THE
INSURGENCE of CHAN SANTA CRUZ
BOOK EIGHT: THE SECOND of the BOOKS of CHANGE
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
"I have met many duplicitous men
in my career, planter, and although your son, the Colonel, may not be the most
infamous of these, I would place him among the worst...” pronounced Carranza’s
Marxist Governor, “…for the reason that his evil is without grounding, as we
understand such to be within the privilege of our European heritage. Others...
Huerta, Villa, Limantour, two halfbreeds
and a Frenchman… committed treachery and murder out of causes well within the
realm of human understanding, however reprehensible. Greed... revenge... the
vanity of power... these are such things all decent men abhor but cannot judge
too severely, for they are such qualities as reside in their own hearts, has
one the courage to seek them out for exposure. But Colonel José Macias owes no
fealty to any of those vices. That which drives him is something I do not
understand and what I, Salvador Alvarado, cannot understand must be truly
fearful. So although José Macias has done no harm to me and has, in fact, been
most helpful, I would kill him had I not given my word."
"But why?"
"Because he is poisoner." Alvarado reached beneath the desk
and removed a box of papers, which he held up as if offering them to Don
Antonio.
"Who do you think has
given me the names of privilegiados who kill their
peons, who sell infants to Havana, who have flaunted every law to conspire
against the Constitution and the Republic."
Alvarado leaned forward, his voice becoming a serpentine hiss. "I should
be grateful, and so I am. But the Marxist in me dictates I search for the
relative value of what I provide the Colonel, and I find imbalance. These
people have done no injury to the Colonel... many considered him their friend.
They committed crimes against the Constitution, so it was my pleasure to hang
those I could find. My duty! But what your son did was not done out of duty, nor even from the expectation of a reward. Even Carranza
does not know whether to have him shot or appointed to some Ministry. When
contemplating your son, I feel like that Roman general, when Judas flung the
silver back in his face, laughing. His friends! His own brother..."
Don Antonio grew pale and cupped his
hands before his face as if to hide this. The uneasy Alvarado began to sweep
letters back into their box.
"If you have a grievance against
one brother, is it just to condemn the other?" the hacendado
asked. "Rigoberto had every opportunity to go to
Cuba. I do not either answer for nor do I condemn
those who did... I merely point out that he saw his duty, as he did whether
under Molina, under the Piñistas, Morenistas,
any of that crowd. He fulfilled his obligations to his family and to his
fatherland."
Alvarado paused to lay the box upon
the floor. "We seem to disagree over the borders of that fatherland... my
oath is to the survival and integrity of Mexico. If Mexico is gained for
socialism but Yucatan is lost from Mexico, those responsible have no claim upon
justice.
"One thing more, however,"
the Governor said. "My agents who went to Idznacab
called the peons to give their testimony and most of them expressed
satisfaction with their situation... so long as Antonio Macias was the hacendado, not Rivas or Molina nor, especially, José
Macias. And on other estanciónes from the city limits
to Tekas I heard more, that if a peon was to be sold,
the indian preferred it was
to Idznacab. That testimony must count for something,
no?"
Don Antonio was silent, so the
Governor continued. "By this time I had given my word already to the
Colonel... it was he, in fact, who sent cables suggesting a certain line of
inquiry. I did not know what I would also hear of José, but the matter is
concluded. As to Rigoberto, I shall see what I can
do. No more, no less. The cause of Mexico and that of the workers of the world
would be set back were I to free him, for this would bring a new flurry of
petitions on behalf of those whose influence, I have to say, has been even more
harmful. It may be that he can find a way to escape and leave
the country... such things are known to have happened. But if either of
your sons ever return to Merida, they will be
hanged."
"José..." said Don Antonio,
"those cables you received, did they originate in
Cuba?"
"Some of
them," Alvarado said dismissively, "some from Mexico, from the United
States, even from Canada."
The hacendado
rose, holding his hat. "I would not ask for more. Life itself is
sufficient, General, when one is among his
family."
"I quite understand."
Alvarado rose and circled the desk, rejecting the formality of Don Antonio's
hand to give him an abrazo, as if they were
the oldest of friends. "You see, I am not exactly the ogre they make me
out to be. I have a duty, a difficult one, both to my President and to my
conscience. I abhor violence for its own sake... I think this is what separates
we of the old century from those of the new, men like your desperate, bitter
José. But if that is our future, we have an obligation to sweeten the bitterness,
to mold a vision beyond these questions of who will command the throne of
Cortes. And for Yucatan, planter, a great and promising future awaits. The
world needs rope… look at the turmoil developing in Muscovy, which must spread
to Berlin once the Americans enter the war and the Kaiser’s men are
crushed. Now that our insurrection
abates, our humble state may also begin to take its place as the Egypt of the
Americas. Scholars, students and tourists... these will come to Yucatan as they
now flock to Cairo and what is, at present, a mere trickle shall become a
flood. Believe this, planter.
"But, to begin this work, we must
have order and unity... and the only men capable of restoring such qualities
are Venustiano Carranza, as President of Mexico, Alvaro
Obregon as his Jefe Militar
and, of course, myself. The success of Villa or Zapata would hurl us back into
one of those prior centuries of ignorance and barbarism - the time has come
when the people should not look upon their authorities as a scourge, rather as
the spirit of higher justice, so that each should have what belongs to
him. It may be your good fortune that a
rope of Idznacab hemp is placed round the neck of
some pompous Old World priest or princeling before he
is sent plummeting down to Hell… which, of course, does not exist since, as
there is no God, there can be no Satan.
So… if I may be communicate a small bit of advice, planter, I would urge
you to attend our meetings of the Yucatecan
Constitutionalist Assembly, the purpose of which is to ensure that more
henequen is harvested from those properties I allow to remain in the private
domain… duly licensed, taxed, and sent on to the Europeans to facilitate their
tasks of justice."
"I would be most honored," came the reply. There could be no other, so long as Rigoberto was still in the Penitenceria
Juarez. Alvarado's Lieutenant announced the presence of another petitioner and,
after a last abrazo, Don Antonio took his leave.