8.

Differentiated Mobilities

In the early 20th century the new trails through the

jungle enabled the easy movement of foreign capital
and the elites, but the enslaved labour force of the
mahogany trade was trapped.

Profit or loss of these people depend on men who sit in

comfortable offices - behind a desk made - maybe - of a
mahogany tree cut in these same forests. Several
thousand miles away the fate of these people may be
decided by men who know nothing and care nothing about what happens to [those] who go
through many hardships of the jungle. It’s an odd world.
Frans, 1943

By the 1930s, labour conditions had greatly improved for Indigenous workers of Eastern Chiapas, but
this complicated travel for capitalists like Frans Blom, as he mentions during his 1943 expedition:

Oct 1st - Takes time to get horses. In a way it is not as easy as of old. Then you just told the
Presidente Municipal that you wanted so many horses and so many cargadores [porters],
now the Indians are free to work where and when they like.

Most participants of time-space compression exercise little power or control over its instigation. The
thousands of Indigenous colonists who settled in Eastern Chiapas in the latter 20th century were
largely landless peasants facing harsh economic conditions in the highlands of Chiapas. In the early
1980s, they were joined by 30,000 refugees of Guatemala’s genocidal armed conflict. Both waves of
migrants had little influence over the conditions which led to their departure, but they nonetheless
contributed to the further opening up of Eastern Chiapas.

Deeper and deeper into the jungle went the slaves over miserable
trails.[...] After weeks of dreary wandering, the human cattle
would reach their destination, and the cage of the jungle closed
behind them.
Frans, 1961
Dangerous Mobility

There were both winners and losers of time-space compression, and unfortunately Indigenous
people were often its victims. This was especially true of the Lacandon. The trails opened by the
chicleros in the 1940s enabled the extraction of chicle, but also the spread of disease to which the
Lacandon had little immunity. This massively reduced their population, and at the time, it was widely
presumed that they would become extinct:

The Lacandones die like flies from scarlet fever, smallpox, gripe as they have no resistance to
these imported diseases. I roughly calculate that there are about 250 of them left, and with
the death rate as it is at present they will all be gone soon.
Frans, 1943

The chicle trade brought chicleros into contact with the Lacandon:

The Lacandon Indians, who know every zapote in the region,

frequently serve as guides. Many chicleros, intrigued by the
Indians’ customs, make friends with them.
Trudi, 1945

The chicleros and other monteadors provided commodities that the Lacandon desired, but the trade
was often on unfavourable terms. They frequently plied the Lacandon with alcohol as a means to
cheating them, and even robbed their milpas on occasion:

One chiclero has a dog. While he was away the other chicleros stole the dog and sold it to the
Lacandones for several large sacks of sweet potatoes. The dog ran back to its owner and
again the Indians were cheated. The Lacandondes constantly complain about the chicleros
raiding their milpas.
Frans, 1943
Lacandon women were especially vulnerable in these interactions, and they were frequently
subjected to sexual violence:

A chiclero went to one of the camps and asked for a woman. Jose Pepe [Lacandon leader]
said yes, but it would cost one airplane, one shotgun, one corn grinder, and lots of powder
etc. all paid in advance. The chiclero promised everything and finally got an old woman, but
never gave the indian anything. The danger is that the chicleros who take these women may
have venereal diseases. There is also a case on record of five chicleros fancying one woman.
Frans, 1944
It wasn’t only chicleros who took advantage of Lacandon women. On their 1946 expedition to
Bonampak, the American archaeologists Carlos Frey and John Bourne slept with Lacandon children:

Because the Lacandon were delighted with all the trinkets we gave them, each of us got a
“wife” to enjoy during our stay. Carl’s “wife,” Ko, was only eight years old, and mine, NaBor,
was fourteen. Unfortunately, she gave me an unwelcome gift, and I had to have a series of
shots to rid myself of gonorrhea.
American explorer John Bourne, 1945

A horrific act of violence occurred in 1950 when Bor, a Lacandon friend of

Frans and Trudy returned home from hunting with his two small sons to find
that alligator hunters had robbed his home and stolen his wife Koh and his
three other children. The hunters, annoyed with the cries of the youngest
baby girl, shot her and threw the body into the river.

Bor’s other wife Na Bor was pregnant, and she managed to hide from the
hunters. However, shortly after the attack both she and her baby died during childbirth. Bor, now
alone with his two remaining children, was devastated by his loss, and his health began to fail.
Hearing of this tragedy, Frans and Trudy took Bor and his children in to live with them in Na Bolom.

Frans was highly critical of the monteadors destructive impacts on the Lacandon, yet he was also
complicit in this process through his work as a rubber prospector and a mapmaker.

“The alligator hunters and the chicle collectors are the scum of the jungle”
Frans, 1960

Restricted Mobility

The Lacandon suffered during moments of space-time expansion, as they could no longer access
basic necessities:

Once the wood cutting and chicle exploitation is over, this

region being so remote, there would be no way for spare
parts and ammunition to arrive. It is best that [the
Lacandon] retain all their skill in their primitive weapons
until I can help them effectively.

Trudi, 1958
In 1948, Frans and Trudy wrote a report recommending the government to settle the northern and
southern Lacandon populations together in a single location, and to ban private trade with them.
They believed that this would ensure that the Lacandon could better receive assistance and supplies
from the government. No government action was taken at the time, although the Lacandon did
eventually settle permanently into the three communities of Lacanjá Chansayab, Nahá and
Metzabok.

[Trudi] hopes eventually to persuade the scattered

Lacandones, for their own good, to settle in one
central village where collective aid of various sorts
may be more readily administered.
Philip Aguila Kempster in the ‘Los Angeles Times’,
1953

Frans and Trudy suggested restrictions on the

Lacandon’s mobility could help their survival, but it
was their high degree of mobility which had ensured their survival in the past. Living in small and
temporary family groups spread out in the jungle enabled them to avoid disease and retreat quickly
from outside dangers. By the 1950’s, time-space compression and the Lacandons’ own desires for
outside commodities meant this strategy of retreat was no longer possible.

A [...] group [of Lacandon] was found in 1786 eight leagues south of El Palenque; seven years
later, it agreed to found a Christian village baptized San José de Gracia Real; the settlement
soon disintegrated and its inhabitants were lost again in the jungle.
Jan de Vos (historiador), 1996

Their step is not heard, their bare feet glide with deer-like swiftness over the damp ground,
their slim, small bodies creep through the crevices that our eyes do not even perceive. If we
have not inspired confidence in them, in a moment they will leave the Caribal and move
further inland until the danger recedes.
Trudi, 1946

The Lacandon were terrified of catching a cold. If they heard

someone cough or sneeze, they fled into the jungle for days,
sometimes abandoning their caribal for good in an attempt to
escape death.
American explorer John Bourne, 1946
Privileged Mobility

The foreign visitors who visited Na Bolom in the 1950s were amongst the privileged few who were
able to take advantage of Chiapas’ time-space compression. They could afford to pay for air transport
and travel in cars along the region’s newly constructed roads. At this time San Cristobal had few
lodging options, and Na Bolom was considered ‘the’ place to stay. It was the ‘number one’ attraction
in the city and an obligatory stop on every itinerary. Both Frans and Trudy promoted tourism to the
region in international publications, and they were largely responsible for putting San Cristobal on
the map. From 1950-1957, over 9,000 tourists visited Na Bolom, almost half of whom were
foreigners from all corners of the globe. Amongst them, many famous artists, writers, intellectuals,
and media personalities.

Tourist Expeditions

Amongst Na Bolom’s visitors, an adventurous few journeyed into the jungle of Eastern Chiapas,
sometimes accompanied by Frans and Trudy. This was a costly affair, and Frans and Trudy were
accused in the press of overcharging and exploiting tourists for their guiding services.

The most interpreted breed of tourists of all were those who aimed to emulate explorers like Frans
Blom. During the 1950s and 60s, several individuals sought Frans and Trudy’s guidance so that they
could embark on their own adventures in the jungle of Eastern Chiapas. Some were amateur
archaeologists, enticed by the lost Mayan civilization and their ‘living descendents’ the Lacandon, a
myth which Frans and Trudy, amongst others had helped to promulgate. The jungle of Eastern
Chiapas became the imagined territory where they could fulfill their Indiana Jones fantasies. They
often produced articles and documentaries about their adventures, which further deepened this
imaginary and lured others to follow in their increasingly well worn footsteps.

The amateur archaeologist John Bourne was inspired to visit the Lacandon after
reading Dana and Ginger Lamb’s novel ‘Enchanted Vagabonds’ (1938). The novel
tells of the couple’s 3 year voyage from California to Panama in a homemade
dugout canoe.
 Barbara Sykes was an intrepid South African journalist and friend of Trudy
and Frans. She documented her 1955 expedition to Eastern Chiapas in the
article ‘Adventure in a Mexican Jungle’, providing humorous insight into the
additional difficulties she faced as a woman in a male dominated world.

[QUOTE ABOVE ON THE WALL]

There is still a belief in this world that a woman cannot be an explorer. I can swim across
rivers, machete roads, walk on foot and down mountains, for ten or twelve hours and ride
fifteen hours a day, under a burning sun, in spite of my fifty-two years of age.
Trudi, 1953