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When we first met, Chep Xantis was a puppeteer of
the National Indian Institute. He was hired to spread
"civilization" among the Indians of the highlands.
Flamboyant yet solid and straightforward, he won
the respect of Ladino and Indian alike. Chep's father
had died when the boy was only a year old. Two of
his older brothers were drafted into the army and
never returned. After learning Spanish and working
for the Institute for many years, he was hand-picked
to run for the magistracy of Zinacantan. Winning the
election, he stepped out of his Ladino clothes and
into traditional costume. His decisions were so consistently
fair that he became the most popular magistrate
to have served within recent memory. Since
then he has returned to the Institute, zipping himself
up in a simulated leather jacket. Assigned to posts far
Chep Xantis
FIGURE 9.—Chep Xantis and family, 1958.
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from home, he bewails his fate, yet how else could
he receive a secure income? I last heard his voice
ringing out over the San Cristobal radio advertising
the soft drink Fanta—in Tzotzil!
Thirteen years ago Chep was the first Zinacantec
whose voice I captured on tape. His mother used to
gab about the past, but he confessed he never had
paid much attention to her. In fact he could only
remember one tale, and that he told with his throat
so tense he nearly choked on it.
Two years earlier I had ignored the dire warnings
of Ladinos not to venture in Indian towns alone, and
had walked to Zinacantan Center to spend a night in
Chep's house (which later, after a bottle of vermouth,
he rented to me for ten pesos a month). My
notes of this visit sound an echo from the far past,