Land and Freedom (1941)

[Music] [Music] when the Spaniards conquered Mexico they took for themselves everything within reach just as all invaders have always done the supply of gold and precious stones comes to an end but there is one form of wealth that never ends the land itself so the conquerors claimed ownership of all the land in Mexico and they built strong walled castles to enforce their claims it was the only system of social life they had ever known landlords on top and serfs at the bottom a system known as feudalism and they tried to copy it just as closely as the conditions of the new world would permit they set out to establish their rule not only over the land but over every living thing on it land is worth nothing to an owner unless there is labor to work it into well this also was the way the feudal system operated in Europe to hold down the Indian serfs the landlord's surrounded themselves with armed guards preferably mestizos men of mixed Indian and Spanish blood who with us put into a slightly favored social position midway between the two hostile races from which they themselves had sprung just above the mestizos were the Creoles american-born overseers and minor officials there were Spanish blood they were subordinate to the so called peninsular Spaniards who ruled in the name of the Spanish king the broad base of this entire economic system was the peon the all but enslaved native who was forced to live and work under guard for the groups who had set themselves up above him at dawn the peons were made to assemble in the patio to be assigned their daily tasks as they waited with seemingly endless patience and resignation they lifted their voices in the old old chant of their ancestors in honor of the Rising Sun that Sun was their great free God the all-powerful god of the ancient free native peoples and little did the ruler suspect that the daily him apparently stole meaningless in traditional could be serving to keep alive the smoldering spark of freedom [Music] [Music] dawn after dawn day after day year after year the peons assembled they voiced that chant and went forth under the shadow of the guns of their watchful guards out into the baking Hut feels to their endless labors [Music] hard endless monotonous labor was their lot the barest subsistence to hold body and soul together their reward the Magway heels Pookie and Pookie yields gold for the Masters to spend [Music] yes and alcohol too for the guards to get drunk on when a Pilon couple wanted to marry and had the consent of the bride's parents they still had to obtain the permission of the master for a marriage license was expensive to the peon and all was profitable to his landlord legally the peons were never slaves but they were held on to such heavy obligations that they could never escape on such occasion the landlord was generally quite genial and why not marriage meant heavy fees for the peon the workout and eventually children would be born to become new peons [Music] the landlords were not always so genial unrestrained ill-treatment was the common lot of the peons and there was no protection to turn to anywhere against the brutality of the guards and the cruel demands of the Masters when suffering went beyond all human endurance a desperate almost hopeless effort was made to escape such individual breaks for freedom were seldom successful and in any case they were never socially decisive the story of the suffering and oppression of the peons is eloquent in toll and the heroic murals painted by the great mexican artist diego rivera on the walls of the Ministry of Education the harsh rule of the Spanish conquerors is shown to have been continued by their descendants the great landlords who could not realize even then that historically their whole system of feudal power was on its way out at the end of the 18th century the British colonies to the north had won their independence and at the beginning of the 19th century nine new Republic's were born in South America out of what had been Spanish colonies just like Mexico Mexico also did not disguise of freedom that swept the world while the Creoles dreamed of independence is a road for their ambitions the peons hope only to get their land back or with land comes freedom in 1810 the war of independence was launched chiefly by two priests of Indian blood in the north father Hidalgo raised the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe as his battle flag and proclaimed land and freedom as his model Morelos in the South fought for the same aim both were defeated and executed yet their loyal lieutenants only a few years later became the first and second presidents of the Mexican Republic but it takes more than a constitution to change a feudal land into a modern republic the freedom-loving peoples were faced by armies from Spain Britain and France that threatened the new nation when conditions became unbearable the people rose in a long struggle for reform under the leadership of Benito Juarez he was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian in many ways his life and role was like that of Abraham Lincoln but alas Suarez died too soon his place was seized by fury odious one of his former lieutenants and for over thirty years the interest of the big landlords and the foreign investors received every advantage still more land was taken from the natives in order to force them to go to work for wages lower than they have been getting a hundred years before when father Hidalgo launched the war of independence despite all oppression the forces that aim to make Mexico a modern nation and to bring happiness and prosperity to the both of its people grew stronger and bolder their demands were simple no more dictatorship land for the peon legal protection for labor Mexico for the Mexicans just about a hundred years after father Hidalgo death President Diaz was driven out of Mexico and the country's progress toward freedom was resumed a new order of things was written by force into the constitution of 1917 and ever since then Mexican history has been a series of social struggles in its interpretation and enforcement the great masses of the Mexican people remain definitely on the march poorly armed often poorly organized they stormed the strongholds of reaction on every field heedless of cost or sacrifice victory at last but with victory came a lot of new problems to solve dividing up land among small farmers alone there's no complete answer large farms still have to be run on the large scale work is still hot and hard but the guards and the guns are gone and the weddings and fiestas and other enjoyments and now arranged as the peons themselves decide without first begging the hosnian daughter's permission no wonder that their little van seemed to play a livelier tune than it did in the old days [Music] yes the work is still hot and hard but the cattle and tools are now they're old the land is they're old they're very old their land and their freedom [Music]