Everybody calls Benito's dad 'Don Tojo', though his name is Arnulfo. He was butchering a goat when I took these pictures, but that's just one of his talents.

I once visited Don Roberto Chávez to get some advice about buying horses. Don Roberto is the most respected and most successful landowner in the Cañón, and he's been around for a long time. Back in the '30s and '40s he farmed a minimum of eighty hectares a year, with a dozen horses (and a lot of Guaraní laborers).

He told me I shouldn't have come. "You live in the same community with Don Tojo, right? He is the best cowboy in the entire cañón, and you'd be better off getting your advice from him."

Unfortunately, a compliment like that, coming from a rich, white, patrón, about a Guaraní laborer, is mostly significant because of its rarity. Prejudice against the Guaraní is strong throughout all of southeastern Bolivia, and is probably worst in Chuquisaca.

I did rely on Don Tojo for advice with the horses, but actually he was more help with our oxen.