EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



149 



grant laborers are from the lowest classes, and 

 from the country. All of their lives they have 

 been discriminated against and oppressed by the 

 upper and ruling class of their own country; 

 they accept it as a normal condition. Hence, dis- 

 crimination which may be directed against them 

 in the United States is nothing new, and, in fact, 

 they do not recognize it as such. All of the 

 individuals with whom I talked felt that the 

 United States was a fine country, and that they 

 were well treated by its inhabitants. Most are 

 very anxious to get back to the United States, 

 either to live permanently or to work for an 

 extended period. 



Individual Tzintzuntzefios were impressed by 

 different things in the States, but all liked the 

 law and order. Primo Calderon, who worked 

 in a Ford foundry in Michigan, was delighted 

 with the museum of early types of cars. Ale- 

 jandro Urbano worked on the Southern Pacific 

 in Arizona; his strongest impression was that 

 of the long passenger trains, coated with ice 

 and snow, coasting into the Tucson station. Pa- 

 tricio Estrada was fascinated by the crowded 

 Los Angeles streetcars during rush hours, while 

 Jose Estrada was impressed by the San Fran- 

 cisco bridges and the fact that every little vil- 

 lage had its industry. "Here, we have a big 

 city like Morelia (pop. 40,000), but there is 

 nothing in it. There, every ranch has its manu- 

 facture." Ramon Garcia noted with amazement 

 that bottles of milk could be safely left on door- 



steps in the early morning before the owners re- 

 trieved them and — things must have been dif- 

 ferent in Ohio in 1928 — that men stood up on 

 streetcars to make room for ladies. But the 

 most amazing thing of all was the fact that one 

 could walk into a railway station any time of 

 night or day and buy a ticket for any train any 

 day. The Mexican workers' acceptance in the 

 United States, and their privilege of moving 

 about freely and taking work where they found 

 it or wanted it, undoubtedly established good 

 feeling for this country. 



Travel is said to be educational. Most Tzin- 

 tzuntzefios have had little opportunity for much 

 formal education, and a great deal of what they 

 know about their country, and the world in gen- 

 eral, comes from their travels. In an attempt 

 to determine what individuals travel, by what 

 means, and to what places, a number of ques- 

 tions were placed in the census. The results 

 are shown in tables 21 A and 21 B. Table 21 A 

 shows the number of individuals in each age 

 class who have not traveled, i.e., have never been 

 more than an hour or two from Tzintzuntzan, and 

 those who have "traveled," though not to any of 

 the specific places mentioned. Most of those in 

 this category have been to Patzcuaro and Quiro- 

 ga, and little more. Means of travel, in train or 

 bus, is shown, as are such specific places as Mo- 

 relia, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Uruapan, Ta- 

 cambaro, and the United States. The first column 

 is for Mestizos, and the second for Tarascans; 



Table 22. — Movie attendance ^ 



1 X = No individuals in these age categories. 



