Elites, poder local y regimen colonial: El cabildo y los regidores de Santiago de Guatemala, 1700-1787 (review)
1848, ended quickly with the return of Carrera the following year. Taracena narrates these events vigorously and provides a careful analysis of the rise of regionalism in Guatemala in the context of the federalist-centralist conflict. The analysis ends, following Carrera’s death in 1865, with the successful 1871 Liberal revolt against the Conservative regime of his successor, Vicente Cerna. With strong backing from Los Altos that ultimately resulted in the establishment of hegemony under Justo Rufino Barrios, the creole-ladino elite of Los Altos triumphed. This victory for the regional interests of Los Altos finally resulted in a strong centralist state in Guatemala, but it failed to end the continuing regional and ethnic conflicts within that country. Taracena also demonstrates how the creole-ladino elite of Los Altos maintained a constant and repressive control over the indigenous majority in the region, a situation that only deepened following their conquest of the national government. Oppressive rule over the Mayan majority continued, and serious attention to indigenous grievances would not begin until the midto late twentieth century. Taracena, with his splendid account of a critical period in the formation of this oppressive region, has made a major contribution to the historiography of Los Altos and to regional studies in Latin America.