Synopses & Reviews
Combining social and political history,
The Plebeian Republic challenges well-established interpretations of state making, rural society, and caudillo politics during the early years of Peruandrsquo;s republic. Cecilia Mandeacute;ndez presents the first in-depth reconstruction and analysis of the Huanta rebellion of 1825andndash;28, an uprising of peasants, muleteers, landowners, and Spanish officers from the Huanta province in the department of Ayacucho against the new Peruvian republic. By situating the rebellion within the broader context of early-nineteenth-century Peruvian politics and tracing Huanta peasantsandrsquo; transformation from monarchist rebels to liberal guerrillas, Mandeacute;ndez complicates understandings of what it meant to be a patriot, a citizen, a monarchist, a liberal, and a Peruvian during a foundational moment in the history of South American nation-states.
In addition to official sources such as trial dossiers, census records, tax rolls, wills, and notary and military records, Mandeacute;ndez uses a wide variety of previously unexplored sources produced by the mostly Quechua-speaking rebels. She reveals the Huanta rebellion as a complex interaction of social, linguistic, economic, and political forces. Rejecting ideas of the Andean rebels as passive and reactionary, she depicts the barely literate insurgents as having had a clear idea of national political struggles and contends that most local leaders of the uprising invoked the monarchy as a source of legitimacy but did not espouse it as a political system. She argues that despite their pronouncements of loyalty to the Spanish crown, the rebelsandrsquo; behavior evinced a political vision that was different from both the colonial regime and the republic that followed it. Eventually, their political practices were subsumed into those of the republican state.
Review
andldquo;The Plebeian Republic is a well-done and welcome contribution to ongoing debates on the meaning of political independence from Spain and the difficulties the new nation-states faced in creating new political, economic, and social spaces. Cecilia Mandeacute;ndez not only asks new questions but, in answering them, dismantles long-held assumptions about the nonparticipation of manifold social groups in the construction of politics.andrdquo;andmdash;Christine Handuuml;nefeldt, author of Liberalism in the Bedroom: Quarreling Spouses in Nineteenth-Century Lima
Review
andldquo;
The Plebeian Republic is an exciting and pathbreaking examination of state formation seen from a local perspective. Cecilia Mandeacute;ndez offers a convincing analysis of how people who are usually seen as andlsquo;acted uponandrsquo; and reacting to political events develop and act on political strategies of their own. I found this a wonderful read.andrdquo;andmdash;Karen Spalding, author of
Huarochirandiacute;: An Andean Society under Inca and Spanish RuleReview
andldquo;This book contributes substantially to our understanding of peasant political participation in state formation in Latin America . . . . The book definitively contributes to a new political history of the nineteenth century . . . . In fact, the formation of democratic tendencies in the 1930s, the particular character of the Peruvian military, the relevance of indigenista ideology, and the resistance of this regionandrsquo;s peasantry to Senderista violence can also be better understood after reading this book.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This is a very rich book, both in ideas and in research. Mendez's reconceptualization of peasant politics for the nineteenth century will be influential. While many scholars will not agree with all of Mendez' conclusions, they are thought provoking and have wide-ranging implications for the rest of Latin America. This is an important book that adds considerably to the debate on the nature of the Latin American nation-state in the nineteenth century.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;This is an immense contribution not only to the study of nineteenth century Peruvian history, but to the scholarship of the region and must be read by every specialist wishing to gain further understanding of the rural Andes.andquot;
Synopsis
Examines the politics of a 19th c. peasant revolt in Peru, looking at the organization and practice of government by the rebels to examine what a largely illiterate population understood by terms such as "nation" and showing the rebellion's sign
About the Author
Cecilia Mandeacute;ndez is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Los trabajadores guaneros del Peranduacute;, 1840andndash;1879.
Table of Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. The Republic's First Peasant Uprising 30
3. Royalism in the Crisis of Independence 52
4. Words and Images: The People and the King 75
5. The World of the Peasants: Landscapes and Networks 111
6. Government in Uchuraccay
7. The Plebeian Republic
Epilogue 234
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography 315
Index 329