9780230601659

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Being Indian in HueyapanJudith FriedlanderISBN: 9780230601659DOI: 10.1057/9780230601659previewPalgrave Macmillan

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10.1057/9780230601659preview - Being Indian in Hueyapan, Judith Friedlander

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Being Indian in Hueyapan

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Being Indian in Hueyapan

A Revised and Updated Edition

Judith Friedlander

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BEING INDIAN IN HUEYAPAN: A REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION

© Judith Friedlander, 1975, 2006.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in anymanner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of briefquotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

First edition published in 1975 by St. Martin’s PressRevised and updated edition published in 2006 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN™175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XSCompanies and representatives throughout the world.

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the PalgraveMacmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdomand other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the EuropeanUnion and other countries.

ISBN-13: 978–0–312–23899–5ISBN-10: 0–312–23899–1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from theLibrary of Congress.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN revised and updated edition: September 2006

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Preface to Revised Edition ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

Chapter One Zeferina Barreto and Her Family (1969–1970) 7

Chapter Two The History of Doña Zeferina and Her Family 31

Chapter Three The History of Hueyapan 53

Chapter Four What It Means to Be Indian in Hueyapan (1969–1970) 67

Chapter Five Religion in Hueyapan 95

Chapter Six The Role of the State in Postrevolutionary Mexico: A New Period of “Evangelization” in Hueyapan 123

Chapter Seven Cultural Extremists 157

Chapter Eight The Anthropologist and the Indians 177

Chapter Nine Being Indian Revisited 181

Glossary of Selected Terms 225

Notes 231

Bibliography 271

Index 279

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List of Illustrations

Figures

1. Schematic drawing of the home of Zeferina Barreto’s family 8

2. The temascal or steam bath in Doña Zeferina’s kitchen 233. Naui Olli, the Insignia of the Movimiento 1684. How to be “Chic” and “Autochthonous” too 170

Tables

1. Spinning and weaving terms 862. Terms for parts of the backstrap loom 873. Traditional clothes in Hueyapan 894. Ingredients used in mole colorado in Hueyapan 915. Recipe for rustic cure of bronchitis 92

Songs

1. “Cualle Micaqueh” (The Welcome Song) 1192. “Güilotl Istac” (White Dove) 1313. “Xochipitzauac” (Slender Flower) 132

Photos

(Unless otherwise indicated, the photos were taken in 1969–1970)Cover image: Corner of Calle Morelos and the San Miguel plaza on market day in Hueyapan

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Frontis piece: Zeferina Barreto and author at SUNY, Purchase (May 1990) xiii1. Three of Doña Zeferina’s grandchildren (Lilia, Maribel,

and Angel) 122. Doña Zeferina making a sale in the Hueyapan market 193. Doña Zeferina holding a book of medicinal cures 264. Reproduction of a composite photographic portrait of

Doña Zeferina and her children 325. Market day in Hueyapan 646. Epifania Alonso weaving a gabán on the backstrap loom 847. A woman preparing the corn meal for tamales at a fiesta

in Hueyapan 908. The Moors and the Christians in Hueyapan during the

Virgin of Guadalupe fiesta (1969) 1039. Rosa and a comadre, carrying the misterio in a procession

during the Virgin of Guadalupe fiesta in 1971 11410. Maestro Rafael and Doña Juana, the mayordomos of the

fiesta in 1971, waiting to welcome the Virgin of Guadalupe procession, in their home 116

11. Women serving mole at a f iesta in Hueyapan 11712. Children in the San Bartolo Barrio performing during

the fiesta commemorating the death of Emiliano Zapata 15013. Young girls dressed in xincueites at a ceremony in the

San Miguel plaza, honoring government dignitaries 15314. A poster found all over Hueyapan after the campaign visit

of the PRI’s candidate for governor of the state of Morelos 15515. Sign above store on the corner of Calle Morelos and

the San Miguel plaza advertising an express mail service to the United States (2001) 214

16. Maribel Vargas in 2001 22217. Doña Juana in 2001 222

viii / list of illustrations

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Preface to Revised Edition

When Palgrave Macmillan invited me to prepare a new edition ofBeing Indian in Hueyapan, I welcomed the chance to return to thearguments I had made several decades before. A great deal had hap-pened over the intervening years: in the lives of the inhabitants ofHueyapan, in Mexico more generally, and in the discipline ofAnthropology. Yet despite all the changes, my earlier concernsremained sadly contemporary.

When I first came to Mexico in the late 1960s, Indians, as Indians(as opposed to Indians as peasants), were major tourist attractions,and had been for decades, contributing significantly to the nationaleconomy, while remaining desperately poor themselves. Featured asliving artifacts in an archeological garden, Indians drew visitors toMexico every year who wanted to see something old and authentic.What appealed to foreigners appealed to Mexicans as well, inspiringmembers of the nation’s elite to celebrate their country’s indigenousheritage, by assigning to present-day Indians the task of representingthe people who were living in Mexico at the time of the Spanish con-quest.

Now, in the early years of the new millennium, tourists seeIndians performing the same economic and cultural services thatthey did before, while continuing to live in terrible poverty. Butsome things are different. Today, members of indigenous communi-ties are demanding their political and cultural rights and are doing soin impressive numbers. Rejecting negative stereotypes of themselves,they proudly embrace their identity as Indians, defining a dynamicnew role for themselves in the unfolding drama of Mexico’s “transi-tion to democracy.” Since 1994 and the Zapatista uprising in

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Chiapas, thousands of Indians have been claiming their place asindigenous citizens of their country.

Many see this recent turn of events as a positive development, butI remain a little skeptical, for reasons discussed in a new final chap-ter prepared for this edition of the book. Suffice it to say here thatgiven the history of Indians in Mexico, I worry about using identitypolitics as a strategy for organizing indigenous people to combat theparticular forms of oppression that have plagued their communitiesfor centuries. In the short term, however, the strategy has generateda great deal of support, largely thanks to the popularity of the EZLN(Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) and to SubcomandanteMarcos, a non-Indian intellectual who has played an important rolein building this indigenous movement. The EZLN has captured theimagination of people around the world and given the Indians ofMexico a voice in national debates about multiculturalism and citi-zenship.

With their extensive international network, the EZLN helpedexpose human rights abuses in Mexico, embarrassing the govern-ment to make modest changes in the way the state “managed” diver-sity. The movement contributed as well to the success in 2000 of anation-wide effort to topple the PRI (Partido InstitutionalRevolucionario), the party that had been ruling Mexico for over 70years. In the process, Zapatistas unintentionally strengthened thehand of Vicente Fox—the candidate for the conservative party PAN(Partido de Acción Nacional)—who eventually won the presidentialelections.

In his first year in office, President Fox made indigenous affairs ahigh priority and got controversial legislation on the matter throughcongress. Carefully crafted, the new law gives Indians the right todevelop their languages and cultures in unobtrusive ways that will notjeopardize the authority of the state. In its present form, the ley indí-gena seriously weakens a set of proposals presented to the governmentseveral years before as the San Andrés Accords by members of theEZLN. Responding angrily to the way the new law has been formu-lated, indigenous rights activists accuse the legislation of circumvent-ing the aims of the original accords, which specifically called forpolitical, economic, and cultural autonomy for Indians in Mexico.

x / preface to revised edition

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This is not the place to review in detail the complex history ofindigenous rights in Mexico, or to analyze the role the EZLN hasplayed within a wider political movement. Volumes have already beenwritten on the subject and excellent work will appear in the nearfuture.1 In chapter nine, however, I have updated the argument Imade years ago about the influence anthropologists have had, sincethe days of the Mexican Revolution, in both defining the Indianproblem and offering solutions to it. In that context, I discuss theways anthropologists have supported the indigenous rights move-ment in recent years and the impact the movement has had onHueyapan.

Otherwise, the book remains essentially the same.2 With the pas-sage of time, I continue to agree with the analysis I made of theIndian question in Mexico, but not with the advice I offered toNorth American and European anthropologists in chapter eight (theconcluding chapter of the first edition), where I recommended thatwe stop doing fieldwork among peoples living in the Third World.At first, I thought about eliminating those remarks, but in the end Idecided against it.

This, then, is the work of a young anthropologist who went intothe field in 1969, a year after students staged major demonstrationsin Poland, Japan, France, the United States, Czechoslovakia and, ofcourse, Mexico, where hundreds of protesters were massacred bypolice during an infamous confrontation in the nation’s capital.3 Asa graduate student in the United States, I identified with those in mygeneration who were fighting for change on university campusesand, more ambitiously, in society at large. While participatingactively in efforts to reform higher education, I marched for civilrights and women’s liberation and against U.S. involvement in theVietnam War. My political commitments strongly influenced theconclusions I reached in my research, convincing me to proclaim,along with other anthropologists who shared my convictions, thatpeople like me, with my background and privilege, should avoiddoing fieldwork among Indians in Mexico or among other victims ofNorth American and European colonialism, even when we champi-oned their cause.

preface to revised edition / xi

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With the benefit of hindsight, I now question that injunction, butI took it very seriously in the mid-1970s. I, therefore, abandoned theidea of doing more fieldwork in Mexico and went off to Europe tostudy the Jewish question in France and the ways Jewish intellectualsof the generation of 1968 responded to their identity as Jews.Despite a major shift in my area of research, I still remained tied toMexico and continued to participate now and again in debates aboutindigenous politics. More important, I never lost touch withZeferina Barreto and her family, the people I lived with when I firstcame to Hueyapan to work in this indigenous village. Thanks tothese personal attachments, I have continued to visit Hueyapan reg-ularly and keep up with the changes taking place in the pueblo and inthe lives of the people I met there many years ago.

In 1969, Doña Zeferina was 64 years old. A commanding presence,nobody questioned her position as head of her family’s large household.To quote Rafael Vargas, her schoolteacher son, Doña Zeferina was “lamera jefa,” the one really in charge. In 1991, Maestro Rafael passed away,but Doña Zeferina lived on, holding the family together with authority,intelligence, and charm. Although most of her children, grandchildren,great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren were living elsewhereby then, they all visited Hueyapan regularly to see the old woman, rejoic-ing in the fact that she remained full of life and extremely good companyto the very end. On Doña Zeferina’s ninety-fourth birthday, the hus-band of her granddaughter Lilia made a video of her dancing the polkaat a vigorous pace with her grandson Arturo.

I last saw Doña Zeferina in June 2001. During that visit, wetalked about the fiesta she was planning to have on her hundredthbirthday. For the occasion, the family would ask the local priest tocelebrate Mass in her honor. We spoke again on August 26 to markher ninety-sixth birthday, and still again on Christmas Eve, at whichtime she said she was not feeling very well, that her time, shethought, had finally come. Having heard Doña Zeferina complainbefore, I dismissed her premonition and urged her on. We were alllooking forward to the big event in 2005 and expected her to bethere, as strong and indomitable as ever. Well, Doña Zeferina did notmake it. The day after Christmas, the family took her to Cuernavacato see a doctor and spend a few days in the home of her daughter

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Angelina. There, on the 30th of December, Doña Zeferina’s heartgave out.

A few days after I completed the first edition of Being Indian inHueyapan, my father died of lung cancer, losing a long and painfulbattle with the disease. Twenty-seven years later, as I began theresearch for the second edition, Doña Zeferina passed away. Havingdedicated the first to the memory of my father, I dedicate the secondto Doña Zeferina:

May you rest in peace, Doña Zefe, up there beyond the sun—“cachi ompa den tonal”—and may this book keep your memory alive,down here on earth.

New York, August 2005

preface to revised edition / xiii

Zeferina Barreto and author at SUNY, Purchase. The photo, taken byWilbur Funches, was published in The Journal News (The GannettWestchester Newspapers), May 3, 1990, 8.

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Acknowledgments

I want to thank once again all those I acknowledged in the firstedition of this book, many of whom I mention on the pages of thisedition as well: members of my immediate family; curators and otherresearchers at the American Museum of Natural History; my profes-sors at the University of Chicago; funding agencies that supportedmy research (U.S. Government grants awarded to me through theUniversity of Chicago and the Wenner-Gren Foundation forAnthropological Research); friends and colleagues in the UnitedStates, Mexico, and France; and, of course, Zeferina Barreto and herfamily, who gave me a home in the fullest sense of the term, duringthe many months I lived in Hueyapan.

I would also like to reiterate what I said about the villagers them-selves and about our collective decision to use the real name of thepueblo. Having done fieldwork in Mexico in the late 1960s and early1970s, during a period of political unrest in the country, I knew Iwould not be able to “protect” the anonymity of the people I met byadopting the convention, widely used in Anthropology, of changingthe name of the pueblo and of the villagers I interviewed. We allagreed in Hueyapan that I stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyoneknew about the “gringa”—from government officials in the region tothe inhabitants of neighboring towns. Had I changed all the names,I would not have fooled anybody, unless I had taken the ultimatestep and changed my name as well. Short of hiding my identity, theonly thing I could do was to watch what I wrote and make sure Iavoided sensitive issues that might get certain villagers in troublewith the law. Finally, many people liked the idea that I was writingabout them and urged me to do so.

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Here, in a slightly edited form, is what I said in 1975:

Let me express my warmest thanks to the people of Hueyapan, who gener-ously accepted me into their community and encouraged me to write aboutthem. I want to point out that the villagers know of the publication of thisbook. At a town meeting held on August 4, 1973 [during the fiesta celebrat-ing the pueblo’s saint’s day], those in attendance unanimously voted in favorof using the real name of the pueblo and of identifying correctly the peopleI referred to in the text. I have followed the request of the villagers and havebeen careful to represent them as honestly and respectfully as I could. I hopethat my friends will not be disappointed.

A year before the book came out in Spanish, I returned toHueyapan with the translated manuscript to review with villagers whofigured prominently in the text what I had written about them. I thenreturned again on November 20, 1977, to take part in the national cel-ebration of the Mexican Revolution, and to present Ser Indio enHueyapan officially to the community.

As I worked on the revisions, I received additional help from anumber of people. I would like to thank Jorge Capetillo, MarithelmaCosta, Julia Cumming, Johannes Fabian, Kate Heidemann, AgnesHeller, John Heuston, Richard Kaye, Marnia Lazreg, ClaudioLomnitz, Angela Luna, Elzbieta Matynia, Marcelino Montero,Guillermo de la Peña, Francesca Sautman, Maribel Vargas, Saúl Velasco,Evelyn Birge Vitz, John Womack, and my editors at PalgraveMacmillan, Farideh Koohi-Kamali and Erin Ivy. I also want toexpress my appreciation to Jennifer Raab, President of HunterCollege for giving me the time I needed to finish the book while Iwas serving as dean of arts and sciences. Finally, I am deeply gratefulto my husband, Erwin Fleissner, who encouraged me enthusiasticallythrough multiple drafts of the manuscript.

xvi / acknowledgments

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Introduction

In the years following the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920),government leaders called on artists and intellectuals to celebratetheir country’s triumph and traditions. Painters, architects, histori-ans, philosophers, writers, anthropologists, and others embraced thetask with enthusiasm, joining forces with politicians to create a newimage of Mexico. Together they produced the proud portrait of apeople: the descendants of a union that mixed blood and tradition.Neither Indian nor Spanish, Mexicans, they proclaimed, were a singlepeople with a double heritage.1

To pay tribute to Mexico’s hybrid or Mestizo man, the governmentbuilt monuments throughout the country. In Mexico City, for example,we find the Plaza of the Three Cultures, also known as Tlatelolco. Thesquare symbolizes the blend of Aztec and colonial Spanish traditionswith three imposing structures: an Aztec pyramid, a sixteenth-centuryCatholic church, and a mid-twentieth-century office building. Near thechurch a simple stone plaque commemorates the historic significanceof the site: “On August 13, 1521, heroically defended by Cuauhtémoc[the last Aztec emperor], Tlatelolco fell into the hands of HernánCortés. Neither a victory nor a defeat, this was the painful birth of theMestizo people, the people of Mexico today.”2

Despite the eloquent sentiments expressed on the plaque, themonuments in the Plaza tell a different story: one of Spanish victoryand Indian defeat, of how the Spaniards destroyed Aztec culture andsubstituted their own. The Catholic church, built nearly 500 yearsago, was constructed out of the very stones of the Aztec pyramid. Inexcellent repair, it serves a large congregation today, performing ritu-als introduced during colonial times. The Aztec pyramid, on theother hand, is in ruins. It bears witness to a great, but dead civilization.

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In the Plaza of the Three Cultures, like everywhere else in Mexico,colonial Spanish and modern Mexican traditions live on in well-maintained buildings and institutions dedicated to practicing thereligious and secular customs of the country. As for Indian cultures,they rest quietly nearby, in the graveyard of history, respectfullydisplayed in archeological gardens, on the faces of statues of longdead heroes and in museums that collect artifacts of a “primitive”way of life.

To find evidence of Spanish culture in contemporary Mexico waseasy; to find evidence of the Indian, more difficult. With greatdedication, archeologists and historians organized expeditions andconducted archival research to learn about the nation’s prehispanicpast. Cultural anthropologists participated as well, settling down inrural communities in remote parts of the country to record thecustoms of people still identified as Indians. Salvation projects forthe most part, scholars and amateurs did what they could to givemodern Mexicans an understanding of their noble indigenous her-itage. In the process, certain groups were selected to serve as livinglinks to a world that existed in Mexico before the Spanish arrived.

This book examines the reality of being Indian in Mexico in1969–1970 and compares it to the idealized image of the Indian,constructed to represent the nation’s prehispanic past. Specifically,I discuss what it meant at that time to be Indian to the inhabitants ofthe rural community Hueyapan, a village of 4,000 people situated inthe highlands of the state of Morelos. Drawing on historical andethnographic evidence, I make the case that indigenous culture inHueyapan was in ruins and had been for centuries, just like the Aztecpyramid in the Plaza of the Three Cultures. The villagers, however,were painfully aware of still being Indians.

As I analyze Hueyapan’s indigenous identity, I take a hard look attraditions found there that were associated with Mexico’s prehispanicpast. Through this painstaking exercise, I try to show how colonialMexico invented the Indian—custom by custom, ritual by ritual—and how this old social category has continued to serve the present-dayneeds of a modern nation. Since the sixteenth century, the people ofHueyapan3 have participated as Indians in the cultural and economiclife of a non-Indian state. As they worked the colonizers’ lands, their

2 / being indian in hueyapan

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blood was diluted and their indigenous traditions dramaticallyaltered.

By the time I arrived in Hueyapan in 1969, the villagers werepracticing very few customs that had roots going back to prehispanictimes. What traces I saw of this earlier period had been carefully“baptized” many centuries ago to conform to European sensibilitiesand the evolving needs of the new colonial order. From the perspec-tive of “culture,” therefore, the villagers were virtually indistinguish-able from non-Indian Mexicans.4 Where they differed significantlywas socially and economically.

It was actually quite by accident that I ended up studying theproblem of being Indian in Hueyapan. When I first came to Mexicoin July 1969, I expected to work with members of a political groupbased in Mexico City who were trying to revive Aztec culture.Known as El Movimiento Restaurador de Anauak, I believed at thetime that the group had something in common with Black Powerand Native American Red Power in the United States. Interested inexamining the possible similarities, I wanted to compare what theMovimiento was doing with what minority rights groups weredoing back home. I also wanted to see how the Movimiento’s inter-pretation of Aztec culture might differ from that of scholars in theacademy.

After spending a few months with the group and interviewing itsleaders, I became disillusioned. Although people had told me that theMovimiento had between 400 and 800 members in Mexico City alone,I soon learned that the number was closer to 30. They also assured methat the Movimiento had a large Indian constituency, but I only metMestizos, middle-class urban professionals, for the most part—primarilyschoolteachers—who simply visited among themselves in one another’shomes.5 In sum, I was disappointed, confused, and angered by thegroup. As far as I was concerned, they had let me down—a curious for-mulation, I agree, but there it was. Not until much later did I realizethat my feelings of hostility were a defensive response to the similaritiesthat existed between them and me. Had I been more honest withmyself, I would have recognized the fact that this group was an accu-rate, albeit embarrassing, caricature of my own romanticized view of theIndian.

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Finding it difficult to relate sympathetically to the subjects of myresearch, I decided to change my project. Instead of focusing on theMovimiento, I would try to understand what it meant to be Indianto individuals living in a rural community that both fit the popularstereotype of an indigenous pueblo and met the criteria of anthropol-ogists as well. In other words, I would look for a village where theinhabitants spoke one of the many languages still used in the coun-try today that existed in Mexico before the Spanish conquest. Theinhabitants would hopefully practice other customs as well thatdated back to the nation’s prehispanic past.6 After visiting a numberof pueblos in Central Mexico, I settled down in Santo Domingo deHueyapan, a community located in the northeast corner of the stateof Morelos, on the border with Puebla. The villagers spoke Nahuatl,the language of the Aztecs, and Spanish, and the women wovetextiles the ancient way, on the backstrap loom. If I succeeded inearning their trust, I would try to get people to talk about what itmeant to be Indian in Hueyapan. I would also try to find out if thevillagers had any contact with Indian Power groups of the kindI expected to find throughout indigenous Mexico. Had they heard,in particular, about the Movimiento or other urban-based efforts torevive indigenous cultures? If so, how did members of the communityrespond to this city-inspired enthusiasm?

After spending a year (1969–1970) in Hueyapan, I have remainedin close contact with my friends in the village and have continued tovisit the pueblo.7 Over the years, I found answers to many of myquestions. I discovered as well that the work I had done with theMovimiento had not been a waste of time, but crucial to interpretingwhat I saw in the village. In Hueyapan, I also learned, in direct andpersonal terms, what it meant to be oppressed and how confusing itwas to be discriminated against for being Indian, while admired atthe same time for representing the indigenous soul of the nation.The experience, finally, led me to see parallels between the villagersand other oppressed ethnic and racial groups who had similarly beenserving the romantic longings of members of an alienated middleclass.

There are several ways to approach a study such as this, each oneoffering a different level of analysis. I suggest we begin, as I did in


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Hueyapan, by meeting some of the villagers and observing how theylive. Let me start, therefore, with a description of life in the home ofZeferina Barreto and her family. These are the people I lived with whileI was doing research in Hueyapan. As Doña Zeferina and I got toknow each other better, she began to talk about her past. Much of whatshe told me I have recorded here, partially in her words, but mostly inmine. The more abstract ideas that follow will have more meaning,I believe, after looking at what life was really like in Hueyapan in1969–1970, at least from the perspective of one family.

Next, we will jump to a higher level of analysis. After lookingat Doña Zeferina’s family, I turn to the village as a whole, summariz-ing the history of Hueyapan from the time of the Spanish Conquestto the early 1970s. I then talk about how the villagers themselvesdefine their Indian identity. While I lived in Hueyapan, I had theopportunity to discuss the matter formally and informally with sev-eral hundred people. Finally, I describe the roles non-Indian groupshave played, over a period of nearly 500 years, in preserving the vil-lagers’ socioeconomic position as Indian, while eliminating or trans-forming their indigenous traditions—Catholic priests, Protestantmissionaries, representatives of the government (schoolteachers andsocial workers), members of Aztec renaissance movements, andanthropologists.

The chapters on Doña Zeferina may seem to have little to do withthe question of being Indian. That, however, is just the point. DoñaZeferina, like everyone else in Hueyapan, was first and foremost apoor Mexican peasant who happened to live in a rural communitywhere cultural vestiges of the prehispanic past lingered on.Evocations of an earlier time, these vestiges represented a tenuous tieto a culture destroyed long ago. They had little to do with the dailyconcerns of a rural woman struggling to support her big family withvery few resources at her disposal. As we shall see later on, what wassignificant was the meaning outsiders attributed to these links withthe past, no matter how tenuous they might be. For the time being,then, I want to focus on the rhythm and chores of everyday life in thehome of one particular family.

In choosing to write about Doña Zeferina, I do not mean to implythat she was typical of the people I met in Hueyapan—whatever that

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means. On the contrary, she was quite exceptional. I tell her story,because through her experiences I gained a deeper understanding ofwhat I saw and heard in the company of others. Doña Zeferinataught me many things over the year I lived in Hueyapan; about herneed, for example, to be constantly vigilant, to be one step ahead ofthe people she met, some of whom, she knew, would use every trickin the book to try to take advantage of her. For Doña Zeferina,almost every action was in reaction. Looking back over the years, shedescribed her life as an endless series of dangerous encounters thatforced her to use creativity and wit to protect her family and givethem enough to eat, while preserving her own reputation as an hon-orable woman. Although I wish she had had the luxury to devote hertalents to more positive pursuits, that was not in the cards. And soshe spent her life inventing ingenious ways to outsmart her enemies,relying on one of her favorite sayings to give her the strength to carryon: “A person must know how to defend herself.”


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Chapter One

Zeferina Barreto and Her Family (1969–1970)

The House

In comparison with others in Hueyapan, Zeferina Barreto’s familylives reasonably well, in a comfortable house just off the square, nearthe center of town. They do not, however, rank among the wealthiermembers of the community. Like other homes near the plaza, DoñaZeferina’s house conforms to a familiar Spanish architectural design,carefully conceived to maximize privacy (figure 1). On the southside, facing Calle Morelos, an adobe (mud) brick wall, plastered overand painted light blue, extends the full length of the property, clos-ing out the street entirely. This imposing barricade also serves as theexterior wall of the two main bedrooms. To separate the compoundfrom the properties of their next door neighbors, the family also builtwalls on the east and west sides. Protected in this way, it is possible tospend much of the day out of doors in the courtyard, feeding chick-ens, washing dishes, or just sitting in the shade of a tree, securely outof view of the busybodies in town. Visitors announce themselves byknocking on one of the bedroom windows or against the big woodengate, located on the east end of the south wall.1

Doña Zeferina does not produce enough food to feed the entirefamily, but she does contribute a significant amount, providingabout half of what they eat. Having inherited two plots of land fromher mother (75 by 25 meters each), she presides over the planting ofcorn, beans, calabash squash, and chile peppers that is carried out byother members of the family. She also has a small orchard on theland, which in a good year produces several bushels of walnuts, pears,

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and other fruit to sell in local markets. One of these plots is part ofthe property that came with the house; the other is about a mileaway.

Doña Zeferina also has 15 sheep, 10 chickens, 4 turkeys, 2 sowsand their piglets, 1 horse, 3 dogs, and 2 cats. The sheep provide woolfor weaving, while the chickens and turkeys supplement the family’sdiet on very special occasions. As for the little pigs, they are fattenedup and then sold to the village butcher.

Members of the Household

Zeferina Barreto—The head of the house. A strong, authoritativewoman, Doña Zeferina learned how to survive and watch out for herfamily early in life, first as a child during the Mexican Revolution,then as a young widowed mother. At 64,2 she still plays a significantrole in supporting the household financially, by selling an eclecticarray of merchandise in the weekly market—plastic toys, of the fiveand dime-store variety, inexpensive porcelain plates and tin utensils,


Figure 1 Schematic drawing of the home of Zeferina Barreto’s family.

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dried chiles, and garlic. When in season, she also sells fruit from herown orchard. In addition, Doña Zeferina serves as one of the localhealers (curanderas) in town.

José Flores—Doña Zeferina’s third husband. Don José is a quietman about the same age as his wife. He spends his days farming hisown family’s fields and those of Doña Zeferina. He also cares for hiswife’s herd of sheep, chops firewood, and performs other householdchores. Don José, unfortunately, drinks too much, a vice that led tohis death in the fall of 1970.

Rafael Vargas—Doña Zeferina’s oldest son.3 Maestro Rafael is42 years old and works as a schoolteacher in the local primary schoolin the mornings and in a secondary school in nearby Temoac on sev-eral afternoons a week. The maestro also plays an important politicalrole in the pueblo. As a young boy, Rafael attended school irregularly,because he had to help his widowed mother support the family. Hewas, however, a good student. With Doña Zeferina’s encouragement,Rafael returned to school when he was 28 and eventually earned histeaching certification. Presently, he is taking courses on weekends inCuernavaca at the Instituto Federal de Capacitación Maesterios tomake himself eligible for promotion to the post of regional schoolinspector. Having endured such a difficult childhood, MaestroRafael is understandably proud that he has done so well and enjoysthe fact that his friends admire his achievements. In the late 1940s,Maestro Rafael was married by the Church and State to a womanfrom Hueyapan. The couple remained childless for six years; then,soon after their son Arturo was born, the marriage fell apart and theyseparated. A few months later, Maestro Rafael settled down againwith a distant cousin of his first wife, with whom he has since had sixchildren.4

Juana Espinosa—Maestro Rafael’s common-law wife. Doña Juanais 32 years old and mother of six of the eight children living in thehouse. She is presently pregnant with her seventh. Doña Juana isalways working, taking care of her children, and doing most of thecooking and housework for the entire family. To accomplish all thatshe has to do, she rises earlier than everybody else and goes to sleeponly after the others have retired. A quiet woman, Doña Juana hardlyever initiates a conversation, except with her children.5

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Arturo Vargas—Maestro Rafael’s son by his first marriage. Arturois 14 years old. When his parents separated, he stayed with his fatherand was looked after by Doña Zeferina. In June 1969, the boy fin-ished secondary school. He had been studying in Yecapistla, a nearbypueblo, and living with schoolteacher friends of his father. A fewmonths later, Arturo took and failed the qualifying exam for contin-uing his studies in a preparatory school. He now has to wait anotheryear before taking the test again. In the meantime, Arturo is living athome, helping Don José plant the corn, graze the sheep, and attendto other chores around the house.6

Rosa Vargas—Doña Juana and Maestro Rafael’s oldest child. Rosais 12 years old and is in her last year of primary school. She is a good-natured, quiet girl who already assumes many responsibilities in thehouse. Her mother relies heavily on her to help out.7

Raúl Vargas—The second child of Doña Juana and MaestroRafael. An aloof boy, Raúl is ten years old and in fifth grade.8

Héctor Vargas—The third child of Doña Juana and MaestroRafael. Héctor is eight years old and slightly darker in complexionthan the other members of the household. The butt of many jokes,people tease the little boy because of the color of his skin. Althoughnobody seems to make the connection, Héctor is a disciplinary prob-lem both at home and at school. This year, he is repeating first gradefor the second time.9

Maribel Vargas—The fourth child of Doña Juana and MaestroRafael. Often called by her nickname Maruca, Maribel turned six inDecember and is very eager to begin school. Loud, a bit bossy, andclearly very bright, people say she resembles her grandmother, DoñaZeferina.10

Reyna Vargas—The fifth child of Doña Juana and MaestroRafael. A very affectionate little girl, Reyna, at four, is her father’sfavorite. When the maestro is home, she routinely climbs into his lapand cuddles. When he goes to town, Reyna tags along.11

Angel Vargas—The sixth child of Doña Juana and MaestroRafael. Better known by his nickname Quico, Angel is a tempera-mental two-year old who demands a lot of attention. Still, over theyear, he has grown up very quickly, allowing himself to be weanedfrom his mother’s breast without a whimper.12


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Angelina Hernández—Doña Zeferina’s only daughter and theyoungest of her three surviving children. Maestra Angelina is 28years old and the mother of Lilia, the eighth child living in the house.In the early 1960s, she married a man, in a civil ceremony, againsther mother’s wishes. The couple settled down in the lowlands. Aftera few months, she moved back to Hueyapan pregnant. As DoñaZeferina had predicted, the man treated her badly. Maestra Angelinahad the baby in her mother’s home. Once the infant was weaned, shereturned to school to get certified as a teacher. During the week, shelives in Hueyapan with her daughter, her mother, and her brotherRafael’s family. On weekends, she goes to Cuernavaca to study at theInstituto Federal de Capacitación Maesterios. Leaving her daughterwith Doña Zeferina, she spends the night in Cuernavaca in the homeof her brother Ernestino, together with his wife and their child.13

Lilia Pérez—Maestra Angelina’s daughter. Lilia is five years old.Like Arturo, she is Doña Zeferina’s ward and as such receives moreattention from her grandmother than do the other children in thehouse. Although she is pampered and indulged, Lilia remains gentleand sweet.14

A Day with the Family15

Doña Juana is the first to rise. It is about 6:30 AM and still dark out-side. Having gone to sleep in a slip and underclothes, she silentlyputs on the cotton dress she was wearing the day before, ties an apronaround her waist, and slips into her plastic shoes. Wrapping herselfup in a cotton rebozo (shawl), she hurries out into the brisk morningair to try to beat the long lines that will soon be forming at ReyesMaya’s corn mill, which (conveniently) is located next door. Beforestarting the arduous task of making tortillas, she must grind a bucketof corn. Having stewed several quart-size measures (maquilas) ofdried corn kernels the previous afternoon, all Doña Juana has to donow is fill the bucket with the moist nixtamal, as the cooked corn iscalled, and have Don Reyes grind it for her at the mill. As far as sheis concerned, it is well worth the 20 centavos16 to avoid grinding thenixtamal by hand. Doña Juana vividly remembers how every morningher “poor mother” spent hours on her knees, grinding the softened


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corn into dough on a slab of volcanic rock (metate), crushing thekernels with a heavy roller (mano) made out of the same stone. Whenshe compares their lives, Doña Juana agrees that she has it mucheasier—at least she does not have to rise at 4:30 AM the way hermother used to do.

When she returns from the corn mill, Doña Juana rekindles thefires in the kitchen and puts up two cans of water, one for coffee, theother for Maestro Rafael, who insists on performing his morningablutions with warm water. Next, she heats the beans she had pre-pared the day before and washes down the flat griddle (comal ) used


Photo 1 Three of Doña Zeferina’s grandchildren (Lilia, Maribel, and Angel).

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for making tortillas with water and lime (cal )—a chalk-like substance.17

Once everything is under control in the kitchen, Doña Juana goesout to the backyard to cut a few chiles for the salsa she will serve withthe beans.

Don José rises a little after Doña Juana. He slips on his shirt and apair of pants over the long underwear he slept in, puts on his well-worn sandals (huaraches),18 then grabs his weather-beaten straw hatand woolen poncho (gabán). Silently, the old man leaves the bedroomand goes off to perform his early morning chore—providing the fam-ily with drinking water from the stream at the bottom of the Barrancade Amatzinac, one of the several deep gorges surrounding the village.Placing a wooden yoke on his shoulders, Don José is able to balancetwo large cans of water in a single trip. It takes two or three trips to fillthe earthenware jugs kept in the storeroom off the kitchen. Almostevery morning, Doña Zeferina tries to get Arturo out of bed to helpDon José carry water, but the sleepy teenager refuses to budge.

A few minutes later, Raúl and Héctor make their appearance.They have the job of sweeping the front yard with two homemadebrooms that are always falling apart. Next, Rosa folds back the cov-ers and reluctantly rises, waking Maribel in the process, who thenjoins Reyna and Quico in their parents’ bed, and starts a pillow fight.Before long, even the little ones want to get up and they call for Rosa,who is still not ready to face the day, to take charge of Quico.

Like her younger sisters, the 12-year old girl has slept in herdress, a torn sweater and a pair of pants. She takes off the pants,puts on her plastic shoes, and straightens out the wrinkles in herdress. She then picks up Quico, wrapping him and herself in hermother’s black wool rebozo. By this time, the little boy has begun tocry, tearfully demanding his morning piece of bread. Rosa takesQuico to the kitchen, where Doña Juana quiets his insistent pleafor pan, by giving him a 20-centavo coin. With the money tightlyclenched in his little fist, the cranky child orders Rosa to carry himdown to the corner store so that he can purchase a freshly bakedsweet roll.

By this time, Maestra Angelina is up and has gone to the kitchento heat Lilia’s bottle. Although Doña Zeferina and Maestra Angelinahave tried to discourage the habit, Lilia insists on drinking milk from


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