LABOR 



101 



watering on Sunday are watered without any 

 hesitation. Furthermore, Sunday is the big 

 market day in town, and people often rise early 

 to harvest and prepare fruit and green vegetables, 

 for market. The Indian who gave mc an account 

 of his time indicated clearly that he spent most 

 of his early Sunday mornings cutting firewood and 

 that he frequentlj^ watered his gardens Sunday 

 morning or afternoon. Another Indian, from 

 whom I took household accounts, stated flatly 

 that every Sunday morning is devoted to bringing 

 firewood from the hills. And of course we had 

 occasion to see that many Indians were watering 

 their gardens on Sundays. There is a distinction 

 between "hard" and "easy" work in the matter 

 that may be interpreted as a difference between 

 "work" and "chores." Getting firewood, water- 

 ing gardens, preparing produce for the market arc 

 "chores" and may be done on Sunday or on 

 holidays. 



But even heavy work is occasionally done on 

 Sundays and holidays. A poor neighbor made 

 garden beds one Sunday morning; I asked him if 

 that were not sinful and he explained that he had 

 worked for onlj' a short time in the morning and 

 that it was a necessity with him. "Where there's 

 no work to do," he said, "one should rest on Sun- 

 day because it is a day of rest." Yet later I 

 noticed that the sons of the richest family in town 

 spent the whole day making gardens; I chided 

 them but obtained no response. The ne.xt day I 

 asked an Indian friend about this, and he was not 

 only not surprised but said, "yes, that is their day; 

 during the week they have to work for their 

 father." 



Some seem to think that it is worse to work in 

 the afternoon of a Sunday or holiday than in the 

 morning; but others have the opposite view. 

 Holidays especially sacred on which work is for- 

 bidden are Epiphany (January C), Esquipidas 

 (January 15), Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of 

 Holy Week, Ascension Thursday, Corpus Cristi, 

 and the day of the local patron, San Francisco 

 (October 4). One Indian said it is very dangerous 

 to work on Esquipulas (and indeed a boy who cut 

 firewood on that day in 1941 injui-ed his leg with 

 the ax) but said it is aU right in the afternoon. 

 Although we witnessed Indians watering their 

 gardens during the mornings of both Holy Thurs- 

 day and Good Friday, I doubt if any of them would 

 do other work those days. We were told on 



Epiphany that it is a holiday on which no hard 

 work is permissible; but we saw people watering 

 gardens, and one Indian weeding, and a Ladino 

 had hired laborers to cut coffee. An Indian friend 

 who was that day harvesting coffee for pay said, 

 "Oh, we are only cutting coffee; that isn't hard 

 work." 



During the period of study, the basic rate of 

 payment for an adult man in agricultural or any 

 common labor was 10 pesos, the equivalent of 

 16% cents. Payment for the 6-day week thus came 

 to an even dollar; for one day, 16K cents; for 2 

 days, 33 cents, and so on. Ladinos paid these 

 rates without question, and Indians accepted 

 them.'' Normally an Indian would not work for 

 less.'' But some employers, to avoid labor short- 

 ages, paid more. Laborers were paid 20 cents a 

 day on a bridge being built in 1940; two contractors 

 building houses at the same time also paid 20 

 cents. When corn was high in 1937 Rosales wrote 

 that laborers were talking about asking wages in 

 proportion to the cost of corn (30 cents a day), 

 but there is no indication that they obtained any 

 such sum. 



The corresponding wage for a woman hired in 

 the fields was 8 or 10 cents; I have cases of both, 

 but cannot explain the difference. A boy of 10 

 or 12 could usually be hired for 5 cents, and one 

 of 14 or 15 for 10 cents.*" Very frequently, how- 

 ever, Indians (and rarely Ladinos) hire labor for 

 a smaller cash wage and include the day's food — 

 tlu^ee meals — as part of the payment. A man 

 then earns from 10 to 13 cents in cash, a woman 

 4 or 5 cents, and a young boy 2 or 3 cents. In two 

 cases Indians who paid I673 without food told me 

 they paid 10 cents with food. With one of them 

 I calculated together the value of the food, and it 

 came to just 7 cents (1 pound of corn, at iK cents, 

 a half pound of meat, worth 3 cents, a half cent 

 each of coffee and panela). When only limch is 

 served the laborer, the cash wage is of com-se 

 higher. Since the Indians know the value of food, 



" These rates prevailed in the Panajachel region. In Chichicasteuango the 

 day labor rate in 1935 was 8 pesos (or 13 cents) and in 1940 it had dropped to as 

 low as 10 cents. In 1936 a plantation on the coast was oflering 10 cents a day 

 plus a ration of corn and beans, and it furnished grinders to men without 

 wives to cook for them. 



'• It will be noted below that one Indian frequently worked in 1940-41 for 

 1.5 cents a day for Ladinos. Ho needed the work, and he was usually indabtcJ 

 to his employers. 



»<! The little information on wages paid to women hired as full-time servants 

 shows that food is the most important element, the cash wage ranging from 

 $! to $3 a month. One Indian girl when she quit work in a Ladino home 

 complained that the food was poor and she was paid nothing at all. 



