David Pena and the Politics of Universalism in 19th-Century Colombia

David Peña was an Afro-Colombian professor and soldier from the Cauca region of Colombia.  He rose from a modest background (his parents produced and sold aguardiente) to become one of the most important military (he started as an enlisted soldier and rose to the rank of General) and political leaders in southwestern Colombia during the second half of the nineteenth century.  His success stemmed from his relationship with the local Democratic Societies, whose members included many Afro-Colombians (if not a majority).  Peña’s life raises many questions about “exceptional” figures.  As a person, given his meteoric rise, his life was extraordinarily exceptional.  In addition, he became a figure associated with “black liberalism” in a region, Cali, that was not usually imagined as a "black" part of Colombia (such as the Caribbean or Pacific coasts).  Peña’s politics are perhaps more exceptional, at least given traditional understandings of nineteenth-century politics and “civilization.”  Peña and his popular liberal allies challenged elite ideas of civilization and barbarism, mostly by promoting what they saw as universal ideas of liberty and equality.  (Indeed, Peña never self-described himself as black or mulato (his enemies did), leading to some controversy over his "race.")  However, there were limits to popular universalism: Peña and his allies had much less success in recruiting the Cauca Valley's indigenous peoples (before the 1880s), who were suspicious of a Liberal universalism that denied their rights and histories as indígenas.  This project will explore the possibilities and limits of universalism in popular politics.