Social Circle

What I found most striking while reading about class in Totonicapan, was that wealth did not come from farming the land it came from the ability to produce profitable artisan works. Where wealth comes from, was one of the few points that was actually clear to me after this weeks reading. While the whole research article was supposed to be determining class I could not see a sound social order in Totonicapan. What I found to be evident was that there was a strict divide between Indians and Ladions, and while this caused tension, it is if their social worlds did not overlap, Ladinos assumed they were better then Indians, while Indians were oblivious. Indians seemed to divide social class by township. In which wealth is not a determinate, but the ability to send people off to work. What I found most perplexing is that there were social classes, but not well defined ones. Everything reminded me of previous readings. Without modernization I feel it is hard to have defined social classes because very few have lots more or less then the majority. I believe that once modernization is introduced, social classes will form immediately, but until then it will be a jumble.

That being said I think social classes have a good possibility of never forming. As others mentioned many Guatemalans are labor workers and work for large corporations. Therefore they never truly gleam a large portion of what they produce making all laborers fiscally equal.

Rambling on I do not see why the Indians lack of support of the revolution was a surprise. They ultimately will gain almost nothing from a revolution. With no say in the government and few personal possessions to protect, they have no concrete vested interest in the revolution. I feel as thought I am missing key parts to this research because it seemed to go in a circle.