106 



LABOR 



For the whole of Guatemala, I am not prepared 

 to say more than that Jones was probably unduly 

 pessimistic; but from the point ot view of the 

 Indians of Panajachel alone, it is evident that 

 he was mistaken and tbat (1) the mandamientos 

 worked far more hardship than did the subsequent 

 system of debt peonage, and (2) labor became 

 in effect quite free in Panajachel after the aboli- 

 tion of debt peonage. 



The following is a brief description of the system 

 of mandamientos from the Panajachel point of 

 view. 



The system existed during the administration of Presi- 

 dent Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and with greater force a 

 few years before World War I and the earthquakes of 

 1918. After these events, the mandamientos gradually 

 disappeared and, with the fall of Cabrera, ended. Under 

 the mandamientos, the plantation owners of the coast, 

 especially those who were beginning or extending opera- 

 tions, hired Ladino or foreign contractors to find for them 

 laborers in their own or other towns The contractor 

 was paid a specified sum for each laborer he was able 

 to line up. The contractors then asked the President 

 of the Republic for an order to obtain laborers from 

 one or more Indian villages. This order was given the 

 Jefe Politico of the Department, and then passed on to the 

 alcaldes of the towns involved. The contractor then 

 obtained a large sum of money from his employer, and 

 this money was left at the local juzgado for advance pay- 

 ment, at a very low rate, to the Indians, who would then 

 be forced at a later date to work 20 or 30 days on the 

 plantation. The local authorities then assigned the 

 Indians to the task. 



The Indians had to comply whether they had work or 

 not; if they objected, they were bound and taken under 

 guard to the plantation. Sometimes a man would not 

 yet have returned from one mandamienlo, and at home 

 there would already be an order for him to go back to 

 a plantation. Upon his homecoming, he would then 

 have to leave the following day while his family suffered 

 along on the reduced wage he was earning. It was even 

 worse when the man had a civil or religious office and still 

 had to comply with his obligations. The laborers who 

 came to the plantations on martdamientos were given 

 the worst jobs, and that is one reason why some Indians 

 decided to sell their lands in Panajachel and go to the 

 plantations with their families to live as colonos. 



In the autobiography of a middle-aged Indian 

 (taken in 1941) there is a description of how the 

 system worked out in his family. 



When I was about 4 years old, my father was sent to 

 the coast on a mandamiento. I remember that the alcalde 

 left money on the ground in the patio and told him he 

 had to do it. My parents were very angry. . . . The 

 next day my father went to San Andres to bring corn for 

 the journey, and the following day mother began to 



make toioposte, I recall how she ground the corn while 

 father went to make a load of firewood. The making 

 of the toioposte took 3 or 4 days. ... In about 10 days, 

 the alcalde returned to tell father that in a few days he 

 would start with the others. Then father went to buy 

 corn to make . . . tortillas and large tamales for the 

 road. And early one morning he went to Tzanjuyd 

 (where he met the others) to take the launch for Atitliin 

 to begin his journey. Mother cried, because the money 

 that had been left was not enough for all the corn and 

 things — and where would the money come from for the 

 expenses at home? She also worried that father might 

 get sick on the coast. . . 



I do not remember how long father was gone that time 

 (but a good worker usually could return in about 3 weeks). 

 I do recall that he returned rather soon, and was very 

 happy that he had come so quickly. . . . Mother had 

 ready some cash from the sale of father's crops that she 

 had harvested, and she sent (my brother) Jos6 to buy 

 him a drink. The next day father picked up his work 

 where he had left off. Of course he had brought no 

 money, having simply worked off that which had been 

 advanced. 



Every few weeks he would have to go. I remember 

 that at first he was sent, and paid, for 15 or 20 tareas 

 at a time; but during the time I was in school, they began 

 to demand 30 or 35 tareas. Then father took Jos6 with 

 him; but Jos6 was too small to help much, and they were 

 often gone a month or so at a time. Then nobody was 

 left at home to help mother, and little work was done. 

 Mother watered the gardens herself, and weeded and 

 transplanted when necessary: sometimes I did a little 

 before school in the morning, or stayed out of school 

 for a day. . . . Then when father returned he worked 

 hard to prepare many tablones so that if he should be 

 called away soon again, there would be something for 

 mother to plant. 



This went on for the rest of father's life. Toward 

 the end, after Jos6 died, I used to go with father; and 

 then when he died, I had to go, alone. . . . 



When the mandamientos ended, the authorities 

 could no longer force an Indian to go to work 

 outside, unless he owed a debt. The abuses of the 

 ensuing system of debt peonage are very well 

 known. 



Many Indians were virtually bound to planta- 

 tions by a system of advance payments on 

 contracts to work that were practically impossible 

 ever to liquidate. The plantation-owners paid to 

 so-called hahilitadores commissions for supplying 

 Indian labor from the highlands. These men, 

 usually Ladinos or foreigners, advanced money to 

 Indians on condition that they work off the debt 

 on their employers' plantations. Many Indians 

 came to live permanently on the plantations, and 

 others worked off their debts seasonally. Each 

 laborer had a little book in which the employer 



