L.L.Bean 
On tdoor Sporting Specialties 
FREE 
Spring 
Catalog 
Fully illustrated. Features quality apparel 
and footwear for men, women and 
children; fishing, hiking, camping and 
canoeing gear. For 69 years L. L. Bean 
has offered practical and functional mer- 
chandise at reasonable prices. Many items 
of our own manufacture. All fully 
guaranteed. 
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L. L. Bean, Inc. 
k 711 Caaco St., Freeport, ME 04033 j 
Better Than Jogging 
/\/ ord ic/rack 
Jarless Total Body 
Cardiovascular Exerciser 
Duplicates X-C Skiing for the 
Best Motion in Fitness 
This revolutionary new exerciser duplicates the 
smooth, rhythmic, total body motion of X-C skiing 
for the most effective cardiovascular exercise 
obtainable. Uniformly exercises more muscles 
than any other exercise device. Makes high heart 
rates easy to obtain and keeps more muscles in 
tone. Also highly effective for weight reduction. 
Completely'jarless natural motion does not 
cause joint and back problems as in jogging or 
running Arm and leg resistances are separately 
adjustable for maximum effectiveness The 
NordicTrack uses no motors and folds compactly 
for convenience. Used in homes, businesses, and 
institutions. Our customers include Xerox Cor- 
poration, US Army, Penn State U and the YMCA. 
For more info, call or write 
PSI 124 L Columbia ct. Chaska, MN 55318 
toll free 1 -800-328-5888, MN. 612-448-6987 
the rich, tonal, subtle, synonym-laden 
language of their homes, is spoken 
by fully half the staff of the new board- 
ing school. Teachers are fluent in both 
Chinantec and Spanish, and this vital 
bilingualism is permitted and even en- 
couraged in the classroom by the Ins- 
titute Nacional Indigenista, under the 
enlightened directorship of Dr. Salo- 
mon Nahmad. The Instituto is a Mexi- 
can national agency roughly equiva- 
lent to the United States Bureau of 
Indian Affairs. 
The roster of customary calamities 
is being reduced. There are far fewer 
blind people in San Pedro now. The 
sardonic bandsman is no longer play- 
ing with the orchestras of this world. 
The lady who suspected that my steel 
canes might double as magical wands 
has gone on to the next world, as have 
about a dozen other elderly blind peo- 
ple. 
There are no more assiduous sol- 
diers in the ranks of progress than 
the brigades or paramedical teams of 
the Campaign Against Onchocercia- 
sis. The effectiveness of their decades 
of therapeutic effort is plainly mani- 
fest in the drastically declining infec- 
tion rate. Public education, the ad- 
ministration of antifilarial medications 
to everyone over the age of five, and 
the surgical excision of the nodules 
containing the adult filariae have 
eliminated blindness as a transgener- 
ational expectation. The ranks of the 
blind are thinning because no new gen- 
eration of severely infected men and 
women is emerging to fill them. Beg- 
ging is not, even now, a thing of the 
past, but it is a much more precarious 
and much less satisfying activity than 
it was seventeen years ago. The re- 
sourceful, sighted, traditional junior 
partners of these adventurous secu- 
lar pilgrimages are being sent to the 
new boarding school. Now those whose 
desire to relieve their penury or tedium 
is strong enough to impel them to take 
to the road must rely upon older, less 
trustworthy and less tractable guides 
who are often not fellow villagers. Beg- 
ging is ultimately irreconcilable with 
the concept of progress, so increas- 
ingly, mendicancy is becoming that 
which Yoleno authority and public 
opinion will still permit but not ap- 
prove. 
The rich, strange mix of change is 
obliging the Yolox Chinantec to re- 
think their concept of the realm of 
the possible. “Life is easier and life 
is harder now.” Most villagers have 
access to electricity but few use it, 
being too often away and occupied 
in the ranchos. Twenty-two public wa- 
tertaps bring the mountain water 
closer to some of the high-village in- 
habitants and preclude the arduous 
necessity of hand carrying it all from 
the distant spring. The jacal, that most 
insubstantial of houses, has been rel- 
egated to the edges of the most remote 
of the high-village barrios and the de- 
pendent hamlets. Concrete and alu- 
minum sheeting are increasingly pre- 
ferred building materials, gradually 
forcing the traditional adobe out of 
use. Young men and women have 
learned new trades from the Cultural 
Mission of the Mexican government. 
The hand-hewn, often carved stools 
are rapidly being replaced by chairs 
fashioned by Yoleno carpenters, and 
the new, government-mandated la- 
trines are being built by local masons. 
A number of seamstresses and human 
and veterinary paramedical specialists 
have been trained, but as yet these 
are not full-time occupations. A num- 
ber of not altogether unsordid boons 
of progress have put in their appear- 
ance. Junk food is infinitely more 
available and that junkiest of junk 
foods, the airy stuff that often passes 
for bread in more progressive climes, 
is seriously competing with locally 
made wheat and corn breads, includ- 
ing even the ubiquitous tortilla. Tele- 
vision has made a very slight but pal- 
pable portentous hit in Yolox. 
Rampant inflation has accompanied 
the increased reliance upon a money 
economy. The indispensable long ma- 
chetes, yokes, axes, and palm fiber 
hats all cost ten times more than they 
did seventeen years ago. The price 
of staple and fiesta foods has increased 
even more. A new government store 
supplies such staples as beans, rice, 
maize, and cooking oil, and even some 
fiesta foods such as sardines, sugar, 
and cookies at lower prices than those 
prevailing in the privately owned 
shops. Since the government store 
does not extend credit, however, the 
poorest Yolenos are still locked into 
the credit regime at the three privately 
owned stores of the centrally located 
administrative village. 
The earning power of Yolenos has 
increased at a much slower rate. There 
are augmented opportunities for those 
who own coffee trees or those who 
are willing to leave the municipality 
to work on distant coffee estates, but 
the voracious cost of living rapidly 
devours what they gain by five months 
of very hard labor. 
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