Images of Life in Southern Mexico

All Photos Copyright Pete Brown

 

 

Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state, is home to some of the greatest wealth and, unfortunately, some of the greatest poverty in all of Mexico. Chiapas ranks among the leaders in the production of oil and natural gas production, hydroelectric power, and agricultural commodities such as corn, cattle, and coffee. Yet Chiapas is also home to malnutrition, illiteracy, inadequate housing, and, perhaps not inconsequentially, human rights abuses. A substantial portion of the residents of Chiapas are Mayan Indians concentrated in the central highland region. Pantelho is one of several indigenous municipios.

The municipio (or county) of Pantelho is located only 30 miles north of the regional center, San Cristobal de las Casas, connected by a small dirt road which winds its way through the mountains.

Pantelho is truly picturesque. Copses of pine, oak, and other deciduous trees, kept green by abundant rainfall, blanket the steep hillsides and deep valleys that make up most of the land area of Pantelho. Peasants' fields (milpas) form a checkerboard mosiac on the hillsides; forested sections, sometimes with coffee trees growing underneath in the shade, are interspersed with patches of corn and beans.

Pantelho circumscribes 137 square kilometers in which almost 14,000 people lived, according to the 1990 census, within some 37 recognized towns and villages. See my article on Pantelho in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures.

 

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 The people of Pantelho call these mud and thatch houses home. The women in the photo are engaged in collecting firewood, water, preparing food, and caring for their children. Few of the homes in Pantelho have such "luxuries" as electricity or running water.

 

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Celebration of Carnival in Pantelho

 

Through music, dance, food, and drink these Mayan men celebrate carnival in Pantelho. The instruments, guitar, violin, drum, and rattle, represent a mix of traditional Mayan and imported. The dancer in the center is wearing a woman's dress; the blond "wig" also marks him a the "woman." The men with the red head-dresses are the sponsors. They have spent year's worth of savings to put on this event. Everyone else you see in the photo (including the anthropologist behind the lense) came to enjoy the festivities. Where are the women? Inside the house (see also next photo).

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These women and girls prepare food for a community fiesta. The two seated women are preparing tortillas by hand to cook on the comal (flat metal sheet) over the fire behind them. The large black pot is nearly full of black beans also cooking over the fire. Beans and tortillas are staples in their diet. A pig was also butchered for this fiesta, a rare event.

Preparing food

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  "Main Street," Guadalupe Victoria, Pantelho. The houses belong to individual families. So do the pigs, but they range freely and act a "garbage collectors." You can also see stacks of firewood they use to cook all their meals. On the hillsides in the background you can see their small plots of land on which they cultivate corn and beans.

main street, guadalupe victoria

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These women celebrate "Dia de Los Muertos" in Pantelho, Chiapas. On the first and second of November the otherwise unmarked graves of their recently deceased ancestors are decorated with pine bows and marigold-like flower petals. Candles are lit and the women weep (ritual wailing, it is sometimes called). Men often drink pox, a cheap grade of rum.

Dia de los muertos

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Politics, rural Mexican style

 

 These young men, in the main room of their house, compose a letter of protest to the government. In their letter the claim the recent election was not fair. Many members of the community signed (or used a thumb print -- some never learned to read or write) indicating they support the protest. Rural protest of government policy has taken a variety of forms. One of the more recent and extreme was the Zapatista Rebellion (see EZLN).

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In my efforts to understand the history of Pantelho, I spoke with older members of the community, such as these two gentlemen. The most commom expression of their history, expressed in interview after interview, is "sufrimos" -- we suffered.

The photo they are looking at comes from the Smithsonian; they were trying to identify the time, place, and individual. I passed this information on the the curator.

The young man in the photo was one of my assistants, bilingual in Spanish and Tzotzil. The old men spoke only Tzotzil.

Interview with the viejos

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