tourists
from nearby far off richer
lands where exploitations had occurred
earlier in history but now
were exported mainly not exclusively
Who
sowed hoed cut harvested tended sheep cattle
horses goats burros
on haciendas from age seven or eight
beside fathers indebted by
their fathers at the hacienda store
cross-generational peonage
sweated in the sun
drenched in the rains shoeless bootless
illiterate
their mothers sisters daughters worked free in the big
house
washing ironing grinding corn cooking meals they never
shared
emptying slop jars and spittoons sweeping floors and
fountain adorned
patios amidst the bougainvillea for the privilege
to remain
indebted without lands of their own or any hope of
any
until they revolted 80 years ago
Who
after 16 years of civil strife after more than a million men had
died
after dislocations unrepaired after houses and scant
possessions burned
after sons murdered after brothers lost after
daughters sisters
mothers wives raped and disappeared
some
became ejidatarios others pequeno proprietarios
some rural
proletarians owning little more than life
most flocked into state
capitals in Distrito Federal U.S. border towns
some to sell their
labor power in fluorescing factories sweatshops
talleres cantinas
on construction sites and brickyards
some to vend manzansas
Marlboros contraband radios and relojes
to neighbors better off
Mickey Mouse hand puppets ceramic
hamburgers slopping mayonnaise
rearing stallions made of stone
mixed with traditional handicrafts
woven dyed embroidered
carved painted to visitors from far off
nearby richer lands
some to cross the raya to plant and harvest
crops in California
Arizona Michigan Oregon Arkansas Texas or on
the railroad lines
across the west or in factories foundries
sweatshops in Gary Chicago
Los Angeles Detroit San Antonio until
deported when no longer
needed 60 years ago 40 years ago 20 years
ago today
Who
then joined their urban cousins some to live on lonely brickyards
no
electricity no fans no refrigerators no running water
no schools
for their children mold bricks to build the malls houses
hotels
industrial complexes tourist complexes banks
provide a subsidy
wrung from sweat of self and family
to burgeoning urban
conglomerations inhabited by the dispossessed
and those parasitic
on them
Some
to invade unused lands to form squatter settlements
shanty towns
colonias paracaidistas colonias perdidas
colonias populares to
build shacks of tarpaulin scrapwood
cardboard crushed aluminum
cans trashed by Budweiser and Coca Cola
drinkers to tap the holes
against the rain
Who
arrived in greater numbers after the Green Revolution
Rockefeller
inspired chemicals fertilizers monocropping
imported John Deere
tractors International Harvesters
the lucky buy land from the
luckless those whose crops failed those
with nothing left to
mortgage most day laborers deprived of work on farms now mechanized
no
lands to sharecrop anymore
machines replaced men machines displace
men imported machines
50 years ago and today and more tomorrow now
that Salinas has
revised and mangled Article 27 for which the
Zapatistas fought
in 1910
Whose
children labored beside them from an early age
in icy mud to mold
the bricks to mix the clay
toenails rotted fungus growing on ever
damp hands and feet
as ambulant vendors selling tacos fruit
vegetables serapes
carved wooden statues carved stone statues
white ceramic ducks
quartz pipes and bookends silver earrings hot
dogs
as garbage pickers collecting metals cardboard bottles for
recycling
as itinerant construction workers washers of windshields
on myriad
corners singers on buses jugglers clowns ice pick
swallowers
shoeshine boys dotting plazas sometimes selling glue or
pingas
newspaper boys amidst the traffic which sometimes grinds
them down
anything for a spare coin beggars without eyes without
legs
Who
malnourished never obtained full growth who poor could not pay
school
fees books notebooks pencils crayons
though now there were schools
unlike back on the ranchos
at least they learned to read some of
them
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