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11/2/1954 - Agrarian Reform in Cliza by Richard W. Patch

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS RWP Cllza Ararlan Refom Bolivia Cliza November Mr Walter S Roers Institute Current World Affairs 5Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Mr Roers On surface Cliza pleasant little trees roses plaza women beatin clothes wooden paddles river cattle wandering through streets coming pasture houses turning without prodded The business appeas centuries Most persons Cliza early morning their little plots surrounding Women countryside start loads tomatoes cabbages onions seven clock briskly selling their products market The chicha brewerse soaking their barrels eadying t0hold production maize By eight clock parish priest tucked robes visitinE bicycle At thirty stops while people gather tation train which major Journey three hours Cochabmba miles There women tracks selling bananas oranges little bread Returning station careful stumble charcoal tailor outside sidewalk The barber standin doorway pelusuera warming himself hoping today better yesterday people indulged themselves luxury professional haircut which costs cents A woman eping fallen fronds plaza since dried cattle scarce Promptly shutters shops oolice chief prefect close offices everybody dinner biggest siesta until three clock The persons restaurant Abril Cliza strangers other place ThrouEhout women water Jus blauced their heads fountain middle plaza water girls already learued along broken sidewalk large Jug water their heads In midafternoon dusty stillness nearly empty streets broken throb raucous cornets tubas horns The playing steps church Two young girls church first followed bride girls throw confetti couple anyone comes range The wedding party following Continues through cobblestone streets until arrives house padrino friend family agreed odfather wedding bears expense clIcha drifi which undoubtedly continue until following morning All stops clock townspeople gather plaza strolling around square exchanging opinions about events If electric light plant happens working order electricity turned loudspeaker which hangs window municipal buildin begins dance music By clock streets deserted clock every Tiis makes pretty picture surface But underneath there frank avowed Cllza srarian responsible distribution under agrarian reform carry pistols their pockets mestizos mixed bloods afford A stranger returning lodgins after accompanied friendly towns throu deserte streets All because there still doubt anarchy which broke during after revolution April brougl under control In Indians lived centuries hopeless servitude mestizos whites suddenly became every sense Racial between Indians landowning mestizos threatened instances became actuality A number landlords hundreds Indians killed before organized seized barracks department obtain The wealthier mestizos Bolivia organized themselves Falange centered Cochabamba attempted several counterrevolutions But Falsn Cochabsmba nu_bers scant Indians march Cochabamba hours number around O0 The Falanists realize hopelessness their situation hidings I found evidence Falange extra ational I chose province mliza department Cochabamba study agrarian reform several reasons It center dense population Indians formerly worked peons number large persons affected agrarian reform It province Indians first began organize themselves select leaders coherent demands former landowners their government The province recognized throughout Bolivia informal Indian government For these ressons ararian reform progressed farther Indians signs change other oarts Bolivia In fs_ct Indian ceased exist The racial stock Indians intermixed Span physiolo ically there little discernible difference between Indian mestizo The Indian dition alive because class individuals called Indians spoke Quechua maintained native dress performed menial recognized themselves Indians But Snanish indio derogatory connotation recognized insult Now would danFerous indeed nybody Indian But significant dropped usage altogether Mestizos talking among themselves replaced words qampesino compaero comrade which applied eually mestizos former peons President Republic The other cultural signs Indian disappearing rapidly Most population depart knows Spanish The unanimously reected ditional Indian dress homespun women following somewhat slowly The assigned Indian belog performed former peons vidmal landowners mestizos louer peons The result class structure being_ altered economic oositlon becomin class criterion criterion distinguish clearly since laborer earns bolivianos month municipal O OOO bolivianos The sudden disappearance merging Indian Bolivia because success political ideology great significance other predominantly Indian countries Latin America Possibly ority called Indians Lstin Am erica similar conditions potentially assimilation They their situation isolation economic opportunities governments whose desire assimilation Indians previously demonstration Bolivia orovided Indianness largely matter people believe Finally I chose study because presents range landholdin institutions feudal estates called latifundios individual holdings Including church holdings modern mechanized farms sustaining communities whose members cultivate their collectively The campesinos rural population established unions workers various former haciendas These sindicatos mesiuo Jos active orgsnizer vivid speaker first union Ucurea kilometers Cliz He traveled length Cochabamba Valley forming unions other hacienda workers getting people select leaders Cnce organized unions began legal proceedings condemnation hacienda lands their redistribution among Indians The unions collect assume responsibility dependent persons Actually effective government where national departmental governments interfere little The unions recently federated elected Joss ndicatos department In speaking conditions which campesinos emerged against which continuing I terms hopeless servitude feudal This strike unnecessary exaggeration reference feudalism picturesque hardly probable twentieth century But I using terms literal sense A short description these conditions their comparison lassic feudal system should explain present temperament campesinos Eileen Power written little called Medieval P eople which includes description Abbey St Germain Pr Paris culled estate written between A D Charlemagne De Villis tructions stewards management estates The lands Abbey St Germain divided number estates called fiscs convenient administered steward On these fiscs divided seigniorial tributary lands first adminis tered monks throu steward other officer second possessed various tenants received abbey rihese tributary lands divided numbers little farms called manses occupied families Attached central manse considerable amount plowlsnd meadows vineyards orchards almost woods forests estate Beside seinorial manse there number little dependent manses These belonged women various stages freedom excerpt chief manse important people called colon personally counted meHby bound could never leave their farms estate Each deendent manses either family tiree families which clubbed together consisted house houses buildings those chief manse poorer plowland meadow perhaps little piece vineyard attached In return these holdlns owner owners every manse chief manse about three The chief business their properly every right demand kinds labor The first fiel8 every bound fixed amount olowin domain celled later called unfixed mount olowin which steward could demand every needed Tle scond labor which every owner called 8ndwork Ielp repair buildln trees ather fruit carry loads anything wanted which steward But obligations services certain rents house lhere State taxes those every Day which Charlema exacted abbey which abbey exscted certain nunbe eouivalent money The farmers eturn secial orivileges ranted monks carry house return allowed sther firewood woods In ddition soeclal every farmer otier roduce every house three chickens fifteen large number planks buildings wives farmers happened serfs servile women cloth garment house every The correspondence description following descrip Monasterio Santa Clara which dominated province Cliza accident The Spaniards settled Latin America sixteenth seventeenth centuries country where alism still alive The Protestant reformation Spain untouched The rational thinking Galileo Bacon Descartes little headway Spain where Aristotelian scholasticism still formed basis truth It strange Spaniards imported inQuisition New World imported their system exploitation The Mo nasterio Clara establlghed I I aceordanc Francisca Vargas lands goods establishment nunnery provided Interred chaple niece permitted enter novic paying customary dowry The monasterio Soanish nores distinction glish between monsstry nunnery Originally Monasterio included whole become province Cliza The lands Monasterio Santa Clara classes those cultivated exclusive benefit Monasterio those belonging sense usufruct large number colonos The lands Monasterio administered series ome__s stewards The colonos attacfd parcels parts Monasterio lands included colono plots colonos themselves included specified integral trnsactiou The colonos annual canon tribute right continue cultivate In addition bound devote necessary cultiv irrigate harvest deliver threshed nowed wheat storehouses onasterio They furnish their tools beast burden In other words colonos furnished nothing which deliver crops Mouastsrio ormally required benefit Monasterio In addition colono member family required devote several weeks domestic service onasterio mayordomos preparing cooking carrying firewood washing cleaning If there enough occupy women servin7 their recuired rented other lndowners vicinity fieldwork which Monasterio mayordomo The children colono responsible pasturing Monasterio livestock horses cattle sheep chickens If nimal replaced colono responsible A percentse colono livestock Monasterio return Monasterio pasture The colono required grind certain percentage maize havest flour convert flour proaration maize The manufacture consi chewin coarse flour other ingredients pasts which ferment rapidly The colono percentage Monastrio Clearly colono could possibly fulfill obligations Monasterio still The extended family When family married leave family compound Rather moved their wives family often house sometimes building house addition compound Therefor there would large family father uncles would official colono rpresentstive family respon sible Monasterio The others cultivated small occasionally substituted colono While institution extended family possible cultivation tended create large sedentary population which after lived smaller subsistence margin This immobility responsible present enormous population relation available cultivable resistance population moving eastern lowlands where large uantities available trouble cultivating The above system exploitation remained effect naltered until In Monasterio needed money The mayordomos absorbed greater revenue The supervise operations given small fraction total rvenue The decided large Monasterio lands colonos In September national government issued decree these lands could colonos occupied owever small group persons pressured govern disorganized because recent suicide President succeeded inducin Minister Agriculture St Rosales issue another decree INovember permitting Monasterio Rosales later convicted malfeasance office spent prison Five persons purchased major lands Monasterio paying ridiculously small amount ignorant value their These decided system colonos their lands scattered hacienda lands inefficient introduced variation rigid archaic feudalism The colonos lands abolished their lands flooded destroy their crops houses Many colonos driven those remained settled small strips edges hacienda lands small called peEuJal The former colono called eguJale0 obliged perform services before except hacienda lands became formal reoulrement instead deonding amount necessary hacienda lands The canon tribute became obligation share patro roperty The pegualero still additional domestic service ouaJe services children The following classes persons attached haciendas became recognized addition oeguJalero Arrimantes persons helped peujslero Jalero The arrimante received produce Huertistas those monthly hacienda patron which usually truck produce The huertistas obliged addition serve patron month S itiaJeros those allowed souare meters par0n which built house attempted living raising chickens They served pstron three month Desahauciados those forced their patr6n failing their obligations because pleased patron This system continued until revolution April The Bolivian agrarian reform signed President cabiuet appropriately enough province Cliza Sep tember There mearly enough stablished agrarian amount neces subsistence typical campesino family Therefor latifundios divided parcels assigned catagories campesinos mentioned above according priority system The lands Monasterio together condemned their entirity The peguJaleros first priority received enough parcel toether their former peguJales plots three three euarters acres The deshauciados those forced patron leave their peguJales second ority involuntarily after They given right their former peuJal taken someone additional approximately acres The former huertistas arrimate approximately there remains sufficient The sitiaJeros given title square meters occupied But major difficulty arisen connection persons outside classification Csmpesinos thrown Monasterio hacienda lauds before technically rights small farmers connection haciendas impoverished towns moved hacienda lands hundreds appeared agrarian reform would become reality These maintained their position against campesinos legal rights against uthoties attempted remove Since administrators agrarian reform police department without dealing campesinos government grudgingly accepted situation The lands occupied manner relatively small The realized dividing iudividual plots would extremely inefficient decided cases cultivate collectively dividing eeually among individuals unusual there history lective farming Bolivia lands under control Saniards The President Junta agrarian Judge orovince rscognized these colectivos since cannot other rocess Oralizing collective titles favor individuals This collective become integral agrarian rform orovince other parts Bolivia caused considerable confusion bcause basic legislation books establish individual endent holdings The recognition collective accident This illustrates profound difference Bolivian agrarian reform Mexican ararian reform which attempted precisely foster collective called eido_ Mexico belief existed indigenous structure attrns cooperation favorable collective farming The Bolivian government contrary considers Indian customs cooperative exploitation dating Inca molre interesting historical phenomenon intention attempting resuscicate modern dress The authorities I talked La Paz Cliza expect colectivos forced recognize produce aproa subsistence their members eventually attract disil lusioned cooperative farmers unoccu_oled eastern lowlands WTile application legislation adjudication claims slowly worked government concerned agricultural production decline olivia serious agricultural deficit The framers reform attempted prevent reestablishment order patrons decreeing while hcienda being determined patron daily former uJaleros continue cultivate hacienda However peguJaleros refused prevailing cents legal minimum cents In cases former peguJaleros working hacienda lands dividing eeually between patron themselves The overnment belatedly recog nized cropIng legal alternative paying illustrating campesinos taken initiative agrarian reform overnment It I history However urpose emphasize accustomed thinking since actually still kicking heels This mixture archaic modern accuterments business suits copied Sears Roebuck tslogs years often results bizarre impressions stranE For example today thled population Cliza devoting itself entirely celebration Todos Santos All Saints Day The fiesta wierd combination rfual remnants Indian beliefs would apoear entirely fortuitous The priest repose reinforced least dozen brass bands cemetery playing dirges small grsves Special cakes bread placed raves undoubtedly hungry departed Wealthier townsmen prepared large table house yesterday loaded chicken pigeons vegetables fruit cakes csndy decemsed relatives return Today souls personified draed black other white driven cemetery barrage rotten fruit vegetables inconsiderable kicks blows would house coming So I pardon historizing serves apparent incongruities paradoxes which startling puzzling first sight whether systems holding insuring eternal felicity Sincerely Richard Patch Received New York II