406 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



of his "patron" might have a sumptuous wedding. He left Sogamoso 

 with his family for the tiny hamlet of Pajarito, which is lost in the 

 midst of the heavily forested, steep mountain slopes. He left his 

 family in a one-room hut and went on without a cent to a plot of 

 ground he was to clear, near Cupiagua. He had nothing, but nothing, 

 he insisted, and this meant just that. For the first two weeks he lived 

 on cooking bananas, boiled or baked, mixed with salt — these and 

 nothing else. He planted small patches of corn, of bananas, and of 

 yuca. Meanwhile, his wife and children were living on a diet barely 

 able to hold body and soul together. When a temporary shelter was 

 built on the clearing, she sold her stockings and ironing board to get 

 enough to hire a pack mule on which to load her few belongings. Then 

 she set out on foot for the clearing. The night she arrived they ex- 

 perienced the worst storm of her life and spent the whole night in fear 

 and trembling. The roof held and it was clear on the morrow, and 

 both she and her husband said that, in spite of storms, they were so 

 glad to be here at the edge of the forest where one was independent. 

 The dominant motive behind the move was the unquenchable desire 

 for independence. He was determined to go forward, to migrate, with- 

 out looking back. He knew that he had burned his bridges behind 

 him and that it was on the frontier where he must make his living. 

 To be sure, he might send his family away to be educated, but he would 

 carve out of this wilderness the land that would support him and his 

 family. He was here para siempre (forever) he said, but he mused 

 awhile before adding, unless he found another area of colonization in 

 a sector with a somewhat milder climate. He has given some thought 

 to settlement possibilities in that sector of the mountain front between 

 San Martin and Florencia, one of the most attractive areas yet to be 

 settled in the whole country. 



His wife Maria is just as determined to be independent as is her 

 husband. Fortunately she enjoys good health and can work 14 to 16 

 hours a day. She now has excellent help in her two oldest daughters, 

 who are up early and do a lot of the cooking, but while they were still 

 small their mother did all the cooking, sewing, mending, bathing of 

 children, and so on. Further, she did not hesitate when her husband 

 was away from home or busy at other tasks to do the work herself in 

 the small plots where yuca, plantains, and corn are grown, and to carry 

 the produce home on her back. 



By February 1945 everyone was sick with intestinal upsets and 

 malaria, but Tiberio had to go out, alternately shivering with chills 

 and burning with fever, into the dark forest and the rocky grassy hills 

 to hunt for game. It was the only protective food available. The 

 whole family is aware of the importance to health of citrus fruits, and 

 parents and children alike consumed quantities of lemons from several 



