Diario las Américas Newspaper, March 28, 1954, Page 26

The Indian and the Land South of Mexico, framed by two isthmuses and two seas and sur- | rounded by the tropics, lies Gua- | temala. The country’s territory ds small, a little more than forty- eight thousand square miles, and its outline so strange that the | term “direction” sometimes seems meaningless. But its geography is impressive: _steep-sided, sharp- peaked mountains; volcanoes that shake the landscape from time to time; swift rivers that relax as they reach the coastal plain; and here and there lakes whose calm is broken in the afternoon by im- patient winds. If you leave the roofs of the cities behind and pe- netrate far enough into the moun- tains, you can see how the velve- ty green high valleys provide a nest for the villages of the sons of the Mayas. Within this setting live more than three million people, Guate- malans all. Nevertheless, the con- trast in their customs is. obvious. On one side are the city-dwellers, the smallest segment of the popu- lation, whose lives follow the pat- tern of non-Indian customs we ge- nerally call “Ladino” ways. Next come the people who live in ru- ral towns and fields, following Ladino much more than Indian customs. Finally there is the in- digenous group, a little more than half the population, which carries on its own traditions. The people of Occidental cul- ture are concentrated in the ci- ties, those of rural Ladino culture principally in the eastern towns and the flat lands along the Pa- cifie Coast; the indegenous popu- lation reaches its greatest density in the regions known as the West- ern Highlands and Alta Verapaz. But just as it is difficult to find a Guatemalan town without any Indians, so there is probably none } without a few Ladinos. The descendants of the first in- habitants of Guatemala and of the men who brought the seeds of a different culture in 1524 are inte- grated today in various ways. But | they do not form one society. We can regard a Guatemalan Indian village as a social unit in itself, | and all the Indian villages as a loosely knit society: With the exception of the Ca- ribs of the Atlantic Coast, Guate- | malan Indian communities belong to a single cultural area. Because of their common pattern of cus- toms, despite distinctive local va- riations, and their dependence on one another, we regard them as a group, as opposed to the non- indegenous population. The Ladi- no, the anthropologist Richard N. Adams has found, generally ac- cuses the Indian of being stupid, of living like an animal, of neither desiring nor deserving the advan- tages of Western civilization. On the other hand, the Indian regards the Ladino as an unscrupulous person who threatens his way of life, is ignorant of country pro- blems, is untouched by evil spirits and therefore open to the suspi- cion of complicity with them. An Indian who changed his customs and —what would be easier— who became rich, could probably move from the Indian into the Ladino society. But it would be extreme- ly defficult for a Ladino to join an Indian society. Professor Sol Tax has said that | two distinct economic systems co- exist in Guatemala. the system of production, distribution, and, (Reprinted from Americas, monthiy magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portuguese.) consumption of goods in the high- lands is virtually independent both By JOAQUIN NOVAL of the distant plantations and of the importing and exporting and exporting houses and banks of Guatemala City. The one is the almost self-sufficient economy of the Indians; the other is Guatema- la’s national and_ international economy of the upper class. A significant aspect of the re- lation between Indians and La- dinos is tied up with coffee pro- duction, which is tremendously important to Guatemala. The plan- tation owners, like the exporters and importers, all have their place in the upper-class economy. But|§ the market for coffee depends on its quality and flavor, which re- quire not only precision in pro- cessing but also the picking of the beans at just the right time. As the harvesting is slow and is done exclusively by hand, it requires a large labor force. Here the re- gional economy of the Indians ma- kes its vital contribution to the international economy. Yet the benefit accruing to the individual Indian is practically nil. It may be that the total amount of mo- ney injected into the regional eco- nomy by the big coffee planters through wages is large. But that means simply that the number of workers is enormous. It has been said that the upper- class economy would die without the regional economy, but the only real hardship the regional economy would face if cut off from the other would be the lack | of iron tools, principally hoes and machetes. Regrettably, the In- dians do not put this into words, nor do many Ladinos seem to ap- preciate it, which may account for some of the indignities the Indian has traditionally suffered. | The Indians’ regional economy is monetary. Money comes in} from the sale to the city people | lof chickens, certain meats, fruit, | | vegetables, grains, and ther} foods, flowers, charcoal, wood, and | a whole constellation of handi- craft articles. In addition, there | are the wages received for agri- cultural work. This money circul- ates within the regional economy and is also used for the purchase of certain manufactured articles. The fact that no Indian commun- | ity produces everything it con- sumes explains the constant acti- vity of the vast network of region- | al markets. Almost very com- munity “specializes” in something | some in various branches of hand- | icraft, others in the production of agricultural surpluses for sale, others in providing manpower, | and still others in the transporta- tion and mobilization of other people’s products. * In broad outline, these are the | occupations of Guatemala’s In-| dians: agricultural hired labor | nonagricultural (or at least not) directly agricultural) labor, do- mestic service, family farming, fa- mily industry, and petty trade. Men with little or no land, who are the majority, often engage in both the leading activities, which are agricultural work for others and family farming. This has given rise to share-cropping similar sys- tems of land use in Guatemala. Family industry is important to the Indians in some places be- cause it is remunerative in itself; elsewhere, because without it they would be idle during certain pe- riods. Wasting time does not seem = === == <a ie | = = = a —_— tt A a a = a —— << Gees 33 Cerro Quemado (Burnt Mountain) and Santa Maria Volcano tower behind Quiché Indian town of Olintepeque in rugged Western Highlands, \ to be an Indian characteristic. There are many family industries, such as rope making, candle mak- ing, toy making, silversmithing, the production of wooden furniture and certain build- ing materials, and so on; but the primary importance of pottery making and textile weaving (even from the Ladino’s point of view) is undeniable. There is perhaps not a single home in Guatenala where some pot or jug of Indian clay is not in use, and probably there are few without a woolen blanket woven in the highlands. Other Indian textiles adorn the houses of all the foreigners who have visited Guatemala, as well as the majority of the Indian and Ladino homes in the country. But let no one suppose that Indian handicraft are a marvelous source of wealth. One of the looms in use is of Spanish design dating from the time of the Conquest; the other is even older. Even for hand work, the pottery-making methods are too slow. In one place in the far Northwest, the procedure for processing salt calls for breaking the earthen pot in which it is boiled out. Earning a living, of course, is not the Indians’ only activity. Like everyone else, they take time to beautify life and to squander it a little. Like people in other so- cieties, they have their religion. Some maintain that ninety-nine out of a hundred Guatemalans are Catholics; other, that all In- dians are pagans. Actually, the In- dian religion seems to neither “‘pa- gan” nor “the true faith”. A Euro- pean religion of the sixteenth century and the Indian religion of the same period came into con- tact. By inspiration? Harquebu- ses? Logical processes? No matter. For one or more reasons, another religious system has emerged, vi- gorous and esteemed in all the Indian villages. Is there any rea- son to think that the sons of the Mayas derive less satisfaction from religion than anyone else? How difficult it is to agree on the rights of each! As soon as the question arises, our moral con- cepts intervene: we want to give the Indian our morality, although we cannot give him our~way of life. The state, in principle, re- cognizes complete freedom of be- lief and worship. But this is not enough to calm the indignation of some good people. I found my- self one time trying to appease an honorable pastor of souls who had come into conflict with some villagers along the shores of Lake Atitlan. The villagers were expres- sing their beliefs in their usual Weaver carries on major ‘ed a St oad way, which he considered an out. rage. I begged him to have pa- tience and tried to explain the diversity of routes man has followe ed. The conflict resided not in the facts but in two equally valid but opposing ways of looking at them; history and geography were to blame. This time the state’s point of view lost, and I perhaps sacrificed alittle of my ultramun- dane rights. F loom. Distintive paterns and costumes are town trademarks. LL AD DOMINGO 28 DE MARZO DE 1954. Pag. 14. HEMISFERIO