Venezuelan Stick Fighting by Ryan Michael J.;Green Thomas A.;Ryan Michael J.;

Author:Ryan, Michael J.;Green, Thomas A.;Ryan, Michael J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

In a world where face-to-face interactions, patron-client relations, a tradition of self-help, and a highly sensitive preoccupation with one’s public reputation was the norm, an attitude toward the world that valued the role of dissembly and the ability to discern attempts by others to conceal information in others was a key trait to resist oppression and aid in one’s survival. At the same time that people seek to maintain a distance from each other, there is an equally powerful drive to create bonds of friendship and trust with others. For example, until the 1970s, when government halted the “disappearing” of ex-guerrillas from a recently concluded communist revolt, the choosing of a good friend could mean the difference between life and death.[3] The act of teaching another person the means by which they could be undone was a great act of trust that was recognized by both parties and created strong bonds between men. The depth of these links is reflected in the death of one garrotero. After a long life swinging a garrote, Santos Pérez died in 1999. His family, as devout evangelicals, was determined to give him a proper Christian burial with none of the “paganisms” associated with the popular Catholicism of the area. Even though he was specifically not invited, José-Felipe was determined to see his friend of over fifty years off right. Waking up early the morning of the funeral, he put on his best clothes, put his sombrero on his head, tucked two palos under his arm, and walked to the church where the funeral service for Maestro Santos was being held. Swinging the doors wide open, José-Felipe walked right in. Looking neither right nor left, nor speaking a word to anybody, he strode right up to the coffin. Ignoring the objections of the pastor and some members of the deceased’s family, he opened the lid of the coffin of his friend and laid his favorite palo with the cap concealing a steel spike across his chest to take with him in his journey through eternity. Closing the lid, he turned around and walked out the church and back home without saying a word to anybody. Such was the reputation both men had made through their life that no one dared remove the palo from the coffin and it was buried with him.

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