Peasantry in Latin America

This study will examine how five writers portray the role of the poor indigenous peasantry in the changing sociopolitical structure of Latin American nations in the postcolonial era. In general, the authors agree that while the indigenous peasantry did see some betterment of their sociopolitical positions, whatever improvement or reform came was far from what they might have hoped would come with liberation from colonial power. For the most part, the poor were more free, but with little opportunity economically or sociopolitically to take advantage if that freedom. This concern of each of the authors will be the central focus of this study: the changes in the economic and sociopolitical situations of the poor indigenous peasantry, and the nature of their integration as colonialism fell away as the dominant force holding society together and defining the relationships between the poor and the elites of the different states.

Thurner describes the difficulties the nations of Latin America confronted as they moved away from colonial control toward a more free and egalitarian reality: "This contradiction meant that 'the great challenge facing [Creole patriots] was to obtain independence without unleashing a revolution'" (Thurner 3). In other words, in the Andean lands the major concern was finding that balance between postcolonial liberalization and social control.

The postcolonial powers would never opt for a freedom which could bring revolution, for to do so would be suici

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atin America, liberal leaders, who were typically white and upper class, had mixed feelings about "the people." . . . They considered indigenous people and their lands strictly a national problem, not a national asset (Chasteen 120). The concern of those in power in postcolonial reality, then, was the same concern of the colonialists themselves--how to stay in power. The intentions of the postcolonial government and elites may have been the best in the world, but the structure and economy of the postcolonial world were simply too fragile to put the needs of the poor people at the top of any list of realistic priorities. As a result, Chasteen argues, the hopes of the poor for postcolonial freedom and opportunity, for economic and sociopolitical integration, were dashed. Safford offers a bleak conclusion to his study of the view of those in power with respect to the fulfillment of the preceding hopes to the poor Indians of Colombia in the postcolonial era. He writes first that it is unlikely that the elites truly believed their land reform program for the Indians would meet with much success, for it called on the ability of the Indians to compete with wealthier landowners and agricultural interests. However, such competition wa

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