A Wage That Barely Pays For The Food We Eat.

"The average farm worker in the coastal areas is a very special kind of man, a kind of hero, actually. In the traumatic break that occurs when he has decided to move away from the domination of his family and make his own way, he has, in choosing to be a machetero, made a tremendous decision; the other alternative was to be a thief. Very broadly speaking these represent the two alternatives that offer themselves to a young man with no more than three or four years of schooling, trained to do nothing but paddle a canoe or slash at weeds, and faced with a bleak future. It is a thankless life; a machetero is the national garbage, the lowest form of human life. And he is the man who produces the national wealth. No one chooses to be a machetero on a permanent basis.... The average, bright young machetero lasts about three years; he makes a wage that scarcely pays for the food he eats to give him the strength to keep working.... When he needs a new shirt or a pair of pants he makes elaborate plans, floats loans, eats a little less food for a couple of weeks." (Moritz Thomsen. The Farm On The River of Emeralds)