Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Development and Transmission of Stic
The Development and Transmission of Stic
Michael J. Ryan
Binghamton University
C 2011 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 67
The Latin Americanist, September 2011
Only recently has the popular culture of the working class and rural
people of Latin America been the object of scholarly interest.5 Since this
turn to the popular classes began, many aspects of these cultures are still
obscured or hid by ethnographers who feel their presentation on the world
stage would only confirm derogatory or harmful preexisting stereotypes
of them.6 In order to understand the role that the popular classes have
played in the development of Latin America, it is important to appreciate
the reasons why so many these people have continued to perfect their skills
in unarmed and armed combat. The intensive investment of time required
to master these practices becomes especially curious as over the last one
hundred years as the technological advances of firearms have made these
bodies of knowledge obsolete. Instead of disappearing as Modernity took
hold in Latin America as many scholars once predicted; many of these
combative traditions continue to be practiced en–camera, while other such
as Capoeira and Brazilian Vale Tudo have undergone a re-vitalization and
global popularity. The persistence of these combative traditions demon-
strates the relevance of these arts for those communities who continue to
cherish and protect their cultural knowledge.
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Garrote in Venezuela
By the time the first accounts of garrote appear in the early 19th century,
fighting with a walking-stick had already attained a sophisticated level of
development among the civilian population. Succeeding sparse accounts
suggest that fighting with a walking stick was part of larger constellation
of civilian combative traditions drawing on a variety of occupational tools
from cuchillos, puñales, peinillas, and machetes to mandadores, garrochas or
dejarretaderas.17 In addition to these tools, a number of civilian and military
weaponry such as differing lengths of staves, small-swords, sabers, the
lance and the bayonet also seem to have played an important role in
conflicts up through the early 20th century. Speaking of garrote as it is
primarily thought of and practiced today, a garrote or palo refers to a
fire-hardened, oiled, hard-wood walking stick that was once part of the
every day dress of Venezuelan men. At present terms such as “Garrote de
Lara”, “Garrote Larense” or “Garrote Tocuyano” are recently coined terms for
what were once innumerable local styles of fighting practiced throughout
the country.18 These names merely reflect the area where the majority of
research on this art has been conducted so far, and ties into the view of local
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garroteros that garrote arose out of conditions in the Tocuyo valley and
spread throughout Venezuela. This view is hard to sustain as myself and
other local investigators have identified and studied local stick fighting
styles that have no link with the Tocuyo valley. The existence of a number
of traditions of garrote showing no links to the Tocuyo valley, suggests
that garrote developed independently over the years through different
patterns of diffusion and independent development at different sites.
Some practioners of garrote have developed colorful names to identify
their particular style of garrote such as The Bloody Stick, The Cock-Crow
style, or The Seven Methods style. Others however have no name for their
style of stick fighting. For example, early in the 20th century a chain of
events began with a man by the name of Sablón Vásquez fleeing an assault
charge in the neighboring state Falcón. Moving south to the sugar-cane vil-
lage of La Riconada in the state of Lara, he taught a method of stick fighting
to his friends and new family.19 During this time a student of his remem-
bered only as El Pecho Peludo in turn, escaping from an impending assault
charge built a new life for himself near the sugar cane fields of Cabudare
approximately 50 miles away.20 Here, during the 1930’s, he taught his
style of stick fighting to a Gualberto Castillo who proceeded to teach a few
relatives and friends of his village this art. Coming down to the present
as La Riña con Palo or fighting with sticks; the matter-of–fact descriptive
name for this stick-fencing suggests there was a general lack of interest in
identifying these traditions outside their obvious function.21 In a way this
attitude is very similar to how many people today would not pay to much
attention to distinguishing between different kinds of cooking pots.
During the 1940’s and 1950’s when Maestro Ricardo was a young man,
ongoing efforts by the military dictatorship to create a modern nation-state
had largely succeeded. Previous to this time, for over a century Venezuela
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From the time of independence in 1825 until 1929, the southern half of the
Segovia highlands has been the site of over 68 armed conflicts in addition
to years of enduring low-level guerrilla activity.26 The Segovia highlands
have traditionally served as a boundary between conservative and liberal
spheres of influences, turning the area into a prime battle ground over the
years. During the 19th and early 20th centuries privately raised militia units
regularly advanced and retreated across the area in support of regional
caudillos, living off what they could take from the farms and ranches they
came across.27 The end result of this was an almost total destruction of the
regions infrastructure resulting in this area being reduced to an economic
backwater. By the 1940’s when many Venezuelans were enjoying a re-
newed prosperity due to the global demand for coffee and petroleum; half
of the sugar-cane grown in this area was still processed by water-powered
mills and used wood burning furnaces to produce papelón geared towards
local consumption. At the same time, the urban population of Lara was
increasingly turning to the importation of a refined Cuban sugar for daily
use further marginalizing the areas economic base. The return to civilian
rule in 1958, after 60 years of military dictatorships led to a number of lim-
ited land reforms and some increases in public spending for infrastructural
improvements and public education. The majority of state funding though
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has gone to helping large plantations shift from a labor intensive farming
system based on a type of debt–slavery, to a capital-intensive production
relying on a seasonal wage-earning force. The results of this uneven de-
velopment fuelled an already strong rural to urban migration that has
fundamentally transformed the face of Venezuela from a primarily rural
nation to a predominantly urban population today.28
After almost a century of endemic political conflict, the groundwork to
build a modern Venezuelan state began to take shape by the 1890’s when
elite factions began struggling over who was going to be the next presi-
dent. Unable to tolerate being on the losing political side one more time,
General Cypriano Castro and his Chief of Staff Juan V. Gómez began their
bid for supreme power from exile in neighboring Colombia in 1899. Ac-
companied by 60 men armed with Mauser rifles and machetes, they raised
the standard of revolt under the name of ‘Restoration Revolution.’29 Mov-
ing from victory to victory, this small band of men continued to attract
followers as they progressed down the mountains into the Segovia High-
lands, avoiding the caudillo armies sent after them. Successfully entering
an abandoned Caracas, Castro began to negotiate with, co-opt or defeat any
remaining political opponents, and initiated a number of policies to mod-
ernize the country. At first Castro and then his successor Juan V. Gómez
drew on the profits from coffee and then petroleum to recruit, arm and
train a modern army. With their new found wealth they also began to build
a nation wide infrastructure to facilitate the transport of coffee to the coast
and to move their newly armed and trained army to move throughout the
country army to repress any signs of dissent. As it occurred in the Segovia
Highlands, those elites that proved loyal to the government or those that
could be co-opted into supporting them were awarded with indigenous or
state lands in the surrounding hill country. For centuries these lands had
been occupied by small farmers and indigenous communities who had
been able to avoid the innumerable attempts to dispossess them of their
holdings and turn them into rural proletarians.30 With this fencing–off of
the commons, families were reduced to a state of debt-peonage on their
former lands, or were forced to relocate to the growing cities of Carora
and Barquisimeto to become day-laborers where many of them took part
in the labor struggles of the 1930’s. Additionally, as part of a policy ensure
his rule President Gómez, ended the caudillo system of governing in part
by abolishing all private militia units and initiating a number of ultimately
unsuccessful attempts to collect all arms remaining in private hands.31
After almost 20 years of rule by a series of military officers, the intro-
duction of civilian rule in 1958 and the rapid growth of a middle class
resulting from the global demand of oil led to an expanding and increas-
ingly wealthy middle –class attracted to the culture and technology of
North America. Among young Venezuelan men, recreational activities
such as Baseball, Boxing and latter Kara-te and Ju-do began to replace
older pastimes such as bull-fights, cock fighting, or garrote.32 By this time
communities had began to look down on, or try to forget the once common
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sight of drunken men armed with walking sticks and knives fighting in
the streets to see who was the better man. “Does anybody here want to
fight” yelled one man into the darkness of a street late one night. “No
not really, but if you care to take a swing at me. . .”33 These attitudes of
masculine bravado and violence once led to the necessity as one garrotero
put it “that every man have some knowledge of garrote just to survive.”34
Once ubiquitous throughout the area, these behaviors and attitudes were
all too often forgotten or remembered with an embarrassed shrug of the
shoulders and an explanation that this was all in the past.
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well as serving as a fearsome weapon.41 One likely source for the popular-
ity of stick fighting in Venezuela dates back to the mid 18th century when
the carrying of a walking stick was a part of the everyday dress among
European males.42 At this time as many cities became safer and there was
a decreasing tolerance for men dueling or brawling in the streets in honor
contests, both the elite and urban merchants had begun to replace the car-
rying of rapiers and other thrusting types of swords in public with walking
sticks, sword canes, and weighted sticks. A process Norbert Elias identified
as part of a ‘Civilizing Process.”43 However, these developments among
the elite and the expanding merchant class should not occlude the con-
tinued existence of armed and unarmed combative arts continued among
the popular classes in Europe.44 The persistence of combative traditions
practiced as methods of self-defense or as a recreational pastime among
the European popular classes’ hints at the diversity, sophistication and
ubiquity of combative traditions among them, and a number of possible
avenues of transmission into Latin America.45
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Maracaibo. One day on the beach, León Valera claimed to have saved the
life of a drowning Englishman. As a way of thanking the young man, the
Englishmen taught him a thrusting type of stick fighting that looks very
similar to Spanish small-sword fencing.51 In conjunction with techniques
of Tocuyano stick fighting that he had been exposed to, León Valera devel-
oped a style of garrote he called the Siete Lineas or the seven methods style
which he demonstrated to the public during a promessa to San Antonio in
the village of La Guarajita in 1925.52
A number of scholars claim that garrote tocuyano is related to the nu-
merous African stick fighting styles around the Caribbean. 53 This stance
is difficult to maintain however as in the case of Venezuela, the major-
ity of African slaves in were put to work on the cacao plantations of the
coastal ranges and inland in the state of Yaracuy. Here it is most likely
that Afro-Venezuelan stick fighting styles would have most likely de-
veloped.54 Written and oral evidence suggests that Afro-Venezuelan or
Afro-Caribbean stick fighting styles did exist in the port towns of Mara-
caibo, and Puerto Cabello and the nearby island of Curaçao. However, the
only evidence of links between the Tocuyano and these coastal styles are
from the garrotero Baudilio Ortiz who claimed to have learned a few stick
and machete fighting techniques in the 1930’s while working as a laborer
in Puerto Cabello.55 What becomes clear in attempting to trace the routes
of combative traditions that came to Venezuela is that as a result of the
incorporation of Venezuela into the North-Atlantic political-economy men
continued to bring with them sets of values norms and understandings
how to use a variety of hand operated weapons in an array of agonistic and
antagonistic scenarios that were disseminated evaluated and incorporated
into existing systems of armed combat.
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As late as 1929 the use of peasant militias armed with machetes attack-
ing opposing forces was still employed successfully, although, the spread
of repeating rifles from the late 19th century reduced the frequency of this
tactic. Taking a closer view of the laborers and farmers who took part in
armed actions during this time, it is important to stress that accounts of
machete charges cannot be dismissed as a chaotic rush of ignorant farm-
ers. Within these stressed induced activities, previous training in learning
how to fight becomes apparent in the ability to advance or to stand your
ground while deliberately and correctly targeting vital body-targets of an
opponent. Many scholars today do not have the background in fighting to
understand the skills this type of behavior calls upon. For instance, in com-
bat heavier weapons are necessary calling on a different set of muscles and
body-mechanics then when fencing in more formal duels or participating
in sport fencing. The differences between battlefield and civilian combat
traditions and dueling or agonistic combative traditions are clearly seen in
accounts of sword versus machete fighting in the Mexican Caste War of the
mid 19th century. At this time Mexican officers soon learned that hours of
cut, thrust and parrying with light rebated weapons in an indoor salle did
little to prepare a man to respond effectively to an opponent jumping out
at you from behind a tree swinging a 2–3 pound machete at your head.62
Wielding a machete of this type requires the use of molinetes or fully swung
cuts originating from the shoulder and hip to generate the necessary power
to cleave open a skull or cut through the flesh and bone of a limb; these
being the only effective ways of eliminating an opponent.63 In addition to
developing the physical knowledge to eliminate an opponent, cultivating
the commitment to charge a group of men armed with rifles or machetes
or withstand such a charge calls for an emotional investment that must be
similarly cultivated. Many times militia units were composed of friends,
neighbors and relatives who already possessed some degree of trust that
could contribute to a unit’s cohesiveness in the face of a machete melee.
Alongside these pre-existing bonds, accounts from Venezuelan garroteros
and Filipino machete units during World War Two, suggest further bonds
of unity developed during times of training with live blades. In these cases
it can be seen how garrote or disciplined physical training could prove to
be a key factor in building relationships. Here is a rare account of training
in El Tocuyo during the 19th century illustrating the presence of mind, as
well as feelings of trust and community cultivated and entailed in this type
of environment:
“Daily, in order to drill his officers; they were under standing orders
to attack him with their swords, all the while taking precautions
about their attacks. Those who hit him with the point or the edge of
their blade he warned would have the same done to them. Therefore
all concerned would have to be alert and agile. He would then step in
front of the door of the barracks he was going to defend. Then three
or four officers would unsheathe their swords for the assault. This
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in this area. Ritual male hierarchical contests are acts where two men
seek to learn where they rank against each other in an activity they both
decide is the best way to determine who is the better man. A majority
of these contests were fought for public recognition, the love of fighting
and a chance to test ones skills.68 One element that stands out in the story
above and many like it still told today are the number of hyper–aggressive
individuals swaggering down the street carrying a big heavy walking
stick looking for any excuse to issue a challenge. Writing of late Imperial
Germany, the historian Norbert Elias noted that in certain types of social
worlds where honor and violence are linked, and state control is weak,
specific types of physically strong or skilled men come to the fore that
enjoy challenging and physically defeating men in physical contests to gain
respect and honor.69 Referring back to the story about Manuel Téran and
men like him, it can be seen there were an unspoken but generally agreed
upon set of rules governing these types of matches. Moreover, the public
nature of these kinds of honor contests supports the idea that ones public
reputation was often treated as a scarce and ephemeral commodity that
had to be defended almost on a daily basis.70 The way the potential lethality
of the match escalated through the choosing of weapons suggests that
simple challenge matches could easily escalate beyond anybody control.
For reasons unknown Manuel was once ambushed by 5 men armed with
sticks and knives. Defending himself Manuel ended up killing a man with
a blow of his palo that ruptured one of his assailants liver for which he
spent 6 months in jail. Similar accounts also tell of the unpredictable nature
of the public in these types of honor contests. Bystanders could stand by
and let the conflict play out, or intervene and try to deescalate the situation.
Alternatively, they could join one side, or each take different sides leading
to all-out melees. The ideal scenario for male hierarchical contests as I was
told many times was for two men to go of somewhere private and duel.
I think this was in part due to the volatile nature of bystanders and the
reticence of many men to risk their well-being or their reputation on the
outcome of a ‘friendly’ fight. Alone, both men could have it out to the bitter
end, or they could talk it out, and then unharmed latter tell a convincing
story that put the narrator in a good light. A review of the literature
on combat has shown that many times men are more concerned with
staying alive and unharmed then inflicting an injury on others and those
combatants do not always appreciate bystanders escalating potentially
incendiary situations. 71
One element of these types of contests that many old garroteros stressed
to me was the fact that the aim of garrote was not to kill a man but
to accrue or maintain respect.72 This becomes evident in the use of the
walking stick as the communally agreed upon weapon of choice in these
types of matches. The non-lethal character of garrote is also reflected in the
principal techniques men relied upon. Asking a garrotero today to show a
few basic moves he would be most likely to deliver a low rising uppercut
type of strike. Known alternately as a ‘barrecampo’, ‘barrajuste’,’ baseado’ or
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‘huevero’ depending on the area where he lives. The targets for this type
of blow are the ankle, the inside of the knee, or the groin and sometimes
underneath the jaw. A blow of this sort is meant to drop an opponent
to the ground literally lowering the man so as to look up at the victor,
physically embodying his lower status. The non-lethal intent of garrote
contests and brawls is reflected in the 1270 court cases examined by the
historian Mathias Assunção. Among the cases looked at, the palo used
alone was involved in 15% of all deaths from assaults. Bladed weapons
on the other hand were responsible for 50% of fatalities and the use of
revolvers accounted for the remaining 35% of remaining deaths.73
I wrote how earlier how Venezuela underwent a ‘civilizing processes in
the early 20th century where older forms of sociality and ideas of violence
became stigmatized and marginalized. However, as Elias noted ‘changing
one’s habitus is not as easy as changing one’s clothes’.74 The persistence
of a restricted number of the younger generation who actively seek out
and treasure these older forms of traditional knowledge can be seen in the
number of younger garroteros who participate in challenge matches both
for the adventure and the desire to test their skills. Back in the 1980’s, one
of my teachers, Saul Téran and a friend would roam the streets looking for
other young men to test their combat skills in both armed and unarmed
matches. Saul’s friend quit these types of matches after being repeatedly
stabbed in the stomach with a sharpened screwdriver, while Saul claimed
he aged out of such behavior. Outside of Barquisimeto, on occasion, a
couple of men from neighboring styles will meet informally in ‘friendly’
matches that often turn out to be full-contact bouts, that end with one
of them lying on the ground unable to continue. Up in the hill above El
Tocuyo there is a well-known agronomist who wanders around the coffee
fincas with a coupe of palos strapped across his back ready to engage any
willing farmer in a quick friendly stick–fight. Oftentimes listening to peo-
ple speak of garrote in the past during the time of the dictatorships, the
ambivalent and sometime contradictory opinions and feelings about gar-
rote and garroteros become apparent. At the same time as the aggressive
and ruthless character of people remembered as guapos or caudillos are
disparaged or criticized, the determination, cunningness and strength of
character of these men are also admired and seen to lacking or in danger
of disappearing in the younger generation. For many older rural men and
women the learning of garrote is still seen by many as able to instill in
young men these important character traits that allow men to withstand
the vagaries of the world. For example, the mother of one of my garrote
teachers Danys Burgos had a neighbor teach her son garrote to counteract
his tendencies to hang out with his friends and loaf around after school.
Every afternoon after school, Danys hiked up a heavily forested hill near
his house and trained garrote with a man who learned the neighborhood
style of garrote that Danys grandfather brought the area 60 years earlier.
Training in secret, Danys was repeatedly advised never show this art to
anybody until the moment you are attacked.
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preliminary stalking of each other drew the attention of a few men who
appreciated the sight of an old–fashioned match between two skilled men.
Most of the crowd were oblivious or could care less about what was oc-
curring only a few feet away. After a few minutes of circling each other
and trading heavy blows that left deep bruises on both men’s forearms,
stomach and ribs, the mayor and a few friends managed to trade their
palos for a couple of beers and they went off arms around each other’s
shoulders to continue drinking and laughing. The pain from the blows
would come latter.
This disjuncture between garrote as a combative art and a performance
art occurring in the Tamunangue today is also reflected by some garroteros
today who divide garrote into three modes of the mock dance or La batalla,
El Juego or the techniques and tactics of stick fighting and La Riña or the
dirty tricks or finishing moves. Speaking of this division the late garrotero
and musician Natividad Alvarado who for decades led the Tamunangue
folkloric group ‘Araguaney’ around Barquisimeto had this to say about
these developments76 :
“La batalla is the same as the riña, what happens is that in La batalla
one strikes a blow to the head and the other avoids it. But in the
riña one attacks with a blow to really strike and one avoids it. This
is called ‘floreo’, for example one strikes a blow to the head and the
other avoids it, he also moves his leg out of the way. One must move
the body so the strike hits the ground. It is done in an exchange. We
make a juego, but the strikes are hard. The strikes in the juego are
the same as the riña”
Natividad Alvarado 25, April 2005 Barquisimeto.
Conclusion
The persistence of a number of civilian combative traditions through-
out Latin America hints at the importance the popular classes place on
the role of these innumerable fighting arts as a way to protect their lives
and livelihood, as a way to transmit valued ways of being, or as an icon
of ones roots and origins. Within Venezuela the continuation of a strong
indigenous presence in the Segovia highlands suggests that garrote was
developed, refined and transmitted by an increasingly proletarianized
and hispanicized population who saw this art as a way to contest their
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status as men without honor as well as adding another tool to their arsenal
for self-defense.77 The wealth of military and civilian combative traditions
in Europe and Africa that existed at a time when soldiers and immigrants
came to Venezuela suggests that men brought with them and shared
with their families and descendents the techniques, tactics and weapons
that they had picked up over the years and served them well.78 For this
reason, garrote is best treated as a set of sedimented body-techniques
that have been successfully tested in specific combative contexts; passed
down and refined by each succeeding generation over the years to meet
specific needs.79 Identifying garrote as a collection of body-techniques
does not mean they are set responses to objective conditions; rather
they are a form of practical understanding occurring at the level of the
body, allowing the trained body to make adjustments in their habitual
responses, or come up with new responses to contingent conditions,
without recourse to conscious thought.80 If successful these moves are
added to a community’s traditional repertoire of techniques, if not the
moves are forgotten or discarded. This would account for the variation
found among garroteros. A review of the different contexts where garrote
took place suggests all forms of combat are not geared towards the
same ends and therefore ways of cultivating habitual and perceptual
attributes also vary across sites. The way a man would train who is
being prepared to fight as part of a hastily thrown together militia unit
would be different then a man trained as professional soldier. Likewise
in the civilian sphere, where combative encounters could entail diverse
scenarios such as feuds, vendettas and assaults or an alcohol fueled, good
natured male hierarchical ritual fight. Within these different modes of
combat there was always a chance that increasingly lethal weapons could
be introduced, or restraints against causing major damage to others could
be loosed, or groups of bystanders might decide to involve themselves.
These contingencies meant that any man calling himself a garrotero had
better be prepared to train to fight under a variety of incelmnetal or
disadvantageous environmental conditions. Finally garrote was trained
purely for recreational or for spiritual psycho-spiritual goal such as is
often done today during the fiesta de San Antonio. In each case the body
is trained to perceive situation in unique way and react accordingly. If a
man was not trained to deal with extreme acts of violent aggression but
only had been exposed to recreational training, the results could be bad.
Because body-techniques are only transmitted in social networks both
symbolic meanings such as ideas of honor or ways of belonging as well
as practical responses to environmental events are transmitted through
the incorporation of proper movements.81 This sedimented nature of
subject-formation would account for the persistence of garrote in as a
combative art as conditions changed. At a time when men habitually went
about armed, many young men would have an interest in re-producing
the forms and practices of masculinity they were exposed to. This meant
that a younger generation would legitimate and re -produce traditional
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ways of looking at, moving through and judging the world. Latter on
as a result of the institutionalization of a modern –centralized state, a
wave of post WWII immigration from Europe and a shift from Venezuela
as a rural to predominantly urban country, ideas of proper masculine
comportment and ways of sociality underwent a great deal of change.
However, in spite of these fundamental changes in the country, many
older forms of sociality and ways of looking at, evaluating and being in the
world are still valued and transmitted reflecting the conservative nature
of the body –techniques that make up individuals habitus and can be
seen if one knows what to look for. Traveling through Venezuela, visitors
can see signs of an adherence to older forms of sociality such as a bus
driver or taxi-driver keeping a short thick club known as a guapo-manso or
bully-tamer near their seats to deal with any potential trouble or rural men
riding bicycles through the countryside with a braided handled walking
stick tied underneath the frame of their bicycles. Looking at garrote as a
series of body-techniques that develop and change in conjunction in the
context of prevalent political-economic structures allows an investigator
to develop a deeper more inclusive definition of culture accounting for
the different ways individuals come to learn how to use their body’s
and use them to evaluate, feel and move through and belong to a world.
Notes
1
Robert Farris Thompson, “Black Martial Arts of the Caribbean”. Review
of Latin Literature and Arts, Vol. 37 (1987), pp. 44–47.
2
Richard Francis Burton, The History of the Sword. (Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1995); Bronislaw Malinowski, 1920 “War and Weapons
among the Trobriand Islanders”. Man, Vol. 20 (1920), pp. 10–12; Mar-
cel Mauss, Sociology and Psychology: Essays. B. Brewster, transl. (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979); A. Lane-Fox Pit-Rivers, The Evolution of
Culture and Other Essays. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1906).
3
Chacon, Richard and Reubén Mendoza (eds) Latin American Indigenous
Warfare and Ritual Violence. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007),
pp. 116–141; Loı̈c J. Wacquant, “Pugs at Work: Bodily Capital and Bodily
Labor among Professional Boxers”. Body and Society Vol.1 No.1 (1995),
pp.65–94.
4
Recent works on African arts include Matthias Röhring Assunção,
Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Art. (New York: Routledge,
2005); T. J. Desch-Obi, “Peinillas and Popular Participation: Machete
fighting in Haiti, Cuba, and Colombia”. Memorias. Revista Digital de
Historia y Arqueología desde el Caribe Vol.11 (2009). Downloaded at
http://rcientificas.uninorte.edu.co/index.php/memorias/article/view
Article/517. (Accessed 02 February 2011); Fighting for Honor: The History
of African Martial Arts in the Atlantic World (Carolina Low Country and
the Atlantic World. (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press,
2008); Gregory Downey, Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an
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14
Pierre Bourdieu and Loı̈c Wacquant, p.76.
15
See Gertrud Pfister, “Cultural Confrontation: German Turnen, Swedish
Gymnastics and English Sport- European Diversity in Physical Activities
from a Historical Perspective”. Culture, Sport and Society, Vol. 6 No. 1 (2003),
pp. 61–91; Susan Brownell, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral
Order of the People’s Republic. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995),
for examples how nationalist movements use of group drills to encourage
feelings of belonging.
16
A bochiniche is a local term for a dance party.
17
Cuchillos, puñales and peinillas are types of knives. A mandador is a
whip. A garrocha or dejarretadera are types of pikes used to herd cattle.
18
The use of the term Lara or Larense refers to the state of Lara that
was created in 1881 out of the larger province of Barquisimeto. The term
tocuyano refers to the town of El Tocuyo built on the banks of the Tocuyo
river and has a reputation fro producing fierce garroteros
19
Argimiro González, Enciclopedia Autodidáctia Sobre el Juego de Garrote
Venezolano. Tomo Primero I.(Caracas: Concultura, 2007).
20
Pecho Peludo means ‘hairy chested’.
21
This style is also known as El Estilo Curaigüeno by students of Eduardo
Sanoja who himself learned his style of garrote from Mercedes Pérez, a
student of Don Gualberto.
22
Interview with Ricardo Colmenares 29 May 2005 Los Humacaros.
23
See Judith Ewell, Venezuela: a century of change. (Stanford: Stanford Uni-
versity Press, 1984); Gilmore. 1964; John V. Lombardy, Venezuela” the Search
for Order/the Dream for Progress. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982);
Guillermo Morón A History of Venezuela. (London: George Allen & Unwin
LTD, 1965).
24
Gilmore, p.78–79
25
Gilmore, p. 52–53.
26
Rafael Domingo Silva Uzcátegui, Enciclopedia Larense. Tomo II (España:
Escuela Prof. “Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, 1941b).
27
Gilmore, p.79.
28
Ewell, 1984; Reinaldo Rojas, La Economía de Lara en Cinco Siglos. (Bar-
quisimeto: Italgrafica, 1996); De Variquecmeto a Barquisimeto (Barquisimeto:
Asociación Pro-Venezuela. Seccional Lara. Asemblea Del Estado Lara,
2002).
29
For a brief account of a successful machete charge during this campaign
see Thomas Bourke, Gómez, Tyrant of the Andes. (New York: Greeenwood
Press, 1969). pp.67.
30
Doug Yarrington, Coffee Frontier: Land, Society, and Politics in Duaca,
Venezuela, 1830–1936. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997).
On the role of debt labor in neighboring rural Zulia province see Peter
Linder, “An Immoral Speculation:” Indian Forced Labor on the Hacien-
das of Venezuela’s Sur del Lago Zuliano, 1880–1936”. The America, Vol. 56
No. 2 (1999), pp. 191–210.
87
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31
Efforts to collect weapons from the civilian population were attempted
in 1832, 1872, 1889,1893,1896,1898, and 1919. Generally men did not stop
carrying garrotes in public until the 1950’s.
32
Oscar Acosta, Barquisimeto Tiene Su Historia Deportiva (Barquisimeto: Uni-
versidad Centro-Occidental: 2001), pp.163–165.
33
Matthias Röhring Assunção, “Juegos de Palo en Lara: Elementos para
la Historia Social de un Arte Marcial Venezolano”. Revistas de Indias,
Vol. 59 (1999), pp.55–89. For similar accounts of ludic aspects of violence
see Carolyn Conley, “The Agreeable Recreation of Fighting”. Journal of
Social History, Vol. 33 (1999), pp. 57–73.
34
Interview with Pasqual Zanfino 19 February 2005. El Molino.
35
See Assunção, 2005, pp. 32–69. The question of Indigenous contri-
butions to these arts is still unknown. There are accounts of Indige-
nous soldiers fighting with bows and arrows and lances in the area
through the 19th century. However there is not much evidence that in-
digenous warriors used clubs or macanas that could contribute to this
type of close-quarter type of fighting except around present-day Caracas.
Anonymous, “Stickfighting”: National Archaeological Anthropological
Museum of the Netherland Antilles Downloaded from: http://
www.naam.an/oldNAAM/english.htm#zemi. (Accessed 20 September
2005); John Cowley, Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso: Traditions in the Mak-
ing. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). pp. 66.
36
José Eliseo López, La Emigración Desde La España Peninsular a
Venezuela: En Los siglos xvi, xvii, xviii Tomo I, II (Caracas: 1999), pp.
114–233.
37
Isabel Aretz, El Tamuanangue. (Barquisimeto: Universidad Centro Occi-
dental, 1970); David M. Guss, The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity and National-
ism as Cultural Performance. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000);
Rafael Domingo Silva Uzcátegui, Barquisimeto. Historia Privada, Alma y
Fisonomía del Barquisimeto de Ayer (Caracas: 1959).
38
For a similar process incorporating the Cebuano stick fighting arts
of Arnis into the Sinulog festival see Sally Ann Ness, Body Move-
ment and Culture: Kinesthetic and Visual Symbolism in a Philippine Com-
munity (Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press. 1992),
pp.162–63.
39
In urban Andalusia see Mary Elizabeth Perry, Crime and Society in Early
Modern Seville. (Dartmouth NH:University of New Hampshire Press, 1980)
James Loriega, Sevillian Steel: The Traditional Knife-Fighting Arts of Spain
(Boulder, Co: Paladin Press, 1999); In rural Andalusia see Charles Julian
Bishko, “The Peninsular Background of Latin American Cattle Round-
ing”. Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 32 No. 4 (1953), pp.419–
515. There still exists a strong wrestling tradition in Northeastern Spain
and Northern Portugal. I am familiar with the Federación de Lucha
Leonesa and a number of small Galhofa wrestling academies in Bragança,
Portugal
88
Ryan
40
See Mario A. Lopez-Osornio, Esgrima Criolla: cuchillo, rebenque, poncho
y chuza (Nuevo Sigla: Buenos Aires, 1995); Oral interviews with Manual
Romo Vejar., August 1975 Huntington Beach CA, and Ramón Martínez
June 2009, New York City, NY.
41
This predilection has also been among Capoeiristas in 19th century
Brazilian port towns in Assunção’s work (2005).
42
At this time single stick fencing became a popular pastime. One
author traces this tradition back to the use of medieval wasters or
wooden training weapons. See Tony Wolf, “Singlestick Fencing: 1787–
1923”. The Journal of Manly Arts. (February 02, 2002); C. Phillips-Wolley
“Single-Stick” Journal of Manly Arts (November, 01, 2001), both at
http://ejmas.com/jmanly/jmanlyframe.htm. (Accessed on 06 February,
2011); Christopher J Amberger, The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures
in Ancient Martial Arts. (Burbank, California: Unique Publications, 1999),
p. 253.
43
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Inves-
tigations. E. Jephcott, transl. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000); Mauss.1979
44
On example that support this view comes from the memoirs of one
French craftsmen in mid 19th century France who wrote “. . .in those days
compagnons often fought amongst themselves and leaving to do one’s
Tour of France was almost like leaving for war. In each brotherhood mem-
bers learned to handle a walking staff and quarterstaff and how to subdue
a man quickly. . . to kill your peer as long as he was a not a member
of your own little brotherhood was not a crime, but an act of courage
“Mark Traugott, The French Worker: Autobiographies from the Early Industrial
Era. (Berkley: University of California Press, 1993). pp.131–138). Also see
Robert Y. Davis, The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence in
Late Renaissance Venice. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Gre-
gory Hanlon, “Glorifying War in a Peaceful City; festive representation of
combat in Baroque Siena (1590–1740)”. War in History, Vol. 11. No.3 (2004),
pp. 249–277 for accounts of older civilian combative traditions in Europe.
For contemporary accounts of stick fighting traditions in among the Eu-
skara, see Antxon Aguirre Sorondo, “Palos, Bastones y Makilas”. Cuadernos
de Etnologia y Etnografia de Navarra, Vol. 24, No. 60 (1992), pp. 203–235. For
Portugal see Antonio Caçador, Jogo de Pau Esgrima Nacional, (Lisboa: 1963).
Ribiero Aquilino, O Malhadinhas (Lisboa: 1959). In Ireland see John Hurley
Shillelagh: The Irish Fighting Stick, (Philadelphia, PA.Caravat Press, 2007),
or his website on Irish martial arts at www. johnwhurley.com. Wrestling
in the Celtic fringes of Europe has been undergoing a re-vitalization over
the last ten years. See Mike Huggins, “The Regular Re-Invention of Sport-
ing Tradition and Identity of Cumberland and Westmoreland Wrestling
c. 1800–2001”. The Sports Historian, Vol. 21 No. 1 (2001), pp. 35–55. For
Northern Europe see Marjorie Edgar “Ballads of the Knife Men”. Western
Folklore, Vol. 8 No. 1 (1949), pp.53–57 and Yilkangas 2001.
45
Examples of this are seen in José de Oviedo Y Baños, The Conquest and
Settlement of Venezuela (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987);
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90
Ryan
60
Pedro Pablo Linarez, Proceres de la Dignida Tocuyana (Barquisimeto:
1999).
61
See Silvio R. Duncan-Baretta and John Markoff, “Civilization and Bar-
barism: Cattle Frontiers in Latin America”. In F. Coronil and J. Skurski,
(eds) States of Violence, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006),
pp. 33–74.See pp.54 of this article for a similar argument.
62
Nelson Reed, The Caste War in Yucatan (Stanford. Stanford University
Press, 2001), pp.61–2.
63
Amberger p.95.
64
Rafael María Rodríguez-López, La Leyenda del Pelón Gil (Caracas: Impre-
sores Unidos, 1940), p. 138.
65
George Orwell relates a humorous story when during a trench raid he
tried trying to bury his bayonet in the back of a fleeing Spanish fascist. See
George Orwell Homage to Catalonia (Orlando Fla: Mariner Books 1980).
66
See Fredrick F. Todd, “The Knife and Club in Trench Warfare, 19141918”.
The Journal of American Military History Foundation, Vol. 2 No. 3 (1938),
pp.139–153. In this article the author describes trench scrums in WWI
where men often resorted to weapons, and bodily targeting that seemed
natural and right to their family and friends back home.
67
Both archival data and the memories of elder garroteros agree that the
purpose of the palo was not to kill anybody but to earn and maintain one’s
public reputation.
68
It can be difficult at times to distinguish motivations of instrumental
from symbolic violence due to the long and complex histories between in-
dividuals. See Martha S. Santos. “On The Importance Of Being Honorable:
masculinity, survival, and conflict in the backlands of Northeast Brazil,
Ceará, and 1840’s-1890∗”. The Americas, Vol. 64 No.1 (2007), pp. 35–57 for
an account that stresses the instrumental nature of honor.
69
Norbert Elias, The Germans: Power Struggles and the Development of Habitus
in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. E. Dunning and S. Mennell, transl.
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1969), p.71.
70
Gorn, 1985 p.21; John Charles Chasteen, “Violence for Show: Knife Du-
eling on a Nineteenth Century Cattle Frontier” in Lyman L, Johnson (ed)
The Problem of Order in Changing Societies: Essays on Crime and Policing
in Argentina and Uruguay, 1750–1940. (Albuquerque: The University of
New Mexico 1990), pp.47–64. See p. 54; Piccato 2001.p.81; Julius R. Ruff,
Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500–1800 (Cambridge; Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2001), p.75.
71
See Oren Falk, “Bystanders and Hearsayers: Reassessing the Role of the
Audience in Dueling”. In Mark D. Meyerson (ed.) A Great Effusion of Blood:
Interpreting Medieval Violence, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 2004),
pp. 98–130. Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, Men Against Fire: The Problem
of Battle Command. (Norman. OK: University of Oklahoma Press).
72
Today too many martial artists are concerned to stress the lethality of
their arts, whether armed or unarmed. Even today among some men pro-
moting garrote, they stress the deadliness of the art and overemphasize
the role of machetes in civilian combat as a way to market themselves as
91
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trained killers This reticence to kill others in these types of contests were
stressed to me over and over by men who took part regularly in these
matches.
73
The most complete set of court records available in the archives at the
Archivo de Registro Principal de Barquisimeto in Barquisimeto begins in
1890. From 1898 the number of deaths from palos fell from a high of 42 to
a low of 11 in 1929 suggesting a ‘civilizing process.’ Assunção. 1999 p. 87.
74
Elias, 1991 p.222.
75
See Isabel Aretz, 1970; Eduardo Lira Espejo, “El Tamunangue” El Uni-
versal, February 19,1941; David Guss, 2000; Pedro Pablo Línarez, Sones de
Negroes (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela 1990); Juan Liscano,
Folklore del Estado Lara: ‘El Tamunangue’. (Caracas 1951); Alcides Losada,
“El Tamuangue: Son de Negro” Diario El Tocuyo (1922).
76
Maestro Natividad Alvarado was a student of the famed garrotero Ish-
mael Colmenares who served as policemen and led a well-known Tamu-
nangue folkloric group in the mid 20th century.
77
Lilliam Arvelo, “Change and Persistence in Aboriginal Settlement
Patterns in the Quíbor Valley, Northwestern Venezuela (Sixteenth to
Nineteenth Centuries)” Ethnohistory, Vol. 7 No. 3–4 (2000), pp. 683. Draw-
ing on archeological and ethno historical sources this article supports the
idea of the population of Segovia highlands consisting of a number of
de-tribalized and indigenous peoples.
78
See Cacoy ‘Boy’ Hernandez, Balisong, Iron Butterfly (Van Nuys CA:
Unique Publications, 1984). In his autobiography Sr. Hernandez tell of
picking up combative moves from a number of different people while
working as a midshipman traveling the Pacific.
79
See Downey 2005; Ian Hunter and David Sanders, “Walks of Life Mauss
on the Human Gymnasium”. Body & Society Vol. 1 No. 2 (1995), pp.65–81.
80
Merleau-Ponty, 1962; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Crossley, 2001.
81
Nick Crossley, The Networked Body and the Question of Reflexivity.
In Dennis Waskul and Phillip Vannini. eds. Body/Embodiment: Symbolic
Interaction and the Sociology of the Body. (Burlington VT. Ashgate, 2007),
pp.:88; Downey 2005; 131.
92