CHAPTER 7 MESOAMERICANS IN THE NEOCOLONIAL ERA 259holding interests. The political expression of centralist elements was also conservative,
holding that power and tradition beget wisdom and, for this reason, ought to rule.
Alliance with the army became an important part of the centralist political strat-
egy, for military coercion was an effective way of enforcing the right of conservatives
to rule. The more liberal “federalists” were skeptical of the centralist vision and gen-
erally followed U.S. models of regionally based consensus, with the central govern-
ment being more a bureaucratic and ceremonial than a policy-making entity.
Federalism tended to be politically liberal in the sense of valuing individual and re-
gional expressions of self-interest. This political form meant that social and economic
sectors beneath the landholding aristocracy were entitled to political expression, the
acquisition of property, education, and general participation in “social progress.”
Federalism and liberalism, most typically associated with the presidencies of Ben-
ito Juárez of Mexico (1854–1862; 1867–1872) (Figure 7.3) and Justo Rufino Barrios
of Guatemala (1873–1885) (Figure 7.4), also tended to favor the secular state and
Figure 7.3 Painting of
Benito Juárez, the great
Liberal reformer of Mexico.
James A. Magner, Men of
Mexico,2nd ed. Salem,
N.H.: Books for Libraries,
Ayer Company Publishers,
1968.