1 - CARLOS MAKES HIS PLANS.
Carlos Ortiz lay swinging in the big hammock slung across the wide porch at the
back of the large and luxurious hacienda ranch house in Costa Negra, a small, little known
country in Latin America.
He lay sideways across it in the usual Latin American way, his muscular body
stretched out comfortably, wearing only a sarong in the warm tropical afternoon sun - a
sarong which he had untied, displaying his hard, tanned figure - as well as baring it for
the attentions of the two young girls that the hammock also held. Hammocks in that part of
the world are sold as singles, doubles or for one man and two girls.
The girls were sisters, indentured servants, virtually a replacement for slavery
which had been abolished in the middle of the last century. They were coffee coloured,
half-Indian, with a dash of Negro and white blood. They snuggled up to their Master, one
on either side - pretty young creatures with pert little breasts. Iron collars had been
riveted round their necks from which hung discs giving the name of the estate, El Paraiso,
and the numbers under which they were listed in the hacienda's official register.
By Costa Negra law, going back to the days of slavery, livestock was divided into
cattle, pigs, horses and slaves, the latter now replaced by indentured servants. The
female indentured servant section of the register was further sub-divided into several
distinct types of women.
Each type had been bred in El Paraiso quite separately for several generations,
either for use on the hacienda itself or for sale to neighbouring smaller hacienda owners.
Many of these were dependent on El Paraiso for replacing or building up their teams of
young female indentured servants, or for crossing with them to prevent excessive
inter-breeding amongst their own small stock.
The first type were plantation workers whose hacienda registration numbers were
prefixed by a T, standing for Trabajadora, or female labourer. These women, mainly black,
were carefully chosen to stand up to long hours of working docilely in the hot sun,
picking coffee beans or cotton.
Second were household servants. Their numbers were prefixed by the letter C for
Criada, or maidservant. They were chosen for their beauty, intelligence and obedience.
They often had white blood in their breeding and indeed the whiter they were, ranging from
mulattos through quadroons up to octoroons, the more valuable they were.
The final type, found only on the larger and more remote haciendas, such as El
Paraiso, were pony-girls. Their registration numbers were prefixed by a Y, standing for
Yegua, or mare. They were bred to have the long legs, speed, stamina and conformity needed
to win the trotting races and dressage competitions that were so popular amongst the big
landowners and the local peasantry - as well as in the more discreetly held show rings.
Once a successful pony-girl had been earmarked for breeding, then to denote her
special status as a valuable brood mare, the letter V was added after her number, for
Yegua de Vientre, literally belly mare.
The oligarchy of rich landowners who strictly controlled the outwardly peaceful
country of Costa Negra had long since learnt that young women rather than young men made
an ideal cheap labour force for the plantations on which they depended for their wealth.
At the same time they had learnt that Indian men made excellent overseers, standing no
nonsense from the women in their charge.
Strict laws ensured that the women remained their virtual property and indeed on
the more remote plantations conditions were virtually unchanged since the days of
slavery.
Originally many women, Negresses, mulattos, mestizos and even poor white women,
finding themselves threatened with starvation and misery, had willingly accepted the terms
for female indentured service: service for a period of twenty years from the age of 21.
Girls below twenty-one who were indentured servants, were legally considered to be 'under
training'.
The system had continued to the present day, since it was largely self
perpetuating, for all female children born to indentured servants were themselves
automatically indentured in return for their keep and upbringing.
Plantation owners were thus encouraged to take steps to ensure that the supply of
suitable female indentured servants did not dry up.
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