Progressive Chile

by Robert E. Mansfield

With all the ill-treatment imposed upon them, the Chilean horses seem fond of their masters. If left alone unfastened they will wait for hours for the return of their owners. They will gallop long distances over sand roads, up-hill and down, over stones, without shoes, and after a night’s foraging upon scant grass they are fit for another day’s work that may mean many leagues over bad roads.

It is interesting to witness the performance of a drunken huaso trying to reach home on his pony. The animal, perhaps from much experience with drunken riders, seems to understand the condition of his master, and his intelligence and patience in trying to help the man who is helplessly drunk, is both amusing and pathetic. He will stand firmly and patiently until the man is in the saddle, then start gently along, swaying from side to side as the rider loses his equilibrium, and when the man can sit erect no longer, will stop and wait for him to straighten up. Sometimes hours are spent in going a short distance. Cruel spurs rake him, and the terrible bit lacerates his mouth, but he seldom becomes excited, and if the man falls off, the patient beast invariably stops and waits for him to remount.

For general thieving the Roto Chileno has an international reputation, and it is conceded that he is capable of more clever lying and stealing than any known individual. They are not bold thieves, but rather of the sneak-thief order. If useful articles are left unguarded they seem to take wings and fly away. Yet no one has been seen or heard, and the rotos are the meekest of the innocent.

With all his faults the roto has, however, in many things a sense of responsibility. You may place one of them to guard any property (liquors excepted), and he will not steal nor permit others to do so. You may dispatch him with ladened carts, troops of cargo mules, money or other valuables, and under most circumstances your orders will be executed with the utmost fidelity. The responsibility attached to the service, when upon special missions, seems to convey the idea that he is under your eye. His faults may be attributed to ignorance and the custom of bad example rather than an evil heart. If treated kindly and fairly he will show some gratitude and appreciation by rendering faithful service. All work done by the peons is under the supervision of mayordomos. They are not supposed to think, but simply to do as they are ordered. They work with their hands and not with their heads, yet no one can give a better day’s work than the roto when he exerts himself. Their hours are from sunrise to sunset, stopping an hour for the midday meal. The peons formerly received from twenty to thirty cents per day, Chilean currency, the latter sum being paid to those in the country adjacent to the cities, but in more recent years they are a little better paid. They must be paid on Saturday night or they will not work willingly. If not working, they are left without food, but this makes little difference as those who are employed divide with their friends.

The peons are nearly all born out of wedlock; illegitimacy is nothing to them. Many are married, but even then they admit no obligations to support their families. In every district they are nearly all related. Fathers, mothers, if they can be identified, aunts, uncles, nephews, cousins, address each other as “comdares” or “compadres” (comrades). If increased pay tempts the peon away from his district, he will save his money until a few dollars have accumulated, then he will return and spend it with his old friends. In the winter months, when the rain prevents outdoor work, they have many ways to get money. They sell their labor in advance at greatly reduced rates. This is called “en verde,” signifying in green, or while growing. They sell a number of “tareas” of wheat, a certain term used in measuring the cutting of wheat. Animals are often sold before they are born, fowls before they are hatched, and wheat before it is sown.

LAND OWNER NO. 1.

The possessions of Land Owner No. 1 being too small to maintain himself and family, he rents land to till on the shares. The custom is for the landlord to provide the land, the seed and the animals with which to do the cultivating and threshing. The tenant performs the labor and prepares for market the grain, which is divided equally. When not engaged in the necessary work of cultivating and harvesting the crops upon his own or rented land, he works in a “chacra” (vegetable garden), or finds employment in making adobes, bricks, tiles, or wooden stirrups, cutting lumber, curing skins, etc. Sometimes he is sent by neighboring hacendados on errands to the city for cargoes of goods, to mill with wheat, or to the railway with mule trains carrying charcoal. His possessions consist of a horse, a yoke of oxen, and possibly a mule. All the tools that he has or requires are an ax, a shovel, a hoe and a crowbar. His animals are usually pastured in the hacienda, and the “talaje” (pasturage), paid for in work during plowing, sowing, or harvest time. His “rancho” (house), which he refers to as “mi vivienda,” is a creation not defined in the annals of architecture. It is constructed by placing a number of poles in the ground; to the tops of these upright posts other timbers of a similar character are fastened by tying them with rope or pieces of bark. Between the posts, sticks and branches of trees are woven, forming a sort of basket work. Over this a coating of mud mixed with straw forms the walls. The frame for the roof is also made of the trunks of small trees fastened together with bark; over the crude skeleton is woven a straw thatch, which is seldom rain proof. The door is made by tying together sticks or planks, for which pieces of bark or rawhide serve as hinges. The floors are dirt, and there are no windows or chimneys, and when necessary to build a fire in the house the smoke filters out through crevices in the walls and the thatch roof. These miserable huts, which form the places of habitation of the poor, are never perpendicular nor stand at proper angles, for the reason that they are shaped by the crooked timbers forming their framework. The interior presents an appearance quite as barren and devoid of comfort as the exterior. The furniture consists of a crude bedstead, a rickety table, and a few benches or stools. There are no articles of comfort or luxury in the homes of the poor. The men sleep upon the ground, inside or out of the house, as they choose, or as the weather permits. The crude furniture and the burnt clay dishes upon which their food is served are made by the women. The food is usually cooked in an iron kettle over an open fire, or in an oven of brick and mud built outside of the house. A peculiar feature of these squalid ranchos, especially in the interior of the country, is the barrenness of their surroundings. Usually there is not a tree, shrub, plant or flower, or any living, growing, green thing to relieve the dreariness of the desolate surroundings. This is all the more surprising when it is remembered that Chile possesses a prodigious soil, and that all kinds of vegetation grows quickly and prolifically when water is applied to the ground. Along the railways and near the cities a majority of the ranchos are distinguished by the cultivation of a variety of fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. The site selected for a country house is usually with reference to a supply of water.

Viewed from the roadside these rickety ranchos present a picturesque appearance. It is the frayed edge of home life that is always to be found behind the sub-tropical finery of semi-tropical countries. It is not well, however, to examine too closely or inquire carefully into the details of this home life. It is better to be gracious, for squalid as is the peon’s cottage, and unkempt as the family may appear, the extraordinary variety of dirt and the fantastic untidiness of the huts baffle description and escape reproduction. Similar spots may be seen in any land, for every population has its wastrels, but in the far east there is not to be found a lower level of life and greater lack of comfort generally, than that which suffices for the lowest classes in Chile. In a country blessed with a paucity of noxious reptiles and insects, where no beast more formidable than the cowardly puma dwells, and where birds and flowers of rare beauty abound, it seems inappropriate that man should dwell in such domestic squalor.

The male occupants of these houses do not, as a rule, contribute anything to the maintenance of the family. That feature of domestic life is left exclusively to the women, who are a hard working, self-sacrificing, humble and long suffering class. While they are neither honest nor virtuous, their vices are due more to ignorance and circumstances than natural tendencies, and their rewards do not match their merits. They do not feel the necessity of acting with scrupulous honesty at all times, as they are possessed of the belief that the priests will remit all their sins upon the payment of a given sum of money. Their education is narrow and limited, and they have never been well instructed in the virtues of the ten commandments. They spin, weave and dye ponchos for their men folk, and for sale; make blankets, fabrics for clothing, and clay dishes for their own use and for the market. They raise poultry, not for home consumption, but that they may sell the fowls and eggs, which are usually sold in advance.

These people are always in debt to the well-to-do landowners in the community where they live, and from whom they buy cloth, wool, dyes, food, etc. When eggs are laid or fowls are grown they are given in payment for these articles. One not familiar with the customs and conditions would be surprised in traveling through the country to find that it is difficult to buy an egg or a chicken at any of the ranchos, notwithstanding the fact that there seems to be a plentiful supply at every house.