern day Ecuador. We chose this as subject for our dissertation, influenced, no doubt, by our knowledge of the difficulties encountered by this Andean nation throughout most of its republican history in achieving a broader national consensus. In the nineteenth century, regional centripetal forces called into question the very survival of the country as an independent nation; in more modern times, regional conflicts have at times undermined efforts to seek solutions for some of the country's most pressing problems These considerations led us to search for the roots of regionalism in the independence period, when the earliest steps towards nation-state formation were taken. The time frame for these events in the Presidency of Quito extended from the earlier insurrection between 1809 and 1812 in Quito to the second wave of insurgency between 1820 and 1822, at which time Guayaquil became independent 1 2 and Quito was finally liberated with the aid of Bolivar's army. The historiography of this period has remained, with few exceptions, 1 1 histoire evenementielle of the elites. Perhaps not without reason, it has been claimed that only when national elites can reach consensus through sources other than history, will they allow it to become objective. This may now be the case in Ecuador, where la nueva historia is already bearing fruit. Still vast sectors of society have yet to find their place in history. Nor has it been helpful, that in general Ecuador has been excluded from the agenda of foreign-trained historians, who perhaps could have broadened their field of inquiry to include some of these marginalized sectors. But then, foreign-trained as well as nationals have interpreted "the masses" during this period in Latin America as being outside the political process. It may well be that historiography, through its methods of inquiry, excluded itself from their political involvement. There are, however, notable exceptions, as we shall see in the bibliographic essay. All of these considerations, along with more personal ones, have led us to focus for the purpose of comparison on two hegemonic regional elites — namely those from Quito and Guayaquil, and provincial groups outside the mainstream of society, as were those from Portoviejo. 3 The concept of political culture, defined as the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols, and values which underlie the practice of the political actors, has been most useful for our purposes. We have, however, used the concept in a certain way. Rather than focusing on the political culture as abstraction, whenever possible we have focused on the political actors as subjects —that is as agents of their own history. For this purpose we have broadened our research to include cultural practices not directly related to the political which have furthered our understanding of the actors' values and the semantic orientation of their language. We have focused extensively on their language as much as was possible without being an expert in the field. But, then, our main objective was not language per se, but language as a means to understand the actors' culture and world view, which would enable us to approach them as subjects. With these aims in mind —we shall note in the following chapters, we have drawn extensively from the work of specialized scholars. J.G.A. Pocock introduced us to the relation between language and politics, as well as the paradigmatic function of language. From Raymond Williams we have learned the relation of language to experience, and furthermore a view of language as a form of activity or praxis, from which there follows the importance of understanding its subjective meaning. Perhaps audaciously, we have drawn from Foucault to claim 4 for Quito a form of knowledge and being in the world, which corresponded to an earlier period when the order of things (or the prose of the world, to use his own phraseology) was interpreted in terms of resemblance. This might seem a questionable use of Foucault's concept, for Quito in the eighteenth century was also a center for the baroque, which Foucault himself has described as an expression par excellence of the latter classical period. Nonetheless, Foucault's analysis —we shall see in the pertinent chapter, seemed peculiarly appropriate for the use of language and symbols-as-sign as we are claiming for Quito. Foucault has also claimed that the existence of one set of codes did not preclude the existence of others. Finally, from Jurgen Habermas we have adopted a view of language as communicative action, through which members of a society transmit, renew and transform cultural knowledge. In this sense, language both reflects and constitutes reality, for in contrast to Foucault, Habermas recognizes the autonomy of the subject. The first two chapters refer to the elites in Quito and Guayaquil. To better understand communicative action in Quito we have drawn from, among others, Julian Pitt- Rivers and his description of the importance of honor among certain societies. For the merchants in Guayaquil, we have been influenced by Pocock and his work in the ideology of republicanism. For the chapter of Portoviejo, the work of James C. Scott on moral economy and Joel 5 Migdal on the involvement of peasants in outside political process helped to provide a theoretical framework. This dissertation was made possible through the scholarly guidance and support of Dr. David Bushnell. His personal encouragement, furthermore, helped us in countless occasions to overcome the inevitable stresses of an otherwise immensely enriching experience--that of pursuing graduate studies in a country and in a language that were not our own. We also wish to thank the Department of History of the University of Florida for a teaching assistanceship which allowed us to pursue graduate studies in the United States. A summer grant from the Department of History and the Spain-Florida Alliance helped us to do research at the Archivo de Indias in Seville. In Quito, we wish to thank the personnel of the Archivo Nacional de Historia for their warmth and friendly assistance during the period in which we were doing our research, as well as Oscar Ortega for his invaluable help. CHAPTER II INSURGENCY IN QUITO On August 17, 1809, the nobility, ecclesiastic and secular cabildos . the tribunes, religious orders, army, guilds and plebs met at the Cathedral in Quito for high mass and a te deum, a ceremony that was to sanction political events that had recently unfolded. In a magnificent theater, as recalled by an overwhelmed spectator, the public witnessed as members of the newly formed Junta approached the altar in ceremonial attire to pledge allegiance before the Bishop of Quito, Jose Cuero y Caicedo, to Fernando VII, the Catholic Faith, their homeland, and the new government.