Movimiento Chamula 1869
Movimiento Chamula 1869
Between 1865 and 1867 the indigenous people of the district of Ciudad Real, Chiapas, protested to the authorities about excessive taxes and other various abuses inflicted on them by the community's parish priests and teachers. In 1867 they formed a non-Catholic religious cult in the region's town of Chamula, and with it a barter-based market independent of the church, teachers, merchants, and hacienda owners of Ciudad Real. In December 1868, when the authorities of Ciudad Real captured the group's leaders, their supporters organized an army to rescue them. The indigenous army laid siege to Ciudad Real on June 17, 1869, and then entered into negotiations with the city authorities. The leaders were freed in exchange for the teacher and engineer Ignacio Fernández Galindo, his wife Luisa Quevedo, and his helper Benigno Trejo, all of whom had joined the indigenous movement. The government executed Galindo and Trejo, then moved to eradicate the indigenous movement. The rebellion spread to other regions of Chiapas, and after intense battles between indigenous people and government troops aided by the militias of hacienda owners, it ended in the 1870s.
See alsoChalco Agrarian Rebellion of 1868; Chiapas; Díaz, Porfirio; San Cristóbal de las Casas.
JosÉ R. Pantuja Reyes