The peons are nearly all born out of wedlock; illegitimacy is nothing
to them. Many are married, but even then they admit no obligations to
support their families. In every district they are nearly all related.
Fathers, mothers, if they can be identified, aunts, uncles, nephews,
cousins, address each other as “comdares” or “compadres” (comrades).
If increased pay tempts the peon away from his district, he will save
his money until a few dollars have accumulated, then he will return
and spend it with his old friends. In the winter months, when the rain
prevents outdoor work, they have many ways to get money. They sell
their labor in advance at greatly reduced rates. This is called “en
verde,” signifying in green, or while growing. They sell a number of
“tareas” of wheat, a certain term used in measuring the cutting of
wheat. Animals are often sold before they are born, fowls before they
are hatched, and wheat before it is sown.
LAND OWNER NO. 1.
The possessions of Land Owner No. 1 being too small to maintain himself
and family, he rents land to till on the shares. The custom is for
the landlord to provide the land, the seed and the animals with which
to do the cultivating and threshing. The tenant performs the labor
and prepares for market the grain, which is divided equally. When not
engaged in the necessary work of cultivating and harvesting the crops
upon his own or rented land, he works in a “chacra” (vegetable garden),
or finds employment in making adobes, bricks, tiles, or wooden
stirrups, cutting lumber, curing skins, etc. Sometimes he is sent by
neighboring hacendados on errands to the city for cargoes of goods, to
mill with wheat, or to the railway with mule trains carrying charcoal.
His possessions consist of a horse, a yoke of oxen, and possibly a
mule. All the tools that he has or requires are an ax, a shovel, a hoe
and a crowbar. His animals are usually pastured in the hacienda, and
the “talaje” (pasturage), paid for in work during plowing, sowing,
or harvest time. His “rancho” (house), which he refers to as “mi
vivienda,” is a creation not defined in the annals of architecture.
It is constructed by placing a number of poles in the ground; to the
tops of these upright posts other timbers of a similar character are
fastened by tying them with rope or pieces of bark. Between the posts,
sticks and branches of trees are woven, forming a sort of basket
work. Over this a coating of mud mixed with straw forms the walls.
The frame for the roof is also made of the trunks of small trees
fastened together with bark; over the crude skeleton is woven a straw
thatch, which is seldom rain proof. The door is made by tying together
sticks or planks, for which pieces of bark or rawhide serve as hinges.
The floors are dirt, and there are no windows or chimneys, and when
necessary to build a fire in the house the smoke filters out through
crevices in the walls and the thatch roof. These miserable huts, which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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