Diario las Américas Newspaper, May 16, 1954, Page 24

MAKING MEXICO ONE Reprinted frem Americas, monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Obviously, finding a soluffen to the Indian problem is of much greater importance to some Ameri- can nations than to others, and one of the countries most concern- ed is Mexico. Perhaps it should be pointed out first of ali ¢hat the: “Indian problem” és not simply a question of economics. Of course, | it is largely concerned with people who have a very low standard of living, own little er no land, re ceive starvation wages, enjoy no social-security benefits, and suffer the effects of highly unsatisfactery housing, sanitary facilities, edu- cational systems, and working con- ditions. But basic cultural factors set the Indians apart from ether groups of underprivileged citizens. ' Indian customs, ‘habits, Ddeliefs about sickness and death, inter- pretation of natural phenomena, and so on, are almost always very different from those ef Occidental peoples. Without preconditionimg, we | cannot hope to assimilate the In- | dians through sweeping campaigns | to give them land and the means; ga of using it, education, better health communications, and se on. The material, intelectual, moral, | and artistic features ef Indian cul- ture must be recognized and wnder- | stood betore we can better their present unhappy situation. Some things should be not only retamed | but deliberately fostered. At-) tempts to wipe out Indian customs altogether have failed completely. In deciding whe should be in- cluded in an adequate Indian po- licy, racial or biological criteria are of no value for physical char- acteristics (color of the skin and hair, stature, shape of skull, and | the like) have nothing te de with the cultural, social, and economic | conditions that lead to what we ‘ call the “Indian problem”. Lan-| group consciousness exists only | years of age (in other words, old Vaccinating Tzotzil yeungsters in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. By JUAN COMAS Later, when Bolivia was unable alized agency of the Organization | of American States. Any account of field projects to improve ‘the lot of Mexico’s rur- al population must begin with the Cultural Missions. The first, creat- ed by the Mimistry of Education in 1923, was staffed by six teachers, whose fields were rural education, soapmaking and perfumery, tan- ning, agriculture, music, and phys- ical education and nursing. Their job was to report on educational facilities in rural Indian commun- ities, intensify the campaign aga- inst illiteracy in these places, re- commend the type of education that should be given to the In- dians, observe their economic stat- us, study native industries and ways to develop them, and cooper- ate with Ministry of Agriculture specialists in studying the land, crops, Climate, communications, and ‘wages. The first Mission was so success- ful that six more were sent into the field im 1924. As Lioyd H. Hughes wrote in the UNESCO | booklet The Mexican Cultural Mis- |sion Programme, “Each of these was a traveling normal school ins- talked temporarily in neighboring Indian centers to improve rural teaching, incorporate Indians into the national life and culture, ins- truct them in arts and crafts, and |} teach them to utilize local resour- EB | ces.” In 1926 a Department of Cul- |tural Missions was established in |the Ministry of Education. Among |the top-flight Mexican educators | who were associated with the work j;were Rafael Ramirez, lena Tor- }res, Guillermo Bonilla, and Rubén Castillo. The mumber of Mis- sions swelled to eighteen by 1938. The service was reorganized in 1942, and staff members’ assign- ments revamped. Now forty-eight | Missions are functioning —eighte- en among monolingual Indians, eight in bilingual regions, and ‘twenty - two in areas of over-all mestizo culture. Although the Mission have prod- ;uced practical and tangible res- guage may be used as a basis in| when the culture has been totally |}enough te talk), 2,447,609 spoke the case of people who speak only | accepted, when the individual has |Indian languages. This figure in- an Indian tongue, but falls dewn|the same ethical, esthetic, social, |cluded 785,069 who knew only | in the case of bilingual groups and | and political ideals as the group,|these tongues and 1,/652540 who of Indians who have stopped speak- | shares in the collective likes and) were bilingual. Counting the 446, ing their native language but pre-| distikes, and takes part to a con-|143 children under five, the total serve many other features of their’ Giderable extent in the commun- came to 2,893,752 or 11.22 per cent ancestral culture. This criterion’ jty’s actions and reactions.” Dr.|of the population. But since using can be helpful in making a rough} Caso defines the Indian commun-| language as a criterion leaves out | selection, but cannot be relied on | jty as “one in which non-Europe-| many individuals who are Indians exclusively. | Consequently, the Indian move-| ment in Mexico makes the distinc- | tion on the basis of over-all aif. | ferences in culture. “Anyone is an | Indian”, says the Mexican anthro-' an physical features prevail, which |according to the definitions of prefers a native language, which | both Dr. Caso and another prom- has strong Indian elements in its |inent Mexican anthropologist, Dr. | material and non-material culture, | Manuel Gamio, it is no exaggera- and whose people think of it as'tion to say that 15 per cent of different trom the ‘surrounding the Mexican population is Indian. white and mestizo communities.” | to take charge of organizing the |ults, it would perhaps be worth- first Inter-American Indian Con- while to re-examine them at this 'point to find out whether their % ambulatory nature is detracting from their effectiveness. In any case, the Mission, both through their strictly educational activities and through their broader social functions, have undoubtelly play- i ed a major role in unifying the | Mexican people. Proof of their ef. fectiveness is the interest in their work shown by other American countries with similar problems. | The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created during the adminis- pologist Dr. Alfonso Case, Base | j es considers himself part ef an in-| At the time of the 1950 CeNsUS | tributed; 36 per cent of them live digenous community, who thinks | Mexico had 25,791,017 inhabitants. on the central plateau (mostly in of himself as a native. For such Of the total population over five the states of Puebla, Hidalgo, and Mexico), 35 per cent live along eco the southern Pacific coast (in Oax- jaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero), and }23 per cent are found along the Gulf coast (mostly in Yucatan and Veracruz). In other words, 94 per cent of Mexico's Indians are con- centrated in these three regions. There are fifty-six groups, each with its own language stemming from one of the three basic lin- guistic stocks: Siux-Hokano, Mac- ro-Penutiano, and Macro-Otaman- gue. The 1950 Census figures for those with more than 5,000 monol- ingual members are shown in the accompanying table. ‘ Fortyfour years ago Mexico be- gan trying to assimilate its In- , ;dians, give them an active role in the processes of production and consumption, and make up for the four centuries. The Sociedad In- Boys of Yalten, Chiapas, read Tzetsil primer fer local authorities. 191, and the same year the First Lducation is a vital part of campaign te assimilate the Indians. Mexican Indian Congress was held. Our Indians are not evenly dis- | mjustices they had suffered for | dianista Mexicana was created in| eed Girls of the nomadic Seri tribe, whese headquarters are on Tibu- rén Island off coast of north- western state of Sonora. gress (a task entrusted to it by the Eighth Inter-American Con- ference, held in Lima in 1938), Mexico took’ over the job. Realiz- ing that despite regional variations this is basically a problem of the entire Hemisphere, the Americas’ | most outstanding experts on In-| dian affairs gathered at Patzcuaro, Michoacan, in April 1940 to unify objectives and techniques. The | Congress resulted in unanimous | agreement to create the Inter-Am- erican Indian Isstitute, which beg- an operating provisionally in Mex- | ico in 1941. When it was perman- ently established the following ye- ar, Mexico was chosen as the of- ficial headquarters and Dr. Gamio was named director. From the eut- set the Mexican Govegnment has | given its full support te this apeci- tration of General Lazaro Cér- denas by a law dated January 1, 1936, to “defend and watch over the nation’s Indians” and “study | their needs.....and ways to satisfy \them.” With the pace of its activ- lities reflecting the general polici- es in vogue, it operated as an ‘autonomous agency until Decem- ‘ber 1946 when it became a divisi- | | Seri fishermen still use the time- honered techniques of their fere- bears. DOMINGO 16 DE MAYO DE 1954. HEMISFERIO PAG 34