EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



281 



sees lines of women, jars on shoulders, going 

 to and coining from the springs. It is a walk 

 of from 1 to 2 km. in each direction. But sure- 

 ly, the pump soon will be repaired. Don Pan- 

 cho seems unperturbed. His asthmatic Model A 

 serves to bring glass containers of water to his 

 house once a day, and that is easier than stir- 

 ring himself to have repairs made. The days 

 lengthen into weeks, and the weeks into months. 

 Soon, the water is no longer a source of con- 

 versation. The town has reverted to its old 

 custom of carrying water. I ask Pancho why 

 he does not make the repairs, or arrange for a 

 new pump. "No money," he replies, and it is 

 true. "Would you believe that in the 4 months 

 that have elapsed, I have not had a single com- 

 plaint? Nobody has asked that service be restor- 

 ed. Besides, if they won't even pay their bills, 

 how can we buy a new pump?" 



I ask a number of friends. "Why don't you 

 go to Pancho, tell him it is his duty, demand 

 that he arrange to get the water working?" All 

 agree that it is a wonderful idea. But Vicente 

 gives the final answer. "We don't do things like 

 that in this town." Then the men begin to 

 wonder, out loud, why they don't do such things. 

 Zurumiitaro, on the road to Patzcuaro, is called 

 to mind. "That town does things differently," 

 someone remarks. "It used to be the deadest, 

 laziest town in Michoacan. Why, you could go 

 through there in the middle of the day, and all 

 the men would be stretched out drunk. Then 

 they got started on their ejido, and every man 

 took a parcela. Then they demanded more land, 

 got it, and farmed it, too." Zurumiitaro is re- 

 cognized as a village — smaller than Tzintzun- 

 tzan — where people do things differently. The 

 Tzintzuntzeiio, as much as he can admire any- 

 body who is successful, admires the people of 

 Zurumiitaro. Yet there seems to be little urge 

 to ape them. The pump is finally repaired after 

 6 months. At the instigation of Gabriel, the gov- 

 ernor agrees to install a new electric pump, and 

 in due course this is done. I do not believe he 

 is thanked by anyone. Gabriel is asked to run 

 for the office of municipal president. 



XV. 



Yet just when I think I know the mentality 

 of the people perfectly, the most surprising 

 thing in the world happens. Gabriel and I re- 

 turn to Tzintzuntzan, for the last time, in Sep- 

 tember of 1946. AH of the heads of families, 

 and many unmarried youths as well, have band- 

 ed together to buy the hill of Carichuato, just 

 to the east of the highway, above the clay mines 

 of the Cerrito Colorado. Pancho Fraga, the 

 son of old Don Florentine, has offered to sell 

 the entire area, 195 hectares, for $18,000, and 

 he will take payment over a period of several 

 years, in installments. Donato Estrada and 

 Leopoldo Cuiris are the instigators. Their sales- 

 manship must have been superb. They have 

 persuaded 300 men to contribute $60 each, to 

 buy the land for the Comunidad Indigena. A 

 commission has examined the land and marked 

 out and numbered parcelas, or milpas, 20 by 

 75 m. Half of these are already cleared areas, 

 the remainder are in forest which, if the land 

 is to be tilled, must be felled. Much more of 

 the hill is in timber, and can be used to pasture 

 animals or gather wood— though it is a bit dis- 

 tant for the latter utilization. Lottery numbers 

 were distributed among all participants, and the 

 drawing, absolutely fair according to everyone, 

 determined the order in which each man chose 

 his milpa. A nonfarmer is free to sell his milpa 

 to another member of the Comunidad, but not 

 to an outsider. Thus, by a single concerted ac- 

 tion the effective lands of the Comunidad have 

 been multiplied many times. And many of these 

 same men refused to take, as an outright gift, 

 far larger and richer ejido plots only 15 years 

 ago. This is one development in Tzintzuntzan 

 which I shall watch with the greatest of interest. 

 It is the only case, to my knowledge, in which 

 the town collectively has expressed the convic- 

 tion that, on its own, it can do a worth-while 

 thing. I had feared that the belief that the State 

 and Federal governments must be the source 

 of all improvements was too deeply engrained 

 in thinking processes to permit independent 

 action. 



