Essay 1: Nineteenth Century Social and Cultural Histories Due: Friday, March 18 by 5:00 pm via Moodle upload Friendly reminder: Paper deadlines have a 48-hour grace period so you can submit up to 5:00 pm on Sunday, March 20 without penalty. Review late paper policies on the syllabus. Choose ONE of the following options:

1. Social Relations How did military and political leaders of the independence and early postcolonial periods perceive the role of Indigenous and Black communities in the nation building process?

2. Cultural Representation How did travel writers and novelists of the independence and early postcolonial periods represent gender, race and/or class in everyday life?

• PAGE/WORD LIMIT: o 5 pages typed and double spaced, 12-point font o 1250 words minimum, 1500 words maximum

• EXPECTATIONS: o Define your paper topic, central thesis, and supporting arguments with precision: Who are your

subjects? What are your subtopics? What is your periodization? What are your key analytical points/interpretations?

o Organize your thoughts logically and systematically around subarguments that support the central thesis

o Engage both primary and secondary sources rigorously to provide sufficient context and evidence for your analysis

o Be attentive to various periods within the nineteenth century in order to identify change, or lack of it, and to avoid generalizations

o Use the Writing Checklist posted on Moodle to develop your writing and proofread your essay • REQUIRED SOURCES:

o A selection of at least 4 primary sources in chapters 3-5 of LAV (A Taste of Independence, Creating National Identities, The Perils of Progress)

o Relevant contextual information in chapters 4-6 BBF (Independence, Postcolonial Blues, Progress)

• OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTARY SOURCES o lecture and discussion notes o Moodle Forums

• CITATIONS o CMS citations required (either footnotes or endnotes are fine) o CMS bibliography required (does not count towards page/word limit) o Paper title required, but no separate title page necessary o Chicago Manual of Style Online: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html o Be selective with source selection, but rigorous with source engagement; BOTH primary and

secondary sources must be engaged; seek a balance between the two • SUBMISSION:

o Submit your essays in WORD format ONLY. ITS provides Word software for free to all Oxy students. Conversely, you can create a Google doc and save it in Word OR use a campus computer. Do not submit the paper in RTP, PDF, and other formats as I use Word track changes for feedback.

B o r n –in–

B l o o d & F i r e

01_BBF_28305_fm_i-xiii.indd 1 13/06/16 10:49 AM

books by john charles chasteen: Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages

Americanos: Latin America’s Struggle for In de pen dence

Heroes on Horse back: A Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos

National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of Latin American Pop u lar Dance

Translations by john charles chasteen: The Alienist and Other Stories of Nineteenth-Century Brazil by

joaquim Machado de Assis

Juan Moreira: True Crime in Ninteenth-Century Argentina by Eduardo Gutiérrez

The Contemporary History of Latin America by Tulio Halperín Donghi

The Lettered City by Angel Rama

The Mystery of Samba: Pop u lar Music and National Identity in Brazil

by Hermano Vianna

Santa: A Novel of Mexico City by Federico Gamboa

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B o r n –in–

B l o o d & F i r e

A C o n C i s e H i s t o r y o f L At i n A m e r i C A

J o h n C h a r l e s C h a s t e e n

U n i v e r s i t y o f n o r t h C a r o l i n a

a t C h a p e l h i l l

B W . W . n o r t o n & C o m p A n y

n e W y o r k • L o n d o n

F o u r t h E d i t i o n

01_BBF_28305_fm_i-xiii.indd 3 13/06/16 10:49 AM

W. W. Norton & company has been in de pen dent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures deliv- ered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York city’s cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. by midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program— trade books and college texts— were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today— with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year— W. W. Norton & company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.

copyright © 2016, 2011, 2006, 2001 by W. W. Norton & company, Inc.

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Editor: jon Durbin Editorial Assistant: Travis carr Project Editor: caitlin Moran Production Manager: Eric Pier-Hocking Media Editor: Laura Wilk Assistant Editor, Media: chris Hillyer Design Director: jillian burr Marketing Manager: Sarah England Photo Editor: Trish Marx Permissions Manager: Megan Schindel composition: Graphic World Manufacturing: R. R. Donnelley—crawfordsville Maps: Mapping Specialists

Library of congress cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: chasteen, john charles, 1955- author. Title: born in blood and fire : a concise history of Latin America / john charles chasteen. Description: Fourth edition. | New York : W.W. Norton & company, 2016. | Includes index. Identifiers: LccN 2016014210 | ISbN 9780393283051 (pbk.) Subjects: LcSH: Latin America–History. classification: Lcc F1410 .c4397 2016 | DDc 980–dc23 Lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016014210

ISbN 978-0-393-28305-1 (pbk.)

W. W. Norton & company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & company Ltd., castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London WIT 3QT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

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To my grandchildren,

Maya and Sam Ackerman,

now discovering their own Latin American roots

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V i

m A ps … ix

ACknoW Ledgmen ts … xi

time Line … xii

1 W eLCome to L Atin A meriCA … 1 Not Your Father’s Version … 4 Old Thinking on Latin America … 11

2 enCoun ter … 17 Patterns of Indigenous Life … 18 Origins of a crusading Mentality … 22 The brazilian counterexample … 29 Africa and the Slave Trade … 34 The Fall of the Aztec and Inca Empires … 38 The birth of Spanish America … 43 Countercurrents: Friar bartolomé de las casas … 50

3 CoLoni A L CruCibLe … 55 colonial Economics … 56 A Power called Hegemony … 62 A Process called Transculturation … 68 The Fringes of colonization … 75 Late colonial Transformations … 82 Countercurrents: colonial Rebellions … 91

4 in de pen denCe … 95 Revolution and War in Eu rope … 97 The Spanish American Rebellions begin, 1810– 15 … 101 The Patriots’ Winning Strategy: Nativism … 107 Patriot Victories in Spanish America, 1815– 25 … 112 Unfinished Revolutions … 115 Countercurrents: The Gaze of Outsiders … 122

C o n T e n T S

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V i i

5 postCoLoni A L bLues … 127 Liberal Disappointment … 128 Patronage Politics and caudillo Leadership … 132 brazil’s Different Path … 139 continuities in Daily Life … 143 Countercurrents: The Power of Outsiders … 156

6 progress … 161 Mexico’s Liberal Reform … 165 Other countries join the Liberal Trend … 171 The Limits of Progress for Women … 174 Models of Progress … 178 Countercurrents: International Wars … 189

A tour of L Atin A meriCA … m-2

7 neo Co Lo ni A L ism … 193 The Great Export boom … 194 Authoritarian Rule: Oligarchies and Dictatorships … 206 Links with the Outside World … 213 Countercurrents: New Immigration to Latin America … 227

8 nAtionA Lism … 233 Nationalists Take Power … 239 ISI and Activist Governments of the 1930s … 249 Countercurrents: Populist Leaders of the Twentieth

century … 263

9 reVoLu tion … 267 Post–World War II Pop u lism … 269 Onset of the cold War … 275 The cuban Revolution … 282 Countercurrents: Liberation Theology … 293

C o n t e n t s

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V i i i

10 re ACtion … 297 National Security Doctrine … 298 Military Rule … 303 Dictatorship Almost Everywhere … 309 The Last cold War battles: central America … 314 Countercurrents: La Violencia, Pablo Escobar, and

colombia’s Long Torment … 324

11 neoLiber A Lism A nd beyond … 329

gLossA ry … A 1

f urtHer ACknoW Ledgmen ts … A 25

index … A 27

C o n t e n t s

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i x

Modern Latin America … 13

African and Iberian background … 27

Indigenous Groups and Iberian Invasions … 37

Original Areas of colonization, 1500– 1700 … 60

colonial Administrative Divisions … 83

campaigns of In de pen dence Wars … 114

New Nations of Latin America, 1811– 39 … 141

Mexico and the US border before 1848 … 156

Liberals vs. conservatives at Midcentury … 166

Paraguay in Two Wars … 189

chilean Gains in the War of the Pacific … 191

Neo co lo nial Export Products … 204

Neo co lo nial Investments and Interventions … 217

Latin America in the cold War … 310

central America in the 1980s … 315

Neoliberal Economies … 333

M A P S

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x i

Ack now l e d gm e n ts

At least one hundred of my students at the University of North caro- lina read this book before it was published. To them, my grateful ac know ledg ment. Their enthusiasm encouraged me to keep it infor- mal, vivid, and short. “I feel like this book wants me to understand it,” said one of them. When the first edition appeared, several professors and gradu- ate students helpfully set me straight on factual errors. Much appreci- ated! I also got, and still get, e-mails from undergraduate readers who write just to say “I like your book.” Thanks for those e-mails. It’s really your book. And I can’t believe this is the fourth edition of it! The recent past has shifted in my rearview mirror. Thanks to Phillip berryman for helping me appreciate just how much has changed since I first traveled to Mexico over forty years ago.

01_BBF_28305_fm_i-xiii.indd 11 13/06/16 10:49 AM

x i i

T i M e l i n e

m e x i C o b r A z i L A r g e n t i n A

E n c o u n t E r 1 4 9 2 – 1 6 0 0

the fully sedentary

Mexicas, who built the

aztec empire, were

conquered and their

empire was taken over

by the spaniards, but

Mexican blood still runs

in Mexican veins.

the semisedentary

tupi people of the

Brazilian forests were

destroyed and their

labor replaced by afri-

can slaves whom the

portuguese brought to

grow sugarcane.

the nonsedentary,

plains- dwelling

pampas people were

eventually wiped out.

Much later, eu ro pe an

immigrants took their

place on the land.

c o l o n i a l c r u c i b l E 1 6 0 0 – 1 8 1 0

Because of its dense

indigenous population

and its rich silver mines,

Mexico (or much of it)

became a core area of

spanish colonization.

profitable sugar planta-

tions made the north-

eastern coast a core

area of portuguese

colonization, but much

of Brazil remained a

poorer fringe.

Most of argentina

remained on the fringe

of spanish coloniza-

tion until 1776, when

Buenos aires became

the capital of a new

spanish viceroyalty.

i n d E p E n d E n c E 1 8 1 0 – 1 8 2 5

the large peasant

uprisings led by hidalgo

and Morelos frightened

Mexican Creoles into a

conservative stance on

in de pen dence, which

they embraced only in

1821.

the portuguese royal

family’s presence kept

Brazil relatively quiet

as war raged else-

where. prince pedro

declared Brazilian

in de pen dence himself

in 1822.

Without massive popu-

lations of oppressed

indigenous people or

slaves to fear, Buenos

aires Creoles quickly

embraced the May

revolution (1810).

p o s t c o l o n i a l b l u E s 1 8 2 5 – 1 8 5 0

the national govern-

ment was frequently

over thrown as liberals

and conservatives

struggled for control.

the career of the

caudillo santa anna

represents the turmoil.

the stormy reign of

pedro i (1822– 31) was

followed by the even

stormier regency

(1831– 40). But the

Brazilian empire

gained stability in

the 1840s as coffee

exports rose.

the conservative

dictator rosas

dominated Buenos

aires (and therefore,

much of argentina) for

most of these years,

exiling the liberal

oppo sition.

p r o g r E s s 1 8 5 0 – 1 8 8 0

the great liberal reform

of the 1850s provoked

the conservatives

to support a foreign

prince, Maximilian. the

liberals, led by Juárez,

emerged triumphant by

the late 1860s.

pedro ii (1840– 89)

cautiously promoted

liberal- style progress

while maintaining a

strongly hierarchical

system. Brazil ended

slavery only in 1888.

liberals took over

after the fall of rosas

(1852), but not until the

1860s did they manage

to unite all argentina

under one national

government.

01_BBF_28305_fm_i-xiii.indd 12 13/06/16 10:49 AM

x i i i

t i m e L i n e

m e x i C o b r A z i L A r g e n t i n A

n E o c o l o n i a l i s m 1 8 8 0 – 1 9 3 0

the dictatorship of

porfirio Díaz, called the

porfiriato (1876– 1911),

embodied neo co lo-

nial ism in Mexico. Díaz

invited international

investment and used

it to consolidate the

Mexican state.

Brazil’s first republic

(1889– 1930) was a

highly decentral-

ized oligarchy built,

above all, on coffee

exports. the leading

coffee- growing state,

são paulo, became

dominant.

Buenos aires and

the surrounding

areas underwent

an agricultural and

immigration boom

of vast proportions.

various regional

oligarchies ruled until

the election of 1916.

n a t i o n a l i s m 1 9 1 0 – 1 9 4 5

the Mexican revolution

led latin america’s

nationalist trend in

1910. the presidency

of lázaro Cárdenas

(1934– 40) marked

the high point of its

accomplishments.

Getúlio vargas, presi-

dent 1930– 35, defined

Brazilian nationalism

in this period. in 1937,

vargas dissolved

Congress and formed

the authoritarian

estado novo.

argentina’s radical

party was driven by the

ballot box. it displaced

the landowning

oligarchy but remained

mired in traditional

patronage politics.

r E v o l u t i o n 1 9 4 5 – 1 9 6 0

Mexico’s revolution

became more conserva-

tive and institutionalized

(in the pri) even as radi-

cal change accelerated

elsewhere.

pop u lism and the

electoral clout of

or ga nized labor (led

first by vargas, then

by his heirs) energized

Brazilian politics after

World War ii.

Juan and evita perón

(1946– 55) made the

working class a leading

force in argentine

politics. perón’s

followers remained loyal

long after his exile.

r E a c t i o n 1 9 6 0 – 1 9 9 0

overall, the pri used its

revolutionary imagery

to absorb challenges

from the left— except

when it used bullets, as

in the 1968 tlatelolco

massacre.

the Brazilian military

overthrew the populist

president Goulart in

1964 and ruled for

twenty years in the

name of efficiency and

anticommunism.

taking control in

1966, the argentine

military won its “dirty

war” against peronist

guerrillas but bowed

out in 1983 after

losing to Britain in the

falklands war.

n E o l i b E r a l i s m a n d b E Y o n d 1 9 9 0 – 2 0 1 5

the post–Cold War

pri shed much of its

nationalist heritage to

embrace neoliberalism,

fending off new

challenges from both

left and right.

the Workers’ party, of

the orthodox left but

also indirectly heir to

vargas, showed the

world that Brazil is a

serious country.

peronist politics and

neoliberal economics

dominated argentina

in a period of steadily

declining living

standards.

01_BBF_28305_fm_i-xiii.indd 13 13/06/16 10:49 AM

Pa b l o . Pablo was a little boy who lived at a Colombian boarding house in 1978, when I

lived there, too. On hot afternoons, Pablo sometimes took a bath in the back patio of the

house, the patio de ropas, where several women washed the boarders’ clothes by hand.

Until I so rudely interrupted him, he was singing on this par tic u lar afternoon, as happy as

any little boy anywhere, despite the modest character of our dollar- a-day accommodations.

Snapshot taken by the author at the age of twenty- two.

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w e l c o m e t o l a t i n a m e r i c a

1

L atin America was born in blood and fire, in conquest and slavery. It is conquest and its sequel, slavery, that created the central conflict of Latin American history. So that is where any history

of the region must begin. On the other hand, conquest and slavery is old news, and partly, well, it’s “history.” The Latin America of 2016 is no longer your father’s version.

Still, conquest and colonization form the unified starting place of a single story, told here with illustrative examples from many coun- tries. We need a single story line, because rapid panoramas of twenty national histories would merely produce dizziness. And, before begin- ning the story, we must set the stage in a number of ways. We need to ask, first of all, whether so many countries can really share a single history. At first blush, one might doubt it. Consider everything that story will have to encompass. Consider the contrasts and paradoxes of contemporary Latin America.

1

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2

Latin America is the “global south,” still struggling to attain the standard of living of Europe or the United States. It has deep roots in indigenous cultures. Most of the world’s indigenous Americans, by far, live south of the Rio Grande. Yet Latin America is also the West, a place where more than nine out of ten people speak a European language and practice a European religion. Most of the world’s Roman Catholics are Latin Americans, which has much to do with the first non-European pope, chosen in 2013, being Argentine.

Some Latin Americans still grow corn and beans on small plots hidden among banana trees and dwell in earthen-floored houses with sagging red-tile roofs. International travelers who jet in and out of sprawling Latin American metropolises rarely see them. You have to go to the countryside, with its awful roads. Most Latin Americans these days live in noisy, restless cities, some of them postmodern megacities. Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Mexico City have far out- stripped the ten-million mark. Rio de Janeiro, Lima, and Bogotá are not far behind.

Next, consider the contrasts among countries. Brazil is a be- hemoth, occupying half the South American continent, its population surging beyond 200 million. Mexico follows at around 120 million. Thanks partly to their burgeoning internal markets, both countries’ economies have even spawned their own multinational corporations. Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela constitute a second rank, with populations between 30 and 50 million. Chile’s population of 17 million carries disproportionate economic weight because of its high standard of living. The remaining, roughly one quarter, of Latin Americans, live in a dozen sovereign nations, most with populations under 10 million. In sum, the major Latin American countries are global players (though nothing like China or India), while many oth- ers are ministates with a single city of consequence and two or three main highways.

Latin American climates and landscapes vary more than you may realize. Most of Latin America lies in the tropics, with no well-defined spring, summer, fall, and winter. Many read- ers of the global north will envision beaches replete with palms. Latin America’s coastal lowlands do often match that description,

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3

but this tourist’s eye view is misleading overall. Tropical high- lands cooled by their altitude, often semiarid, have played a larger role in Latin American history. Mexico City stands above seven thousand feet; Bogotá above eight thousand. Latin American moun- tains are the world’s most densely populated for historical reasons. Meanwhile, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay—sometimes called the “Southern Cone” of South America—lie mostly or entirely outside the tropics, with climates similar to parts of the United States. The continent’s craggy southern tip is a land of glaciers and Antarctic influences.

Socially, Latin America is a place of extreme inequalities. Enor- mous disparities of wealth and well-being exist within countries and between them. Today many Latin Americans live and work in cir- cumstances not so different from those of middle-class people in the United States. But many, more than those who seem middle-class by international norms, still inhabit hovels and endure a poverty and deprivation rare in the developed world. The Southern Cone countries have long stood respectably high in global rankings of social develop- ment, and most Latin American countries now hold middling rank, globally, in a combined measure of people’s education, life expectancy, and buying power. The small countries of Central America (notably excepting Costa Rica) are worse off, as are those with large and his- torically oppressed populations of indigenous people, like Guatemala and Bolivia.

Latin America is probably the most racially diverse of world regions, fed from the gene pools of Europe, Africa, and indigenous America. All three elements are present in every country, and the pos- sible configurations vary kaleidoscopically. Guatemala and Bolivia, along with Peru and Ecuador, are characterized by large populations of indigenous people who continue to speak native languages such as Quechua or Aymara, live more or less separately from Spanish speak- ers, and follow distinctive customs in clothing and food. African genes are a predominant element of the mix in Brazil and on the shores of the Caribbean. Latin America was the main destination of the mil- lions of people enslaved and taken out of Africa between 1500 and 1850. Whereas the United States received about 523,000 enslaved

C h a p t e r 1 | W e L C O M e t O L a t I N a M e r I C a

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immigrants, Cuba alone got more, Brazil at least 3.5 million. In addition, there are places in Latin America where people look notably European, particularly where large numbers of Italian immigrants were added to the population around 1900, such as in Argentina and Uruguay. Probably most Latin Americans consider themselves to some degree “of mixed race,” or mestizo, a key concept in Latin American history.

Returning to our initial question, then, do these twenty coun- tries in their startling variety really have a single history? No, in the sense that a single story cannot encompass their diversity. Yes, in the sense that all have much in common. They experienced a similar process of conquest and colonization. They became independent more or less the same way, mostly at the same time. They then struggled with similar problems in similar ways. Looking back after two centu- ries of independence, one sees that similar trends have washed over the entire region, giving Latin American history a well-defined ebb and flow.

No t You r Fat h e r ’ s V er sioN

Lately, it’s been more flow than ebb. Enormous changes have come to Latin America in the forty years since I traveled there for the first time, at the height of the Cold War. Yes, youngsters, that was before the Internet! Telephones and postal services worked poorly or not at all in many countries of Latin America. It was impossible to stay connected to the United States on a daily basis. One experienced total immersion.

There was a hint of timelessness, too—even still the occasional burro or ox-cart to glimpse from the window of a cross-country bus. Few rural dwellings had electricity or running water. The countryside seemed a feudal zone, dominated by large landowners who were rarely to be found on their rural estates because they lived in the cities. The poor people who did live in the countryside were amazingly isolated, although fairly well fed compared to the urban poor. I remember stay- ing a few nights in a house that stood on an Andean mountainside,

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5

N O t Y O u r F a t h e r ’ s V e r s I O N

a ten- or fifteen-minute climb from the road, impassible by any sort of vehicle. The family who lived up there reckoned the hour by the sun and the passage of two or three buses a day visible on the road that threaded a yawning chasm, far below. An unimaginable variety of fruit grew around them, but any kind of store was half a day away.

Rural-urban migrants had been flowing into Latin American cities for decades before my arrival, although the only accompanying construction boom had been the improvised housing that the migrants built for themselves. At the height of the Cold War, Latin American cityscapes still mostly resembled the 1940s or 1950s. There were no malls, or practically none, and few major infrastructural projects in the cities. There were few US brand-name consumer goods for sale be- cause high import tariffs made them too expensive for almost anyone. The idea was to protect and encourage local industries. There was already a rising tide of Asian imports, although not yet from China, which has become so suddenly a player in Latin America. Cold War China was Mao’s China, where people wore only blue and rode only bicycles and factories were a thing of the future. Latin America’s high protective tariffs meant that imported blenders, televisions, and audio tape players had to be smuggled in, or sold in a variety of “free trade” venues created by various governments of the region in recognition of the inevitable. Before the era of inexpensive Asian manufactures, the clothing of Latin America’s destitute millions was put together by hand and often seemed about to come apart at the seams like the first pants that I had made in Colombia by a tailor who worked sitting in the doorway of his shop, the size of a large closet.

The streets of cities were not studded with US fast-food fran- chises, as now, nor did they overflow yet with cars, which were too expensive for most people to own. Thus there was no need, yet, to create laws keeping cars (with odd numbered plates, for example) off the road on certain days or hours, as many Latin American cities do today for sheer lack of street space. Diesel-belching buses, yes, however— lots of those. Innovative bus rapid transit systems with dedicated high-speed lanes, such as the one first created in Curitiba, Brazil (and now re-created in a series of major Latin American cities) remained on the drawing board. There were a few supermarkets in

02_BBF_28305_ch01_xiv-015.indd 5 13/06/16 10:49 AM

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the richest parts of town, but most people did not buy food in super- markets. Instead, there was a complex of open markets for produce and commodities and neighborhood stores and bakeries for daily sta- ples. In sum, Latin America’s middle classes were smaller and much less Americanized than today. Strong trading blocs like NAFTA and Mercosur were decades away.

Nobody had a cell phone until the 1990s, and many people had no telephone at all. Then cell phone use rocketed in Latin American cities, precisely because landlines had always been scarce. At least in Colombia, where I first rented a p