The following day at dawn, all the adult men of Tok'tuunich had gathered in the school, most of them were standing, because there weren't enough benches for all of them to sit.

From first light, Jacinto had sent for the credit inspector to have breakfast and to tell him that everything was ready for the meeting.

The night before, Nahuat, the representative of the government in the village and he had had an agreement on the matter and the need for a general assembly of the town.

Olivares, Nahuat and Jacinto sat down in the three places provided behind the teacher's desk. A few children, who were coming to school, looked at them curiously.

Speaking in his native language Nahuat explained in detail the night before and the benefits, which according to him, the people would obtain from the loans that the government would authorize. At the end of the explanation, he invited Olivares to tell them personally.

Olivares stood up, looking into the faces of the indians, inexpressive but attentive.

"I would like to speak to you in maya but I can't. Don Melchor will translate what I say. He will tell me your questions. The government has budgeted money in the form of a credit to help you develop your agriculture and cattle raising also pigs and many other things. In order to do this it is necessary to form an ejido, a common land; only in this way you can be given the loans because the entire town will be responsible for the debts you contract.

Olivares paused so that Nahuat could translate what he had said.

"Are there any questions? Well, I will continue. It is necessary to take a census of the inhabitants and say how much land you have and establish the limits of the ejido and we legalize the occupation of these lands, which are property of the nation. With this information of the ejido we are going to apply for its formation so you can benefit from the government aid. Any questions?... fine.

Jacinto observed his brothers. He guessed their thoughts just from the expression on their faces. He also guessed the questions and reproaches that would come when the bank agent was finished.

At the end of the first row he saw the restlessness of the teacher because of the silence of the assembly. It was like the calm before the storm. He knew how many of them had felt about the attempt to establish a group of settlers from the center of the country. The group had finally abandoned the area because of the insects and the climate. When the local people were deciding to force them to leave. They had invaded and had reacted to the threat that the small group the government had brought represented to them. And the exploitation of the chicle in their land? How many times did they have to protest against the invasion of their land and how many times they have been about to clash with the chicle cutters from other states who had come into their land without permission? The matter got worse every year, and what about the cedar and mahogany and other precious woods and the "ties" they had tried to exploit without concessions and without any benefit for the people?

Jacinto knew that this would come out any moment.

He decided that at the end of the explanation, he would suspend the meeting to avoid problems. They would have to study carefully the proposals of the government and consider the real benefits and possible adverse consequences.

Olivares finished the exposition. All of the people there remained silent, only a few exchanged glances.

Nahuat, the representative, emphasized in his own language, what was beneficial for the town according to the bank agent. He urged them to say what they thought. Whether they considered the benefits were worth the trouble and wouldn't change their way of life.

Jacinto listened and observed carefully the unchanging faces of the people. For a few minutes nobody made any comments or asked any questions, moments later Jacinto broke the silence and spoke to Olivares.

"How long can you wait for our answer? You told us that you had to go back to Chetumal soon and we have to talk his over until all the points are cleared up"

Olivares made gestures that indicated he couldn't answer the question.

"Then I think that you should go back and tell the authorities that we are going to study the matter and in two or three week we will let you know... Could you give us more information to add to the file? He asked to Olivares.

He answered - How many heads of families are there in town? How many families are there in total?

"The teacher has all that information" - Jacinto answered.

How many acres of land do you consider belong to the town? - insisted Olivares.

"To the east , four leagues, to the north, four leagues, to the west, we haven't set limits but we don't work the land beyond six leagues. The forest beyond there belong to other towns you should have that information in the office in Chetumal"

"Do you need to know anything else? I think it would be better later because these people have to go to their labors. For now we cannot do anything."

Nahuat nodded in agreement and speaking to the assembly in Maya language he explained briefly and ended the meeting.

Jacinto invited Olivares and Nahuat to go with him to his house to continue the conversation. They went and sat down, Jacinto asked his wife to make coffee.

"What other information do you need? We can give all the information you want , but no decisions. That will be only after we talk it over with all the people"

Olivares took a notebook out of his briefcase and after writing down the initial information he asked: "What else do you grow besides corn and beans? "How many tons do you usually get to the acre? Do you have any cattle?

Olivares was going to continue his series of questions.

"Since you have many questions and you want a lot of information, Why don't you leave us the documents and we will fill them out with the help of the teacher? That way you could spend some time getting to know the town. If you would like you can visit the school and see our gardens; or if you prefer you can rest. The teacher told me that you plan to leave early tomorrow morning. Perhaps you had better go and rest.

"You are right, Don Jacinto. I am going to rest in the teacher's house. He is doing me the favor of putting me up"

Olivares was very careful how he expressed himself. He tried to sound solemn to impress Jacinto. After his first talk with him, and after speaking with the representative, he realized that Jacinto was who had real authority in the village. Now he realized why the teacher had taken him to Jacinto when he first arrived. And he confirmed it during the course of the assembly. He'd better be very careful in his dealing with him and try to make him think that he had the utmost respect for him.

"With your permission, I will leave now. I will explain to the teacher how to fill in the forms. With one copy for you and the other for me. If you finish it before I leave, I will take it with me, and if you don´t, I imagine you can send it to me at your earliest opportunity. I have to go back to Chetumal to inform the commission. With your permission."

A week later, Jacinto, Nahuat, and three other man designed by the counsel left for Chetumal taking with them the documents that contained the information that the agent had asked for. When they arrived they went to the office where, according to Olivares, they were supposed to have an interview with the boss.

The decision to form the ejido had been made after two assemblies on consecutive days, after the agent had gone, during those days they discussed the matter heatedly. However, they agreed that the committee would make a final decision until some doubts had been cleared up and guarantees had been given that all the land that the village considered theirs would be respected. There had been a clash between the old men who were skeptic of any dealing with the tsuuloob, and the young men who wanted to participate in the changes that they saw in the town close to Santa Cruz, Carrillo Puerto and in the rumors of new horizons and opportunities in Chetumal which was rebuilding after hurricane Janet.

Jacinto thought about these recent happenings. In his visit to Chetumal, the first he had made, it passed everything he had imagined before, he had expected to find a new capital according to what he heard from those who had the opportunity to be there. Except for the reconstructed public buildings and some construction work, he found the same image; he would have imagined muddy streets, cantinas, stores, and groups of country people, chicle camps. He was amazed at the stores with their black-market merchandise, imported food, watches, radios, clothes and other things that he had never seen before. Where did Olivares get the money that he had spent? So much money, he spent on them when he invited them to the cantina after their interview with people at the bank.

He had thought about turning down the invitation, but at the insistence of the agent and at the curiosity of the people and his own, he decided to go along.

His companions let themselves be carried away by the moment and the novelty and it turned into a drunken party. Jacinto's control and reserve allowed him to observe the agent's attitude and the reactions of the group. Always alert, he watched the hours pass until nightfall when Olivares took them to where they were to spend the night. He couldn't sleep because of the terrible heat and the mosquitoes and fleas of the place.

When they started back to the village the next day, he felt a great relief, in spite of the difficult journey that waited for them from there to their village.

"Was it to their advantage, was it good, what it was happening? Would not there be any adverse consequences to the credit that they were about to receive?

More than five years before Chetumal had suffered the fury of hurricane "Janet". In the woods of Tok'tuunich, more than forty leagues away from chetumal , scarcely showed the effects of the following storms that hit the Caribbean coast. This had hardly attracted attention because it hadn't caused much damage in the uninhabited jungles of Quintana Roo, but the harvest had been poor. The woods were marked by the fallen trees and forest fires favored by the dry wood, making way for brush and twines which made hunting more difficult. They were difficult times. The sap from the chicle trees, which the people harvested with great difficulties, was badly paid by the merchants and the go-betweens of the chicle cooperatives. Only a few had benefits from the chicle sap. When the merchants and other buyers came, they almost always paid with alcohol, cigarettes and other worthless things. Many of them smoked marijuana, a habit they picked up while they were working in the chicle centers and in the cantinas and places of ill repute in Chetumal and Santa Cruz.

On the long trip to Santa Cruz in the old bus where they were travelling, he had the chance to go over the events from time to time. The professor Marcelo had arrived in the village more than 30 years before, he remember the year or more he had been there, the death of his sister Leonor; her baby who was now a man... Where were they now? - Would they still be in Zaci? His nephew must have been working in Merida or in Mexico City where he would be studying a specialty according to what he had said when he had come with the medical brigade after the hurricane "Janet". He remember his restlessness when he entered the world of the "Tsuulo'ob" through the teacher and the books. So many years had passed, so many changes and even so the village was almost the same. Only a few people spoke Spanish and the seed of knowledge that his friend had planted hadn't germinated completely. The school was abandoned, often no teacher was assigned, and when there was they didn't stay long. it wasn't until then that they really appreciate Marcelo's attitude years before. Where are the roads they had been promised? To get to the village they had to walk or go by mule from Santa Cruz.

After starting their walk, each one with the merchandise they had got in Chetumal and Santa Cruz, Jacinto hurried his horse with a couple of whips. He began to feel better breathing the clean air of the forest. He was thinking in a few more hours, the next day he would be at home with his wife, children and grand children, giving them the gifts he had bought for them in this first trip to Chetumal. The battery radio and the flashlight for hunting would be his big hits. He would soon be using it on his night runs to the milpa.

In Tus-ik, where they were going to spend the night, Huchim the youngest of the group asked: "Don Jacinto, during the visit to Chetumal and on the way back you have hardly said a word. We have noticed that you have been worried. We have talked about it and although we have decided to wait until we got to the village to talk about the matter, we want to tell you that we really want to hear what you think about all this"

"Come closer and we will talk about it. Why not, we will use this moment when we are together to talk about it" Jacinto answered.

Huchim and the others sit at the door of the hut in the cool of the evening. The different aroma of the American cigarettes saturated the atmosphere as they started to talk.

"What do you men think?" asked Jacinto. His question surprised the group. It was usually the Bataab who gave his opinion first, rather than asking o listening to the others.

"You, Huchim, you seem to be the most interested. Give us your opinion"

Huchim didn't think for long.

"I think it is good for us to work with the bank, others do, we know it, and they have obtained benefits. I have heard that when they cannot pay, the bank pardon their debts and when the harvest fails, they get more money to go on"

Another man in the group said." Olivares told me that the only thing we have to do is sign the papers they gave us and soon we will have the money to help us buy seed and plant the corn. They will get us good seed and fertilizers for the land, it will all be in our benefit, and we don't have to worry about loosing our lands, because the government has to stand our loses. There is a lot of money for the rural development and we would be silly not to take advantage of the help they are offering us"

"What do you say Chon?" Jacinto asked the oldest of the group, the man over 50 years old was listening carefully the words of the others.

"It seems too good to me, I don't believe things can be so easy. Maybe they want to trap us and then take away our lands"

Jesús Olivares, "The Chu'uy" came a few weeks later as unexpected as the little first time.

Jacinto was resting at midday when some told him that Olivares had arrived at the school. Surely shortly after he would come to Jacinto's house. What would he bring this time? All the information and arrangements had been taken care of when they were in Chetumal.

When the bank agent visited him, Jacinto was already waiting for him at the door.

He got up to greet him stretching out his hand.

"Good afternoon Don Jacinto, Here I am again"

"Sit down, Don Jesús, make yourself at home"

"Thank you.You how that trip affects me. I am not getting used to horseback. I am so saddle sore, I can't even walk straight. I don't know whether to stand up or sit down"

Jacinto smiled.

"Tomorrow, if it is possible, I will inform the assembly of what I bring in my portfolio"

While he explained, he opened the portfolio and took out some papers.

"Here is the paper that they have to sign to apply for information about the ejido, please read it before I read it to the assembly"

Jacinto took the papers and gave them to his wife inside the house and asked her to put it on the table.

"Don Jacinto, these things are already resolved, it is a matter of arrangements. What we have to do now is to take a list of how many acres or mecates according to you, they are going to plant to give you the credit"

"How does all of this work?

"It is very simple Don Jacinto, once we know how many people and how many mecates you are going to plant we advance you the money for the clearing, planting, the growing and the harvest"

"What if we lose the harvest? Or the harvest is poor? How are we going to pay the money back?"

"The planting is insured, Don Jacinto, it is charged to the credit as well as the interest"

"That mean that even if we have a little corn or nothing at all we won't have any problems?"

"That's right! That's why it is called insurance" Chu'uy smiled sarcastically.

Jacinto did not trust the agent but he kept silent.

"Don Jacinto, Don't worry, this is a sure thing. Trust us"

The next day, in the large building that was used for a school, the people listened to the representative Nahuat explain the document that the credit agent read paragraph by paragraph.

Jacinto meanwhile, listened to the content of the document which he would study later. He watched the faces and reactions of the men. He knew them perfectly. Each one, their virtues and vices, their faults and worries, their family problems as well as their diseases, their discipline, their rebellion; everything that passed through their minds.

The answer was affirmative. He just needed to see the shine in their eyes, some of hope, some of greed, to know whether the credit had been approved. The government had never offered them money before, why not accept it, maybe it would be okay, he though while the document was being read.

Everybody was quiet.

"Then - Olivares continued- if you agree with the formation of the ejido and with the credit come sign or make your mark"

Nobody moved from the benches. Some turned to look at Jacinto, who remained motionless.

He got up and walked to the desk, he asked for a pen and signed the document.

When he went back to his seat the rest of the men got up in order to sign or make their mark.

It had been done.

The Chu'uy was silent while his mind imagined the benefits he would get from the money he would grab on to from the credit.

The following morning, in Jacinto's house.

"Don't Jacinto" said Chu'uy while he shook his hands to take a leave..."in two or three weeks I will surely be back with the money from the credit"

"I hope you have a better trip" he answered..."We will be waiting for you"

"Do you want anything from Chetumal?"

"Thanks, Don Jesús, I don't need anything... except maybe more batteries for my radio, I will give you the money"

"Don't worry Don Jacinto, you can count on them"

Standing in from of his yard, Jacinto watched the agent and his guide leave toward Carrillo Puerto and Chetumal.

He went over the events of the last weeks in his mind. A nice warm breeze reminded him that the cold north winds were leaving. The dry season was approaching and with it, they would finish clearing the fields and wait for the burning season.

With optimism, he looked forward to the next planting time.

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El Cuyo Yucatán, a new meeting with the nature. . Travelers Guide

 

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