Village, Nation, and Constitution: Insurgent Politics in Papantla, Veracruz, 1810-1821

Abstract

Fromjune i8I2 to December i820, the Papantla region in northern Veracruz was a crucible of guerrilla warfare. Papantla, the seat of a subdelegacidn and the center of a prosperous vanilla trade, had a tradition of political unrest. Riots rent the community in I735, I762, 1764, 1767, and I787, earning the villagers a well-deserved reputation as a troublesome people.' Although the mostly Totonac-speaking inhabitants of the region did not immediately respond to Hidalgo's call to arms, once the town rebelled in i8I2 it did not easily return to order. During the greater part of the war of independence, insurgents dominated the coastal region between the ports of Tuxpan and Veracruz. And although by i8i8 the royalist army had gradually reconquered all the towns in the area, the rural hinterland remained in rebel hands. Indigenous insurgents from Papantla withdrew to the rough terrain to the south and established a fortified mountain refuge at Coyusquihui, where for the rest of the war they resisted the royalist military.