ACCULTURATION IN THE GUAJIRA—CRIST 483 
Beyond the paved road that stops at Paraguaipoa one enters a des- 
ert plain that stretches as far as the eye can see. It has no established 
roads, and travel is accomplished on foot, on horse or donkey 
back, or by jeep or truck. Scattered over its remote reaches are 
the Guajiro Indians, living in widely isolated houses, or in caserios, 
groups of a few houses, perhaps only two or three, or moving from 
place to place, in temporary camps; ceaselessly leading their ani- 
mals in search of pasture over the cactus-studded plains, or to far, 
infrequent waterholes, or taking them to market; trekking long miles 
and many days’ journey to small exchange posts or to the larger, more 
distant market towns; traveling often with their women and chil- 
dren, their flocks, and all their meager possessions. 
The Guajiro, it should always be kept in mind, has for centuries 
been a nomad or seminomad. Before the coming of the Spaniards, in 
the words of Juan de Castellanos: 
Es solo su sustento y su cosecha lo que les puede dar el arco y flecha. (Their 
only food supply and harvest is what their bows and arrows win.) 
Naturally Indians living in a hunting and gathering stage of economy 
were not sedentary; they were forced to range for food over a wide 
area. By 1551—within a half century after the arrival of the Span- 
iards—they had begun to raise cattle, and especially sheep and goats, 
and had entered on the seminomadic way of life that characterizes a 
large part of the population to the present day. 
The Guajira Peninsula was never actually subdued by the Con- 
quistadores. Although the Spaniards made many halfhearted at- 
tempts to conquer the Guajira by force, the fact is that the Peninsula 
was simply not rich enough in gold or precious stones to make its 
conquest worth an all-out effort. But another reason—perhaps the 
most important one—why the Guajira Peninsula was not conquered 
by the Spaniards was the incessant guerrilla warfare waged by the 
Guajiros against any outsiders, with all the ferocity of the old Irish 
clans against the English. The cohesive strength of the various clans, 
or castas, was amazing. The motto of the Guajiros was: 
Suwarajen arijuna, sainjara arijuna. (White man did it, white man will pay 
for it.) 
It is a matter of course that for these people one of the first steps in 
the process of acculturation is to become adjusted to living together, 
perhaps first in a caserio, such as La Gloria, later on in a village or 
urban agglomeration. For a basic cultural fact of Latin American 
life is the village, with its own patron saint who is the protector—a 
kind of godfather—of the village and of its individual members. The 
“village” has somewhat the meaning of the New England township, 
and it may include a number of small settlements, caserios, rancherias, 
placitas, etc., the name depending on the country. The nomadic 
