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Peru Legacy of Peonage
Although a thing of the past, the numbing effects of
four
centuries of peonage on Peruvian society should not be
underestimated. One archetypical Andean estate operated at
Vicos,
Ancash Department, from 1594 to 1952, before it became
part of
Peru's first land-reform experiment. The 17,000-hectare
estate
and the landlord's interests were managed by a local
administrator, who employed a group of straw bosses, each
commanding a sector of the property and directing the work
and
lives of the 1,700 peons (colonos) attached to the
estate
by debt. Dressed in unique homespun woolen clothing that
identified them as vicosinos (residents of Vicos),
each
colono family lived in a house it built but did not
own.
Rather, it owed the estate three days of labor per week,
and more
if demanded, in exchange for a small subsistence plot and
limited
rights to graze animals on the puna. Grazing privileges
were paid
for by dividing the newborn animals each year equally
between
colono and landlord. For the work, a symbolic wage
(temple) of twenty centavos (about two cents in
United
States currency of the time) and a portion of coca and
alcohol
were given to each peon. In addition, peons were obliged
to
provide other services on demand to the administrator and
landlord, such as pasturing their animals, serving as
maids and
servants in their homes, running errands of all types, and
providing all manner of labor from house construction to
the
repair of roads. The landlord might also rent his peons to
others
and pay no wage.
To enforce order on the estate, the administrator
utilized
"the fist and the whip." Vicos had its own jail to which
colonos were sent without recourse to any legal
process;
fines, whippings, and other punishments could be meted out
arbitrarily. As individuals, the colonos were
subject to
severe restrictions, not being allowed to venture outside
of the
district without permission, or to organize any
independent
activities except religious festivals, weddings, and
funerals
that took place in the hacienda's chapel and cemetery,
only
occasionally with clerical presence. The only
community-initiated
activities allowed were those under the supervision of the
parish
church.
Outside the protection of the estate, peons correctly
felt
themselves to be vulnerable to exploitation and feared
direct
contact with those mistikuna whom they regarded as
dangerous, even to the extent of characterizing whites and
powerful mestizos as pishtakos, mythical bogeymen
who kill
or rape natives. In protecting themselves from the threats
of
this environment, vicosinos, like tens of thousands
of
other colonos across the Andes, chose to employ the
"weapons of the weak," by striking a low profile, playing
dumb,
obeying, taking few initiatives, and in general staying
out of
the way of mestizos and strangers they did not know,
reserving
their own pleasures and personalities for the company of
family
and friends.
Peonage under the hacienda functioned in a relatively
standard fashion throughout Peru, with variations between
the
coastal plantations, on the one hand, and the highland
estates
and ranches, on the other. On some highland estates,
conditions
were worse than those described; in others they were not
as
restrictive or arbitrary. Although called haciendas, the
coastal
plantations were far more commercialized, being given to
the
production of goods for export or the large urban markets.
Under
these more fluid socioeconomic circumstances, the
plantation
workers, called yanaconas (after the Incan class of
serfs
called yanas), who permanently resided on the
estates,
also had access to subsistence plots. Moreover, they
usually had
"company" housing, schools, and access to other facilities
specified under a signed labor contract often negotiated
through
worker unions.
Nevertheless, there were lingering connections to the
highland manorial system. Because plantation crops, such
as
sugarcane and cotton, require a large labor force for
harvests
and planting, workers are seasonally recruited from the
highland
peasantry for these tasks. In some instances, owners of
coastal
plantations also possessed highland estates from which
they might
"borrow" the needed seasonal workers from among the
colonos they already controlled in peonage and pay
them
virtually nothing. In most cases, however, the coastal
plantations simply hired gangs of peasant farmers for the
short
term, using professional labor contractors to do the job.
For
thousands of young men, this became an important first
experience
away from their family and village, serving as a rite of
passage
into adulthood. It also constituted an important step for
many in
developing the labor and life skills needed to migrate
permanently to the coast. Employment on the coastal
plantations
offered many opportunities to the highland farmer to use
mechanized equipment and different tools, observe
agricultural
procedures guided by scientific principles and experts,
and work
for wages that greatly surpassed what they might earn in
the
villages. For most farm workers, it was the only chance to
actually accumulate money.
Data as of September 1992
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