Trying Testimonies: The Liberal-Aymara Alliance in the 1899 Civil War

The aftermath of the 1899 Civil War introduced a period of ardent struggle to negotiate and to redefine the parameters of inclusion within the Bolivian nation under Liberal tutelage. Yet rather than receiving recognition as war veterans, the Aymara leaders and community members who had served as the Liberals’ wartime allies in 1899 faced charges of looting, murder, race war, and massacre that effectively distanced the Aymara population from the Liberals’ military victory. The Peñas Trial, one of several major legal battles to emerge from the Aymara participation in the 1899 Civil War, found the Aymaras guilty of unleashing a race war against the white, land-owning class with the intention of forming an Indian government that challenged national sovereignty. Despite the fact that the liberal politicians treated the Aymaras as second-class citizens, the very fact that they engaged in a legal trial that lasted multiple years suggests that the liberals recognized the Aymaras’ rights as citizens to a court hearing in the wake of the 1899 Civil War.

The defendants’ statements in the primary court documents of the Peñas Trial suggest that many Aymaras considered themselves to be Liberals or to be Liberal allies rather than the minions or enemies of any national political party. Using in great part the unexplored source base of the defendants’ statements, this paper will take up the question of the Aymara participation in the 1899 Civil War and its significance to contemporary Bolivian society as well as to turn-of-the -century Latin American historiography. As the examples in this paper suggest, the ways Aymara protagonists mobilized both within traditional political parties as well as without have shaped the nation of which the Aymaras are in many ways co-architects.