Rafael Carrera: Defender and Promoter of Peasant Interests in Guatemala, 1837-1848
N the 1837-1839 rebellion in Guatemala Rafael Carrera, an illiterate mestizo swineherd, led his impromptu army of indigenous peasants to victory over Liberal government forces of Mariano Gailvez. The rebellion was a popular insurrection in some respects, with Carrera and his followers fighting to restore religious and social customs that were being threatened by Liberal legislation. Encouraged by his parish priestadvisors and adored by his followers, Carrera had reached a stage of selfimportance which made him feel personally responsible for delivering the Guatemalan people from the Gilvez regime. After three years of fighting, the rebels ousted the Liberals from office, and established a government administered by the clero-aristocratic oligarchy, but dominated by Carrera. For the most part he collaborated with the Conservative faction of the oligarchy to restore the paternalistic order of colonial times, but neither they nor the Liberals were able to control him. He arbitrarily invaded every branch of public administration, demanding to have his own wayespecially, when it affected the interests of his peasant followers. Governors, ministers, and assemblies in Guatemala rose and fell at his bidding. By December, 1844, the Assembly, realizing that the only real and effective power was Carrera, appointed him governor. From 1839 to 1848 he ruled the country, surviving, with little difficulty, military uprisings, political intrigues, and attempted assassinations. Through brute force, mock revolts, and threats of retirement he achieved whatever he wished. But in 1848 a popular rebellion, similar in many ways to the one which had carried him to power in 1839, drove him out of office. The rebellion of 1848 is significant because the insurgents caused Carrera to retire on the grounds that he had neglected the interests of the same people he had defended ten years earlier. It was the above accusation which enticed the author to investigate to what extent Carrera represented and protected the interests of the peasant.