Totorillas: the forgotten victory of independence

By Gabriel Fandiño*

On a day like today, 200 years ago, 70 patriotic horsemen clashed with 200 royalist cavalry on a small, straw-covered plain called Totorillas, near Guamote (Chimborazo province). Despite being outnumbered, the independentistas achieved a surprising victory against their enemies, who fled the plain in complete defeat.

In the history of our independence, this is the first combat between cavalry whose result was victory for the patriots. It was also the only meeting of the 1820-1822 campaign that owed its success to the leadership of a soldier born in the territories of the Royal Audience of Quito and not to a foreigner, as was usual.

At that time, the triumph of Totorillas was celebrated in the Andean towns and in Guayaquil, and its protagonists received recognition from the highest army chiefs. But after two centuries, such weapon action is absent from almost all history books, being practically ignored in the military chronologies of the campaign. What are the reasons for this historical omission?

The Patriot Cavalry Vanguard

General Antonio José de Sucre arrived with his army in the city of Cuenca on February 22, 1822. They came from climbing the mountain from Machala to the Yunguilla valley, receiving in Saraguro the Peruvian auxiliary troops sent by the Liberator of the South José of San Martin.

The enemies had abandoned Cuenca upon learning of this gathering of forces, and marched north to reorganize. The Venezuelan established his headquarters in the main city of the Austro for about 45 days, while sending several groups of cavalry in pursuit of the royalists, in order to harass their rear.

Those contingents brought together elements of the Dragoons of the South and the Grenadiers on Horseback. The first of these corps was made up of horsemen from Guayaquil and Daule, as well as rude plainsmen from Venezuela. The Granaderos were horsemen of Argentine origin, gallant and of great fame.

The Dragoons and the Grenadiers arrived at the town of Alausí in the first days of March, and placed themselves under the orders of the Alauseño captain José Antonio Pontón.

Pontón was one of the few surviving patriots of the Quito revolution who was still active in the armed struggle. Leader of great popular influence in the central highlands, Pontón and his guerrillas had wreaked havoc among the enemy troops stationed between Guamote and Riobamba.

History of José Antonio Pontón, independence fighter, is collected in a book by Gabriel Fandiño

Following orders from Sucre, Pontón led the guerrilla horsemen and the cavalry vanguard through the roads of the area, in order to prevent the enemy from recovering the area of ​​Tixán and Alausí.

The 70 brave Totorillas

On March 8, 1822, 25 Dragoons from the South, 25 Grenadiers on horseback, and 20 mounted guerrillas from Alausí (70 horsemen in total) appeared on the Totorillas plain. They were the northernmost Patriot squadron, hot on the heels of the enemy rear.

The royalists reacted and sent 200 horsemen from their fearsome elite unit, the Grenadiers of the Guard. Against all odds, the 200 royalist horsemen were defeated by the 70 patriots on horseback. A dozen dead and several wounded were left lying on the field, and Pontón’s men took prisoners and took part of the enemy weapons abandoned in the field. There were no casualties among the patriots.

This brilliant victory caused the 70 Argentine, Venezuelan, Guayaquil, Dauleño and Alauseño horsemen led by Pontón to be received with flowers and acclamations in Tixán, a town to which they went after the combat. Excited, Captain Pontón took pen and paper and sent a letter with the news of the action to General Sucre, still stationed in Cuenca.

Said letter (filed among Sucre’s correspondence, in the General Archive of the Nation of Venezuela) It is almost the only documentary vestige on that combat.

the forgotten victory

Totorillas was the first patriotic victory after the terrible defeat suffered in Huachi, which occurred 7 months earlier. Therefore, the enthusiasm in Guayaquil was great. General José de La Mar, at that time military commander of the city, congratulated the 70 brave Totorillas: “Honor to the brave Dragons and Grenadiers on horseback, and Alausí guerrillas who have so brilliantly punished the 200 who dared them” wrote.

In Cuenca, Sucre used Pontón’s letter to prepare a report for the Ministry of War. Although the Venezuelan was excited by the victory, he ended up describing the combat as a “rehearsal” and diluted it in the middle of the narration of the military operations. His report didn’t even mention the exact meeting place, which contributed to diminish its importance.

Actually, Totorillas served to prepare the way for the following victory of the patriot cavalry that occurred on April 21, 1822, in the plains of Tapi (Riobamba). This second and spectacular clash between cavalries increased the “shadow” over the deed of Totorillas and in a certain way, condemned it to oblivion.

On the outskirts of Riobamba, 96 Dragoons of the South and Grenadiers on horseback faced 400 royalist cavalry, the latter being defeated in two brilliant charges that caused nearly 50 deaths and 40 wounded.

These extraordinary numbers exceed the figures for Totorillas, although other aspects also contributed to the superior consideration that the Riobamba combat has in our history.

For example, there is the fact that General Sucre was present watching the battle —unlike Totorillas, the only victorious battle of the campaign in which Sucre was absent—. The Venezuelan, like the thousands of infantry soldiers of both armies, enjoyed from afar the impressive spectacle of a full-fledged cavalry combat (the infantry did not participate in the encounter). Sucre’s praise for Riobamba’s action brims with pride and satisfaction.

Instead, the clash of cavalry in Totorillas took place in a more discreet setting, with a handful of peasants from the area as witnesses.

Riobamba’s triumph is also confirmed by the presence of the most important figures of the patriot cavalry: Venezuelan Colonel Diego Ibarra (Bolívar’s aide-de-camp) and Argentine Major Juan Galo Lavalle. Their names were immortalized as they led the brilliant charges against the royalist horsemen.

In Totorillas there were only subalterns: German Lieutenant Colonel Federico Rasch (for the Dragoons) and Argentine Sergeant Manuel Latus (for the Grenadiers). Both officers, like their combat leader in Totorillas, Alauseño captain José Antonio Pontón, became secondary and almost forgotten figures. In the decades after emancipation, their names and the deeds to which they are associated did not arouse the interest of the first great historians of independence, falling into oblivion.

In this commemoration of the bicentennial, it is pertinent to remember the 70 brave men of Totorillas and their commander José Antonio Pontón, who defeated the enemy cavalry for the first time, raising the morale of the supporters of independence and preparing the way for the great triumph of Riobamba. That is its contribution to our history, beyond the number of casualties it caused, because as the Mexican thinker Alfonso Reyes Ochoa noted, the importance of a battle must be valued “Much more than by counting the contingents in the fight or by the number of corpses left lying around.” (I)

*Author of the book “Colonel José Antonio Pontón, guerrilla commander in independence”.