Pasto rebellion of 1823: popular royalism and indigenous agency in Independence times

Abstract

In contrast to national history, which in the face of the emerging national identity, characterizes any study on the monarchy in times of independence as disloyal or misleading. Ethnohistory recognizes populations marginalized by (H)history as active, dynamic and multivocal agents. During the period of 1811-1824, the province of Los Pastos took up arms against the independence-republican project. Specifically, the Pasto rebellion of 1823, commanded by Colonel Agustin Agualongo and carried out by the popular sectors, who in favor of their cultural, political and economic interests, strategically allied themselves with the monarchical cause. This created a popular royalism in the face of the republican project, which beyond the reductionist precepts of contemporary Hispanism and nationalism, shows the indigenous and Afro populations of Pasto as active and insurgent agents, and reformulates the binary paradigms of the wars of independence.