Guatemala, the lines on its palm

LUIS CARDOZA Y ARAGON

Friends of mine have adopted a foreign girl. She is blonde, green eyed, incredibly white.
-She looks like a doll- with satisfaction tells me the lady, who is as much a friend as selfconscious.
-Why go so far? We have many of abandoned children here, especially amidst the indigenous.
The orphanages are crowded.
The lady made an angry face. Her distressed was brief. We went on to talking about other
things.
Recently I have found out of the opposite case: a Swedish family has taken in an indigenous boy
to educate him as their own child. He is not mixed race or less white, he is a dark boy with
distinct racial features. Their friends cannot begin to imagine how they thought about doing
such a thing. To adopt an injun, to spoil, to educate with the utmost care and finesse, to sit him
on the table with them and the guests! They must be communists or crazy. Later they will want
for the adopted child to play with the family friends children, to attend the same schools if at
least they will have him eat in the kitchen with the staff.
The house maid has suppressed her father Indigenous last name and only uses the mothers
Spanish last name.

It seems natural to her.

Her father, who carries his last name

unapologetically, doesnt give any grievance to his children who shirk his name.
I give some coins to a boy of my family and tell him to share them, fairly, with his play mate for
the whole day, the barefoot son of the cook:

-Half for you and the other half for the boy who plays with you.
- That is not a boy. He is a waif
- Why is he a waif and not a boy?
- Because he has no shoes.
The girl goes to the cinema matinee. She is no older that seven and she is wearing an exquisite
wool jacket the natives from Totonicapan use. When the lights turn on, red faced she takes off
the jacket and hides it. Her anxiety is evident. She looks in every direction and recognizes a
friend, a school mate, amidst the assistants.
-

Dont you like the little jacket form Totonicapan? Its very beautiful and delicate.

Yes, but it is injun. I dont want my friends to see me wearing it.

She folded the coat and put it away. And like that with spontaneous gestures, I started to guide
myself until I understood better how incisive the indigenous hang up is.