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John W. Smith Twentieth-Century Pioneer: The Adventures of J. W. Smith in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central America. (Pionero del siglo XX: las aventuras de J. W. Smith en el suroeste norteamericano, México y Centroamérica). Serie Memorias 1. South Woodstock, Vermont: Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies, 1993. iv + 97 págs. Fotografías. US$ 10.00 (25.5 x 18 cm, en rústica) (Agotado / Out of print) |
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Contenido
Chapter One
Me as a Kid in Oklahoma
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Chapter Two
Heading Texas and Old Mexico Way
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Chapter Three
How We Got Mixed Up
in a Revolution
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Five
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Chapter Six
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Chapter Seven
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 Pub. Anterior |
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Este libro es el primero de la serie Memorias y Documentos. Dicha serie
consiste en textos autobiográficos de viajeros así como
de inmigrantes que llegaron para radicarse en uno de los paises de Mesoamérica
en el siglo XIX o inicios del XX. Estos relatos constituyen un valioso
acerbo documental primario tanto para historiadores como para los interesados
en relatos de viajeros e inmigrantes extranjeros en tierras mesoamericanas.
Pedido Order |
Contenido Contents |
Resumen |
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This book is the first in the series of Memorias y Documentos
(Memoirs and Documents) which consists of autobiographical texts of travelers
and immigrants who came to settle in countries of Mesoamerica in the nineteenth
or early twentieth century. These accounts constitute important documentary
sources for the historian and those interested in accounts from travelers
and foreign immigrants to the Mesoamerican region.
The volume is based on the anecdotal memories of the North American rancher John W. Smith as recorded by his wife, Eva, in the late 1970s. The account comprises his childhood and teenage years in Oklahoma, Texas, and Soconusco at the beginning of the twentieth century and concludes with the description of the first trips Smith made to El Petén, Guatemala in search of oil and rubber in the 1940s when he was under contract with multinational North American companies.
The first two chapters include anecdotes from Smith’s early years in cattle ranches in Oklahoma, Texas, and Soconusco, a region on the Pacific coast in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Among the topics discussed are rustic frontier life, topography and ecology of the mid-western plains, experiences with horses, adventures on cattle drives from one region to another, and encounters with the indigenous of the region and memories of the first school years. Smith describes his impressions of his family’s move to Mexico in 1913, a train trip passing through El Paso, Mexico City, Tehuantepec, and final arrival in San Pedro, a cattle ranch located in Soconusco. Smith recounts daily events at the ranch, his travels when he accompanied his father through the coffee-growing region of Tapachula and Comitán, and his encounters with jaguars and people of the region.
In the third chapter Smith talks about the experience of his family with the Mexican Revolution. In 1914, after Veracruz had been occupied by North American troops, the Mexican government ordered the internment of North American settlers in Mexico in a concentration camp in Mexico City. A rural police squad was despatched to the ranch San Pedro, ordered to capture the Smith family and other residents there. John Smith and his father defended themselves with firearms and at the end of the scuffle three policemen were dead. This incident forced the family to abandon the ranch and eventually settle in Guatemala.
The four last chapters of the book are about Smith’s life in Guatemala. Smith, with his parents and siblings, continued to work in his family’s traditional trade, the business of buying and selling cattle at various ranches on Guatemala’s Pacific coast. Smith’s many stories tell of his experiences as a horse herder, farm manager, employee of a North American lumber company, conductor of cattle drives from Nicaragua and Honduras, and as administrator of extensive family properties. The memoir concludes with the first trips Smith made to El Petén as an employee for Shell and a Chiclet (chewing gum) company exploring for oil and rubber in the 1940s.
In the short introduction to this memoir, Christopher Lutz mentions that John Smith, after his activities in El Petén, eventually settled in Antigua, Guatemala where he built the hotel Antigua. He married Eva in 1964 and passed away in 1986. Lutz emphasizes the purely anecdotal nature of the memoir and the lack of historical and cultural analysis of the facts in Smith’s narration.
However, the stories Smith tells contain valuable information about an important time in the economic and political history of Mexico and Central America. The experience of John Smith and his family illustrates the expansion process of North American capital and people into the Mesoamerican regions at the first half of the twentieth century. It offers important information about the role North American immigrants played in the development of the export economy, particularly the farming sector of the Pacific coastal plains of Soconusco and Guatemala and also about the pioneering activities of multi-national North American companies in the forest region of El Petén.
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