Hacienda Las Cabezas: A Cattle
Latifundia in the Colombian Caribbean,
1824-1942
Rural History 2015 University of Girona
Adolfo Meisel Roca
Banco de la República
Colombia
2
Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
Introduction
Location and Physical Environment
Colonial origin of the Hacienda Las Cabezas
The Hacienda Las Cabezas in the Nineteenth
century
The period of maximum expansion of the
Hacienda Las Cabezas, 1900-1942
Final dissolution: inheritances, peasant
invasions, agrarian reform, guerrillas, and final
sales.
Conclusions.
3
I. Introduction
In this paper we present a case study in the history of cattle ranching
latifundia in the Colombian Caribbean after independence. This is a very
unique and interesting case study for several reasons:
o This is the largest cattle ranching latifundia in the history of the
Colombian Caribbean in the republican period (more than 110.000
hectares in 1921 and around 40,000 heads of cattle)
o Since 1742 and until 1942 it remained undivided as the property of one
single family: the Trespalacios. In 1942 it was divided among the
descendants of the original owners.
4
II. Location and physical environment
The departments of the Colombian Caribbean Coast cover a
territory comprising 132.244 km2. Most of the region is
characterized by a hot and humid tropical climate averaging
28°c, with elevations under 200 meters above the sea level.
There are two clearly differentiated periods of rain. From
December to April the average monthly rainfall is 59
thousand millimeters and from May to November, the rainy
season, average monthly rainfall is 198 thousand millimeters.
Since the region has on average a high number of solar hours
during the day (10 hours on average) and high temperatures
year round, the majority of the soils are semi arid and covered
with a vegetation corresponding to dry tropical forest.
5
This characteristics are very important for the
productivity of agriculture and cattle ranching and
for the way this activity is conducted in the region.
For example, the presence of a dry season and a wet
season implies that cattle has to be kept in the higher
ground in rainy season and conducted to the wet
lowlands in the dry season. Thus, a large amount of
lands is used throughout the year.
6
Location of the former Hacienda las
Cabezas in the Colombian Caribbean
7
Territory of the former Hacienda las
Cabezas seen today using Google
Maps
8
One of the sections (Bautista) that comprised Las Cabezas in a
picture taken in 2014, and where the dry tropical vegetation can
be observed
9
III. Colonial Origins of Hacienda las
Cabezas
o In the 18th century the river port of Mompox was the second
most important town in the Colombian Caribbean. Its elite
grew rich through gold mining, trade, and cattle ranching.
o In 1740 one of the members of the Mompox elite, Julian de
Trespalacios y Mier, Marquis of Santa Coa, started a cattle
ranch in a place called el Paso del Adelantado. In the next
few years the he bought additional land and obtained land
grants form the Crown to form the Hacienda Santa Barbara
de las Cabezas, which in 1766 was valued in 53.580 pesos
(see Table I)
10
Table I. Value of the Hacienda Santa Barbara de las
Cabezas in 1766
Type of property
Value (silver pesos)
Number
% of value
Cattle
22,436
8,312
41,87
Horses
11,232
2,211
20,96
Mules
508
37
0,95
Slaves
17,550
82
32,76
Other
1,270
-
2,37
8,311
1,09
-
100
Land (Hectares)
TOTAL
584
53,580
11
In 1788 the Hacienda Santa Barbara de las Cabezas
became an entailed property in the head of the oldest
child (of either sex). Since Juan Toribio Trespalacios,
the first beneficiary, died in 1776, the property
passed to his daughter María Josefa Trespalacios
Serra. María Josefa died in Barcelona in 1818 without
descendants, so the property passed to her oldest
niece, Maria Ignacia Trespalacios Valdes, who was the
owner for the rest of the colonial period.
12
House of founder of the Hacienda Santa
Barbara de las Cabezas the Marquis of
Santa Coa, Mompox
13
IV. The Hacienda Santa Barbara de las
Cabezas in ninetheenth century
In 1824 the Congress of Colombian passed a law abolishing
all entailed properties corresponding to primogeniture. Thus
the Hacienda las Cabezas stopped being an entailed
property.
When María Ignacia Trespalacios Valdes died, since she had
no descendants, Hacienda las Cabezas was inherited by her
nephew Francisco Trespalacios Marzán. He died in 1840 and
was inherited by his three children (Trespalacios Cabrales).
Eventually one of them bought all the property: Oscar Adolfo
Trespalacios Cabrales. In 1875 he bought land adjacent to
Hacienda las Cabezas (finca San José de Mata de Indios o La
Embocada) and included it in Las Cabezas, which came to
have an extension of 25,000 hectares.
14
A town, El Paso, had grown inside Hacienda Las Cabezas
populated by the workers and their descendants, many who
had been slaves of the hacienda. In 1878 Oscar Adolfo
Trespalacios Cabrales sold at low prices land for cultivation to
the inhabitants of El Paso and donated the terrain where the
town had located to the municipality El Paso.
Oscar Adolfo Trespalacios Cabrales died in 1892 and the
hacienda Las Cabezas was inherited by his descendants, the
five brothers Trespalacios Paz.
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V. The period of maximum expansion of
the Hacienda Las Cabezas, 1900-1942
The period 1900-1942 saw the maximum growth in land
property and cattle owned by La Hacienda Las Cabezas. In
1918 the five brothers Trespalacios Paz decided to create the
anonymous society «Ganadería Las Cabezas» (see copy of one
of the stocks)
16
17
In a detailed report about Ganadería Las Cabezas
written by a business partner, from the United States,
we obtain a very good understanding of the
productive activity of the hacienda. In table 2 we
present the information about the amount of land and
cattle obtained from that report.
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Table II. Land owned by Las Cabezas in
1921 (hectares)
Type of soils
Hectares
(%)
Playones (wet pasture)
54,631.5
49.09
Sabanas (prairies)
40,467.8
36.36
Pantanos (swamp)
12,140.3
10.91
Non saleable wood
4,046.8
3.64
TOTAL
112,286.8
100
19
An advertisement of 1925 announces that the Packing House
had 29,400 heads of cattle raising in Ganadería Las Cabezas
20
Since the owners of Las Cabezas had cattle of their own at the
time, in Las Cabezas there were probably a total of 40,000
heads of cattle.
The same report we have been discussing, described the
hacienda in the following terms:
«This ranch is about twelve miles from North to South, and
averages about the same in width between the Cesar and
Ariguaní rivers (cut in two by the Caño de las Mulas). The
playones where they hold the cattle during December, January,
February, March, and April, are South West of here along the
Ariguaní and Cesar rivers and are practically a separate
preposition. The savannas are open plain of dry land, dotted
with trees and covered with dry land, hard grasses.»
21
In the early 1920´s the Ganadería Las Cabezas signed a
contract to hold cattle for the Packing House, a US company
that exported cattle to the US and the Caribbean. With WWII
these exports and the contract stopped. The end of that
contract, and tensions between the owners, led to the
dissolution of Ganadería Las Cabezas en 1942, among 27
members of the Trespalacios, Fernández Trespalacios, and
Piñeres Trespalacios families.
22
The office of Ganadería Las Cabezas in
the nineteenth and twentieth century
(pictures taken in 2014)
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VI. Final dissolution: Inheritances,
peasent invasions, agrarian reform,
guerrillas, and final sales
Between 1942 and the early 1960´s the inheritors of the
division of Ganadería Las Cabezas continued there cattle
ranching activities without much changes. However, in
the late 1960´s several events started to change the
conditions of their economic activity, finally leading to
their retirement from this area.
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VI. Final dissolution: Inheritances,
peasent invasions, agrarian reform,
guerrillas, and final sales
In the first place, since the late 1960´s the different owners of what
been Las Cabezas started to have problems with peasant who
invaded areas of the ranch's which were not been used. These can
be seen in some of the documents of the time. There were also
continuous problems with wood and cattle been stolen. In part, this
was the reflection of a much general problem, which was especially
acute in the Colombian Caribbean. We refer to the demographic
transitions that began to be observed at the middle of the twentieth
century and which resulted from a fall in mortality and an increase
in population growth, which only started to fall in the late 1970´s
(see table 3).
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Table III. Annual rate of growth of
population (%)
Period
Rural Colombian
Caribbean
Rest of Rural
Colombia
1938-1951
1,63
0,97
1951-1964
2,80
1,31
1964-1973
2,61
1,41
1973-1985
0,92
0,83
1985-1993
0,54
-0,07
1993-2005
0,41
0,52
26
As a result of the rapid growth of the rural population there was an increase in
the number of landless peasants, which led to the invasion of many cattle
ranching latifundia. This was stimulated further by the creation in 1967-1968 of
an initially government founded organization, the National Association of
Peasants (ANUC). This organization radicalized an under independent peasant
leadership actively promoted land invasions in the early 1970´s
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To make matters even more difficult for the owners of the
former Las Cabezas since the late 1970´s there was an
increasing presence of guerrilla in the region (Ejercito de
Liberación Nacional, ELN) and the menace of kidnappings
of owners of big cattle ranches. As a result throughout the
1970´s, 1980´s and early 1990´s, all of the inheritors of Las
Cabezas in 1942 has either lost their land through invasion,
had sold at below market prices to the National Agrarian
Reform Institute (INCORA), and only a few were able to sell
at relatively reasonable prices to other cattle ranchers.
Thus, after more than 200 years the presence of the
Trespalacios family in this area ended.
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VII. Conclusions
A.
B.
C.
Hacienda Las Cabezas was unique in that its property persisted in the
hands of one single family from the middle of the 18th century to the
second half of the 20th century. It was also unique in its size: the
largest cattle latifundia in the Colombian Caribbean during the 19th
and 20th century.
Paradoxically, Hacienda Las Cabezas has been completely ignored by
historians, economic historians, and business historians for the
republican period.
Perhaps, the reason why the Hacienda Las Cabezas has not been
studied is related to the fact that the family was never involved in
politics, remaining fairly anonymous. This anonymity was probably
enhanced by the fact that the Trespalacios lived, at least until the
1920´s, in Mompox, a town which had lost demographic and economic
importance.
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Thanks