Well, there was no Señor Marques at El Maizal this morning, but there were some campesinos {peasant farmers} waiting ever more impatiently for their seed & fertilizer, and some others who were in the group that went to San Salvador yesterday, & were still hot with “colera” {anger} from their meeting with Padre {Father} Serrano. I heard about the meeting first from some dude from CREDHO in San Salvador who came out last night to “look after” the seed & fertilizer being stored at El Maizal in the wake of what happened. He said the campesinos were pretty angry to begin with, and they demanded the resignations of Freddy Salguerro and Lionel Marques. In response the Padre said he’d rather lose the coops than those two men, so as it stands now (apparently) CREDHO will give the seed & fertilizer to other cooperatives in other areas, and leave the “socios” {members} from around El Maizal to buy on their own. If they go through with that threat, CREDHO will be all through in this area. No amount of promotion will make farmers forget they got left high and dry by CREDHO’s cooperatives. Apparently, the angriest & hottest headed farmers went in for the meeting without telling the rest what they planned to do. Maybe they didn’t even plan to ask for resignations until something riled them - like the Padre’s selfrighteousness perhaps! Anyway, many farmers (maybe the majority) still want their seed & fertilizer, are counting on it.
I decided this mess was demonstration enough of why it is ridiculous for CREDHO to start a cattle project. Shit, if they get their corn planted after all this they’ll be lucky. It took me ‘til tonight to reconvince myself that I should write that letter I promised Marques saying why I think the cattle project ill advised. I just might include my resignation in the letter. The neatness of it appeals to me.
Lord, the mosquitoes are horrendous today! And Jay strums away on his banjo as I consider reading a little bit of “Tierra de Infancia” before retiring to my hammock.
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