Political Cultures in the Andes, 1750-1950: (Latin America Otherwise)

About the Book

A major contribution to theoretical debates about Latin American state formation, Political Cultures in the Andes rethinks the construction and reconfiguration of modern Andean political cultures. It brings together comparative case studies focused on Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth. While highlighting patterns of political discourse and practice common to the entire region, these state-of-the-art histories show how national, regional, and local political cultures depended on specific constellations of power, processes of identity formation, and socio-economic and institutional structures. The contributors foreground the struggles over democracy, authoritarianism, citizens' rights, and notions of race, ethnicity, gender, and class that have been at the forefront of political debates and social movements in the Andes since the waning days of the colonial regime some two hundred years ago.Among the many topics they consider are the significance of the Bourbon reform era to subsequent state-formation projects, the role of race and nation in the work of early-twentieth-century Bolivian intellectuals, the fiscal decentralization campaign in Peru following the devastating War of the Pacific in the late nineteenth century, and the negotiation of the rights of "free men of all colors" in Colombia's Atlantic coast region during the late colonial period. Including a debate between the noted Mexicanist Alan Knight and the volume's editors regarding the meaning, value, and limits of the concept of political culture, Political Cultures in the Andes exemplifies the rich potential of a political culture approach to deciphering the processes involved in the formation, reconstruction, and dissolution of historical polities. Contributors Carlos Contreras Cristobal Aljovin de Losada Margarita Garrido Laura Gotkowitz Aline Helg Nils Jacobsen Alan Knight Brooke Larson Mary Roldan Sergio Serulnikov Charles F. Walker Derek Williams

Table of Contents:
About the Series ix
Acknowledgments xi
The Long and the Short of It: A Pragmatic Perspective on Political Cultures, Especially for the Modern History of the Andes / Nils Jacobsen and Cristobal Aljovin de Losada 1
Is Political Culture Good to Think? / Alan Knight 25
How Interest and Values Seldom Come Alone, or: The Utility of a Pragmatic Perspective on Political Culture / Nils Jacobsen and Cristobal Aljovin de Losada 58
Part One
State- and Nation-Building Projects and Their Limitations 69
Civilize or Control:? The Lingering Impact of Bourbon Urban Reforms / Charles F. Walker 74
A Break with the Past? Santa Cruz and the Constitution / Cristobal Aljovin de Losada 96
The Tax Man Cometh: Local Authorities and the Battle Over Taxes in Peru, 1885–1906 / Carlos Contreras 116
“Under the dominion of the Indian”: Rural Mobilization, the Law, and Revolutionary Nationalism in Bolivia in the 1940s / Laura Gotkowitz 137
Part Two
Ethnicity, Gender, and the Construction of Power: Exclusionary Strategies and the Struggle for Citizenship 159
“Free Men of All Colors” in New Granada: Identity and Obedience before Independence / Margarita Garrido 165
Silencing African Descent: Caribbean Columbia and Early Nation Building, 1810–1828 / Aline Helg 184
The Making of Ecuador’s Pueblo Catolico, 1861–1875 / Derek Williams 207
Redeemed Indians, Barbarized Cholos: Crafting Neocolonial Modernity in Liberal Bolivia, 1900–1910 / Brooke Larson 230
Part Three
The Local, the Peripheral, and the Network: Redefining the Boundaries of Popular Representation in Public Arena 253
Andean Political Imagination in the Late Eighteenth Century / Sergio Serulnikov 257
Public Opinions and Public Spheres in Late-Nineteenth-Century Peru: A Multicolored Web in a Tattered Cloth / Nils Jacobsen 278
The Local Limitations to a National Political Movement: Gaitan and Gaitansimo in Antioquia / Mary Roldan 301
Concluding Remarks: Andean Inflections of Latin American Political Cultures / Nils Jacobsen and Cristobal Aljovin de Losada 324
Bibliography 337
Contributors 373
Index 377

About the Author :

Nils Jacobsen is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Mirages of Transition: The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780–1930.

CristÓbal AljovÍn de Losada is Director of the Master’s Program in History at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. He is the author of Caudillos y constituciones: PerÚ, 1821–1845.

Review :
"Political Cultures in the Andes is an extraordinary book, one of those books that both provides fresh perspectives and brings together significant trends that have been in the air recently. The volume is full of provocative and interesting essays. This is a must-read for historians interested in the Andes or politics in Latin America more generally."--Peter Guardino, author of The Time of Liberty: Popular Political Culture in Oaxaca, 1750-1850 "Political Cultures in the Andes brings together a robust and engaged group of historians who provide an informative, sober, and shrewdly analytical discussion of cultural process and political formation. This is a unique and timely contribution to Latin American political history."--Claudio Lomnitz, author of Deep Mexico, Silent Mexico: An Anthropology of Nationalism "An important contribution to Andean studies and studies of political cultures."--Marc Becker, The Americas "The various contributions ... shed light on many aspects of Andean societies. For this reason the text is highly recommended to historians interested in the area and the period it covers."-- Peter Ross, Australian Journal of Politics and History "This collection will be essential reading for many professional scholars. Its case studies and its efforts to discuss the merits of a 'political culture perspective' will serve as points of departure not only for those interested in the Andes but also for historians of Latin American politics in general."-- Sujay Rao, History: Reviews of New Books "Political Cultures provides excellent background information about significant aspects of the political culture of the Andes..."-- Sheldon Avenius, Perspectives on Political Science