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Caciquismo in Rural Mexico During the 1920s: The Case of Gabriel Barrios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Keith Brewster
Keith Brewster
Affiliation:
Assistant Lecturer in Comparative American Studies at the University of Warwick.
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Abstract

This article focuses upon the cacicazgo of the Indian leader, Gabriel Barrios Cabrera, who controlled the Sierra de Puebla, Mexico during the 1920s. An analysis is made of the methods employed by Barrios to establish a loyal following, and how his military potential gave him the opportunity to attain regional political dominance and beneficial relationships with his federal military and political superiors. It is argued that Barrios's actions were so strongly influenced by the Sierra's singular history and socio-ethnic characteristics, that previously identified trends in post-revolutionary regional politics cannot easily be applied to this isolated mountainous region.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 105 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Brading, D. A., ‘Introduction: national politics and the populist tradition’, in Brading, D. A. (ed.), Caudillo and Peasant in the Mexican Revolution (Cambridge, 1980), p. 2Google Scholar.

2 Falcón, R., Revolución y caciquismo. San Luis Potosí, 1919–1938 (Mexico, 1984), p. 175Google Scholar.

3 For details of the nature of avilacamachismo in Puebla see: Pansters, W., Politics and Power in Puebla: The Political History of a Mexican State, 1937–1987 (Amsterdam, 1990)Google Scholar.

4 Bardomiano Barrios was killed in a battle against forces led by the Delahuertista, General Marcial Cavazos, in December 1923.

5 For important contributions to the study of post-revolutionary caudillismo see: I. Jacobs, ‘Rancheros of Guerrero: The Figueroa Brothers and the Revolution’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, pp. 76–91; Jacobs, I., Ranchero Revolt. The Mexican Revolution in Guerrero (Austin, 1982)Google Scholar; Ankerson, D., Agrarian Warlord, Saturnino Cedillo and the Mexican Revolution in San Luis Potosí (DeKalb, 1984)Google Scholar; D. Ankerson, ‘Saturnino Cedillo, a Traditional Caudillo in San Luis Potosí 1890–1938’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, pp. 140–68; Falcón, Revolución y caciquismo; Falcón, R., ‘Military Caciques in Magnificence and Decline: San Luis Potosí in the Mexican Revolution’, in Pansters, W. and Ouweneel, A. (eds.), Region, State and Capitalism in Mexico, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Amsterdam, 1989), pp. 91–109Google Scholar; Schryer, F. J., The Rancheros of Pisaflores. The History of a Peasant Bourgeoisie in Twentieth-Century Mexico (Toronto, 1980)Google Scholar; R. Buve and R. Falcón, ‘Tlaxcala and San Luis Potosí under the Sonorenses (1920–1934): Regional Revolutionary Power Groups and the National State’, in Pansters and Ouweneel, Regional, State and Capitalism in Mexico, pp. 110–33; Salamini, H. F., Agrarian Radicalism in Veracruz, 1920–38 (London, 1978)Google Scholar; H. F. Salamini, ‘Revolutionary Caudillos in the 1920's: Francisco Múgica and Adalberto Tejeda’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, pp. 169–92; Joseph, G. M., Revolution from Without. Yucatán, Mexico, and the United States 1880–1924 (Cambridge, 1982)Google Scholar.

6 Buve and Falcón, ‘Tlaxcala and San Luis Potosí under the Sonorenses (1920–1934)’, pp. 110–33.

7 For details of agrarismo in Tlaxcala, see Buve, R., El movimiento revolucionario en Tlaxcala (Mexico, 1994)Google Scholar.

8 Knight, A., The Mexican Revolution (Cambridge, 1986), Vol. I, pp. 368–70Google Scholar.

9 D. Ankerson, ‘Saturnino Cedillo, a Traditional Caudillo in San Luis Potosí 1890–1938’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, pp. 140–1.

10 A. Knight, ‘Peasant and Caudillo in Revolutionary Mexico 1910–17’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, p. 58.

11 Knight, The Mexican Revolution, p. 368.

12 Márquez, E., ‘Gonzalo N. Santos o la naturaleza del “tanteómetro político”’, in Assad, C. Martínez (ed.), Estadistas, caciques y caudillos (Mexico, 1988), pp. 369–70Google Scholar.

13 Salamini, Agrarian Radicalism; H. F. Salamini, ‘Revolutionary Caudillos in the 1920s: Francisco Múgica and Adalberto Tejeda’, in Brading, Caudillo and Peasant, pp. 169–92.

14 Ibid., p. 170.

15 Schryer, The Rancheros of Pisaflores, pp. 76–7.

16 Ibid., pp. 55–7.

17 That the absence of widespread friction was due more to poor prospects of profitable agriculture than to any respect for land ownership was demonstrated in the municipality of Cuetzalan during the 1860–70s. Coffee cultivation led to the swift encroachment of Indian land and violent clashes between ethnic groups. See: Thomson, G. P. C., ‘Agrarian Conflict in the Municipality of Cuetzalan (Sierra de Puebla): The Rise and Fall of “Pala” Agustín Dieguillo, 1861–1894’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 71, no. 2 (1991), pp. 205–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rouy, P. Valderrama and Suárez, C. Ramírez, ‘Resistencia étnica y defensa del territorio en el Totonacapan serrano: Cuetzalan en el siglo XIX’, in Escobar, A. (ed.), India, nación y comunidad en el México del siglo XIX (Mexico, 1993), pp. 189–206Google Scholar

For nineteenth-century liberalism in the Sierra de Puebla see: Thomson, G. P. C., ‘Popular Aspects of Liberalism in Mexico 1848–1888’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 10, no. 3 (1991), pp. 265–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thomson, G. P. C., ‘Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: the National Guard, Philharmonic Corps and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847–88’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 22, (1990), pp. 31–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G. P. C. Thomson, ‘Montaña and Llanura in the Politics of Central Mexico: The Case of Puebla, 1820–1920’, in Region, State and Capitalism in Mexico, pp. 59–78; G. P. C. Thomson, ‘Los indios y el servicio militar en el México decimonónico. ¿Leva o ciudadanía?’, in Escobar, India, natión y comunidad en el México de siglo XIX, pp. 207–51; LaFrance, D. and Thomson, G. P. C., ‘Juan Francisco Lucas: Patriarch of the Sierra Norte de Puebla’, in Beezley, W. H. (ed.), The Human Tradition in Latin America (Wilmington, 1987), pp. 1–13Google Scholar.

18 Barrios's convictions on land ownership were expressed to me in an interview with his son, José María Barrios, 6 Nov. 1993, Tonalapa, Tetela de Ocampo.

In this respect, Barrios falls neatly into the anti-agrarian role assumed by many federal officers during the 1920s. See Tobler, H. W., ‘Peasants and the Shaping of the Revolutionary State, 1910–40’, in Katz, F. (ed.), Riot, Rebellion and Homicide (Princeton, 1988), pp. 487–518Google Scholar

During the latter period of the 1920s, Barrios and his men were involved in several violent clashes with agraristas in outlying areas of the districts of Zacatlán and Libres.

19 Schryer, The Rancheros of Pisaflores, p. 7. Schryer defines rancheros in the Huehuetla region as members within a peasant community who owned their own farms and were actively engaged in local commerce. Rancheros often employed seasonal labour and shared the dress, deportment and speech of their economic subordinates.

20 For details of Barrios's recruitment into the Brigada Serrana and his early military action, see: Archivo de la Defensa Nacional, cancelado (ADN, C), 2-1145, tomo 6, ff. 1274, 1374–9; Archivo Privado de Arnulfo Barrios (APAB) – see declarations made on 15; Nov. 1920 by General M. Rojas and on 10 June 1921 by General A. Medina regarding Barrios's early military service.

21 ADN, C, 2–1301, tomo 1, f. 1.

22 Slade, D. L., ‘Kinship in the Social Organisation of a Nahuat-Speaking Community in the Central Highlands’, in Nutini, H. G., Carrasco, P. and Taggart, J. M. (eds.), Essays on Mexican Kinship (Pittsburgh, 1976), ch. 7, pp. 155–85Google Scholar.

23 Saenz, M., Escuelas federales en la Sierra de Puebla (Mexico, 1927)Google Scholar.

24 Kan, E. Mansferrer, ‘Religión y Política en la Sierra Norte de Puebla’, América Indígena, vol. 46, no. 3 (1986)Google Scholar.

In this study, the author identifies the belief shared by many Nahua serranos that Lucas possessed mystical powers.

25 For details of Juvencio Nochebuena's cacicazgo see Schryer, F. J., Ethnicity and Class Conflict in Rural Mexico (Princeton, 1990), pp. 127–51Google Scholar.

26 The Brigada Serrana was to undergo several metamorphoses before becoming the 46th Battalion with which Barrios is most associated.

27 ADN, C, 2 -1145, f. 223. General Viqueras's report, dated 3 June 1920, concluded that although Barrios and his men appeared to have accepted the aguaprietista cause, his military potential, coupled with possible surviving loyalties to his compadre Alfonso Cabrera, made it prudent to begin the task of dismantling Barrios's unit.

28 El Monitor, 16 Mar. 1921, No. 973, p. 1; El Universal, 17 Mar. 1921, No. 1611, p. 11.

29 The other military forces operating in the Sierra were those led by Lindoro Hernández in Huauchinango and Salvador Vega Bernal in Cuetzalan. Fideicomiso Archivos Plutarco Elías Calles y Fernando Torreblanca (FAC y T), Gav. 41, Hernández, L. (Gral.) Exp. 91, leg. 1/2. Inv. 2727.

Correspondence between Gral. Hernández and Calles reveals the deep suspicion that existed concerning military officers who pledged loyalty to the government.

30 Biblioteca Luis Cabrera, Zacatlán. RHAM, late 1, Barrios (BLC.RHAM), Caja 1923. Letters sent/received April–June, 1923.

Correspondence between Bardomiano Barrios and venous jefes de armas reveals that many of them were unsure of their status or whether their men were to be paid for the peacekeeping role they perforned. Barrios confirmed that such services were voluntary and should be seen as community initiatives that enabled serranos to defend and preserve order in their locality.

31 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1924, Telegrams sent/received Jan. 1924. BLC.RHAM, Caja 1927, Telegrams Oct. 1927. During the Serrano rebellion, the Guerra y Marina authorised Barrios to recruit 250 men as auxiliaries.

32 Archivo General de la Nación. Ramo Obregón y Calles, (AGN, O-C), 605-T-6. See letter from Obregón dated 21 Mar. 1922.

33 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1923. Correspondence for Jan. 1923. Almazán took over as jefe de operaciones militares in Puebla on 1 Jan. 1923.

34 AGN, O-C, IOI-B-IO. Letter from Cruz to Obregón dated 26 Nov. 1924. ADN, C, 2–1145, ff. 119–203. Correspondence between May–July 1925. In answer to complaints that Barrios was impeding agrarian reform, Cruz defended Barrios, describing the case as a boundary dispute between neighbouring settlements.

35 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1926. Letters for June 1926. On 8 June 1926, Bravo Izquierdo addressed a letter to his ‘Estimado amigo y compañero’, Gabriel Barrios, advising that he had recently handed over military supplies to ‘nuestro buen amigo’, Márquez Galindo. The warmth of the letter suggests a friendship which exceeded the bounds of military fraternity.

36 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1926. Letters for June 1926. In a letter dated 9 June 1926, Bravo Izquierdo asked Barrios to procure four songbirds of a type that inhabited the Sierra. Bravo Izquierdo hoped that such a request was not too great an abuse of the friendship that he and Barrios enjoyed.

37 ADN, C, 2–1145, ff. 913–14. Letter sent to the jefe de operaciones militares on 21 July 1922.

38 ADN, C, 2–114;, f. 922. Letter sent by Barrios on 14 Aug. 1922 to the jefe de la Brigada, Puebla.

39 The enquiry was commissioned by the Jefatura in Puebla and was instructed specifically to investigate a number of charges made against Barrios and his forces by Tirado and two federal diputados, Gonzalo González (Zacatlán) and Wenceslao Macip (Zacapoaxtla).

40 AGN, O-C, 816-P-45. See the military report dated 1 May 1923 by Gral. Juan A. Almazán.

Interview with Francisco Landero Alamo (son of Rufino Landero), 10 Dec. 1993, Zacapoaxtla. Señor Landero confirms that Rufino Landero, Claudio N. Tirado and other political allies made a concerted effort to destroy the Barrios cacicazgo. He argues that this was not for any personal reasons, but because his father and Tirado objected to the way in which Barrios's actions were ‘extra-legal’.

41 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1925. Letters July/Aug. 1925. Letters from Flores to Demetrio Barrios dated 24 Aug. 1925 and 28 Aug. 1925. Although Flores does not specify, he was probably referring to Gilberto Valenzuela, Secretary of Gobernación.

42 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1925. Letters Oct. 1925. See letter from Márquez Galindo to Barrios dated 1 Oct. 1925, and letter from Flores to Demetrio Barrios dated 2 Oct. 1925.

43 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1926. Letters received/sent for Sep. 1926. See letter from Molina to Barrios dated 4 Sep. 1926.

44 AGN, O-C, 4O8-P-2O, leg. 3. See telegram from Tirado to Calles dated 16 Aug. 1926, together with extracts of telegrams detailing alleged abuses by Barrios.

45 Ibid. no. 8844. Report from Francisco Heredía to Calles dated 1 Sep. 1926.

46 La Opinión, 6 Oct. 1928, No. 1625, pp. 1, 6.

47 The political eclipse of Barrios closely resembled events of the past. Juan N. Méndez and the Montaña Liberals were pushed aside as federal intervention assured the imposition of an outside governor, Rosendo Márquez. See Thomson, ‘Montaña y Llanura in the Politics of Central Mexico: the Case of Puebla, 1820–1920’, in Pansters and Ouweneel, Region, State and Capitalism in Mexico, pp. 59–78.

48 Archivo Municipal de Libres (AML) Gobernación, Exp. 10, 1929. See letter dated 15 Feb. 1929 from the State government to the municipal president of Libres. BLC.RHAM, Caja 1929. Documents Feb. 1929. Letters from the provisional municipal president to Demetrio Barrios dated 25 Feb. 1929, inform him of the State government's move. BLC.RHAM, Caja 1929. Letters May 1929. A letter from Eliseo W. Dominguez to Demetrio Barrios dated 8 May 1929 refers to some of the voting irregularities in the Sierra. These included the substitution of one name for another (an alteration all the more easily detected by the use of different coloured ink).

49 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1930. Correspondence received Jan. 1930. See letter dated 26 Jan. 1930 from the Jefatura in Puebla to Barrios. ADN, C, 2–1145, f. 344.

50 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1930. See correspondence date 18 Feb. 1930 between José María Flores and Barrios regarding adverse press coverage in Mexico City. A series of articles relating to Barrios's cacicazgo was published in La Opinión, particularly between 19 Feb. 1930 and 28 Feb. 1930.

51 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1930. Correspondence for Jan. 1930. See letters dated 22 Jan. 1930 and 23 Jan. 1930 from the Jefatura to Barrios giving notice of the governor's actions in various communities within the ex-district of Huauchinango.

52 Salustio Cabrera was cousin to Barrios's compadre, ex-governor Alfonso Cabrera.

53 BLC.RHAM, Caja 1930. See letter from Bravo Izquierdo to Barrios dated 6 Mar. 1930.

54 In the many interviews conducted in the Sierra de Puebla with former allies and enemies of the Barrios family, almost all expressed this as the characteristic that most accurately described Gabriel Barrios.

55 Pansters, Politics and Power in Puebla, p. 168.

56 Márquez, ‘Gonzalo N. Santos’, p. 391.

57 Ibid., p. 389.