Of Machos and Macheteros: Men's Lives in the Hills of Nicaragua

260 Pages·2009·4.39 MB·English

Of Machos and Macheteros:
Men's Lives in the Hills of Nicaragua
Samuel Brouillette
A Thesis
in
The Department
of
Sociology and Anthropology
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Master of Arts (Social & Cultural Anthropology) at
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
April 2008
© Samuel Brouillette, 2008
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ABSTRACT
Of Machos and Macheteros: Men's Lives in the Hills of Nicaragua
Samuel Brouillette
This thesis examines the lives of men in south-western rural Nicaragua. But
contrary to anthropological analyses of masculinity focused on public performance or
investigations of gender in Nicaragua centered on the concept of machismo, I use a
materialist theoretical framework in studying the everyday interactions of men.
Through participant-observation based field research, I was able to scrutinize some of
the more important aspects of men's lives that have been overlooked by many
scholars of masculinity such as household relations and the world of work. Although I
also examined practices more typically associated with men in the literature such as
drinking, fighting, and womanizing, I did this from the standpoint of vagancia, a local
category of meaning used by men to understand such acts as temporary diversions
and not as crucial components of their persona.
Through my research, I found that most of the men I encountered in rural
Nicaragua derived their sense of manhood more from being able providers for their
households or successful agricultural workers than from the performance of symbolic
acts in a public setting. Moreover, men developed gender-based identities directly
related with their work as macheteros (machete workers). Ultimately, this thesis
demonstrates that if we want to better understand men in specific cultural settings, we
should prioritize in our analyses the aspects of their lives they find most important
and not reduce them to pre-conceived categorizations such as machismo that have
little local relevance.
iii
Table of Contents
Figures and Illustrations
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2
The History of Men and Masculinity in Anthropology 23
Chapter 3
The Rots of Inequality I: A Politico-Economic Briefing 4
Chapter 4
The Rots of Inequality I: A History of Gender Politics 70
Chapter 5
Men of the House: The Gender Dynamics of Household Relations 86
Chapter 6
The Work of Men: Gender and Identity in Agricultural Lahor 150
Chapter 7
Machos or Vagosl Taking a Deper Lok at Men Behaving Badly 196
Chapter 8
Conclusion 239
Bibliography 247
Glosary 254
iv
Figures and Illustrations
F1. Map of Western Nicaragua 18
F2. La Uva Landscape 97
F3. Men Carying Firewod 108
F4. El Descanso 152
F5. Don Martin with La Rojita 163
F6. Corn Field in La Uva 168
F7. Bean Field in La Uva 175
v
1. Introduction:
At around six o'clock on a Tuesday morning in early September, Calixto
Dominguez sat on a chair in Dona Antonia's sola (living room), holding his head
with his hands. "Ya la cagamos chibito (Now we've shat it, now we've really messed
up)," he said with a smirk, "si hombre" I muttered back, not knowing what else to
say. "Ahorra si la cagamos de viaje," he repeated. "Zo que mas me aflige," he
continued, "es que aya en la casa me van a hechar la culpa solo a mi (What really
bothers me is that back home they're going to blame me for this)." " 7 me duele este
oido (And my hearing (ear) hurts)," he said as he started to rub his right ear.
The reason Calixto was so dejected was quite simple. Our poorly timed,
expensive, and wholly unproductive two-day drinking binge had just ended. Things
had started rather inconspicuously on Sunday morning. Calixto and I had saddled up
our horses, loaded them with two fifty pound bags of beans, and ridden down from
the hills of La Uva into Escalante, the nearest town. Our original reason for going to
Escalante was to bring Leticia her share of the manzana (100x100 yard plot) of beans
she had planted a media (in association) with Calixto. After dropping off the beans, I
went up to Rodolfo's to attend a celebration for his son's baptism while Calixto went
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to Dona Juana's to meet with her son. We had agreed to join up at Leticia's later on
that afternoon.
At about five o'clock, I rode back into Escalante, simply called el barrio (the
neighborhood) by most of its inhabitants, after having downed a succulent meal of
fried pelibuey (an animal that resembles a sheep), rice, and cabbage salad, all
accompanied with a sweet cacao drink. The get-together had been a pleasant affair,
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with members of Rodolfo's family coming together to eat and talk the afternoon
away. Rather unexpectedly, though, Rodolfo, who has not had a drink in over ten
years, sent one of his nephew's back into town to pick up two medias de guaro
(400ml bags of local sugarcane liquor). Having thus participated in the consumption
of the liquor, I went back to el barrio with other ideas than simply meeting up with
Calixto. On my way over, I ran into Martin Dominguez, Calixto's grandfather, who
could no doubt see, or smell, what I was really up to. Don Martin encouraged me to
turn back and follow him home. "Ay dejalo (Leave him there)," he told me, "ellos
veran como regresan (they'll find their own way home)." After arguing
unconvincingly that I had promised Calixto I would give his daughter a ride back to
La Uva, I quit Don Martin's company and headed quickly into town before the sun
would set.
I found Calixto sitting on a tijera (small bed), helping Leticia separate the
good beans from the bad ones. After saluting the people gathered at Leticia's with the
customary "Buenos" I asked Calixto what he wanted to do. "Vamonos ya (Let's go
now)," he promptly said. "No quieres echarte un litro (Don't you want to down a liter
(of beer)," I asked? I could tell by Calixto's lack of a response that the idea was not
all that appealing to him. "Let's haVe just one," I insisted. After a couple of minutes
of persuading, Calixto finally relented. He called Leticia over, who besides her
agricultural ventures kept afloat by running two buses and selling alcohol, and
ordered a liter. We drank our beer quickly. However, as we attempted tcmount our
horses and head home, it started to rain heavily. Calixto looked over to me and said
"Esperemos quepase la lluviapues (Let's wait for the rain to pass then.)" We sat
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down again and agreed to have anther liter just to hold us through while the weather
cleared up. Since I only had seventy-five cordobas (=+/- 4.50$ US, 1 US$ was
equivalent to about 17.25 cordobas at the time) in my pocket, I figured that in the
worst-case scenario we would have three more liters (1 liter of beer = 25 cordobas).
Calixto repeated once again that he wanted to make it home that night, that we had to
weed our rice fields tomorrow, and that the horses needed to eat after being tied up all
day. I agreed and promised we would head out as soon as the heavy rain stopped and
we could mount our horses without damaging the saddles.
About halfway through the second liter, Juan walked by. A friend of
Calixto's, Juan worked with oxen, ploughing fields, hauling trees, and carrying loads
in his carts like most of the men in the Dominguez family. "Oy, veni vez (come see),"
Calixto shouted out. Juan came over and reluctantly agreed to have a glass of beer
with us. Now, being three people on a bottle made things go a lot quicker. Calixto's
mood had decidedly changed. "Pidamos la otra? (Let's get another?)," he asked?
"Dalepues (give it then, yes)," I answered. After the third liter, Juan said he had to
leave. "Tengo unajugada (I have a play, I've got something on the go)," he claimed.
As Juan walked away in the direction of his own home, Calixto looked at me and
said: "Que va a tener ni verga, lo que pasa es que le tiene miedo a la mujer (He
hasn't got dick all, what's happening is that he's scared of his woman)." After the
fourth liter, I was getting ready to leave. However, my companion now had other
ideas. "Ydiay," he said. "Ya se quiere ir (now you want to go)?" "Es que ando
palmado (It's cause I'm out of cash)," I answered. Calixto smiled and pulled out four
five-hundred cordoba bills from his pocket: "Por reales no se preocupe (For money
3
do not worry)." We ordered the fifth liter. The rain had now stopped but we were still
there.
Having thus reached the point of no return, the following night and day saw us
participate in a variety of activities such as unsuccessfully attempting to recruit
laborers to help us weed our rice fields the next morning; riding around el barrio with
our horses and a couple of other guys, Licho and El Chino; buying guaro at another
cantina; firing some shots with Licho's thirty-eight caliber pistol, the source of
Calixto's ear pains two days later; buying more guaro at another cantina; breaking up
a fight between Licho and El Chino who argued over who would take one of
Calixto's horses home; finishing up our bottle of guaro with Mario, Calixto's wife's
uncle; getting rid of our hangovers the next morning, again with Mario; and finally
drinking a bit more moderately while teasing and trying to dance with Calixto's
wife's two younger cousins on Monday night, again with Mario.
The final tally: Calixto spent about half of the 2,000 cordobas that were not
completely his, not yet anyway; we had lost a day of work and things were not
looking good for Tuesday either; we had pretty bad headaches; and we had managed
to anger our wives and probably a few other people as well. "Vamos a trabajar (let's
go and work)," I suggested. "Adonde (where)," Calixto answered, "«/ Descanso no
voy (I won't go to El Descanso, where the rice was planted)." We finally decided to
go back to La Uva to clear land. Mario was now up and about, looking for someone
to lend him ten cordobas so he could get himself una media (400 ml) of-guaro for la
goma (his hangover). At about six-thirty we finally started our trek back to La Uva.
Since Calixto had lent his mare to Luis on Sunday night and Maria, his wife, had
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taken my horse back the night before, going home entailed completing a two-hour
uphill walk, the highlight of which being when I almost stepped on a boa snake,
something that cheered Calixto up momentarily.
As we rounded the final peak before descending into the Dominguez hamlet,
we saw in the distance that a crowd had gathered to watch us stumble home. One of
the younger men, probably Ismael, screamed out to us. We ignored his call and kept
walking. "Esa gente anda arrecha (Those people are mad)," Calixto said. "Ay vas a
ver que me van a tratar (They're going to chew me out, you'll see)," he continued.
Calixto seemed really concerned: "Van a decir quepor mi Ud. anda tomando
(They're going to say that I made you go drinking)." I tried to reassure him the rest of
the way, telling him that I had never needed any help to drink in the past and that he
did not have to worry about anything. After all, we were both grown men and because
of that we could do as we please, right? My attempts at comforting Calixto, however,
apparently had little effect. He was already hearing the scathing remarks that would
be heaved upon him as we walked down the final hill before reaching the hamlet.
Upon arriving, we were greeted with mock applause and a few negative
comments along the lines of "Uds. son vagos (You guys are vagrants)." Miriam,
Calixto's mother, scolded him for'drinking excessively "como si tenes reales (as if
you had money)" and neither of our wives seemed interested in talking to us or
serving us breakfast. But, on the whole, things did not turn out as badly as Calixto
had first expected. Most of the other men seemed amused by our little escapade. Even
Don Martin, who Calixto was especially worried about, was in a jovial mood. "Veni
(come)," he said, as he ushered me over to the kitchen table where a bowl of pelibuey
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