“El caudillo de los cholos”: reflections on the life of a free black man in Spanish America in times of war (1809-1811)

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the role of a free black man known in the Andean region as Quitacapas, during the beginning of the war of independence in Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia), between 1809 and 1811. After running away the captaincy of Mato Grosso, the westernmost territory of the Portuguese Empire, he became the region’s spokesman for the people. In order to understand how the trajectory of this subject is representative to think about the life of ex-enslaved after the escape, as to understand the participation of blacks in the events related to the wars of independence in Spanish America, we will draw an overview of the escapes from Portuguese to Spanish America and, later, we will reflect the nuances of the Quitacapas case in light of the recruitment of black soldiers during the war period. We believe that from his trajectory it is possible to visualize a mass of men and women that were once neglected and subordinated.