La Matanza

1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
Map of the Salvadoran districts affected by the uprising.
Date January 22, 1932 – July 11, 1932 Location El Salvador Result Uprising suppressed by government
Belligerents
Salvadoran rebels	Government of El Salvador (Armed Force of El Salvador)
Commanders and leaders
Feliciano Ama, Francisco Sánchez	Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, José Tomás Calderón
Casualties and losses
25,000 dead

"La matanza" redirects here. For the partido of the Buenos Aires Province, see La Matanza Partido.

The peasant uprising of 1932, also known as La matanza ("The Slaughter"), was a brief, peasant-led rebellion that occurred in January 22 of that year in the western departments of El Salvador. The uprising was quickly suppressed by the government, then led by Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, and whose army was vastly superior in terms of weapons and soldiers, who then proceed execute anyone who stood against it. The rebellion was a mixture of protest and insurrection and ended in ethnocide, claiming the lives of around 25,000 peasants and other civilians, many of them indigenous people.

Tension rises

Arturo Araujo, a presidential contender, styled himself as an advocate for the lower classes of El Salvador. He became very popular among the poor people of El Salvador, who hoped that he would bring dramatic changes and better their lot. The thirty to forty wealthy families who controlled most of El Salvador feared Araujo for this very same reason. To the dismay of the aristocracy, Araujo was elected as president on March 1, 1931.

The coup

Unrest soon spread among military officers. In December 1931, with the collapse of coffee prices, the military's dissatisfaction peaked. A group of young officers, led by Vice President Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, staged a coup and ousted Araujo. Araujo fled the country and Martínez assumed power.

The uprising

While Martínez may have satisfied the military, popular discontent continued to build and the government's opponents continued to agitate. Within weeks, communists, believing the country was ready for a peasant rebellion, were plotting an insurrection against Martínez. However, the government became aware of the plot and arrested most of the ringleaders.

Nevertheless, actual fighting broke out on January 22, 1932. Rebels, led by the communist party and Agustín Farabundo Martí, attacked government forces with support that was largely from Pipil Indians in the western part of El Salvador. Within three days, they had succeeded in taking control of several towns, disrupting supply lines to many of the country’s towns and villages, and attacking a military garrison. With their superior training and technology, the government troops needed only a few days to defeat the rebels. While the rebels killed fewer than 100 people, the military retaliated with great force. Promising an open discussion and pardons for those involved in the uprising, the government invited them into a large public square where they killed between 10,000 and 40,000 peasants, including Martí.

Aftermath

In the aftermath, accounts of the uprising and massacre were purged from libraries and replaced by the myth of Martínez as the savior of Salvadorans from vicious communists and barbaric Indians. To avoid further violence, members of the Pipil indigenous group generally severed their ties to their culture, adopting Western dress and the Spanish language as well as intermarrying with members of non-indigenous groups. In modern-day El Salvador, it is estimated that 1% or less of the population is of exclusively indigenous descent.

References

• de Bry, John (2004). "Review of 1932 - Scars of Memory (Cicatriz de la Memoria), A film by Jeffrey Gould and Carlos Henriquez Consalvi". KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology. [On-line Journal]. ISSN 1562-5028. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• "1932 - Scars of Memory". First Run / Icarus Films. August 1, 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)