Diario las Américas Newspaper, March 28, 1954, Page 27

« Dene oe \the question of the necktie on| good or bad, but we are justif! Tf anyone should infer from this | him: Does it serve some purpose? | in saying it is less productive, and healthful than what | incident that human intolerance | is standard, he would be profound- | ly mistaken. I*do not know of a single case of an Indian’s oblig- | ing a Ladino to believe in the Spirit of the Mountain, nor do I know of Indians who are bitter because the Ladino does not pros- | trate himself before their idols. | Scientist have observed that in various parts of the Maya area the political and religious systems of the Indians are closely inter- ! related. In a town in the Cuchu-! matanes Mountains described by | Charles Wagley, one had to pass/ through all the religious and poli- | tical offices in order to reach the | highest post in the hierarchy. | Does it amuse you? In general, the Indian behaves no differently at a fiesta than the | Ladino. He sells, buys, has fun, gets slightly drunk, and curses a little those who cheat him. If he | is customarily religious and the priest does not live in the town, he will cooperate in inviting him. If he is a member of one of the groups that take an active part in the celebration, he will gladly abandon his fields for a while. But doubtless, as among the La- dinos, ‘there are also a few who spend heir lives fleeing from community responsibilities. Much more could be said of the Guatemalan Indian o—f his past, 4 | ficient, the country needs if if is to ad- vance. From this point of view, {the Indian undoubtedly is a pro- blem. ‘ Many different approaches to that problem have been advocated. The simplest is to deny its exist- ence: more than fifteen years ago the government did just that by |declaring if officially solved in Guatemala. Then here are the |modern apostles who seldom con- jvince anyone but themselves those who proclaim they are the |Indians’ brothers, “but...”; those |who would “organize the com- |munity socially”. as if you could | have a railroad station without a el} om soe jrack; and those who want to place | Sm Goubaud Carrera told of the com-| mon-law regime in eertain villa- | ges, in which the Indian “mayor” is the justice of the peace. Marital | speaks some twenty languages and | they help each other plant their | which Morley admired with n- thusiasm tempered by restraint, or of his present, in which he the Indians in a modern coopera- tive right now, simply because | Public fountain is social center of a Guatemalan Indi is Patzin in the Cakchiquel region. and other disputes are resolved a hundred (perhaps two hundred) /corn fields. Some would like to | Totonicapan market features basic pottery items. perform collective surgery on the | ward, and he is backward preci-, male Indians or distribute Indian girls to the white men quotas. All these formulas have a com- mon denominator: they see the problem onlu as an Indian pro- Ceramics is important Indian industry, but doen’t make them rich. there in ways foreign to the Ladi- no. On th. lighter side are the In- dian dances, which have been des- cribed by many writers and schol- ars. Almost every Guatemalan who travels through the Indian re- gions or lives in one comments on them. If we ask an urban ci- tizen his opinion of an Indian fiesta, his reply will go something like this: “They dance a long time; they drink; the dance must have some religious significance be- cause it is connected with the feast of the town’s patron saint; some of the costumes are bizarre, but the long stockings are rather ugly; some of the dancers’ masks are magnificent... In short, I don’t think the dances serve any pur- pose, but they amuse me and amuse the people.” What, by the way, would the accomplished: citi- zen say if a social scientist sprang dialects. But the important thing |is that the Indian has his own environment, materials, and tech- niques; his social, political, and religious organization; his way of thinking, believing, and looking at the world. Within this vast con- text, his life unfolds, and it is pre- cisely this context that separates the Indians, as a people, from other peoples. Of course the Indian traditions differ from the “modern” tradi- tions of Guatemala. But aside from this, something unites them: all Guatemalnas belong to a single state. Perhaps that is why the si- tuation has always been consider- ed from a single point of view: the point of view of the Occiden- tal, in whose hands business, the plantations, and the government have always rested. It is not for us to say whether the Indian cultural traditions is blem. By such reasoning, the In- dian is the only one who is back- |sely because he is an Indian; simi- jlarly, Guatemala is not a_ back- |ward country and if it were, the |fault would be entirely the In- ‘dian’s. As if the Indian had con- quered the Spaniard and run the an town. This country for the last four centuries. According to the 1950 census, there were 1,411,725 Indians in Guatemala, accounting for 53.5 per cent of the total population. Back in 1893, the 882,733 Indians were 64.7 per cent of the population. GARIMPOS FABULOUS DIAMOND MINES OF BRAZIL The first official report of the discovery of diamond mines in Brazil goes back to 1729. The king of Portugal at that time was D. Joao, who immediately sent the first gems to Rome as a present to the Pope. Since then Brasil has been one of the most important contributors to the diamond mar- ket of the world, and from the ““garimpos” or Brazilian diamond and the State of Minas Gerais, came the famous diamonds called Braganza, Regent, Southern Star and others. The Jequitinhonha valley, be- tween the States of Minas Gerais, and Bahia has “garimpos” which have been famous for nearly two centuries. It was in this valley where gold miners found the first diamonds. Ignoring their value the miners used them as counters in gambling until a friar of the nearby mission recognized the gems and informed the governor of the province, who immediately notified the king of Portugal. At first, diamonds were mined as a monopoly of the Crown, con- sidered at that time to be the owner of all the mines of Brasil. This ownership ended with the abdication of Pedro I, first emper- or of Brasil. In 1832 the national government legalized the private diamond mining. : Diamantina, about 200 miles from Bello Horizonte, by railroad, is a small town that belongs to the State of Minas. Although its comparatively small size, its soil has been a great asset in the country’s economy. It was origin- ally a gold mine camp until the first diamond was discovered; af- ter that the region changed in ap- pearance and character. Millions of carats have been ex- ported from Diamantina since the early 18th Century. About 400,000 carats were mined in 1940 (3 percent of the world’s production) and 250.000 carats were exported at a valuation of more than four million dollars. No longer lucrative by means of surface mining and river wash- ing the garimpos have been sub- jected to more scientific proces- ses in recent years. The interstices of the rocks and boulders that block the current lof the mountain stream is rich in | diamond gravel that comes down the narrow fissures near the “pi- cos” or summits of the range. Other minerals indicate the pre- sence of diamonds, but only an experienced “garimpeiro” or miner knows exactly whether or not ‘he region has any diamonds. Before science made its entr- ance in the “garimpos” they were This is home to a rural Ladino (non-Indian) in El Progreso, eastern | worked in four ways or processes: 1.-By concentration. Guatemala. DOMINGO 28 DE MARZO DE 1954. HEMISFERIO mines from the regions of Goyaz. By ROSARIO DE FLORES The operation is similar to the old-fashioned gold-panning —the specitic gravity of the diamond is about 3.6, much greater than that of ordinary rock.— The lighter stones separated from the diam- ond-beewing rock by _ repeated washing and slacking about in the “batea” —wooden dish about two feet in diameter and having a sort of hollow in the bottom.— . - 2.-By changing the course of a stream. The process is more expensive and uncertain than the first. Above the spot where it is sup- posed to contain diamonds, the “garimpeiros build a dam with a sluice around it, through which the waters are turned, leaving dry the former bed of the river. Then, all the “garimpeiros” have to do is to clear away the sand that covers the bed rock, carry away the diamond-bearing gravel and place it in piles to be washed. This process is long for sometimes the bed rock is thirty and even forty feet deep. The work or de- viating the stream is done during the dry season, while the washing of the piles is done in the rainy season. 3.-“Grupiara” mining. “Grupiaras” is the name given to deposits of gravel found on the lower slopes and along the sides of valleys. These deposits are very rich in diamond-bearing rocks, es- pecially in the Itacolomy district and other valleys of eastern Mi- nas Gerais. Lavapés, a frupiara covering less than one hundred square feet, yielded one handred thousand car- ats in one season. 4.-“Chapada” mining. “Chapada” is a bed of rock high up in the range. The ‘“garimpeiro first collects rainwater in pools on the top of the plateau and then by cutting gullies forces the water of those pools to form a stream strong enough to loosen and carry along the diamond-gravel, which is finally treated in the same way as that found in the river bed. Although all the work done by the “garimpeiros” in all the dif- ferent “garimpos”, the better and bigger diamonds have been found accidentally by laymen. The Regent was found in 1791 by three men convicted of a ca- pital offense. Having been con- demned for life to live in the far-west of Minas, and forbidden under penalty of death, to enter a city, the three desperadoes wan- dered about for several years in the hope of finding a treasure so they could buy their freedom. One day, suddenly, they came upon a big translucent rock weigh- ing nearly an ounce. They im- mediately recognized its great value, and with the help of a priest, who accompanied them to the city, they submitted the dia- mond to the governor. For this, the three men were pardoned but never got a cent as a further re-. ward. This diamond was worn by D. Joao VI in all gala occasions. Another diamond which once was worth fifteen million dollars and still ranks among the most costly diamonds of the world, is the Estrella do Sul —Southern Star—. It weighed 125 carats af- ter lapidation and was sold for $500,000. It was picked up at Ba- gagem, Minas Gerais, in 1854, by a negro slave who gave it to her masters as the price for her free- dom. The Dresden weighed 76 and one half carats as a cut stone and was sold for $250,000 dollars. My father was an expert in pre- cious metals and gems. During many years he handled diamonds of all sizes and values. He enjoy- ed those little stories about “ga- rimpos” and the interesting way diamonds are found sometimes. I remember once he bought a large uncut diamond from the hands of a modest and middle- aged housewife, who had found the stone inside the gizzard of a chicken. This diamond, whose val- ue I don’t recall at this moment, yielded three regular diamonds of very good size. The funny part of this story is that my mother, from then on, was always on guard ins- pecting into the contents of any fowls’ gizzards action which al- ways puzzled our cooks. Another story I remember is the one about the negro that found a large translucent stone in the Verissimo River in 1906 and took it to a blacksmith. This fellow, be- lieving in the old notion that a diamond will not break under any circumstances, put it on an anvil and tested the stone with a sledge hammer smashing it. The negro was disappointed, but his faith was so strong that he collected some particles and took them to an expert, who examined them and told the negro they were dia- monds of first quality. When cut, the largest fragment made an 8 carat gem. The ‘“garimpeiro’s” life has been very hard in every respect. Like the gold-miners, at all times, there is always impending danger hovering over their heads. Years ago the “garimpeiro” who was lucky enough to find a large stone was very reluctant to spread the news around the “garimpo”. Some times a diamond changed owners in a very short period, and the currency used in the transaction was neither money nor any other article, but the blood of the un- lucky possessor, who had staked the gem’s price too high for his own safety. PAG. 15