In order to carry out this task, Fernando Ulloa and his assistant needed the whole town’s collaboration. On the first day of their arrival in San Juan, the engineer summoned the town’s principal men to an assembly in the central hall, the Cuarto del Juramento, of the Cabildo Municipal.

At three in the afternoon, the room (cold and enormous, strewn with pine needles in honor of the visitors and without any furniture other than a rectangular wooden table in the center) was full of Chamulas. Most of them were elderly but a few young people had shown up as well and they formed a group apart, the most restless and troublesome one.

When Fernando and César entered the room, everyone stood up to greet them. A light brush with the tips of the fingers, a few muttered, unintelligible words and they were back in their places.

The air was unbreathable; the crush of men, the mingled odors of resin, the very cheapest cigarettes, sweat, and damp wool had all condensed in the atmosphere. The doors were opened wide and a gust of fresh air relieved the queasiness.

Fernando asked for an interpreter because he had a lot to say and it would need explaining. None of the old men volunteered (though there were those among them who spoke Castilla). They had come because they were used to obeying the orders of Ladinos, but they mistrusted them and inside themselves were prepared to resist.

Among the young men there was a brief discussion; a few of them spat to clear their throats, in a sign of assent, and finally Pedro González Winiktón separated from the group and went to Fernando’s side.

Fernando spoke slowly, as if he were addressing a child, choosing the easiest words and repeating them as if repetition would make them comprehensible. He said that he was a friend to the Indians and that he had come from very far with a request from the president of the Republic that they be given back the ownership of their lands. When each man is the owner of his own plot of land it will be necessary for all men to work, to bring in good harvests, and to take them to sell in the markets. With the money they receive, he said, they can clothe themselves better, they can buy medicine, they can send their children to school.

The old men listened and out of the whole speech they grasped only that they were being directed to place in the hands of a stranger the papers they had treasured up and handed down from generation to generation, which represented all that was most precious in their eyes,