Judith Gwaltney 
Seventeen years ago, beggars were aided by children who walked with the blind “ out of love. 
Some very basic strands of Chinan- 
tec life remain unaltered. Those who 
eat regularly and well still measure 
their maize crop by the ton. The large 
group of very small holders and the 
landless who secure rights to commu- 
nal plots still measure the fruit of their 
exertion by mule loads. 
About half the village householders 
have complied with the legal injunc- 
tion to build proper latrines. But some 
are obliged to rent the use of these 
facilities now that “it is forbidden to 
sit down outside.” The costly, thick 
rubber boots that people wear when 
working their hot humid downslope 
land will trap the fangs of vipers and 
all other venomous animals. But 
should these creatures elect to smite 
you upon the hand, you would still 
share the fate of the four ladies who 
died of snakebite in 1964. 
The range of the massive wildcats 
that Yolenos call tigres has been re- 
stricted by' the increased presence of 
humankind. They have retired farther 
into the mountains but “if you meet 
one there without a dog or a gun, 
you will remain there.” The monkeys 
that live in the most remote parts of 
the central village and thrive in the 
tropical forest are safer now. The high 
cost of ammunition makes hunting 
game impractical for many. 
The new municipal corn mill saves 
the women of the high village many 
hours of drudgery. But this new mill, 
the new road, and all the monumen- 
tality of progress have increased te- 
quio, the tax of days of communal 
labor exacted from all able-bodied 
sons of the pueblo. A few are able 
to hire others to fulfill this obligation, 
but most must pay this increasingly 
burdensome tax out of their own mus- 
cle and at the expense of their own 
personal agricultural schedules. 
Even if technology can effect a re- 
lenting of their hazardous environ- 
ment, the quality of existence will not 
necessarily be improved. Social trau- 
ma, alcoholism, malicious and divisive 
gossip, and the fratricidal strife of fac- 
tions over land must yield to reason 
and enlightened self-interest if life is 
to be really better. But seventeen years 
ago blindness was attributed to the 
will of God or even “the luck of each 
one,” and now it is seen as a calamity 
that is yielding to human intervention. 
The hard lessons of a traumatic history 
and life in a merciless motherland 
have disinclined the wary, intelligent 
Chinantec to be the first by whom 
the new is tried. But if progress can 
make them victors over blindness, 
what prudent Yoleno can fail to weigh 
very seriously the prospect of even 
wider breaches in their wall of cus- 
tomary defensive conservatism. 
Traditionally, the Chinantec were 
reluctant to “carry things to Mexico” 
and settled their affairs among them- 
selves in juntas and in face-to-face 
interpersonal and communal consen- 
sus. Now they are cognizant of the 
inevitable encroachment of innovating 
bureaucracies and more than a little 
of the old fatalism remains, for not 
only does God “do as He pleases,” 
but “paper talks.” The degree to 
which the Chinantec will expand their 
view of the realm of the possible is 
in no small measure dependent upon 
the quality of their integration into 
general Mexican society, a process or- 
chestrated by the powerful stranger. 
John L. Gwaltney, professor of an- 
thropology at Syracuse University, is 
author of Drylongso: A Self-Portrait 
of Black America (Random House ) 
and The Thrice Shy: Cultural Accom- 
modation to Blindness and Other Di- 
sasters in a Mexican Community (Co- 
lumbia University Press). 
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