“LOST PARADISE” AREA

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1935, Page 4

“LOST PARADISE” AREA

MEXICAN GOVERNMENT EFFORT.

' One of the most important scientific expeditions in recent years is now on its way from Tuxtla Gutierresz into the interior of the State of Chiapas and surrounding States, where an intensive study will be made of the present population, as well as of vast archaelogical remains. The expedition, headed by Dr. Siegrief Askinsy, is being sponsored by the Mexican Government, which is also interested in having the land explored with the end in view of constructing a railway which will link up that portion of the republic with the other production and consumption centres. . Specialists in various branches oi research, including botanists, ethnologists, artists, historians, and archaeologists, ar.e forming part of the expedition. The population of the region is made up mainly of Chamula Indians, but the expedition expects to find as important data from the smaller and less civilised Lacandones. Members of the party will have to work fast, with as little loss of time as possible, because after the beginning of the rainy season in May the region is practically impassable and highly dangerous. Recordings are to be made of the various dialects spoken and masks of the different types will be cast. It is understood that Dr. Askinsy will sumbit a complete report to the Mexican National Museum and later will deliver a series of lectures. His findings > are to be published in the ‘Revue Anthropologique,’ of Paris, it was announced.

Interesting in relation to the Government’s programme of incorporating the various indigenous peoples into the social life of the nation was the recent visit to Mexico of the three “caciques” of the towns of Tepecacatan Tototepec, and Citlatepec, in the State of Guerrero. The four centuries of Spanish and other foreign civilisations which have invaded most of Mexico seem to have left the region of the three caciques in the southern part of Guerrero completely untouched. Their visit to Mexico was to ask co-operation of the authorities in bringing that region “up to date. ’ Their entire social and economic life and their Mixtec language are the same as they were hundreds of years ago, the three “head men” said. Asking that the Governmet send teachers, build schools, and reorganise the region’s economic life, the “caciques,” who carried the symbolic “staff of command,” told some of the details of their community life. They explained that their villages are located on the boundaries of Oaxaca and Guerrero States, high up in the mountains, in a region so difficult of access, which must be reached through vast stretches of virgin forest, that they have remained isolated. They hardly ever see a white person. The villagers devote their energies to agriculture, manufacture of palm-straw hats, hand-woven articles, and other handicrafts. Their products are carried to market by a special committee of four persons, the only ones in the entire region who speak the Spanish language. Their description of the social and political organisation of their villages is reminiscent of the ancient “primitive Communism.” They are governed by a commission of three “chiefs,” in whose power rests executive, legislative, and judicial powers. They do not know what robbery is there, the chieftains said, because possession of property is not essential to social recognition. Homicide is punished “by the Eternal,” they explained, the guilty one being incarcerated, and his entire family ostracised.

The “caciques” carry “staffs of command” handed down from preconquest epochs. The staffs are carved in hieroglyphics and the handle is in the form of a serpent. These staffs must never leave the communities, but special “substitute staffs” are provided in cases of specially commissioned trips to the outer wrold.

Another mission of the chieftains was to obtain confirmation of their title to the community lands, which have been in their possession through valid titles since the days of the viceroys. But far more important to them is the need of schools, they said. Since the founding of the villages, they added, there has not been a school or a teacher among them, with the result that only four persons can read and write, and these persons left the village to learn. The “Grand Personage” (Mixtec “Tacano”) said that his people live in peace, that there are no robbers or beggars because everybody works, that there are no drunkards because they educate their children against excess of drinking. Commentators in Mexico City have referred to the region as a “Lost Paradise,” and have ventured conjectures as to what transformations will come with the modern civilisation the Mixtecs desire.