Guatemala's green revolution: Synthetic fertilizer, public health, and economic autonomy in the mayan highland

Agricultural History

Volumn 83, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 283-322

  Carey Jr , David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL; FERTILIZER; POISON;

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY; AGROCHEMICAL; AUTONOMY; ECONOMIC GROWTH; ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT; FAMINE; FARMERS KNOWLEDGE; FERTILIZER; GEOPOLITICS; GREEN REVOLUTION; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; MIGRANT WORKER; PLANTATION; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOIL QUALITY; UPLAND REGION; WATERSHED;

AGRICULTURE; AMERICAN INDIAN; ARTICLE; CATERING SERVICE; COMMERCIAL PHENOMENA; CROP; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; EMPLOYMENT; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; ETHNOLOGY; GEOGRAPHY; GREEN CHEMISTRY TECHNOLOGY; GUATEMALA; HISTORY; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; POLITICS; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL STATUS; SOCIOECONOMICS;

AGRICULTURE; AGROCHEMICALS; COMMERCE; CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; CROPS, AGRICULTURAL; EMPLOYMENT; FERTILIZERS; FOOD SUPPLY; GEOGRAPHY; GREEN CHEMISTRY TECHNOLOGY; GUATEMALA; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; INDIANS, CENTRAL AMERICAN; POISONS; POLITICS; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL CONDITIONS; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS;

CENTRAL AMERICA; GUATEMALA [CENTRAL AMERICA];

EID: 69949120960     PISSN: 00021482     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3098/ah.2009.83.3.283     Document Type: Article

References (251)

1. I am indebted to John Soluri, Ted Fischer, Travis Wagner, Michael Steinberg, Mark Lapping, Jeffrey Fitts, Hector Saez-Nunez, and the three anonymous reviewers for Agricultural History for their critiques of earlier drafts of this essay. Audience comments at the Latin American Studies Association International Conference, 2001, Washington, DC, where I first presented this research were also helpful. Crystal Wilder and Cassandra Fit-zherbert provided valuable research and technical assistance. The empirical data for this study come from a larger project that used both oral and archival sources to explore the history of Guatemala from Mayan perspectives. The majority of informants were male and female elders, although I interviewed some younger farmers. Oral narratives from residents of the Maya-Kaqchikel towns of Comalapa, Poaquil, Tecpán, and Patzicia in the department of Chimaltenango, Aguas Calientes, and Barahona in the department of Sacatepe'quez, and Solola in the department by the same name provided a nuanced understanding of Mayan farmers' uses and perceptions of synthetic fertilizers. I conducted all interviews in informants' first language: Kaqchikel. In turn, the jefe politico (governor) papers from Chimaltenango at the Archivo General de Centro America and periodical holdings at the Hermeroteca-Biblioteca Nacional in Guatemala City as well as the municipal archives in Comalapa and Patzicia provided information on the introduction, use, and dissemination of synthetic fertilizers. The majority of the interviews took place during my initial fieldwork from June 1997 to Sept. 1998. All interview recordings are in my possession.
2. For a pioneering effort, see, Sutti Reissig Ortiz, Uncertainties in Peasant Farming: A Columbian Case (New York: Athlone Press, 1973).
3. Ortiz based her analysis of agricultural development on hundreds of interviews with Pdez farmers. Yet even in studies that laud indigenous and other farmers' agricultural practices, their voices remain buried. See, for example, Paul Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in West Africa (London: Hutchinson, 1985);
4. Robert E. Rhoades, Breaking New Ground: Agricultural Anthropology (Lima: International Potato Center, 1984);
5. Stephen D. Biggs, Resource-Poor Farmer Participation in Research: A Synthesis of Experiences from Nine National Agricultural Research Systems (The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research, 1989);
6. Joyce Lewinger Moock and Robert E. Rhoades, eds., Diversity, Farmer Knowledge, and Sustainability (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992);
7. Robert Chambers et al., eds., Farmer First: Farmer Innovation and Agricultural Research (London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1989).
8. For a critique of the imperialist history of research in indigenous communities and a framework for participating in decolonized indigenous research, see, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (London: Zed Books, 2006).
9. The date of chemical fertilizers' arrival in Kaqchikel oral histories ranged from 1937 (Interview with Oxi' Kawoq, Oct. 31, 1997, Comalapa) to 1968 (Interviews with Jun Iq', Apr. 18, 1998; Oxlajuj Ajpu', Jan. 19, 1998, Comalapa). Although synthetic fertilizer was promoted in Guatemala by the turn of the century, most Mayan farmers did not experiment with it until the 1950s. As reflected in archival data, large-scale agrobusinesses were beginning to use synthetic fertilizers in the 1920s (along with a few pioneering small-scale farmers). Yet most of these enterprises did not routinely use fertilizers until the 1940s and 1950s. In this sense, both oral and archival sources accurately reflect how the introduction of synthetic fertilizer varied across time and place in Guatemala.
10. Sonia I. Arbona,"Commercial Agriculture and Agrochemicals in Almolonga, Guatemala," Geographical Review 88 (Jan. 1998): 47,53,55,56,58,61,62;
11. David Pimentel, "Green Revolution Agriculture and Chemical Hazards," Science of the Total Environment 188 Supp. 1 (Sept. 1996): S87, S92-94;
12. David Pimentel et al., "Environmental and Economic Costs of Pesticide Use," BioScience 42 (Nov. 1992): 750-51;
13. Polly Hoppin, "Pesticide Use on Four Non-Traditional Crops in Guatemala: Policy and Program Implications" (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1991);
14. AVANSCO, Impacto Ecologico de los Cultivos Horticolas No-Tradicionales en elAltiplano de Guatemala: Efecto sobre Plagas, Organismos Beneficos y Suelo (Guatemala: Instituto AVANSCO, 1994), 1;
15. Lori Ann Thrupp et al., Bittersweet Harvests for Global Supermarkets: Challenges in Latin America's Agricultural Export Boom (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1995), 7;
16. Martin G. Khublarian, "Chemical Substance Transport in Soils and Its Effect on Groundwater Quality," Environmental Health Perspectives 83 (Nov. 1989): 31-32;
17. David Pimentel, "Impacts of Pesticides and Fertilizers on the Environment and Public Health," Toxic Substances in Agricultural Water Supply and Drainage, ed. Joseph Summers and Susan S. Anderson (Denver: US Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, 1989), 102-103;
18. A.M. Fan and V.E.Steinberg, "Health Implications of Nitrate and Nitrite in Drinking Water: An Update on Methemoglobinemia Occurrence and Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity," Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 23 (Feb. 1996): 41-42;
19. Dennis D. Weisenberger, "Human Health Effects of Agrichemical Use," Human Pathology 24 (June 1993): 574;
20. Lester R. Brown and Gail W. Finsterbusch, Man and His Environment: Food (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 173;
21. th Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 91-92.
22. Of course other factors contribute to high rates of cancer in developing countries. Studies of industrialized nations have shown no link between nitrate levels and gastric cancer, for example, see, Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 92.
23. Mark Dowie, American Foundations: An Investigative History (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001), 113;
24. Angus Wright, The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), 184;
25. David McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 1760 - 1940 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 181-94;
26. René Reeves, Ladinos with Ladinos, Indians with Indians: Land, Labor, and Regional Ethnic Conflict in the Making of Guatemala (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006);
27. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (New York: Dou-bleday and Anchor Books, 1983);
28. Charles Brockett, Land, Power, and Poverty: Agrarian Transformations and Political Conflict in Central America (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988), 28-35;
29. James Dunkerley, Power in the Isthmus: A Political History of Modern Central America (London: Verso, 1988), 464;
30. Eric B. Ross, The Mallhus Factor: Population, Poverty, and Politics in Capitalist Development (London: Zed Books, 1998), 125-26;
31. Robert G.Williams, Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986);
32. William C. Thiesenhusen, Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), 69-74.
33. Edward F. Fischer and Peter Benson, Broccoli and Desire: Global Connections and Maya Struggles in Postwar Guatemala (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 145;
34. Ross, Malthus Factor, 126;
35. Brockett, Land, Power, and Poverty, 72-74.
36. Lowell Gudmundson and Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Central America, 1821-1871: Liberalism before Liberal Reform (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995);
37. Reeves, Ladinos with Ladinos;
38. David McCreery, "State Power, Indigenous Communities, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Guatemala, 1820-1920", in The Indian in Latin American History: Resistance, Resilience, and Acculturation ed. John E. Kicza (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources 2000), 191-212;
39. McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 148, 294,308, 337;
40. Chester Lloyd Jones, "Indian Labor in Guatemala," in Hispanic American Essays, ed. A. Curtis Wilgus (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 311-12;
41. Carol A. Smith, ed., Guatemalan Indians and the State: 1540 - 1988 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 68-70, 83;
42. L. Arriola, Riesgos y Oportunidades en la Produccion de Cultivos No-Tradicionales de Exportation: Una Evaluation de Impacto Socio-Ambiental en Patzun, Chimallenango, Tex-tospara Debate (Guatemala City: AVANSCO, 1994);
43. M. Vargas Ortiz, "Situacitfn Penosa," El Impulso (Guatemala), Feb. 28, 1915, 2; Jefe Politico to Alcalde de San Martin Jilote-peque, Legajo (Leg.) 76, 1933; Jefe Politico to Alcalde de San Martfn Jilotepeque, 1937, Jefatura Politica, Chimaltenango (hereafter JP-C), Archivo General de Centra America (hereafter AGCA); Memoria de la Secretaria de Gobernacion y Juslicia Presentada a la Asamblea National Legislativa en sus Sesiones Ordinarias (Guatemala: Tipografia Nacio-nal, 1915), 3,214;
44. Diario de Centra America (Guatemala) Mar. 22 1933.
45. For an example of a sister and brother coming to blows over how their father allotted family land, see, Juana Miculax Mutzutz to Patzicia jnez [judge], Apr. 26, 1948, Paquete (Paq.) 45;
46. Juana Miculax Mutzutz v. Pascual Miculax, May 20, 1949, Paq. 150, denuncias, Archivo Municipal de Patzici'a, Patzicia, Guatemala (hereafter AMP); Interview with Waqxaqi' Ajmaq, July 7, 2001, Comalapa. Interview with Waqxaqi' Ajmaq, July 7,2001, Comalapa.
47. Workers at Finca Luarca Zumbador to Ministro de Economia y Trabajo de Guate mala, Oct. 27,1947, Leg. 48762 (actual no. 69);
48. Inspección General de Trabajo: Guatemala, Zona Numero Tres, Mar. 22, 1948;
49. Inspeccín Departamental de Trabajo, Zona Numero Tres, San Marcos, Dec. 16, 1947;
50. Clemente Laynes y compafieros de Finca Australia to Presidente de la Repiiblica de Guatemala, Oct. 24,1947, Leg. 48762, Instituto General de Trabajo, Correspondencia, AGCA; Ramo Civil II, Leona Itzol contra Cruz Yancoba Sitdn, July 1,1939, Paq. 45, AMP;
51. David Carey Jr., "Empowered through Labor and Buttressing Their Communities: Mayan Women and Coastal Migration, 1875-1965," Hispanic American Historical Review 86 (Aug. 2006): 501-34;
52. Richard Adams, Crucifixion by Power: Essays on Guatemalan National Social Structure, 1944-1966 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970), 170,392-93;
53. McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 1-3,148,294,308,326-333,341-42;
54. Oliver La Farge, "Maya Ethnology: The Sequence of Cultures," in The Maya and Their Neighbors, ed. C. L. Hay (New York: Appleton-Century, 1940);
55. McCreery, "State Power," 192, 207-208
56. Guillermo Náñez Falcón, "Erwin Paul Dieseldorff, German Entrepreneur in the Aha Verapaz of Guatemala, 1889-1937" (PhD diss.,Tulane University, 1970), 323;
57. Richard Adams, "La Poblaci6n Indigena en el Estado Liberal," Historia General de Guatemala, Vol.5, ed. Jorge LujSn Mufioz (Guatemala City: Asociación de Amigos del Pais, Fundaci6n para la Cultura y sesarrollo, 1995), 176;
58. John Early, "Population Increase and Family Planning in Guatemala," Human Organization 34 (Fall 1975): 276;
59. David McCreery, "Debt Servitude in Rural Guatemala, 1876-1936," Hispanic American Historical Review 63 (Nov. 1983): 758;
60. Valentin Soĺrzano, Evolucidn Economica de Guatemala (1947, repr., Guatemala: Editorial Jose de Pineda Ibarra, Ministerio de Educaci6n, 1977), 319-20, 343;
61. David C. Johnson, "Internationalization and the Guatemalan Coffee Economy, 1890-1910," SECOLAS Annals 34 (Oct. 2002): 73;
62. McCreery, "Wage Labor," 217-19;
63. Marilyn M. Moors, "Indian Labor and the Guatemalan Crisis: Evidence from History and Anthropology," in Central America: Historical Perspectives on the Contemporary Crises, ed. Ralph Lee Woodward Jr. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988), 71.
64. Gudmunson and Lindo-Fuentes, Central America, 1821-1871;
65. Reeves, Ladinos with Ladinos; Diario de Centro America, Sept. 3,4,7,9,1936;
66. Sheldon Annis, God and Production in a Guatemalan Town (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987), 44;
67. Wright, Death of Ramon Gonzalez, 186.
68. Carlos Rafael Cabarrus Pellecer, En la Conquista del Ser: Un Estudio de Idenlidad Etnica (Guatemala City: CEDIM-FAFO, 1998), 93;
69. Robert Wasserstrom, "Revolution in Guatemala: Peasants and Politics under the Arbenz Government," Comparative Studies in Society and History 17 (Oct. 1975): 443-78;
70. Piero Gleijeses, "The Agrarian Reform of Arbenz," Journal of Latin American Studies 21 (Oct. 1989): 472-73;
71. Nathan L. Whetten, Guatemala: The Land and the People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961), 158;
72. Brockett, Land, Power, and Poverty, 100-105, 196, 201n3;
73. John Gillin, "San Luis Jilotepeque: 1942-55," in Community Culture and National Change, ed. Richard Adams (New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, Publication No. 24,1972), 26;
74. Jim Handy, "National Policy, Agrarian Reform, and the Corporate Community during the Guatemalan Revolution, 1944-1954," Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 (Oct. 1988): 698-724;
75. Jim Handy, "The Corporate Community, Campesino Organizations, and Agrarian Reform: 1950-1954," in Guatemalan Indians and the State;
76. Jim Handy, Revolution in the Countryside: Rural Conflict and Agrarian Reform in Guatemala, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 87-89;
77. Dunkerley, Power in the Isthmus, 144-50, 434;
78. Theisenhusen, Broken Promises, 74-84;
79. Ross, Malthus Factor, 121-122
80. The UFCO perceived need for fallow land stemmed as much from the threat of hurricanes as the company's still less-than-intensive production practices. A number of links connected the Rockefeller Foundation, UFCO, and the Eisenhower administration. As one example, the chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation, John Foster Dulles, drafted the 1936 contract with Ubico that gave UFCO "a ninety-nine year lease with exceptional tax benefits" and served as the Secretary of State. His brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the CIA from 1953-1961 and a member of the UFCO board. See, Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett, Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 233, 241-44, 264;
81. Dowie, American Foundations, 109-114
82. Dowie, American Foundations, 109-12;
83. Brent E. Metz, Ch'oni'-Maya Survival in Eastern Guatemala: Indigeneity in Transition (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006), 66.
84. Russell King, Land Reform: A World Survey (Boulder: Westview Press, 1977);
85. William Paddock and Paul Paddock, Famine 1975 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967), 46;
86. Ross, Malthus Factor, 126-27;
87. Keith Griffin, Alternative Strategies for Economic Development (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1989), 147;
88. Adolf Berle, "The Cuban Crisis: Failure of American Foreign Policy," Foreign Affairs 39 (Oct. 1960): 40-55;
89. John P. Gillin, "Some Signposts for Policy," in Social Change in Latin America Today: Its Implications for United States Policy, ed. Philip E. Mosely (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), 14-62.
90. Interviews with Junlajuj K'at, July 9, 1998; Ix'aq'om, Nov. 5, 1997; Oxi' Kawoq, Oct. 31,1997; Jun Imox, Dec. 9,1997; Oxlajuj Ajpu', Jan. 19,1998; Lajuj Kan, Oct. 16,1997, Dec. 20, 1997; Ixk'aj, Dec. 17, 1997; Ixchikop, Dec. 17, 1997; WoV No'j, Apr. 22, 1998; Ixkame, Aug. 17, 1998; Wuqu" B'atz', Feb. 10, 1998; Waqi' Iq", Apr. 22, 1998, Comalapa; B'eleje' Ey, Nov. 23,1997; Ix'aq'ab'al, Mar. 17,1998; Ixmanik, Nov. 17,1997, Poaquil; Waqi' Imox, May 3,1998; Kab'lajuj Aq'ab'al, Nov. 19,1997, Tecpán; Adams, "La Poblacion Indigena," 177;
91. John Watanabe, "Enduring Yet Ineffable Community in the Western Periphery of Guatemala," in Guatemalan Indians and the State, 188;
92. Ricardo Falla, Quiche Rebelde: Estudio de tin Movimiento de Conversion Religiosa Rebelde a las Creencias Tradicionales en San Antonio Ilotenango, Quiche, 1948-1970 (Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, 1978), 82;
93. Fischer and Benson, Broccoli and Desire, 39-40. Almost invariably, Kaqchikel informants used the term abono cemico, which I translate as chemical fertilizer. I leave it as such in their accounts because it highlights the presence and use of chemicals, which the term synthetic fertilizer obscures. Depending on the region and local custom in Guatemala, the measurement of a cuerda ranges from six to twenty-five cuerdas to a manzana (6,999 square meters). In the department of Chimaltenango the measurement is six cuerdas to a manzana among Mayan farmers. In many Kaqchikel communities such as Patzicfa and Comalapa there are forty varas in a cuerda, but this measurement is not standardized either; some Mayan farmers measure twenty varas in a cuerda. I thank Alberto Esquit Choy for clarifying these measurements for me.
94. Interviews with B'eleje' K'at, Nov. 5,1997; Wuqu' K'at, Apr. 5,1998; Kab'lajuj Tijax, Apr. 7, 1998; Waqi' Kame, May 17, 1998; Wo'o' Ey and Kab'lajuj B'atz', Mar. 28, 1998; Kab'lajuj Ajpu', May 5,1998; Ixwatzik', Nov. 12,1998; Oxi' Kawoq, Oct. 31,1997, Comalapa; Kaji' No'j, Waqxaqi' B'atz', Lajuj Q'anil, Mar. 25, 1998, Poaquil; Ka'i' Kan, Nov. 24,1997; B'eleje' Iq', June 4,1998,Tecpán. For similar evidence of increased harvests from synthetic fertilizer application, see, John Watanabe, Maya Saints and Souls in a Changing World (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992), 135-136
95. Interview with Junlajuj TzY, Oct. 24, 1997, Comalapa. Some Kaqchikel farmers, such as broccoli growers from Tecpán, accept the risks inherent in both the application of agrochemicals and their dealings with the international economy because they maintain that the opportunity to trade NTAs has improved their lives, see, Fischer and Benson, Broc coli and Desire, 39,48;
96. Sarah Hamilton and Edward Fischer, "Non-Traditional Agricultural Exports in Highland Guatemala," Latin American Research Review 38 (Oct. 2003): 82-110.
97. "La Doctrina de los Abonos Qui'micos," Bolelin de Agricultura, Revista Mensual (Apr. 1903): 246;
98. Memoria del Ministerio de Agricultura 1922 (Guatemala:Tipografia National 1922), 10-11.
99. Annis, God and Production, 44;
100. "Municipalidad de San Juan Comalapa Libro para Actas de Sesiones Ordinarias y Extraordinarias Comenzado el 23 de Julio de 1928Terminado 1 de Enero de 1930," Dec. 19,1929, Archivo Municipal de Comalapa; Diario de Centra America, Sept. 3,4,7,9,1936;
101. La Gacetade Policia (Guatemala), June 13, 1943, 1079;
102. Arriola, Riesgos y Oportunidades en la Producción;
103. Metz, Ch'orti'-Maya Survival, 66.
104. Interview with Kaji' Tz'ikin, June 24, 2008, SololS; Falla, Quiche Rebelde, 82-83;
105. Carol A. Smith, Indian Class and Class Consciousness in Prerevolutionary Guatemala (Washington, DC: Latin American Program, Wilson Center, 1984), 32;
106. Ricardo Falla, "Hacia la Revolution Verde: Adoption y Dependencia del Fertilizante Quimico en un Municipio del Quiche, Guatemala," Estudios Sociales, Vol.6 (Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landi-var, 1972), 16-51.
107. In another comparative case, it was not until the 1960s that Mayan residents of AguacatSn began using synthetic fertilizer, see, Douglas E. Brintnall, Revolt Against the Dead: The Modernization of a Mayan Community in the Highlands of Guatemala (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1979), 176.
108. Adams, "La Poblacion Indfgena," 177;
109. Watanabe, Maya Saints and Souls, 134;
110. Helda Eleonora Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management in the Guatemalan Highlands: Understanding Traditional Agricultural Practices" (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1998), 4,51;
111. Arriola, Riesgos y Oportunidades en la Producción
112. Watanabe, "Enduring Yet Ineffable Community," 188;
113. Falla, Quiche Rebelde, 82.
114. For evidence of Mayan milpa farmers' yields increasing in Mexico after synthetic fertilizer application, see, Ute Schilren, "Milpa in Crisis?: Changing Agricultural Practices Among Rural Producers in Campeche," in Maya Survivalism, ed. Ueli Hostettler and Matthew Restall (Markt Schwaben, Ger.: Verlag Anton Saurwein, 2001), 272.
115. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 62;
116. Wuqu' K'at, "Libreta de Apuntes," nd, MS, in Wuqu' K'at's possession; Miguel Angel Sotz O., "Monografi'a de Comalapa, Diagn6stico Comunitario 1994," nd, typed MS, Proyecto 2439 Chuwi Tinamit, Chuwi Tinamit Archive, Comalapa, Guatemala, p. 9;
117. Santiago Xet, "Campos de Ensayos y de Demostraciones, PrScticas del Programa de Fertilization de 'FAO-SFEI' en San Juan Comalapa, Chimaltenango," and "T6cnica sobre la Agricultura: Servicio de Fomento de Economia Indfgena cuenta con Programas de Ensayo sobre Fertilization," Comalapan (Comalapa), (Sept. 1966): 6,7.
118. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Political Economy of Central America since 1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 114-16,206;
119. Edward F. Fischer, "Late Capitalism and Maya Resurgence in Guatemala," in Maya Survivalism, 207;
120. Edward Fischer and Carol Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context (Boulder: Westview Press, 2003), 137;
121. Williams, Export Agriculture, 40,43.
122. Interviews with Jun Kame, May 1,1998; Jun Tz'i', July 11,1998; Jun Iq', Apr. 18,1998; Jun Kan, Aug. 19, 1998; Waqi' K'at, May 3,1998, Comalapa; Rigoberta Menchu, Crossing Borders (London: Verso, 1998),219;
123. Watanabe,"Enduring Yet Ineffable Community," 188;
124. Falla, Quiche Rebelde, 82.
125. Interview with Oxi' Kame, Mar. 4,1998, Comalapa; Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala-Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperation de la Memoria Historica, Guatemala, Nunca Mas: Impactos de la Violencia (Guatemala City: ODHAG, 1998), 4 Vols.;UN Human Rights Report, Guatemala: Memoria del Silencio, http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/mds/spanish/toc.html, 1999 (accessed Aug. 12, 2008).
126. Oral accounts regarding agronomists did not associate them with any group affiliation. The implication is that these foreigners acted of their own accord, not on behalf of an organization. Similarly, Kaqchikel also accused 1976 earthquake relief workers of disseminating Marxist ideology that attracted the Guatemalan military and heightened violence in Kaqchikel communities, see, David Carey Jr., Our Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives. Xkib'ij kan (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001), 144-47.
127. Interviews with Wuqu' Imox, Nov. 12, 1997; Lajuj Aq'ab'al, Nov. 14, 1997, Aguas Calientes; Ka'i'B'atz', Nov. 26,1997; Ixsu'm, June 1,1998,Tecpán; Waqi'K'at, May 3,1998; Wo'o' Kan, Apr. 27, 1998; Oxlajuj Kan, Mar. 8, 1998; Oxlajuj Iq', Apr. 17,1998; Wuqu' Iq', Dec. 17, 1997; Ixchel, Feb. 12, 1998; Ixsamaj, Sept. 6, 1998; Wo'o' Ajpu', Nov. 11, 1997, Comalapa; Ixxeq, July 1, 2001, Poaquil; Ross, Malthus Factor, 126-27;
128. Dowie, American Foundations, 109-14;
129. Cabarrus Pellecer, En la Conquista del Ser, 93.
130. In stark contrast to Kaqchikel knowledge, scholars who conducted a study in the eastern Guatemalan towns of Jalapa and Chiquimula found that farmers and community members had little awareness of the health problems caused by pesticides. See, Roger Popper et al., "Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Agricultural Pesticides in Rural Guatemala," Environmental Management 20 (Mar. 1996): 241-18.
131. AVANSCO, Impacto Ecologico, 42;
132. Weisenberger, "Human Health Effects of Agrichemical Use," 571,573;
133. Pimentel et al., "Environmental and Economic Costs," 751, 758;
134. Douglas L. Murray, Cultivating Crisis: The Human Cost of Pesticides in Latin America (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 69-71;
135. Elizabeth Guillette et al.," An Anthropological Approach to the Evaluation of Preschool Children Exposed to Pesticides in Mexico," Environmental Health Perspectives 106 (June 1998): 347-53;
136. Wright, Death of Ramon Gonzalez, 317-320,339-40;
137. Luiz A. Martinelli et al., "Sources of Reactive Nitrogen Affecting Ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean: Current Trends and Future Perspectives," Biogeochemistry 79 (May 2006): 3-24;
138. J. N. Galloway et al., "Nitrogen Cycles: Past, Present and Future Perspectives," Biogeochemistry 70 (Sept. 2004): 153-226;
139. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 34,86,91-93;
140. Edmund K. Oasa, "The Political Economy of International Agricultural Research: A Review of the CGI AR's Response to Criticisms of the 'Green Revolution,'" in The Green Revolution Revisited: Critiques and Alternatives, ed. Bernhard Glaeser (London: Allen & Unwin, 1987), 23;
141. Brown and Finsterbusch, Man and His Environment, 173;
142. Michael Perelman, Farming for Profit in a Hungry World: Capital and the Crisis in Agriculture (Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun, 1977), 179.
143. Helda Morales et al., Impacto Ambiental de los Cultivos no Tradicionales en elAlti-plano de Guatemala (Guatemala City: AVANSCO, 1994), Textos para Debate, no. 5;
144. Hoppin, "Pesticide Use";
145. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 44;
146. Joachim von Braun et al., "Nontraditional Export Crops in Guatemala: Effects on Production, Income, and Nutrition," International Food Policy Research Institute Report No.73 (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1989);
147. Michael J. Watts, "Living Under Contract: Work, Production, Politics, and the Manufacture of Discontent in a Peasant Society," in Reworking Modernity: Capitalism and Symbolic Discontent, ed. Allan Pred and Michael J. Watts (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 65-105;
148. Mary McKay, Ecumenical Project for International Cooperation, Inc., personal communication, Sept. 8, 2001.
149. Interviews with Wuqu' Umiil, June 24, 2001; Oxi' Imox, July 3, 2001; Oxi' Masat, June 26,2001; KaY Imox, June 29,2001; Ixqitz', July 6,2001; IxqVn, July 3,2001, Comalapa; Ixxeq, July 7,2001; Kab'lajuj Kawoq.July 1,2001, Poaquil;Jun Masat, July 1,2001,Tecpán; Pimentel, "Green Revolution," S87;
150. Prabhu L. Pingali and Cynthia Marquez, "Health Costs of Long Term Pesticide Exposure in the Philippines: A Medical and Economic Analysis," International Rice Research Institute Social Science Division Papers, No.90-04 (Aug. 1990): 1-2.
151. Interviews with Ixkotz'i'j, July 3, 6, 2001; Ixpajb'al, July 4, 2001; Waqxaqi' Ajmaq, July 7,2001; Oxi' Masat, June 26,2001; B'eleje' Imox, June 25,2001; Ixqo'ch, June 28,2001, Comalapa;Ka'i'Masat,July l,2001;Kab'lajuj Kawoq.July 1,2001,Poaquil;Jun Masat,July 1, 2001,Tecpán; Fischer and Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala, 142.
152. J. Jeyaratnam,"Acute Pesticide Poisoning: A Major Global Health Problem," World Health Statistics Quarterly 43 (1990): 139-44;
153. Pimentel, "Green Revolution," S96;
154. Agenda Espaflola de Cooperaci6n Internacional, Media Ambiente y Salud (Madrid: Ministerio de Salud Piiblica y Asistencia Social, 1995), 3;
155. Robert Repetto and Sanjay S. Baliga, Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1996), 55;
156. Weisenburger, "Human Health Effects," 575;
157. Fischer and Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala, 142.
158. Interviews with Ixche', Nov. 22,1997; Junlajuj Kej, Mar. 22,1998; Wuqu' Ey, Mar. 26, 1998; Ixtz'ib', Mar. 27, 1998, Poaquil; Lajuj Kame, Feb. 14, 1998; Junlajuj Kame, Apr. 12, 1998; Jun Q'anil, Feb. 9, 1998; Jun Imox, Dec. 9, 1997; Oxi' Kej, June 14,1998, Comalapa; Waqxaqi' Kej, Feb. 7,1998, Barahona; Ixmukane', Nov. 30, 1997; Ka'i' TzT, May 26,1998, Tecpán; Fischer and Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala, 142;
159. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 33;
160. Pierre Spitz, "The Green Revolution Reexamined in India," in Green Revolution Revisited, 73-74nl2;
161. Leon Fink, The Maya of Morganlon: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 63;
162. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 49.
163. Interviews with Wuqu' Kej, May 31, 1998; Kab'lajuj Iq', May 31, 1998, Tecpán; Oxi'Tojil,Mar.21,1998, Poaquil; Waqi' K'at,Sept.6,1998; Wuqu' K'at, Apr. 5,1998; Ixnum, Apr. 29, 1998; Waqi' Kame, May 17, 1998, Comalapa; Pimentel et al., "Environmental and Economic Costs," 755;
164. Pimentel, "Green Revolution," S86, S91, S95;
165. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 60-61 (fig. 4.9), 238;
166. Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro, "Alternative Developments in Brazil," Green Revolution Revisited, 98-99;
167. Perelman, Farming for Profit, 214-15;
168. Kenneth A. Dahlberg, Beyond the Green Revolution: The Ecology and Politics of Global Agricultural Development (New York: Plenum Press, 1979), 82.
169. Interview with Oxi' Kame, Mar. 4,1998, Comalapa; Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 51;
170. Michael Conroy et a., A Cautionary Tale: Failed US Development Policy in Central America (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996).
171. Interviews with Wuqu' Kawoq, Apr. 7,1998; Junlajuj Imox and Wo'o' Imox, May 23, 1998; Jun Iq'.Apr. 18,1998; Jun Kame.May 1,1998; Kaji'Aj, Mar. 8,1998; Wuqu' Iq', Dec. 17, 1997, Comalapa; B'eleje' Kan, Nov. 9, 1997; Kaji' Kej, Nov. 12, 1997, Aguas Calientes; Oxi'TzT, May 29,1998, Tecpán; Waqi' No'j, Mar. 16,1998, Poaquil; Williams, Export Agri culture, 162, 207;
172. Jack Doyle, Altered Harvests: Agriculture, Genetics, and the Fate of the World's Food Supply (New York: Viking, 1985), 262-63;
173. Perelman, Farming for Profit, 173-176.
174. Precedents inform Wuqu' Iq"s call for government intervention. The price supports for basic grains established during the democratic governments (1944-1954) survived the overthrow of Arbenz through the Instituto de Fomento de Production. Even the military governments of the 1970s placed price ceilings on basic foodstuffs in an effort to quell unrest. See, Bulmer-Thomas, Political Economy, 114;
175. Williams, Export Agriculture, 175-176
176. Lowell Gudmundson, "Peasant, Farmer, Proletarian: Class Formation in a Smallholder Coffee Economy, 1850-1950," in Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America, ed. William Roseberry et al. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 136-137.
177. Interviews with Jun Ey, Nov. 12,1997, Aguas Calientes; Oxlajuj Imox, Jan. 13,1998; Kab'lajuj Ajpu", Nov. 14, 1997, Comalapa; B'eleje' Iq', June 4, 1998, Tecpán. For similar observations from Maya-Tz'utujil farmers, see, Bill Gray Douglas, "Illness and Curing in Santiago Atitlan, a Tzutujil-Maya Community in the Southwestern Highlands of Guatemala" (PhD diss., Stanford University, 1969), 32.
178. Helda Morales and Ivette Perfecto, "Traditional Knowledge and Pest Management in the Guatemalan Highlands," Agriculture and Human Values 17 (Mar. 2000): 50;
179. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 46, 48
180. Murray, Cultivating Crisis, 36-37;
181. Pimentel, "Green Revolution," S89-90;
182. Pimentel et al., "Environmental and Economic Costs," 752-54;
183. Pimentel, "Impacts of Pesticides," 95,99.
184. Arturo Arias, "Changing Indian Identity: Guatemala's Violent Transition to Modernity," in Guatemalan Indians and the State, 235, 238,240;
185. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 52.
186. Interview with Ka'i' Kame, Apr. 29, 1998, Poaquil; "Diagnostico de Salud, Districto San José Poaquil Chimaltenango," 1980, typed MS, San José Poaquil Archive, Guatemala, p. 16;
187. Luisa Frank and Philip Whcaton, Indian Guatemala: The Path to Liberation (Washington, DC: EPICA Task Force, 1984),39;
188. Jim Handy, Gift of the DevihA History of Guatemala (Boston: South End Press, 1984), 221-24;
189. Moors, "Indian Labor and the Guatemalan Crisis," 75-76;
190. Adams, "La Poblacion Indigena," 176;
191. Ja C'Amabal I'b, "La Primera Gran Confrontación: El Movimiento Campesino Indigena del Altiplano Guatemalteca," presented to the United Nations Subcommission on Ethnic Minorities, Geneva, 1984
192. Arias, "Changing Indian Identity," 235;
193. Smith, Indian Class and Class Consciousness, 2;
194. Carol A. Smith, Labor and International Capital in the Making of a Peripheral Social Formation: Economic Transformations of Guatemala, 1850-1980 (Washington, DC: Latin American Program, Wilson Center, 1984), 12;
195. Carol A. Smith, "Beyond Dependency Theory: National and Regional Patterns of Underdevelopment in Guatemala," American Ethnologist 5 (Aug. 1978): 605-606;
196. Watanabe, Maya Saints and Souls, 37-38,135,138, 144-48;
197. Fischer and Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala, 127;
198. Clayton P. Maxwell, "Selective Hybridity and Development in San José Poaquil, Guatemala" (master's thesis, University of Texas, 1998), 49.
199. Similarly, Mayan farmers in Mexico became dependent on synthetic fertilizer and other "modern" means of production, see, Schüren, "Milpa in Crisis?" 271.
200. Estimates that as much as 60 percent of Poaquil's population (generally the poor and landless) migrated to the coast in the 1990s reflect a recurring problem. In a compelling contrast, among Ch'orti' migrants from Eastern Guatemala, few work on the coast to pay for synthetic fertilizers, Metz, Ch'orti'-Maya Survival, 253n3.
201. Interview with Ka'i' Kame, Apr. 29,1998, Poaquil.
202. Interviews with Jun Ey, Nov. 12, 1997, Aguas Calientes; Oxi' Imox, July 3, 2001, Comalapa; Morales and Perfecto, "Traditional Knowledge and Pest Management," 57;
203. Fischer and Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala, 142
204. A few studies in Guatemala have compared the effects of organic versus synthetic fertilizer, see, Danilo O. Palma Ramos, Asi Somos y asi Vivimos: Los Ch'orti' (Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landivar, 2001), 34;
205. Claudia Dary et al., Estrategias de Sobrevivcncia Campcsina en Ecosistemas Fŕgiles (Guatemala: FLACSO, 1998), 160.
206. Helda Morales and others have studied the impact of fertilizers by comparing pest damage on Kaqchikel farms that used organic fertilizer to farms that used synthetic fertilizers, see, Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 62,65-84;
207. Helda Morales et al., "Traditional Fertilization and Its Effect on Corn Insect Populations in the Guatemalan Highlands," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 84 (Feb. 2001): 145-155. One nongovernmental organization, Alertec, has been established in Guatemala to promote organic fertilizers and agricultural practices.
208. J. I. Rodale, Pay Dirt: Farming & Gardening with Composts (Emmaus, Penn.: Rodale Press, 1945);
209. H. Hoitink and H. Keener, eds., Science and Engineering of Composting: Designing, Environmental, Microbiological, and Utilization Aspects (Wooster: Ohio State University Press, 1993);
210. S. Okumoto et al., "Efecto de Enmiendas Folieares de Productos Naturales y Abono Organico Sobre la Supresion de Enfermedades en el Cultivo del Tomate," en V Congreso Internacional de Manejo Integrado de Plagas, Resumenes, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1994;
211. K. Andrews and H. Howell, "Utilization de Controles Culturales," in Manejo Integrado de Plagas Insectiles en la Agricullura, ed. K. Andrews and R. Quezada (El Zamorano, Honduras: Escuela Agn'cola Panamericana, 1989): 243-53;
212. M. Altieri, ed., Crop Protection Strategies for Subsistence Farmers (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993);
213. J. Listinger, "A Farming Systems Approach to Insect Pest Management for Upland and Lowland Rice Farmers in Tropical Asia," 45-103;
214. J. Scriber, "Nitrogen Nutrition of Plants and Insect Invasion," Nitrogen in Crop Production, ed. R. Hauck (Madison: American Society of Agronomy, 1984);
215. R. Rodriguez-Kaabana, "Organic and Inorganic Nitrogen Amendments to Soil as Nematode Suppressants," Journal of Nematology 18 (Apr. 1986): 129-35;
216. P. Phelan et al., "Soil-Fertility Management and Host Preference by European Corn Borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner), on Zea Mays: A Comparison of Organic and Conventional Chemical Farming," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 56 (Aug. 1995): 1-8; (Pubitemid 3014173)
217. D. K. Letournea et al., "Effects of Soil Management on Crop Nitrogen and Insect Damage in Organic vs. Conventional Tomato Fields," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment51 (Nov. 1996): 179- 87;
218. S. Eigenbrode and D. Pimentel, "Effects of Manure and Chemical Fertilizers on Insect Pest Populations on Collards," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 20 (Jan. 1988): 109-25;
219. T. Culliney and D. Pimentel, "Ecological Effects of Organic Agricultural Practices on Insect Populations," Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 15 (Apr. 1986): 253-66;
220. Morales, "Pest Control and Soil Management," 65-84;
221. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 237;
222. Perelman, Farming for Profit, 49,89,182.
223. Interviews with Waqxaqi' Kej, Feb. 7, 1998, Barahona; Waqi' No'j, Mar. 16, 1998; Waqxaqi' Q'anil, Mar. 21, 1998, Poaquil; Wuqu' Kej, May 31, 1998; Kaji' Aq'ab'al, June 8, 1998,Tecpán; Kab'lajuj K'at, June 27,1998; Kaji' Tojil, Mar. 2, 1998; Jun Imox, Ka'i' Ajpu', and Oxi' Ajpu', Dec. 2, 1998; Wuqu" Kawoq, Jan. 29, 1998; Ixk'echclaj, Jan. 19, 1998, Comalapa; G. C. Wilken, Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987);
224. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 236-37;
225. Metz, Ch'orti'-Maya Survival, 166;
226. K. Scow et al., "Transition from Conventional to Low-Input Agriculture Changes Soil Fertility and Biology," California Agriculture 48 (Sept.-Oct. 1994): 21-27;
227. M. Culik, "The Conversion Experiment: Reducing Farm Costs," Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 38 (July-Aug. 1983): 333-335
228. Interviews with Waqxaqi' Kej, Feb. 7, 1998, Barahona; Waqi' No'j, Mar. 16, 1998; Waqxaqi' Q'anil, Mar. 21,1998; Ix'ajmaq, July 1,2001, PoaquikWuqu' Kej, May 31,1998; Kaji' Aq'ab'al, June 8, 1998, Tecpán; Kab'lajuj K'at, June 27,1998; Kaji' Tojil, Mar. 2, 1998; Jun Imox, Ka'i' Ajpu', and Oxi' Ajpu', Dec. 2,1998; Wuqu' Kawoq, Jan. 29, 1998; Ixk'echelaj, Jan. 19, 1998, Comalapa; Fischer, "Late Capitalism and Maya Resurgence," 210;
229. Wilken, Good Farmers;
230. Douglas, "Illness and Curing," 32;
231. Romeiro, "Alternative Developments in Brazil," 101.
232. Interview with Ixsya", July 2, 2001, Patzicia; Arias, "Changing Indian Identity," 238,240.
233. Livestock in Development, "The Integration of Livestock Interventions into a Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Approach," in Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Entry Point Papers, ed. Diana Carney (London: Department of International Development, 1998), 93;
234. Perelman, Farming for Profit, 182-83;
235. Spitz, "Green Revolution Reexamined in India," 73-73nl2;
236. Conway, Doubly Green Revolution, 238;
237. Peggy Bartlett, "Introduction: Development Issues and Economic Anthropology"
238. Hugh Gladwin and Michael Murtaugh, "The Attentive-Preattentive Distinction in Agricultural Decision Making," in Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, ed. Peggy F. Barlett (New York: Academic Press, 1980), 6, 8, 11-13,115-36;
239. Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution, 12;
240. Les Field, "Tools for Indigenous Agricultural Development in Latin America: An Anthropologist's Perspective," Agriculture and Human Values 8 (Winter/ Spring 1991): 85-92.
241. Interviews with Ixq'anil, June 21,2008; Jun Kame, May 1,1998; Oxlajuj Kej, June 21, 2008, Comalapa; Kaji' Tz'ikin, June 24,2008, Solola\ Fischer and Benson similarly observed that farmers who grew such NTAs as broccoli, snow peas, and French beans did not like to eat them, let alone could they survive on them. See, Fischer and Benson, Broccoli and Desire, 29-30.
242. Arvin Mosier et al., "Nitrogen Fertilizer: An Essential Component of Increased Food, Feed, and Fiber Production," in Agriculture and the Nitrogen Cycle: Assessing the Impacts of Fertilizer Use on Food Production and the Environment, ed. Arvin Mosier et al. (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004), 3-15;
243. Perelman, Farming for Profit, 158;
244. Narciso Barrera-Bassols and Victor M.Toledo, "Ethnoecology of the Yucatec Maya: Symbolism, Knowledge and Management of Natural Resources," Journal of Latin American Geography 4 (Mar. 2005): 9-41;
245. Field, "Tools for Indigenous Agricultural Development," 92;
246. Bartlett, "Introduction," 8,11-13.
247. Fink, Maya of Morganton, 216n39;
248. Schüren, "Milpa in Crisis?" 271.
249. For examples of Ladino perceptions of Kaqchikel, see, Carey, Our Elders Teach Us, chpt. 9
250. and David Carey Jr., Engendering Mayan History: Kaqchikel Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875-1970 (New York: Routledge, 2006), chpts. 1 and 4.
251. Alain de Janvry, The Agrarian Question and Reformism in Latin America (Balti more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981).