Nuevos and Antiguos

I found the difference in perspectives of the nuevos and antiguos in the millitarized village created by the army to be very telling of the tension in that community. The antiguos had experienced the destruction of their lives and then the subsequent redistribution of lands that they had worked very hard to settle. Fom the antiguos perspective they had lost the agency to chose. The army forced them into volunteer patrols and told them were to live and watched them go about their lives. Understandably, the antiguos performed these tasks and endured grudgingly because they had no other option.

While the nuevos experienced the same terms and conditions of the militarized community, they had a very different perspective of the army and their situation. The nuevos were peasants brought in often from worse conditions. The nuevos were loyal to the military because they proved them with land. The nuevos saw the patrol duties as something that they were doing to help out the army that had already given them so much.

The differences between the nuevos and antiguos can be related back to Sen's theory on freedom and choice. One's perspective can be radically altered depending on whether he/she feels like they have a choice. The two groups had differing opinions on the exact same required military service due to the fact that they had different backgrounds that altered their perspective of that service. I liked how Beatriz Manz phrased this issue, that the two groups had a, "profound difference in their frame of reference: the antiguos measured the present against a dream they had acheived and seen imcinerated; the nuevos compared their situation to their landless desperation of yesterday."

The disparity in these two perspectives created a broken community. With such polarizing differences and animosity between the two what else could be expected? This was exactly what the military intended on doing by bringing in new, loyal settlers. By weakening the social cohesion in the settlement the military hoped to keep revolts or uprisings from from occuring. Their strategy proved effective for the short term, but not at all in the larger scheme of things.