michael ryan - the development and transmission of stick fighting in venezuela garrote de lara, a...

8/10/2019 Michael Ryan - The Development and Transmission of Stick Fighting in Venezuela Garrote de Lara, A Civilian Com

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THE DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSMISSION OF STICK FIGHTING

INVENEZUELA: GARROTE DELARA, A CIVILIAN COMBATIVE

ART OF THE PUEBLO

Michael J. Ryan

Binghamton University

Writing of the persistence of traditional combative arts in the Caribbeanand coastal Brazil; R. F. Thompsons seminal article Black Martial Arts ofthe Caribbean brought peoples attention to a number of combative artspossessing many strong links to African combative traditions.1 Addition-ally, this article opened up many readers minds to the idea that martialarts were not limited to East Asia, but indeed are a global phenomenon.More importantly for those interested in martial arts, this article actedas a harbinger for a re-legitimation of the study of combative traditionsthat had been largely marginalized for almost 70 years. Almost forgottennow, but during the early formative years of the social sciences, men suchas R.F. Burton, B. Malinowski, M. Mauss, and A.L. Pitt-Rivers evinced adeep interest in the cultural norms that guided the way men punched,kicked, grappled, cudgeled and stabbed one another.2 Coalescing into thediscipline of Hoplology, this line of social inquiry grew alongside andin conjunction with the emerging discipline of Anthropology. Scholarlyinterest into the field of hoplology fell into abeyance as a result of the hor-rors of two world wars and the swell of post-war- anti-colonial movements.As a result of these events many scholars began to look upon violence assomehow unworthy of study, or a deviant activity that should remediedrather then looked at in its own right.3

Recently this marginalized field has undergone a renewed interest. Agreat deal of the current scholarship in the West being done on martialarts has focused on African diasporic martial arts or the rising popular-ity of Mixed-Martial Arts (MMA).4 One unintended consequence of thistrajectory has led to an uneven view of the evolution, development andpersistence of combative traditions in the Americas. Within Latin America,leaving to the side West/Central African, and East Asian traditions, thereare a number of wrestling and stick fighting styles practiced by Indigenousgroups from the Upper Xingu valley of Brazil to the state of Chihuahuain Mexico that have yet to be investigated. Waves of emigrants from Java,India, the Middle-East, Europe as well as the Canary and Azores Islandsalso brought with them their own highly sophisticated combative tradi-tions whose practioners still languish in undeserved obscurity.

C2011 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 67


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The Latin Americanist, September 2011

Only recently has the popular culture of the working class and ruralpeople of Latin America been the object of scholarly interest.5 Since thisturn to the popular classes began, many aspects of these cultures are stillobscured or hid by ethnographers who feel their presentation on the world

stage would only confirm derogatory or harmful preexisting stereotypesof them.6 In order to understand the role that the popular classes haveplayed in the development of Latin America, it is important to appreciatethe reasons why so many these people have continued to perfect their skillsin unarmed and armed combat. The intensive investment of time requiredto master these practices becomes especially curious as over the last onehundred years as the technological advances of firearms have made thesebodies of knowledge obsolete. Instead of disappearing as Modernity tookhold in Latin America as many scholars once predicted; many of these

combative traditions continue to be practiced encamera, while other suchasCapoeiraand BrazilianVale Tudohave undergone a re-vitalization andglobal popularity. The persistence of these combative traditions demon-strates the relevance of these arts for those communities who continue tocherish and protect their cultural knowledge.

Combat, Sociality and Body-TechniquesWriting of early US backwoodsmen propensity to gouge out an op-

ponents eye during ritual male hierarchical contests the historian ElliotGorn reflected that to feel for a fellers eyestrings and make him tell thenews was just not an act of unrestrained mayhem but were culturallymeaningful acts.7 In other words, the culturally variable ways individualscome to perceive a threat, move-in to engage and eliminate the threat callsfor an instinctive application of the proper body-mechanics to initiate acounter attack and generate sufficient power to neutralize the threat whilethe individual is in a stressed-induced, adrenal state. These acts must notonly be done effectively and efficiently, but must also be performed in a

culturally competent manner.8

The ways in which the body knows how toperform an activity without recourse to conscious thought in a way thatwould meet the approbation of ones peers were first identified as Body-Techniques by Marcel Mauss. Through the analytical category of bodytechniques which Mauss defined as the ways in which from society tosociety men know how to use their bodies, Mauss showed that everydaynatural behaviors such as sleeping, digging and fighting are actually tech-nically specific responses to objective conditions. 9 As practically orientedways of doings things body techniques are transmitted through the gen-

erations developing an aura of tradition shifts across cultures and throughtime making them amenable to crosscultural and historical examination.Treating garrote larense as a set of body techniques foregrounds the histor-ical trajectory of the Venezuelan body in the way that local communitiesdeveloped a set of unique responses in terms of how personal combat

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was to be initiated, participated in, and judged. Moreover it suggests, thattraditional embodied knowledge are not moribund artifacts, but consistsof practically oriented principals oriented to current contingent situationsand vary through time and space10

Among those interested in Latin America history the image of wild-eyed, grim-faced machete wielding peasants in Latin America and theCaribbean have proved to be an enduring image. Writing about these menand their times, many scholars have assumed these mens machete skillsarose out of their use of everyday tools that they took with them into thebattlefield.11 While there might be some truth to this assumption, a numberof scholars and amateur hoplologists have uncovered highly sophisticatedand organized practices of stick, machete and knife fighting by the popularclasses throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Handed down in a

variety of circumstances, these embodied knowledges are still consideredhighly relevant and practically useful traditions for self-defense and char-acter development today. As part of a larger project of documenting andunderstanding the role that combative traditions play in contemporaryLatin American popular culture, this investigation looks into the persis-tence of a traditional practice of stick, machete and knife fighting that hasbeen documented in Venezuela from the beginning of the 19th century. Acentral claim of this article is through a long period of endemic violenceassociated with a weak central state and a culture of honor; many men

developed and continued to refine their combative skills to serve in anarray of circumstances. Drawing on past traditions of military and civiliancombat arts, Venezuelan men often relied on walking sticks, machetes andknives in order to protect their land and resources, to engage in ritual hier-archical male contests, to transmit attitudes of valued masculine behavioror to gain access the spiritual world. Within this context my interest liesin identifying and delineating the ways in which garrote larense arose outof a series of objective challenges faced by individuals whose successfulresponses to questions of how best to neutralize or eliminate others in

specific social contexts become sedimented and transmitted through gen-erations. Not just as stultified routines of movement passed down throughgenerations; but more as a series of openended structures of practical rea-soning allowing individuals to respond to the contingency of the differentmodes of combat that they could face in competent, efficient and morallyappropriate ways. In a previous article I focused on the perceptual andphysical attributes garroteros cultivated to give them an edge in combat.12

At this time I pay particular attention to the contexts or fields where garroteplayed a major role in mens lives such as militias, thepulpera, the fiesta or

velorio.13

Within these institutions or sites what would be considered effec-tive, efficient and morally correct behavior could be very different leadingindividuals to respond differently based on the configuration of the po-litical, economic and social powers that shaped a communitys practices,values and norms at the time.14

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What makes Venezuela unique and a study of its combative traditionsinteresting is in part its demographic history. Unlike other areas of the NewWorld Venezuelas indigenous population emerged relatively unscathedfrom the time of the conquistadores and first settlements and suffered a

relatively restricted waves of immigration from Spain, the Canary Islands,and to a lesser extent from the African slave trade up until the post WWIIera. Out of this social milieu such factors as a weak centralized state and aculture of honor contributed to years of endemic violence in both the polit-ical and civil sphere. These factors in turn contributed to the developmentin the civil sphere of a sophisticated form of armed combat. Looking backinto the role that local militias played in the development of garrote, sug-gests these informal organizations acted as a major site where garrote wastaught and practiced to instill a sense of aggressiveness, feelings of belong-

ing and the ability to eliminate an enemy with cut and thrust weapons.15

During mens off hours, sites such as the pulpera or the fiesta proved to beimportant arenas where ritual male hierarchical contests often occurred.At these sites walking sticks were often the weapon of choice to establishand/or restore a social hierarchy based on ideas of an individuals publicreputation.16 Finally, during the religious rituals, velorios or promessasdedicated to Saint Anthony where men dueled with garrotes, machetes,knives or lances has proven to be a key site where garrote is continuing tochange in response to political and trans-national forces. This has resulted

in these traditional civilian combative arts being transformed by some in-dividuals into a performance oriented art serving as a national icon of theVenezuelan nation.

Garrote in VenezuelaBy the time the first accounts of garrote appear in the early 19th century,

fighting with a walking-stick had already attained a sophisticated level ofdevelopment among the civilian population. Succeeding sparse accounts

suggest that fighting with a walking stick was part of larger constellationof civilian combative traditions drawing on a variety of occupational toolsfromcuchillos, punales, peinillas, and machetes tomandadores,garrochas ordejarretaderas.17 In addition to these tools, a number of civilian and militaryweaponry such as differing lengths of staves, small-swords, sabers, thelance and the bayonet also seem to have played an important role inconflicts up through the early 20th century. Speaking of garrote as it isprimarily thought of and practiced today, a garrote or palo refers to afire-hardened, oiled, hard-wood walking stick that was once part of the

every day dress of Venezuelan men. At present terms such as Garrote deLara, Garrote Larense o r Garrote Tocuyano are recently coined terms forwhat were once innumerable local styles of fighting practiced throughoutthe country.18 These names merely reflect the area where the majority ofresearch 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 andspread throughout Venezuela. This view is hard to sustain as myself andother local investigators have identified and studied local stick fightingstyles that have no link with the Tocuyo valley. The existence of a number

of traditions of garrote showing no links to the Tocuyo valley, suggeststhat garrote developed independently over the years through differentpatterns of diffusion and independent development at different sites.

Some practioners of garrote have developed colorful names to identifytheir particular style of garrote such as The Bloody Stick, The Cock-Crowstyle, or The Seven Methods style. Others however have no name for theirstyle of stick fighting. For example, early in the 20th century a chain ofevents began with a man by the name of Sablon Vasquez fleeing an assaultcharge in the neighboring state Falcon. Moving south to the sugar-cane vil-

lage of La Riconada in the state of Lara, he taught a method of stick fightingto 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 assaultcharge built a new life for himself near the sugar cane fields of Cabudareapproximately 50 miles away.20 Here, during the 1930s, he taught hisstyle of stick fighting to a Gualberto Castillo who proceeded to teach a fewrelatives and friends of his village this art. Coming down to the presentas La Rina con Palo or fighting with sticks; the matter-offact descriptivename for this stick-fencing suggests there was a general lack of interest in

identifying these traditions outside their obvious function.21

In a way thisattitude is very similar to how many people today would not pay to muchattention to distinguishing between different kinds of cooking pots.

Social and Politicaleconomic Trends in the Segovia HighlandsWithout a sombrero, chimu and a garrote a man is worth nothing. This

old aphorism refers to the everyday public dress of the rural Venezuelanmale that up until the 1950s consisted of a pair of sandals known as

Alpargatas, a broad brimmed hat, a dollop of tobacco paste or chimuwedged behind a mans lower lip, and a fire-hardened, braided handledwalking stick in his hand. I once asked the 69 year old garrotero RicardoColmenares why men carried palos in the past:

Because in the past there were many problems between familiesand this is why you didnt allow them to beat you, you know the art,you understand?. . .because you know how to fight with the sticksand if I do not have this knowledge and I am going to fight with

you, then you are going to have an advantage over me.22

During the 1940s and 1950s when Maestro Ricardo was a young man,ongoing efforts by the military dictatorship to create a modern nation-statehad largely succeeded. Previous to this time, for over a century Venezuela

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was racked by endemic political violence led by local politicians, business-men and landowners. 23 As one newspaper editor remembered:

Venezuelans are accustomed to the revolutionary uprisings

called in criollo slang a leap from the woods or assault in which anunquiet Senor, a rancher or owner of a coffee, cacao, or other agri-cultural; hacienda, gave the cry on his property and took to thebush accompanied by 400 peons, armed with chopping machetes oreven ancient blunderbusses 24

Supported by their extended family, laborers or clients; local strongmen orcaudillos attempted to augment their holdings by intimidating or forcingindigenous communities and small farmers off their lands. Other times

caudillo leaders fought against each other or the reigning governments inCaracas to increase their influence, or make a claim for supreme power.These men, as one author described them:

Were chiefs, heads of clans, great landowners, like Diego Colinawho could at a word call out the cane cutters of the southern sierrasof Coro. Or like General Ramon Castillo who could draft a thousandmen from his family properties, or like the Telleras who throughfamily connections occupied of most of the higher and many of the

middle and lower posts of state government could use the resourcesof the state of Falcon. 25

From the time of independence in 1825 until 1929, the southern half of theSegovia highlands has been the site of over 68 armed conflicts in additionto years of enduring low-level guerrilla activity.26 The Segovia highlandshave traditionally served as a boundary between conservative and liberalspheres of influences, turning the area into a prime battle ground over theyears. During the 19th and early 20th centuries privately raised militia units

regularly advanced and retreated across the area in support of regionalcaudillos, living off what they could take from the farms and ranches theycame across.27 The end result of this was an almost total destruction of theregions infrastructure resulting in this area being reduced to an economicbackwater. By the 1940s when many Venezuelans were enjoying a re-newed prosperity due to the global demand for coffee and petroleum; halfof the sugar-cane grown in this area was still processed by water-poweredmills and used wood burning furnaces to produce papelon geared towardslocal consumption. At the same time, the urban population of Lara was

increasingly turning to the importation of a refined Cuban sugar for dailyuse further marginalizing the areas economic base. The return to civilianrule in 1958, after 60 years of military dictatorships led to a number of lim-ited land reforms and some increases in public spending for infrastructuralimprovements and public education. The majority of state funding though

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has gone to helping large plantations shift from a labor intensive farmingsystem based on a type of debtslavery, to a capital-intensive productionrelying 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 ruralnation to a predominantly urban population today.28

After almost a century of endemic political conflict, the groundwork tobuild a modern Venezuelan state began to take shape by the 1890s whenelite 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. Gomez began theirbid 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 attractfollowers as they progressed down the mountains into the Segovia High-lands, avoiding the caudillo armies sent after them. Successfully enteringan abandoned Caracas, Castro began to negotiate with, co-opt or defeat anyremaining political opponents, and initiated a number of policies to mod-ernize the country. At first Castro and then his successor Juan V. Gomezdrew on the profits from coffee and then petroleum to recruit, arm andtrain 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 coastand to move their newly armed and trained army to move throughout thecountry army to repress any signs of dissent. As it occurred in the SegoviaHighlands, those elites that proved loyal to the government or those thatcould be co-opted into supporting them were awarded with indigenous orstate lands in the surrounding hill country. For centuries these lands hadbeen occupied by small farmers and indigenous communities who hadbeen able to avoid the innumerable attempts to dispossess them of theirholdings and turn them into rural proletarians.30 With this fencingoff of

the commons, families were reduced to a state of debt-peonage on theirformer lands, or were forced to relocate to the growing cities of Caroraand Barquisimeto to become day-laborers where many of them took partin the labor struggles of the 1930s. Additionally, as part of a policy ensurehis rule President Gomez, ended the caudillo system of governing in partby abolishing all private militia units and initiating a number of ultimatelyunsuccessful 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 ofNorth America. Among young Venezuelan men, recreational activitiessuch as Baseball, Boxing and latter Kara-te and Ju-do began to replaceolder pastimes such as bull-fights, cock fighting, or garrote.32 By this timecommunities 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 inthe streets to see who was the better man. Does anybody here want tofight yelled one man into the darkness of a street late one night. Nonot 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 garroteroput it that every man have some knowledge of garrote just to survive.34

Once ubiquitous throughout the area, these behaviors and attitudes wereall too often forgotten or remembered with an embarrassed shrug of theshoulders and an explanation that this was all in the past.

North Atlantic Military and Civil Combative TraditionsAvailable data suggests the combative traditions found in the Segovia

Highlands today are best treated as part of a larger constellation of civilian

combative traditions found throughout Latin American and the Caribbean,whose roots lie in the military and civilian combative traditions once cur-rent throughout Europe and Africa.35 As garrote is practiced today bythose who began to learn in the 1930s and 1940s, the art evinces strongEuropean influences seen in the way these men hold and move their bod-ies in comparison to other African and Afro-Caribbean stick fighting stylesthat I have seen or learned. These impressions are supported by archivalresearch showing the majority of immigrants before World War II origi-nated from Spain.36 Investigating possible Spanish roots for these combat-

ive traditions, a number of scholars who have only seen garrote as part ofthe religious ritual dedicated to Saint Anthony where two men mock-duelwith palos claim its origins lie in the many sword dances found throughoutEurope.37 One problem with these theories is that they ignore the accountsof the garroteros themselves who have said that garrote was always a dis-tinct art from the religious rites; and that the two were only joined sometime during the early 20th century.38

Investigating the existence of armed combative traditions of WesternEurope in the modern era shows that sword, knife and stick fighting tra-

ditions were once common until the beginning of the 20th century. WithinSpain itself, the sophistication and efficacy of Spanish combative systemscan be seen through a review of existing historical accounts and the fewremaining practioners of what must have been a very diverse set of com-bative practices developed by different populations inhabiting the IberianPeninsula.39 Outside of military influences, there are a number of frag-mentary sources that suggest a wealth of civilian combative arts revolvingaround the use of agricultural; herding and craftsmen tools that were oncewidespread in Western Europe. Nevertheless, it was the knife, the machete

and the stick that became the principal weapons associated with much ofLatin American combative traditions. Up through the present stories ofhighly skilled knife fighters are still talked about from Argentina andUruguay all the way north into Mexico and Puerto Rico.40 What makesVenezuela unique in this Luso-Hispanic valorization of the blade is thepreference for the walking stick as both a symbol of being a gentleman, as

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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 18 th century whenthe carrying of a walking stick was a part of the everyday dress amongEuropean 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 honorcontests, both the elite and urban merchants had begun to replace the car-rying of rapiers and other thrusting types of swords in public with walkingsticks, sword canes, and weighted sticks. A process Norbert Elias identifiedas part of a Civilizing Process.43 However, these developments amongthe elite and the expanding merchant class should not occlude the con-tinued existence of armed and unarmed combative arts continued amongthe popular classes in Europe.44 The persistence of combative traditionspracticed as methods of self-defense or as a recreational pastime among

the European popular classes hints at the diversity, sophistication andubiquity of combative traditions among them, and a number of possibleavenues of transmission into Latin America.45

Garrote Larense and African Combative TraditionsIslenos or immigrants and their descendants from the Canary Islands

have contributed to most every major event in Venezuela history. In theoral histories of garrote collected around the Tocuyo valley, the role ofimmigrants from Canary Islands have influenced at least two contempo-

rary stick fighting styles that developed during the late 19th

and early 20th

centuries. One problem with trying to understand the demographic impactof Canary Islanders in Venezuela is that after lodging passenger manifestswith the authorities at their port of departure in Spain, many ships thenstopped at the Canary Islands, picking up additional passengers destinedfor Venezuela, leaving no paper trail.46 Over the last 20 years researchersfrom the Canary Islands have explored and documented the wealth ofstick-fighting and wrestling styles that on the island chain.47 Many timesonly a few families on each island continued to practice these traditions. In-

vestigators from the Canary Islands have also gone to Cuba and Venezuelasearching for the existence of a Canarian form of stick fighting done witha walking size stick known as El palo chico or small stick.48 At presentthere are two schools of garrote that claim a strong Canarian influence inthe Tocuyo valley. Moving to a little house near the banks of the TocuyoRiver near the barrio of Los Hornos in the early 20th century, a Canarianimmigrant known as Temere Pacheco is remembered as being the teacherof one of the most renowned garroteros in the city of El Tocuyo; Juan Car-torce Yepez.49 Maestro Temere is remembered for his Juego Pachuquero,

where an operator holds a walking stick by one hand in the middle andthrusts either end at an opponent.50 A few miles away up in the foothillsabove the Tocuyo valley, the Siete Lineas style owes its development tothe son of a Canarian immigrant. From 18841891 Leon Valera was taughta version of Canary Island stick fighting and Spanish saber techniqueswhile accompanying his father as a traveling merchant on his trips to Lake

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Maracaibo. One day on the beach, Leon Valera claimed to have saved thelife of a drowning Englishman. As a way of thanking the young man, theEnglishmen taught him a thrusting type of stick fighting that looks verysimilar to Spanish small-sword fencing.51 In conjunction with techniques

of Tocuyano stick fighting that he had been exposed to, Leon Valera devel-oped a style of garrote he called theSiete Lineasor the seven methods stylewhich he demonstrated to the public during a promessa to San Antonio inthe 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 stanceis 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 thecoastal 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 orAfro-Caribbean stick fighting styles did exist in the port towns of Mara-caibo, and Puerto Cabello and the nearby island of Curacao. However, theonly evidence of links between the Tocuyano and these coastal styles arefrom the garrotero Baudilio Ortiz who claimed to have learned a few stickand machete fighting techniques in the 1930s while working as a laborerin Puerto Cabello.55 What becomes clear in attempting to trace the routesof combative traditions that came to Venezuela is that as a result of the

incorporation of Venezuela into the North-Atlantic political-economy mencontinued to bring with them sets of values norms and understandingshow to use a variety of hand operated weapons in an array of agonistic andantagonistic scenarios that were disseminated evaluated and incorporatedinto existing systems of armed combat.

The Role of Militias in the Development of GarroteListening to stories of older garroteros, one gets the impression that

militia units or guerrilla bands were a key site for the transmission and

practice of garrote. Outside of a few scattered references and oral ac-counts, very little material is available to scholars regarding the role ofgarrote during the time of the militias.56 Up until the time of the Warsof Independence being a member of a militia was subject to property orwealth requirements effectively excluding agricultural or urban laborers.By the mid 19th century however, President Monagas had disbanded theserestricted militia units allowing independent local caudillos sympatheticto his rule to recruit men from the working and rural class; in effect cre-ating an independent power base for himself and future presidents. With

only a few thousand soldiers stationed at border crossings or port towns,succeeding presidents continued to rely on local caudillo leaders to mobi-lize and arm their relatives, clients and laborers to pursue their politicalagendas. Accounts from former militia leaders during the late 19th andearly 20th centuries suggests it was often the small merchants and middle-sized hacienda and plantation owners who recruited, armed, fed and led

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relatives and clients during the innumerable revolts in the country. Attimes these men would place themselves under the leadership of regionalcaudillios to affect limited gains, but in case of defeat or stalemate, all toooften these larger entities would revert back to their component groups

going back to their farms or hiding out in the bush conducting guerrillaraids.57

One element that stands out in the early history of garrote was thecomplimentary or overlapping relationship existing military and civiliancombat traditions at the time. In a biographical fragment of a former gov-ernor of Barquisimeto province, the author writes he was: . . . alwaysthe master of himself, never knowing any fear, then adding he was ofregular proportion and agile, in his youth he learned to handle the gar-rote ofArenguanai, Palo AmarilloandVeraand practiced with the sabre he

brought from his service in the militia and the army.58

In this brief pas-sage, the author makes a clear distinction between the military saber andcivilian stick fighting traditions. This suggests that each weapon was rec-ognized as part of an independent combative tradition whose tactics andprincipals of body-mechanics could complement each other. Of additionalinterest, the author identifies a number of local species of wood used tocreate palos, hinting at more then a passing acquaintance with the art ofgarrote.

In the Tocuyo valley and the neighboring hill country many stories are

still told by elder garroteros about local caudillos such as Coronel San-dalio Linarez, General Jose Pacheco, General Jose Raphael Gabaldons, hisgrandson Argmiro Gabaldon or General Raphael Montilla, The Lion ofGuaito who for years continued to fight against the despotic policies ofPresident Castro. Many of stories told today revolve around their gar-rotero teacher or their relatives leaving home to join up with Montillas orGabaldons armies when these men would come down from the moun-tains and drive off the large landowners and politicians oppressing thepueblos. During their offduty hours it was said that the men would prac-

tice with the garrote or machete or teach others how to jugar garrote. 59

General Montilla himself was assassinated by machete as a song relates:on the 21 of November of 1907, death came to general Montilla, killed bythe blows of a machete.60

The tendency to use ones skills or reputation as a garrotero to affectpolitical change seems to be common during this era. In addition to takingpart in local conflicts, garroteros skills could be used in other fashions.For example, after being appointed the president of the State of Zulia inthe 1920s the Tocuyano politician, General Vicencio Perez Soto brought

with him a select group of Tocuyano garroteros, including Leon Valeraas part of a special police force to repress any political or labor unrest inMaracaibo. As chief of this security detachment, Leon Valera was havesaid to have trained the men under his command his tocuyano style ofgarrote while in exchange picking up a set of takedowns, trips and sweepsfrom local fighters that he latter added to his Siete Lineas system.61

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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 spreadof repeating rifles from the late 19th century reduced the frequency of thistactic. 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 ofmachete charges cannot be dismissed as a chaotic rush of ignorant farm-ers. Within these stressed induced activities, previous training in learninghow to fight becomes apparent in the ability to advance or to stand yourground while deliberately and correctly targeting vital body-targets of anopponent. Many scholars today do not have the background in fighting tounderstand the skills this type of behavior calls upon. For instance, in com-bat heavier weapons are necessary calling on a different set of muscles andbody-mechanics then when fencing in more formal duels or participating

in sport fencing. The differences between battlefield and civilian combattraditions and dueling or agonistic combative traditions are clearly seen inaccounts of sword versus machete fighting in the Mexican Caste War of themid 19th century. At this time Mexican officers soon learned that hours ofcut, thrust and parrying with light rebated weapons in an indoor salle didlittle to prepare a man to respond effectively to an opponent jumping outat you from behind a tree swinging a 23 pound machete at your head.62

Wielding a machete of this type requires the use of molinetes or fully swungcuts 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; thesebeing the only effective ways of eliminating an opponent.63 In addition todeveloping the physical knowledge to eliminate an opponent, cultivatingthe commitment to charge a group of men armed with rifles or machetesor withstand such a charge calls for an emotional investment that must besimilarly cultivated. Many times militia units were composed of friends,neighbors and relatives who already possessed some degree of trust thatcould contribute to a units 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 bondsof unity developed during times of training with live blades. In these casesit can be seen how garrote or disciplined physical training could prove tobe a key factor in building relationships. Here is a rare account of trainingin El Tocuyo during the 19th century illustrating the presence of mind, aswell as feelings of trust and community cultivated and entailed in this typeof environment:

Daily, in order to drill his officers; they were under standing orders

to attack him with their swords, all the while taking precautionsabout their attacks. Those who hit him with the point or the edge oftheir blade he warned would have the same done to them. Thereforeall concerned would have to be alert and agile. He would then step infront of the door of the barracks he was going to defend. Then threeor four officers would unsheathe their swords for the assault. This

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began a storm of flashing swords, parrying, feinting, going back andforth, advancing and retreating, jumping and turning, sparks flying,from the gasping and daring the officials. The officers succeeded indriving him back in to a corner of the hallway. Looking like a brawl

of mastiffs fighting over a piece of meat, or a fearsome jaguar, allfangs and claws. When El Pelon came to the point where he yelled atthem surrender! he raised his sabre and gave a loud yell. He thenpraised the most agile and aroused the others to imitate him.64

During a machete charge it seem likely that, experienced garroteros ormilitia leaders such as the officer above would lead charges with a fewof their friends, relatives and students trailing behind them where theywould engage the enemy for a few minutes of hard fighting, or conversely

instilling a fear of being cut up causing their opponents to flee, leadingto another type of combat.65 Within these social organizations such as themilitia that garrote as a battlefield art with machetes versus garrote as acivilian fighting tradition with walking sticks becomes clearer. The goalof a battlefield art is to eliminate an opponent in a traditional quick andeffective manner.66 By contrast when civilians fought at fiestas, pulperasor in the alleys the ubiquity of the walking stick as the weapon of choicesuggests the intention of fights was to neutralize an antagonist, in a waythat would humble him but leave him alive as a living symbol of the

victors skill.67

Fiestas, Pulperas, and the Time of the GuaposIn every village or neighbourhood in Venezuela, as in many areas of

the world there were at least a couple of men or families that everybodyknows that you did not needlessly antagonize. When speaking of the past,members of the older generations often refer to this time as the time ofthe Guapos. Above the Tocuyo valley in the hamlet of Los Olivos, ManuelTeran was remembered among his family both for being a guapo and his

love of fiestas. Arriving on his mule, Manuel would greet his host, graba drink and wander around socializing and having a good time. As theparty got going and people began to relax, Manuel would gently turnconversations around to peoples ability with the stick. After listeningabout a man boast of his skills and reputation, he would invite the speakerto a friendly match. Often times it was said that when a man respondedthat he would enjoy a friendly stick match but unfortunately he did notbring his palo with them to the fiesta, he would go over to his mule andpull out two palos from his saddle bags. If the man claimed he was more

comfortable with machetes, he would retrieve a couple of machetes fromthe saddlebags. And if the man then boasted that while his skill with amachete was formidable but that he was even better with knives, the unclewould obligingly provide a couple of knives for the upcoming contest.Passed down among his family this anecdote highlights the preliminarymaneuvers leading to the way ritual male hierarchal contests were enacted

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in this area. Ritual male hierarchical contests are acts where two menseek to learn where they rank against each other in an activity they bothdecide is the best way to determine who is the better man. A majorityof 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 storyabove and many like it still told today are the number of hyperaggressiveindividuals swaggering down the street carrying a big heavy walkingstick looking for any excuse to issue a challenge. Writing of late ImperialGermany, the historian Norbert Elias noted that in certain types of socialworlds where honor and violence are linked, and state control is weak,specific types of physically strong or skilled men come to the fore thatenjoy challenging and physically defeating men in physical contests to gainrespect and honor.69 Referring back to the story about Manuel Teran and

men like him, it can be seen there were an unspoken but generally agreedupon set of rules governing these types of matches. Moreover, the publicnature of these kinds of honor contests supports the idea that ones publicreputation was often treated as a scarce and ephemeral commodity thathad to be defended almost on a daily basis.70 The way the potential lethalityof the match escalated through the choosing of weapons suggests thatsimple challenge matches could easily escalate beyond anybody control.For reasons unknown Manuel was once ambushed by 5 men armed withsticks 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 hespent 6 months in jail. Similar accounts also tell of the unpredictable natureof the public in these types of honor contests. Bystanders could stand byand let the conflict play out, or intervene and try to deescalate the situation.Alternatively, they could join one side, or each take different sides leadingto all-out melees. The ideal scenario for male hierarchical contests as I wastold 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 thereticence 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 bitterend, or they could talk it out, and then unharmed latter tell a convincingstory that put the narrator in a good light. A review of the literatureon combat has shown that many times men are more concerned withstaying alive and unharmed then inflicting an injury on others and thosecombatants do not always appreciate bystanders escalating potentiallyincendiary situations. 71

One element of these types of contests that many old garroteros stressedto 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 thewalking stick as the communally agreed upon weapon of choice in thesetypes of matches. The non-lethal character of garrote is also reflected in theprincipal techniques men relied upon. Asking a garrotero today to show afew basic moves he would be most likely to deliver a low rising uppercuttype of strike. Known alternately as abarrecampo, barrajuste, baseadoor

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hueverodepending on the area where he lives. The targets for this typeof blow are the ankle, the inside of the knee, or the groin and sometimesunderneath the jaw. A blow of this sort is meant to drop an opponentto the ground literally lowering the man so as to look up at the victor,

physically embodying his lower status. The non-lethal intent of garrotecontests and brawls is reflected in the 1270 court cases examined by thehistorian Mathias Assuncao. Among the cases looked at, the palo usedalone was involved in 15% of all deaths from assaults. Bladed weaponson the other hand were responsible for 50% of fatalities and the use ofrevolvers accounted for the remaining 35% of remaining deaths.73

I wrote how earlier how Venezuela underwent a civilizing processes inthe early 20th century where older forms of sociality and ideas of violencebecame stigmatized and marginalized. However, as Elias noted changing

ones habitus is not as easy as changing ones clothes.74

The persistenceof a restricted number of the younger generation who actively seek outand treasure these older forms of traditional knowledge can be seen in thenumber of younger garroteros who participate in challenge matches bothfor the adventure and the desire to test their skills. Back in the 1980s, oneof my teachers, Saul Teran and a friend would roam the streets looking forother young men to test their combat skills in both armed and unarmedmatches. Sauls friend quit these types of matches after being repeatedlystabbed in the stomach with a sharpened screwdriver, while Saul claimed

he aged out of such behavior. Outside of Barquisimeto, on occasion, acouple of men from neighboring styles will meet informally in friendlymatches that often turn out to be full-contact bouts, that end with oneof them lying on the ground unable to continue. Up in the hill above ElTocuyo there is a well-known agronomist who wanders around the coffeefincas with a coupe of palos strapped across his back ready to engage anywilling farmer in a quick friendly stickfight. Oftentimes listening to peo-ple speak of garrote in the past during the time of the dictatorships, theambivalent and sometime contradictory opinions and feelings about gar-

rote and garroteros become apparent. At the same time as the aggressiveand ruthless character of people remembered as guapos or caudillos aredisparaged or criticized, the determination, cunningness and strength ofcharacter of these men are also admired and seen to lacking or in dangerof disappearing in the younger generation. For many older rural men andwomen the learning of garrote is still seen by many as able to instill inyoung men these important character traits that allow men to withstandthe vagaries of the world. For example, the mother of one of my garroteteachers 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 nearhis house and trained garrote with a man who learned the neighborhoodstyle of garrote that Danys grandfather brought the area 60 years earlier.Training in secret, Danys was repeatedly advised never show this art toanybody until the moment you are attacked.

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Garrote and the TamunangueOver the last few years the devotional acts dedicated to Saint An-

thony of Padua once known asLos Sones de Negrosand now known as theTamunangue has proved to be a key site for the development of garrote.

Garrote as it relates to the Tamunangue has been the subject of numerousworks since the 1920s focusing on the origins, gender relations or transna-tional influences on the ritual.75 Briefly, the Tamunangue is restricted tothe southern sector of the Segovia Highlands and nearby Andean towns.At any time a number of families can pool their resources to prepare thefood and hire the musicians to hold what is known as a promessa or velo-rio. However, June 13th is the main day that Saint Anthony is honored. Atypical velorio today will have a float or a statue of Saint Anthony present.To the side of the saint a group of musicians will play a set of 5- 7 songs

orsonesaccompanied by specific dance steps. Keeping things orderly andmoving are a Capitan Mayorand Capitan-Mayora. With a nod from theCapitanMayor, a velorio begins with a salve, an old liturgical piece ofmusic with no dancing. Next, two men, or now to be more accurate twopeople will kneel in front of the saint armed with walking sticks, machetes,knives or lances to engage in a mock-duel known as La batalla. Succeed-ing couples will replace previous ones after a couple of minutes, until theCapitan-Mayor calls for the sones to commence. After the cycle of songsand dances are complete they will be repeated until everyone sponsoring

the velorio has had a chance to dance and ask the saint for a favor or danceas a way to thank the saint for favors received. As I wrote earlier garrotewas introduced as part of this festival sometime in the early 20th century.For many years since then these velorios could be the site of bloody or evenfatal fights as too much alcohol, exuberant spirits or old grudges, could leadto events getting out of control. In one local velorio in the village of Guara-jita, Leon Valera once drew his knife and attacked the Capitan Mayor foradministering a beating to a friend of his for disrupting La batalla and chal-lenging bystanders to a duel. Other times disgruntled or over exuberant

men would go nearby to a pulpera or outside on the street and begina mass brawl. Over the last few years as the festival has been co-optedby the Venezuelan state as a national dance, local governments and trans-national businesses have promoted the ritual as tourist spectacle. As aresult velorios as a whole have changed dramatically and La batalla hasundergone a process of domestication. Where once men fought with thickheavy walking sticks, or cut and thrust weapons, now thin smaller light-weight sticks are used. Where once men had to use their shoulders andhips to swing heavy blows to incapacitate others, now batalleros or those

dueling in honor of Saint Anthony use their wrists to twirl their palos ateach other in quick synchronized patterns that please spectators. Duringone recent Tamunangue in the Andes a group of men had been drinkingall morning and missed La batalla. Feeling good and a bit exuberant theybegan a duel off to the side of the ritual occurring in the village plaza. Cir-cling each other guardedly with thick heavy beveled-edged sticks, their

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preliminary stalking of each other drew the attention of a few men whoappreciated the sight of an oldfashioned 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 mens forearms,stomach and ribs, the mayor and a few friends managed to trade theirpalos for a couple of beers and they went off arms around each othersshoulders to continue drinking and laughing. The pain from the blowswould come latter.

This disjuncture between garrote as a combative art and a performanceart occurring in the Tamunangue today is also reflected by some garroterostoday 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 Rinaor the

dirty tricks or finishing moves. Speaking of this division the late garroteroand musician Natividad Alvarado who for decades led the Tamunanguefolkloric group Araguaney around Barquisimeto had this to say aboutthese developments76:

La batalla is the same as the rina, what happens is that in La batallaone strikes a blow to the head and the other avoids it. But in therina one attacks with a blow to really strike and one avoids it. Thisis 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 movethe body so the strike hits the ground. It is done in an exchange. Wemake a juego, but the strikes are hard. The strikes in the juego arethe same as the rinaNatividad Alvarado 25, April 2005 Barquisimeto.

Where the Fiesta de San Antonio is celebrated there are a number ofgarroteros who make this tri-partie distinction. Throughout the northernsector of the Segovia highlands and the rest of the country where the art

is kept semi-secret state, garrote is still felt to be and is practiced as avalued pueblo art of self-defense par excellence. Part and parcel of localembodied knowledges that serves to build the character of young men aswell as providing them with a practical tool to withstand the vagaries andassaults of life.

ConclusionThe 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 livesand livelihood, as a way to transmit valued ways of being, or as an iconof ones roots and origins. Within Venezuela the continuation of a strongindigenous presence in the Segovia highlands suggests that garrote wasdeveloped, refined and transmitted by an increasingly proletarianizedand 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 arsenalfor self-defense.77 The wealth of military and civilian combative traditionsin Europe and Africa that existed at a time when soldiers and immigrantscame to Venezuela suggests that men brought with them and shared

with their families and descendents the techniques, tactics and weaponsthat they had picked up over the years and served them well. 78 For thisreason, garrote is best treated as a set of sedimented body-techniquesthat have been successfully tested in specific combative contexts; passeddown and refined by each succeeding generation over the years to meetspecific needs.79 Identifying garrote as a collection of body-techniquesdoes not mean they are set responses to objective conditions; ratherthey are a form of practical understanding occurring at the level of thebody, 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 areadded to a communitys traditional repertoire of techniques, if not themoves are forgotten or discarded. This would account for the variationfound among garroteros. A review of the different contexts where garrotetook place suggests all forms of combat are not geared towards thesame ends and therefore ways of cultivating habitual and perceptualattributes also vary across sites. The way a man would train who isbeing prepared to fight as part of a hastily thrown together militia unit

would be different then a man trained as professional soldier. Likewisein the civilian sphere, where combative encounters could entail diversescenarios such as feuds, vendettas and assaults or an alcohol fueled, goodnatured male hierarchical ritual fight. Within these different modes ofcombat there was always a chance that increasingly lethal weapons couldbe introduced, or restraints against causing major damage to others couldbe loosed, or groups of bystanders might decide to involve themselves.These contingencies meant that any man calling himself a garrotero hadbetter be prepared to train to fight under a variety of incelmnetal or

disadvantageous environmental conditions. Finally garrote was trainedpurely for recreational or for spiritual psycho-spiritual goal such as isoften done today during the fiesta de San Antonio. In each case the bodyis trained to perceive situation in unique way and react accordingly. If aman was not trained to deal with extreme acts of violent aggression butonly had been exposed to recreational training, the results could be bad.Because body-techniques are only transmitted in social networks bothsymbolic meanings such as ideas of honor or ways of belonging as wellas practical responses to environmental events are transmitted through

the incorporation of proper movements.81

This sedimented nature ofsubject-formation would account for the persistence of garrote in as acombative art as conditions changed. At a time when men habitually wentabout armed, many young men would have an interest in re-producingthe forms and practices of masculinity they were exposed to. This meantthat a younger generation would legitimate and re -produce traditional

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ways of looking at, moving through and judging the world. Latter onas a result of the institutionalization of a modern centralized state, awave of post WWII immigration from Europe and a shift from Venezuelaas 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, manyolder forms of sociality and ways of looking at, evaluating and being in theworld are still valued and transmitted reflecting the conservative natureof the body techniques that make up individuals habitus and can beseen if one knows what to look for. Traveling through Venezuela, visitorscan see signs of an adherence to older forms of sociality such as a busdriver or taxi-driver keeping a short thick club known as a guapo-mansoorbully-tamer near their seats to deal with any potential trouble or rural men

riding bicycles through the countryside with a braided handled walkingstick tied underneath the frame of their bicycles. Looking at garrote as aseries of body-techniques that develop and change in conjunction in thecontext of prevalent political-economic structures allows an investigatorto develop a deeper more inclusive definition of culture accounting forthe different ways individuals come to learn how to use their bodysand use them to evaluate, feel and move through and belong to a world.

Notes1Robert Farris Thompson, Black Martial Arts of the Caribbean. Reviewof Latin Literature and Arts, Vol. 37 (1987), pp. 4447.2Richard Francis Burton, The History of the Sword. (Minneapolis: Universityof Minnesota Press, 1995); Bronislaw Malinowski, 1920 War and Weaponsamong the Trobriand Islanders. Man, Vol. 20 (1920), pp. 1012; Mar-cel Mauss, Sociology and Psychology: Essays. B. Brewster, transl. (London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979); A. Lane-Fox Pit-Rivers, The Evolution ofCulture and Other Essays. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1906).3

Chacon, Richard and Reuben Mendoza (eds) Latin American IndigenousWarfare and Ritual Violence. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007),pp. 116141; Loc J. Wacquant, Pugs at Work: Bodily Capital and BodilyLabor among Professional Boxers. Body and Society Vol.1 No.1 (1995),pp.6594.4Recent works on African arts include Matthias Rohring Assuncao,Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Art. (New York: Routledge,2005); T. J. Desch-Obi, Peinillas and Popular Participation: Machetefighting in Haiti, Cuba, and Colombia. Memorias. Revista Digital de

Historia y Arqueologa desde el Caribe Vol.11 (2009). Downloaded athttp://rcientificas.uninorte.edu.co/index.php/memorias/article/viewArticle/517. (Accessed 02 February 2011); Fighting for Honor: The Historyof African Martial Arts in the Atlantic World (Carolina Low Country andthe Atlantic World. (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press,2008); Gregory Downey, Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an

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Afro-Brazilian Art.(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). In the field ofMMA see Gregory Downey, Producing Pain: Techniques and Technolo-gies in No-Holds- Barred-Fighting.Social Studies of Science,Vol. 37 No. 2(2007), pp. 201226; Dale C. Spencer, Habit (us), Body Techniques and

Body Callusing: An Ethnography of Mixed Martial Arts. Body & Society,Vol. 15 No.4 (2009), pp.119143; Maarten von Bottenburg, De-Sportization of Fighting Contests: The Origins and Dynamics of NoHolds Barred Events and the Theory of Sportization.International Review

for the Sociology of Sport,Vol. 41 No. 34 (2006), pp. 259282.5William Schilling and Vivian Rowe,Memory and Modernity in Latin Amer-ica. (New York: Verso 1991).6Michael Herzfeld, The Body Impolitic: Artisans and Artifice in the GlobalHierarchy of Value. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2004); Andrew

Shyrock,Off Stage /On Display: Intimacy and Ethnography in the Age of PublicCulture. (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2004).7Elliot Gorn, Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch: The Social Signif-icance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry. The American HistoricalReview, Vol. 90 (1985), pp.1843; Pablo Picatto, City of Suspects: Crimeand Violence in Mexico City, 19011930. (Durham: University of North Car-olina Press, 2001); Peter Spierenberg (ed),Men and Violence:Gender, Honorand Ritual in Modern Europe. (Athens: Ohio State University Press, 1998);Heikki Yilkangas, Five Centuries of Violence: in Finland and the Baltic area.

(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2001).8Erving Goffman,Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organizationof Gatherings(London: Verso, 1963), p.11.9Mauss, p.23.10Nick CrossleyThe Social Body: Habit, Identity and Desire. (London: SAGEPublications, 2001); Maurice Merleau-Ponty, ThePhenomenology of Percep-tion. (London: RKP, 1962); James Ostrow, Social Sensitivity: A Study of Habitand Experience. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990).11Nicola Foote, Monteneros and Macheteros: Afro-Ecuadorian and In-

digenous Experiences of Military Struggle in Liberal Ecuador, 18951930in Nicola Foote and Renee D. Harder Horst (eds.), Military Struggle andIdentity Formation in Latin America: Race, Nation and Community duringthe Liberal Period (Gainsville, Fla: University of Florida Press, 2010)pp. 85, 96, 98; Robert Gilmore, Caudillism and Militarism in Venezuela,18101910.(Athens Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1964), pp.52, 78;John Lawrence Tone, War and Genocide in Cuba, 18951898 (Pembroke,NC:University of North Carolina Press, 2006),pp. 126127.12Michael J. Ryan I Did Not Return a Master, But Well Cudgelled Was

I: The Role of Body Techniques in the Transmission of Venezuelan Stickand Machete Fighting. The Journal of Latin American and CaribbeanAnthropology. Vol. 15 No.1 (2011), pp.124.13A pulpera is a general store where liquor is sold. A velorio as it is usedhere is a religious act dedicated to asking help or thanking a saint forfavors received

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14Pierre Bourdieu and Loc Wacquant, p.76.15See Gertrud Pfister, Cultural Confrontation: German Turnen, SwedishGymnastics and English Sport- European Diversity in Physical Activitiesfrom a Historical Perspective. Culture, Sport and Society, Vol.6No.1(2003),

pp. 6191; Susan Brownell,Training the Body for China: Sports in the MoralOrder of the Peoples Republic.(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995),for examples how nationalist movements use of group drills to encouragefeelings of belonging.16A bochiniche is a local term for a dance party.17Cuchillos, punales and peinillas are types of knives. A mandador is awhip. A garrocha or dejarretadera are types of pikes used to herd cattle.18The use of the term Lara or Larense refers to the state of Lara thatwas 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 Tocuyoriver and has a reputation fro producing fierce garroteros19Argimiro Gonzalez, Enciclopedia Autodidactia Sobre el Juego de GarroteVenezolano. Tomo PrimeroI.(Caracas: Concultura, 2007).20Pecho Peludo means hairy chested.21This style is also known as El Estilo Curaigueno by students of EduardoSanoja who himself learned his style of garrote from Mercedes Perez, astudent of Don Gualberto.22Interview 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 Searchfor Order/the Dream for Progress. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982);Guillermo Moron AHistory of Venezuela.(London: George Allen & UnwinLTD, 1965).24Gilmore, p.787925Gilmore, p. 5253.26Rafael Domingo Silva Uzcategui,Enciclopedia Larense. Tomo II(Espana:Escuela Prof. Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, 1941b).27

Gilmore, p.79.28Ewell, 1984; Reinaldo Rojas, La Economa de Lara en Cinco Siglos. (Bar-quisimeto: Italgrafica, 1996); De Variquecmeto a Barquisimeto (Barquisimeto:Asociacion Pro-Venezuela. Seccional Lara. Asemblea Del Estado Lara,2002).29For a brief account of a successful machete charge during this campaignsee Thomas Bourke,Gomez, Tyrant of the Andes.(New York: GreeenwoodPress, 1969). pp.67.30Doug Yarrington, Coffee Frontier: Land, Society, and Politics in Duaca,

Venezuela, 18301936. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997).On the role of debt labor in neighboring rural Zulia province see PeterLinder, An Immoral Speculation: Indian Forced Labor on the Hacien-das of Venezuelas Sur del Lago Zuliano, 18801936.The America,Vol. 56No. 2 (1999), pp. 191210.

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31Efforts to collect weapons from the civilian population were attemptedin 1832, 1872, 1889,1893,1896,1898, and 1919. Generally men did not stopcarrying garrotes in public until the 1950s.32Oscar Acosta, Barquisimeto Tiene Su Historia Deportiva (Barquisimeto: Uni-

versidad Centro-Occidental: 2001), pp.163165.33Matthias Rohring Assuncao, Juegos de Palo en Lara: Elementos parala Historia Social de un Arte Marcial Venezolano. Revistas de Indias,Vol. 59 (1999), pp.5589. For similar accounts of ludic aspects of violencesee Carolyn Conley, The Agreeable Recreation of Fighting. Journal ofSocial History,Vol. 33 (1999), pp. 5773.34Interview with Pasqual Zanfino 19 February 2005. El Molino.35See Assuncao, 2005, pp. 3269. 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 areathrough the 19th century. However there is not much evidence that in-digenous warriors used clubs or macanas that could contribute to thistype 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 September2005);John Cowley, Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso: Traditions in the Mak-ing.(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). pp. 66.36

Jose Eliseo Lopez, La Emigracion Desde La Espa

na Peninsular a

Venezuela: En Los siglos xvi, xvii, xviii Tomo I, II (Caracas: 1999), pp.114233.37Isabel 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 Uzcategui, Barquisimeto. Historia Privada, Alma yFisonoma del Barquisimeto de Ayer(Caracas: 1959).38For 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.16263.39In 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 JulianBishko, The Peninsular Background of Latin American Cattle Round-

ing. Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 32 No. 4 (1953), pp.419515. There still exists a strong wrestling tradition in Northeastern Spainand Northern Portugal. I am familiar with the Federacion de LuchaLeonesa and a number of small Galhofa wrestling academies in Braganca,Portugal

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40See Mario A. Lopez-Osornio, Esgrima Criolla: cuchillo, rebenque, ponchoy chuza(Nuevo Sigla: Buenos Aires, 1995); Oral interviews with ManualRomo Vejar., August 1975 Huntington Beach CA, and Ramon MartnezJune 2009, New York City, NY.41

This predilection has also been among Capoeiristas in 19th centuryBrazilian port towns in Assuncaos work (2005).42At this time single stick fencing became a popular pastime. Oneauthor traces this tradition back to the use of medieval wasters orwooden training weapons. See Tony Wolf, Singlestick Fencing: 17871923. The Journal of Manly Arts. (February 02, 2002); C. Phillips-WolleySingle-Stick Journal of Manly Arts (November, 01, 2001), both athttp://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. 253.43Norbert Elias,The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Inves-tigations. E. Jephcott, transl. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000); Mauss.197944On example that support this view comes from the memoirs of oneFrench craftsmen in mid 19th century France who wrote . . .in those dayscompagnons often fought amongst themselves and leaving to do onesTour 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 memberof your own little brotherhood was not a crime, but an act of courageMark Traugott, The French Worker: Autobiographies from the Early IndustrialEra. (Berkley: University of California Press, 1993). pp.131138). Also seeRobert Y. Davis,The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence inLate Renaissance Venice.(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Gre-gory Hanlon, Glorifying War in a Peaceful City; festive representation ofcombat in Baroque Siena (15901740). War in History, Vol. 11. No.3 (2004),pp. 249277 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. Cuadernosde Etnologia y Etnografia de Navarra, Vol. 24, No. 60 (1992), pp. 203235. ForPortugal see Antonio Cacador,Jogo de Pau Esgrima Nacional, (Lisboa: 1963).Ribiero Aquilino,O Malhadinhas(Lisboa: 1959). In Ireland see John HurleyShillelagh: The Irish Fighting Stick, (Philadelphia, PA.Caravat Press, 2007),or his website on Irish martial arts at www. johnwhurley.com. Wrestlingin the Celtic fringes of Europe has been undergoing a re-vitalization overthe last ten years. See Mike Huggins, The Regular Re-Invention of Sport-

ing Tradition and Identity of Cumberland and Westmoreland Wrestlingc. 18002001. The Sports Historian, Vol. 21 No. 1 (2001), pp. 3555. ForNorthern Europe see Marjorie Edgar Ballads of the Knife Men. WesternFolklore, Vol. 8 No. 1 (1949), pp.5357 and Yilkangas 2001.45Examples of this are seen in Jose de Oviedo Y Banos,The Conquest andSettlement of Venezuela (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987);

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Alfred Hasbroucke, Foreign Legionaries of Spanish South America (New York:Colombia University Press, 1969), p.248. Also at this time elite Venezuelanswould travel to Europe to absorb European culture such as reading law,learning philosophy or engineering or learning how to duel, dueling with

wooden cudgels of different lengths and knives was both a popular pas-time and a method of self defense among the popular classes throughoutEurope. The popularity of stick fighting as an agonistic and antagonisticactivity can be seen throughout many areas of the public sphere. Up untilthe early 20th century the quarterstaff was practiced by the Boy Scouts andsingle stick fencing was practiced the U.S Navy as a way to complimentsaber fencing (Amberger p. 252). It was in this type of environment wheresome knowledge of armed combat was common I suggest that contributedto the development of garrote over the centuries as people continued to

immigrate into the country.46James J. Parsons, The Migration of the Canary Islanders: An Un-broken Current Since Columbus. The America, Vol. 39 No.4 (1983),pp. 44748; Wayne D. Rasmussen, Agricultural Colonization and Im-migration in Venezuela 18101860.Agricultural History,Vol. 21No.3 (July1947), pp. 155162.47FA Ossorio Cardenas Rodrguez (ed),Tradiciones Canarias Juego del Palo,Peleas de Gallo.(Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, 1987), pp. 37.48See Argimiro Gonzalezs bookRegresso del Palo Chico.(El Tocuyo 2003),

for an uneven history and questionable history of these influences.49A nickname he received for surviving an ambush as he was taking asiesta in his hammock and stabbed 14 times.50One problem I noticed with this art is the need to get in close to deliver athrust to the opponent, a very difficult feat to accomplish is the opponentis armed and attacking with power and speed.51Interview with Ramon Martnez, 22 March 2007 Brooklyn N.Y.52This idea of Valera learning a thrusting style of stick play has beendoubted by Eduardo Sanoja who claims Valera was trying to increase the

prestige of his own lineage of garrote by claiming European influences.53Juan Liscano,Folklore del Estado Lara: El Tamunangue. (Caracas: 1951);Desch-Obi, 2008, 2009.54At this time I am not aware of anybody investigating stick fightingtraditions in the State of Yaracuy.55Eduardo Sanoja,Juego de Garrote Larense: El M etodos Venezolano DefensaPersonal(Caracas: Miguel Angel Garca e Hijo, 1984), pp.121.56Matas Gonzalez Bracho, Verdad historica de la revolucion acaudillada prel General J.R. Gabaldon en Santo Cristo, ano 1929 (Caracas: N.p, 1958);

A.Cipriano Heredia,El Ano 29: Recuento de la lucha armada (Caracas: Avi-larte, 1974).

57Yarrington, pp. 8797.58Sanoja, 1996:8. Arenguanai, Palo Amarillo and Vera are types of localhardwoods commonly used to make palos in the tocuyo valley59To fight with sticks.

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Ryan

60Pedro Pablo Linarez, Proceres de la Dignida Tocuyana (Barquisimeto:1999).61See 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. 3374.See pp.54 of this article for a similar argument.62Nelson Reed, The Caste War in Yucatan (Stanford. Stanford UniversityPress, 2001), pp.612.63Amberger p.95.64Rafael Mara Rodrguez-Lopez,La Leyenda del Pelon Gil(Caracas: Impre-sores Unidos, 1940), p. 138.65George Orwell relates a humorous story when during a trench raid hetried trying to bury his bayonet in the back of a fleeing Spanish fascist. See

George OrwellHomage to Catalonia(Orlando Fla: Mariner Books 1980).66See Fredrick F. Todd, The Knife and Club in Trench Warfare, 19141918.The Journal of American Military History Foundation, Vol. 2 No. 3 (1938),pp.139153. In this article the author describes trench scrums in WWIwhere men often resorted to weapons, and bodily targeting that seemednatural and right to their family and friends back home.67Both archival data and the memories of elder garroteros agree that thepurpose of the palo was not to kill anybody but to earn and maintain onespublic reputation.68

It can be difficult at times to distinguish motivations of instrumentalfrom 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,Ceara, and 1840s-1890.The Americas, Vol. 64 No.1 (2007), pp. 3557 foran account that stresses the instrumental nature of honor.69Norbert Elias, The Germans: Power Struggles and the Development of Habitusin 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 Policingin Argentina and Uruguay, 17501940. (Albuquerque: The University ofNew Mexico 1990), pp.4764. See p. 54; Piccato 2001.p.81; Julius R. Ruff,Violence in Early Modern Europe 15001800 (Cambridge; Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 2001), p.75.71See Oren Falk, Bystanders and Hearsayers: Reassessing the Role of theAudience in Dueling. In Mark D. Meyerson (ed.)A Great Effusion of Blood:

Interpreting Medieval Violence, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 2004),pp. 98130. Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall,Men Against Fire: The Problemof Battle Command.(Norman. OK: University of Oklahoma Press).72Today too many martial artists are concerned to stress the lethality oftheir arts, whether armed or unarmed. Even today among some men pro-moting garrote, they stress the deadliness of the art and overemphasizethe role of machetes in civilian combat as a way to market themselves as

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trained killers This reticence to kill others in these types of contests werestressed to me over and over by men who took part regularly in thesematches.73The most complete set of court records available in the archives at the

Archivo de Registro Principal de Barquisimeto in Barquisimeto begins in1890. From 1898 the number of deaths from palos fell from a high of 42 toa low of 11 in 1929 suggesting a civilizing process. Assunc ao. 1999 p. 87.74Elias, 1991 p.222.75See Isabel Aretz, 1970; Eduardo Lira Espejo, El Tamunangue El Uni-versal, February 19,1941; David Guss, 2000; Pedro Pablo Lnarez,Sones deNegroes(Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela 1990); Juan Liscano,Folklore del Estado Lara: El Tamunangue. (Caracas 1951); Alcides Losada,El Tamuangue: Son de NegroDiario 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.77Lilliam Arvelo, Change and Persistence in Aboriginal SettlementPatterns in the Qubor Valley, Northwestern Venezuela (Sixteenth toNineteenth Centuries)Ethnohistory,Vol. 7 No. 34 (2000), pp. 683. Draw-ing on archeological and ethno historical sources this article supports theidea of the population of Segovia highlands consisting of a number ofde-tribalized and indigenous peoples.78

See Cacoy Boy Hernandez, Balisong, Iron Butterfly (Van Nuys CA:Unique Publications, 1984). In his autobiography Sr. Hernandez tell ofpicking up combative moves from a number of different people whileworking as a midshipman traveling the Pacific.79See Downey 2005; Ian Hunter and David Sanders, Walks of Life Mausson the Human Gymnasium.Body & SocietyVol. 1 No. 2 (1995), pp.6581.80Merleau-Ponty, 1962; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Crossley, 2001.

81Nick 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.

michael ryan - the development and transmission of stick fighting in venezuela garrote de lara, a...

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