288 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
By the 1830s, the liberals had been in power for several years in El Salvador, and
their policy of favoring the indigo plantations was viewed by the Indians as highly op-
pressive. The Salvadoran province was on the verge of civil war, pitting the liberal cre-
oles against the conservative creoles. The Indians were forced to fight for interests
in which they had no stake. Thus, in 1833 the Nonualcans rebelled against the local
creole authorities and plantation owners. They were led by Atanasio Aquino, a com-
moner Pipil Indian from Santiago Nonualco who had worked as a peon on the in-
digo estates. From the beginning, the uprising had strong nativist features, as Aquino
assumed traditional Pipil titles and dress. He called for an end to creole domination
over the Indians and mobilized the Indians and many mestizos from surrounding
communities. The rebels quickly overpowered the main creole towns and estates of
the area, as well as in the adjacent area of San Vicente.
Aquino’s forces soon swelled to 3,000 warriors and easily beat back several mili-
tary contingents sent by the government to put down the rebellion. Aquino adopted
the title of “General Commander of the Liberation Forces,” proclaiming a free and
an autonomous Nonualco territory. He replaced the creole authorities with Indians
and laid down a severe legal code to govern the affairs of the nearly independent ter-
ritory (for example, thieves were to have their hands cut off!). It is generally con-
ceded by scholars that Aquino’s rebels could have taken the Salvadoran capital had
they wished. Aquino, however, made no attempt to extend his control beyond the
Nonualco area, not even to other Indian communities in the west that were sympa-
thetic to his movement. A commission of Mayan Indians as far away as highland
Guatemala came to negotiate with Aquino over the possibility of a pan-Indian union,
but apparently Aquino’s political vision was decidedly local rather than regional.
The Salvadoran creoles and most mestizos were profoundly frightened by Aquino
and his Indian “terrorists.” They regrouped, and reinforced by soldiers from
Guatemala, managed to raise a force of 5,000 men who marched on Nonualco. The
rebels were quickly routed and Aquino captured. The rebellion had lasted less than
four months. Aquino was imprisoned, and after the formality of a trial, he was exe-
cuted. Like Hidalgo in Mexico, his head was cut off, put in a stone cage, and placed
on high for all to see (in Aquino’s case, on a prominent hilltop).
Atanasio Aquino was a remarkably charismatic leader. He was deeply religious,
and medallions of the saints dangled from his neck. His Christian beliefs were tightly
interwoven with native “superstitions.” He was an extremely brave warrior and ex-
cellent horseman. His fighting prowess was enhanced, he claimed, by a secret nar-
cotic (probably coca) that he chewed in battle. Like Atanasio Tzul twelve years earlier
and later the leaders of the Caste War of Yucatán, Aquino had himself crowned “king”
(adopting Saint Joseph’s crown for this purpose). There is some evidence that Aquino
believed in the ancient Mesoamerican concept of companion animals (naguals) and
that his nagual was the tiger (ocelot). He used a tiger skin as a saddle, and while in
prison referred to himself as “a tiger without claws or fangs.” During his rise to power,
Aquino was able to integrate in his persona both native and Spanish cultural ele-
ments, and consequently to become an archetypical nativist prophet.
Events calmed down in Nonualco after the death of Aquino. By midcentury, cof-
fee replaced indigo as El Salvador’s main export crop and has remained so ever since.