THE INSURGENCE of CHAN SANTA CRUZ

BOOK FOUR: THE BOOK of SCIENCE

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

The Fermin grounds were west of the Paseo, encompassing a small orange grove and a fish pond. For the Presidential visit, over thirty Roman statues... fashioned hastily by a stonecutter whose prior experience consisted of funerary monuments... glared at one another, and at the living who passed, with barely concealed malice, perhaps as a consequence of the final insult of having had their genitals painted a brilliant red or blue.

Certain of the Caballeros had entered the Fermin estate in the early hours of the morning.

Don Gabriel Fermin owned three estanciónes scattered over the north of Yucatan. He dutifully visited each of them once every year and, but for the summer months when he and his family journeyed abroad, he practiced the honorable occupation of Professor of Classics at the University. His forte was the history and the literature of the Greeks and Romans; he, in fact, had tutored Rigoberto on some of the peculiarities of Roman jurisprudence and introduced Roberto Urzaiz to Petronius. In keeping with the theme of his function, he and his family had clothed themselves in bedsheets and flowers. Doña Marisela Fermin was a small, sharp-featured woman, a second cousin to both the Betancourt-Montez and Montez-Betancourt clans; a patroness of poetry and the arts, who had already met President Diaz in her capacity as committeewoman of the Literary Society. Their only child was Roberto's eager pursuer, the immense Teodora, whose costuming had necessitated the sewing of two sheets together.

Indian servants, also robed in imitation togas, strolled through the crowd with trays of delicacies, whiskey and champagne. The Fermins, like all except three or four Merida families, had imported some of the peons from their estates to assist the household help. Scratching and stumbling in their sandals and pseudo-togas, these indians, like the ghosts of Roman helots, wandered the Fermin grounds.

Father and son presented their invitations at the door, and a chair was commandeered for Don Antonio, despite his protestations of recovery. "The truth is that I don't mind, I won't become tired so early," the old hacendado whispered to his son, and directed the chair to a place opposite the front door where he could observe who made an appearance. "Go ahead," Don Antonio added, "circulate; see who is here, see how these things are done. I'll be fine." And José excused himself.

Perhaps a hundred people milled about, with an uncounted number more outside, but the President was not one of these, nor was the Governor. O'Reilly, however, was present and at the center of a lively young crowd, disputing education with a somewhat flushed Roberto Urzaiz.

"My aim," said don Porfirio's minister, "is to establish an educational model which will mold the young indian into a useful subject - a replica, in some respects, of ourselves."

"That's a worthy goal," Urzaiz said, "but you must also bear in mind the dangers that arise when we grow liberal in extending our own rights and responsibilities to people of lowly birth. In this place, half a century ago, we hoped the military would exert such civilizing influence. The experience of bearing arms for and not in opposition to the Republic would instill discipline, patriotism and industry in the hearts of the savages. In some respects, and in some places, it is true that this may have occurred. Here, however, the industry so taught was turned against the teachers. Now, almost sixty years have passed and again the notion that the Maya must be uplifted creeps from its hole... this time through education. Only bear this in mind, Minister, Merida has not forgotten the consequences of 1847."

Don Justo nodded amiably. "The uses to which education are put can be of more importance than the fact that one is merely educated. In the instance of the indians, we must remember that the race is chronically subject to delusions of persecution. There are many reasons for this, but the principle scourge is alcoholism. If, gentlemen, we can obstruct that scourge at its source, the impressionability of adolescence, I believe that useful citizens might be made of the indian population."

"But Minister," spoke up a young physician, "they already are most useful, in their place. God has set them upon this earth to till the fields and draw the cart. It may be uneducated labor, but it has its place. Who else would feed us? What would become of the haciendas without labor or the market without its vendors? An education cannot be worn, it cannot be hitched to your cart and, if possessed by those whose natural, God-given inclination is towards manual labor, it can only be misused. And as to drink – better that the laborers escape their misery through aguardiente than by plotting riots and revolution."

"Well, we do have an officer present," said Urzaiz, "a soldier who has had the obligation to deal with the indian in his most primitive and godless state." He nodded to José. "What about this, Captain? Is there any benefit to educating the indians, or is the Minister wasting his time."

José bowed to Minister O'Reilly. "No labor is a waste of time, whether educated or not. If education helps the indian perform his duties and increase the productivity of our estates, what right have we to deny it to them?"

"A choice answer," the Minister acknowledged. "Would you be, by chance, a Jesuit?"

"No, sir," José replied. "Why did you ask?"

"Your sentiments call to mind Limantour. Courteous but..." the Minister bit off the end of the statement, his eyes wandering a moment through the ersatz Roman halls. "What is your company?"

"I have retired," José corrected him. "Previously, the tenth infantry."

O'Reilly winced. "The tenth? Oh that... the Territory. The toughest posting in all Mexico, I am given to understand. A proving ground for many, as I understand, but particularly hard on its generals. The President finds it a useful proving ground... that Vega turned up as commander of the Second, in Chihuahua and of course old Garcia is still in Oaxaca with the Eighth. Forgive me if I seem rude, but, given how Ignacio Bravo scatters Generals as a crow spreads seeds, you might have had a future there."

"I did, but I also had an obligation to help manage the family estanción."

"Of course, of course," the Minister concurred. "At any rate, I do hope to meet your General when he arrives. Give my regards to him if I do not."

"Why don't you attend our function tomorrow," José suggested, pressing a card into the hand of the great man's son. "The General certainly shall have arrived, and others you may find useful will be present."

"I shall make every effort to attend," the Minister smiled.

José allowed Roberto's interrogations to continue, drifting to the back of the circle and then away, helping himself to a plateful of the barbecue before stepping outside. It was exceptionally hot for February and, already, one guest had been prostrated... an immense German salesman of women's underwear. He lay on a couch by the patio, gasping for breath like a hooked fish while a doctor was sought. On the lawn, the younger generation of Caballeros were engaged in a drunken game of tag, occasionally tackling a waiter and muddying his toga. The doctor, who earlier had argued education with Minister O'Reilly, peered down at the ailing German who mumbled something about fever. "But there is no fever in this state," the doctor corrected him. "Fever abides in the valleys, where there are trees and standing water. Yucatan is flat, its rivers are all beneath the ground." The German coughed again and turned his face despairingly away.

José left his plate on a table by the door and returned to his father, still in the chair which had been brought for his comfort. It was a soft chair festooned with feather pillows into which Don Antonio had nearly disappeared. "So easy to fall into, so hard to escape," he complained as José helped him to his feat and gave him his walking stick. "Well, we were wrong," he said, glancing at the figures of Urzaiz and Gabriel and Teodora Fermin huddled over the punchbowl. A cry, followed by laughter, resounded from outside, and José glanced through the nearest of the Fermins' windows to see a party of Caballeros chasing one of their number who waved the white sheet above his head... one he had stripped from an elderly indian who, naked in the moonlight, beseeched the young men to return it to him. "Fortunately, the President must be elsewhere, and these people will not reflect on our city. Bring me my hat," Don Antonio pointed. "Diaz has done the sensible thing and remained with his own kind. We shall proceed to Don Raul."

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