Expropriation of church livestock and land Economic study and peasant struggle in Huancasancos, Ayacucho, Peru, 1900–1954

Abstract

This research studies the expropriation of sheep, cattle, and land belonging to the Qaracha brotherhood in 1954 by the inhabitants of Huancasancos. Drawing on extensive local and regional documentation, it proposes that the expropriation did not occur because the brotherhood represented the continuation of feudal relations, but rather due to a set of closely related reasons: economic centralization by the bishopric, the prohibition of shearing celebrations, and branding. Likewise, due to the influence of the political constitutions of 1920 and 1933, pro-indigenous and communist thinking. Therefore, the expropriation of the brotherhood was a unique event since, unlike other peasant struggles against landowners, that of Huancasancos was distinguished by its confrontation with the church. In other words, decades before the expropriation of the estates by Velasco and the assault on the brotherhoods by the Shining Path, the people of Huancasancos expropriated cattle and land from the church.