Real Guatemala: Colono or Campesino?

Rudy Giron: AntiguaDailyPhoto.com &emdash; Farmer on his way to work

It was Manolo who introduced to the term colono (a salaried worker) in comparison to a campesino (a self-employed farmer). Manolo also made this statement: Real Guatemala -> Royal Guatemala -> Feudal Guatemala, which I think is true quite often.

As I have mentioned before, the campesino, the fieldworker, is an ever-present stamp in the daily life of Guatemala we see them going to work the fields each morning. Sometimes they work somebody else’s finca, plantation, sometimes they work their own plot of land or as it happens on the skirts of the volcanoes, sometimes they work a plot of public land. Of course, in Guatemala, neither the wealthy landlords nor the government would agree with Emiliano Zapata.

The land belongs to those that work it with their own hands. —Emiliano Zapata
La tierra es de quien la trabaja con sus manos. —Emiliano Zapata

I believe we should a mini series on the field workers around Antigua Guatemala, what do you think?

© 2014 – 2020, Rudy Giron. All rights reserved.

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