CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



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organized the local branch of the CTM, no 

 doubt a factor in securing the withdrawal of 

 the always unpopular military garrison. 



The leader of the progressive group is a man 

 who has not held any official office in the town, 

 Moises Valenzuela, commander of the reserva. 

 An orphan as a child, Valenzuela was aided by 

 a woman he calls his aunt. According to 

 Valenzuela's own story, he left Cheran at 16 

 and tried to go to the United States. Refused 

 admission for some reason, he fell into bad 

 company and became involved in smuggling 

 liquor across the border during prohibition. 

 Eventually the activities of the group extended 

 to narcotics, Valenzuela was caught and held 

 about 18 months in a Texas jail, after which he 

 was deported. He then entered an army school, 

 learned to read and write and received some 

 further education, eventually becoming some 

 sort of officer. Returning to Cheran during the 

 time of the agrarians, he organized and led the 

 resistance to them, and quite informally arrived 

 in the position of being, as one informant put 

 it, "head man" of Cheran. Locally he is re- 

 garded as an influential person over an area 

 extending as far as the State capital, Morelia. 



So far as evidence could be found, Valenzuela 

 is an honest man, well-liked in the town. He 

 talked several times of the necessity of going 

 away and earning some money. According to 

 his story, he did not mind giving most of his 

 time for the town, but the time had come when 

 he should look after his wife and children better 

 than he was able to do in Cheran. Certainly 

 he did not live in a pretentious house, and his 

 customary clothing was overalls. His dress, of 

 course, could be assumed for political reasons, 

 but when he made trips to Morelia or Uruapan 

 on community or private business, he certainly 

 dressed little better. It is, of course, quite 

 possible that persons with a different view of 

 Valenzuela were afraid to talk freely. He him- 

 self deprecated his position and seemed some- 

 what amused that the townspeople accorded 

 him as much respect as they did. His own 

 story of his arrest and jail sentence in the 

 United States was told with a somewhat rueful 

 and artless good humor. On the many occa- 

 sions he was seen with others, he always seemed 

 ready to listen to other points of view and to 

 advance his own without any attempt at domina- 



tion. It was, indeed, difficult to imagine him 

 as the leader of a bloody riot. 



As a final footnote on the affair of the 

 "agrarians," one of the first acts of the new 

 government installed in January, 1941, was to 

 send letters to all the members of the agrarian 

 group, inviting them to return to Cheran and 

 guaranteeing their safety if they refrained from 

 political activities. This was done with the 

 approval, if not at the actual instigation, of 

 Valenzuela. 



An entirely different type of organization is 

 the cooperative. E.ssentially an economic or- 

 ganization, it deserves treatment here because 

 it potentially might yet have important political 

 repercussions. Although not openly opposed 

 by anyone in hearing of the staff of the study, 

 comments made by several men while drunk 

 implied great bitterness on the part of some of 

 the people in the town. The cooperative, still 

 in proce.ss of formation in 1941, was organized 

 under the leadership of one Valentin Velas- 

 quez. Velasquez was not dressed in typical 

 Cheran fashion, and he had spent several years 

 in the United States. He speaks typically 

 Cheran Spanish, however, somewhat in the 

 manner of the famous screen comedian, Can- 

 tinflas — he never finishes a sentence and only 

 after several sentences is it apparent what his 

 ideas really are. He is an orphan who has 

 bettered himself economically at the cost of 

 terrific effort, according to his own story, and 

 his interest in the cooperative, he claims, is 

 merely that of a good citizen who feels it his 

 duty to aid others to better their lot. By his 

 own admission there is a good deal of opposition 

 to the cooperative, and he has been threatened 

 with death several times. He lays this opposi- 

 tion to ignorance. 



The organization of the cooperative would 

 give it a monopoly on all exploitation of forest 

 lands except for cutting of firewood for per- 

 sonal use. The cooperative would charge a 

 membership fee of 10 pesos, and members 

 would be required to market all their products 

 through the cooperative. Only the cooperative 

 would be licensed by the Forestry Department 

 and all work would have to be done in areas 

 designated by the Forestry officials, using care 

 not to destroy young trees. Members would 

 receive better prices for their products through 



