Cajemé

Cajemé (born José María Bonifacio Leyba Pérez, May 14, 1835 – April 23, 1887) was a Yaqui military leader in the Mexican state of Sonora. Cajemé or Kahe'eme means 'one who does not stop to drink [water]' in the Yaqui language and was originally a clan name, used by Cajemé's father.El Siglo, 1851

Biography

Cajemé was born José María Bonifacio Leyba Perez on May 14, 1835, in Hermosillo, Sonora.Catholic Church, Parroquia de la Asunción (Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico), "Extractos e Índices de Bautismos," 1835, entry for José María Bonifacio Leiva Peres, baptized 14 May 1835; citing missing original Baptismal Book of 1835; [Parish Baptismal Indexes and Extracts]. Archivo Diocesano de Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Transcription of Record 1433: J Ma. Bonifacio Leyba En la Santa Iglesia Parroquia de esta cuidad de Hermosillo, á los diez y nuebe días del mes de Mayo de mil ochocientos treinta cinco. Yó el Ciudadano Bachiller Juan Francisco Escalante Cura Párroco de la misma Cuidad Bauticé y solemnemente puse los santo sagrados Oleos y crisma á un niño de cinco días de nacido, á quien nombre J. María Bonifacio hijo vivo y del matrimonio de los Ciudadanos Fernando Leyba y Juana María Peres. Fueron Padrinos los Ciudadanos Fermín Méndez y Dolores Noriega, á quienes adbertí en obligación y parentezco espirituál y para que conste lo firmé. Juan Francisco Escalante. His birthdate is often given as 1837, contrary to his birth and baptismal record, due to an initial error by his biographer Ramón Corral.Corral, 1959 Cajemé's father, Fernando Leiva, was born in Hermosillo in 1798 and his mother, Juana Maria Peres, was born in Potam, Sonora.Iglesia Católica, 1798; Iglesia Católica, 1815 respectively

California Gold Rush

At the age of 14, Cajemé accompanied his father, Fernando, and many other Yaqui people from Sonora, during the 1849 Gold Rush to Upper California. Cajemé and his father returned to Sonora about two years later. Cajemé seems to have learned English at that time, as well as having his first experience in defending himself against armed conflict.Corral, 1959 In spite of statements to the contrary, his father Fernando evidently did well in the gold fields, as his son was enrolled in an exclusive private school, the only school at the time in Guaymas, and one of only 20 schools in the State of Sonora in the 1850s.Molina, 1983 This was the Colegio Sonora operated by Cayetano Navarro, Prefect of Guaymas. Cajemé subsequently learned to read and write Spanish. Corral correctly states that Cajemé was 16 to 18 years of age during his time attending school, supporting the actual 1835 year of his birth.Corral, 1959

Military Experience

Cajemé had his first taste of military battle in 1854, while serving with the "Urbanos," the local militia of Guaymas, which was organized by his teacher, Cayetano Navarro. This occurred when a plot to seize control of Sonora was carried out under the leadership of Count (Comte in French) Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon, who had two years earlier tried to seized the city of Hermosillo by force, and had been repelled in that attempt after they had captured Hermosillo.

At 14:30 hours on July 13, 1854, the battle began, with the Count's forces attacking the defenders of the Guaymas town square. The attackers numbered more than 350 French, Germans and Chileans under the Count's leadership. After fighting the Mexican forces for about two hours, the invaders began to retreat. After seeing all of the men that Raousset-Boulbon had lost in the fighting, the French vice-consul, Joseph Calvo, came and requested his intervention to make peace. Calvo promised protection to all who took refuge under his flag, but hesitated for some time before extending this to include Raousset.Scroggs, 1916, p. 61 Under the command of General José María Yáñez, the Urbanos and the other Mexican forces in Guaymas were victorious.

Raousset-Boulbon surrendered his army, asking for no other condition than to respect their lives. The surrender took place at 18:00 hours the same day, giving 313 prisoners being counted among them Count Raousset-Boulbon. The Mexican Army collected 310 rifles, 10 shotguns, 7 swords, 6 flags, a campaign banner and a forge. The losses suffered by both sides included 48 dead and 78 injured foreigners, with 19 dead and 57 wounded Mexican combatants. Gaston Rausset-Boulbon was sentenced to death, with the execution taking place in Guaymas, on August 12, 1854, in an area located in the north of the town square. Captain Francis M. Espino led the firing squad.Berber, 1958 See also de Collet La Madelène, 1876, pp. 266–304).This excellent account by de Collet La Madelène of Count Raousset-Boulbon's attempt at occupying and controlling Sonora, the battle at Guaymas, and the events following the battle, deserves to be translated for those English-speaking readers interested in the fascinating history of Sonora, Mexico.

Now 18 years of age, Cajemé looked for new opportunities in life, and traveled to Tepic, where he worked for a short time as a blacksmith. Later, he was caught up in the draft for soldiers to serve in the regular army, the San Blas Battalion, but deserted after only three months of service. He fled to the mountains near Acaponeta, Nayarit, and worked for a while as a miner. With the Federal army still searching for him, he traveled to Mazatlán and joined a battalion comprising Pimas, Yaquis, and Opatas, that was part of the ranks of Pablo Lagarma, a Mexican insurgent, who had declared for constitutional restoration.

Not long afterward, Cajemé began service in as a trooper in the army of General Ramón Corona. Due to his previous military experience, and the ability to speak three languages, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Corona. He ended up participating in the War of Reform, and against the forces of the French Intervention of Emperor Maximilian. It was General Corona that accepted the sword of surrender from Emperor Maximilian at Querétaro on 15 May 1867.Vandervort, 2006, pp. 230–231, 297 Eventually, he came to serve in the forces under , who came to value him as a competent, well educated and trilingual officer, and who eventually commissioned him as a captain in the cavalry.

Appointment as Alcalde Mayor

Having successfully served in the Mexican military in the war against the French occupation, Cajemé's service proved so exemplary that in 1872 he was appointed to the office of Alcalde Mayor of the Yaqui by then Sonora Governor Ignacio Pesqueira. Expected by Pesqueira to assist in pacifying the Yaqui people, he instead united the eight Yaqui pueblo into a small, independent republic and unexpectedly announced he would not recognize the Mexican government unless his people were allowed to independently govern themselves. Cajemé took on the role of a social reformer, he reorganized the administrative system of Yaqui society and life back to a state that had existed when there was far greater autonomy and self-sufficiency for the Yaqui people. This was based it to a large extent on the earlier Yaqui system (Mayors, Captains, Temastianes etc.). He re-established the popular assemblies, summoning them whenever it was necessary to rely on the entire population. Restructuring and disciplining Yaqui society to provide economic security and military preparedness, Cajemé instituted a system of taxation, and external trade control, initially establishing a tax on the ships that traded in the Yaqui River. To impose a toll on commercial traffic on its territory, in particular those who traded salt extracted from the coasts of the Yaqui nation, and to demand a premium from the cattle owners who the Yaquis stole cattle from, upon their return. All these economic sources allowed them to procure arms and ammunition, and also to develop agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing.Gouy-Gilbert, 1983 This was all for the welfare and defense of the new nation against those that would take away the Yaqui's traditional lands.

Cajemé's Rebellion Against Mexican Authority

Due to Mexican government opposition to Yaqui self-government, Cajemé was forced to lead the Yaqui in a war against the Mexican state and those who sought to control and confiscate the traditional Yaqui lands. The war was long-lasting due to the skill of the Yaqui in battle under Cajemé's leadership, and was particularly brutal, with atrocities on both sides, but with a much larger-scale slaughter by the military forces of the Mexican government under President Porfirio Díaz.See Zoontjens and Glenlivet (2007) for additional factors behind the rebellion

One of the many battles during this period was the Battle of Capetamaya, which took place on October 15, 1882. Cajemé, as he was now known, was holding a meeting with the indigenous Mayo in the vicinity of a place called Capetamaya in Sonora. Colonel Augustine Ortiz, who was a landowner in the area of the Mayo people, and who was also the brother of then governor of Sonora Carlos Ortiz, who had succeeded Pesqueira, attacked the assembly with elements of the Mexican Army. Ortiz reported that about Yaqui and Mayo 2,000 soldiers led by Cajemé faced his group of 300 men. The Yaqui's forces were scattered after losing 200 men, and Cajemé was wounded, losing part of his right index finger. The attack was seen by many as unnecessary, and led to public criticism against the new governor and his brother, which became so intense that it resulted in the dismissal of Carlos Ortiz as governor of SonoraTroncoso, 1905

Cajemé, when traveling with his Yaqui soldiers, would often sing in Spanish at the head of his troops. Riding on a horse, he would hook his leg around the pommel of his saddle, and sing a song of bravery and lack of fear of the Mexican army. He would have two men with him, one on each side, and would be followed by approximately thirty more men on horseback, arranged in groups of ten, spaced some distance apart. Following at the rear of the column would be the infantry, composed of 100 or more troops.Spicer, 1988

In 1885, one of Cajemé's lieutenants, Loreto Molina, sought to gain control of the Yaqui people. With the support of the Mexican authorities, Molina developed an assassination plot to kill Cajemé at Cajemé's own home, at El Guamuchli, near Pótam. On the evening of 28 January 1885, Molina and twenty-two of his Yaqui supporters (some accounts state 30 or more) set out to kill Cajemé, but Cajemé was not at home, having left for the Mayo River with his bodyguard the day before. Cajemé stated that Molina's men looted his house, abused the women of the household by beating them with their weapons, and tearing off some of their clothes, and ran off Cajemé's family, leaving Cajemé's eight-year-old daughter on the bed in the house, while setting fire his house. One of Cajemé's sergeants saved the girl out of the flames of the fire, as the house burned to the ground.Troncoso, 1905 Among others named by Cajemé as participants in the attack.Troncoso, 1905. p. 111 were the following men:

Loreto Cuate Angél Cuchi Agustín Guapo Trenidad Guapo Francisco Guabesi Pancho Juchaji Martín Mobesbeo Modesto el panadero (the baker) hermano de (brother of) Modesto Lucio Nasario Antonio Ochocomasoleo Loreto Omocol Nacho Pelado Madaleno Quintero Luis Sanbaon Nacho Suboqui José Suple José Tolo Facundo Yorigelipe Ilario Yorigelipe Juan María Yorigelipe Liandra Yorigelipe