| Show Largest La Indian Market in World Is in Guatemala Traders Are Gayly Costumed The plaza of at Santo Tomas Chichicastenango Chichicastenango Chichicastenango Chichi- Chichi a village hidden far back in the mountains of Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala Guate Guate- mala is the scene of the largest and most elaborately costumed Indian Indian Indian In In- dian market in Central America On Thursdays and Sundays it draws as many as traders and farmers farmers farmers farm farm- ers from an area of several hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred square miles Mingling here on market days are Indians from scores of villages each dressed in a different manner To the stranger it is dreamlike and unreal One has the feeling that this is the opening scene of a new opera that presently a trumpet will blow an orchestra will begin to play and all these earnest people will drop their bargaining to burst forth in throated full song Back of the gay trappings and the romancing of visitors however the workaday life lie of a simple but industrIous industrious industrious in in- people moves on In long rows the women squat on the hard earth their wares piled before them Some are arc protected from the tropical sun by square cotton awn awn- ings but most of them sit In the open Many plait straw for sombreros sombreros sombreros som som- as they wait for buyers Hand scales measure out yellow and blue corn native copal incense soap peppers dried shrimps beans and herbs It is difficult for an outsider to understand understand understand un un- the status of the Indian in ina a town like Chichicastenango Unlike Unlike Unlike Un Un- like the naked half-naked aborigines of the jungle lowlands or the itinerant tradesmen and servants of the cities the Indians of the highlands of Guatemala have maintained a proud semi independence as farmers farmers farmers farm farm- ers weavers and pottery makers Conquered but never assimilated they are aristocrats among the native native native na na- na- na tive peoples of Central America and they are sufficiently well orga organized zed to make mass petitions to the central central central cen cen- government when local conditions conditions conditions condi condi- demand it They have had much less contact with other races than Indians elsewhere have had Consequently they have retained their self respect and are arc neither subservient nor cringing |
