Later I had the opportunity of meeting other Indians, Achi Indians, the group that lives the closest to us. And I got to know some Mam Indians too. They all told me: ‘The rich are bad. But not allladinos are bad.’ And I started wondering: ‘Could it be that not allladinos are bad?’ I used to think they were all bad. But they said that they lived with poorladinos. There were poorladinos as well as richladinos, and they were exploited as well. That’s when I began recognizing exploitation. I kept on going down to thefinca but now I really wanted to find out, to prove if that was true and learn all the details. There were poor ladinos in thefinca. They worked the same, and their children’s bellies were swollen like my little brother’s. So I said: ‘It must be true, then, that not allladinos are bad.’ I was just beginning to speak a little Spanish in those days and I began to talk to them. I said to onepoorladino: ‘You’re a poorladino, aren’t you?’ And he nearly hit me. He said: ‘What do you know about it, Indian?’ I wondered: ‘Why is it that when I say poorladinos are like us, I’m spurned?’ I didn’t know then the same system which tries to isolate us Indians also puts up barriers between Indians andladinos. I knew that allladinos rejected us but I didn’t know why. I was more confused. I still thought allladinos were bad.

The governor is aladino and doesn’t understand the language of the people. He’ll only believe something if a lawyer or educated person says it. He won’t accept anything from an Indian. The mayor is a ladinotoo. But he’s aladino who’s come from our people. The military commissioner is also a ladino although this varies a bit, because in some places the commissioners are Indians who have done military service and lived in the barracks. There comes a time when they return to their village, brutalized men, criminals

This writing reflects the affects of colonialism in all its nuances. We can see that civil workers and consequently Ladinos-this intermediate class, can come from different circumstances and environments, yet all these variables still work towards the elitist and political goal of a “slave class”. The people assigned to protect, govern, guide, etc. a community are those from outside that community, or even turned against that community, creating inherent power structures of superior & inferior and/or insider/outsider. Menchú mentions “a ladino who comes from our people”, which while reading, is extremely depressing, how colonialism has used war and brutalizations as a form of emotional torture, to weaken the bond between a person and his community. “There comes a time when they return to their village, brutalized men, criminals”