Furneaux's Book Outlines Complexity of the Ama'zon '
THE ANCHOR-Diocese o? !Fall River-Thurs., Nov. 5,1970
Ever since its discovery in 1499, the Amazon River has i"l (•.•. •1 dazzled the imagination of men. IUt a prodigious phenomenon. With a thousand tributaries, it is 208 miles wide at its mouth, its volume exceeds that of the eight great' ~ rivers of Asia put together, and one of the islands in its ley was discovered in the eighmouth is the same size as teenth century, but it was not Switzerland. Robin Fur- until 1888 (with ~he invention
SALINAS (NC)-eesar Chavez' United Farm Workers Organizing Committee and the Teamsters, two unions feuding over rights to organize farm workers in this area, edged closer to a settlement. Reaffirming terms of a pact originally worked out last A~ gust, UFWOC agreed to organize field hanas, while the Teamsters said they, would contin~e unionizing cannery and packing shed workets..
neaux writes about the river The Amazon (Putnam, 200 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. 10016. $6.95), which treats some of the principal episodes in its history, , beginning with a Spanish sailing
By",
'RT. REV. I
MSGR. JOHN S.
KENNEDY
captain's chancing upon it just seven years after Columbus first touched the New World. It was not until half a century later that any European traversed the whole river. This feat was performed by Francisco Orellana, who was leading part of an expedition in search of the fabled treasure of El Dorado. His point of departure was Quto, on the west coast of South America. ," '1· '; The ,!l~ventures
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and sufferings of ,the party which he doggedly led through the wilderness, to the river, and down it to the east coast of the continent, make harrowing reading. Recurring Indian attacks, accidents on the teeming waters, illness, hunger, assaults by insects - these depleted the company; but did not stop Orellana. The terrible jour. ney took a year and a half. In the next hundred years, there were many expeditions to the Amazon. Considerable exploration was done, and colonies were set up by the English, the Fr~nch, the Dutch, as well as by" the Spanish and the Portu· gue~e who divided the continent between them. But it was only the two latter: lhpt remained in the Amazon C.ountry. Jesuit Setllements Their treatment of the native Indians was generally bad, sometimes horrible. The author contrasts this with what the Jesuits did for the Indians, in Paraguay and Brazil'.: :They se't ,up their famous Reductions, in which the Indians, converted, lived in fixed communities, attended school, learned crafts and trades, and were protected against the avaricious and cruel white men who would enslave them. By 1750, the Jesuit settlements in the whole Amazon area contained some 250,000 Indians, but the days of these foundations were numbered. Spaniards and Portuguese who opposed so-ch benevole'nce tow~rd". the Indians, secured tJ:1e Jesuits' expulsion. " '"
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of the rubber tire for carriages and bicycles) that a tremendous demand for the Amazon rubber, unique in quality and ql,lantity, I began to swell much more with the coming of the automobile, Indians Exploited While the boom lasted, it brought vast wealth to some people, but indescribable misery to the Amazon Indians. For they »f~re atrociously e·xploited. I Pressed into work as tappers of . the trees, they were paid almost nothing, and that little had to go for the barest necessities, Which were sold to them at fantastically inflated prices. They, .were beaten, mutilated, put to death for failure to produce the ql,lOtas their masters demanded. And the Indians? In Brazil alone, there were probably about a million of them at the time of the conquest. Today, the number I is 75,000, and some experts say i that the entire race is in danger I of extinction. Viscount Furneaux has sketch· I ed his gigantic subject deftly. i All he gives, as he realizes, is I but a skipping outline of the stunning complexity of the Ama- i zon. P.etrakis' Stelmark I Another sort of complexity I concerns Harry Mark Petrakis in I his family memoir, Stelmark j (McKay, 750 Third Ave., New York, N. Y. 10017. $4.95). Mr.1 Petrakis, well known for his fic'l tion, is the son of a Greek Ortho' l dox priest. He was born in this country, a few years after hisl father and mother and their old·1 er children left Crete to settle ini Missouri. . I Settle is hardly the word, for the father moved from paris~ to parish, in more than one state! before beginning a long stay in Chicago. It was in that city that Mr. Petrakis grew up, in an eth~ nic neighborhood which clung to the traditions and ways of the old country. I He is frank about some of the seamier aspects of adolescencel and unsparing in his account of his gambling mania and his careering from job to job as hb sought to become a writer. H~ initial success in the medium ! brings the book to a close.
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Wh~t followed for the Indial;ls is bEfst illustrate,l ,by. the hi!itQry of the boom .lmd, '''f1~st il) rubber which 'came. in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The rubber tree of the Amazon val-
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Near Settlement In Labor Dispute
REV. JAMES A: CLARK
ThE! announcement was made in Washington, D.C., by George Meany, national president~1?f the AFL-CIO, who c}isclosec! the jurisdictional peace' formula had .)
Mass Dn Spanish Begins Saturday In Attl,eboro BeginniJ:lg this Saturday evening, Nov. 7, at 6:30, Rev. James A. Clark, chaplain at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, will offer Mass in Spanish in St. Joseph's Church, Attleboro, fpr the benefit of the Spanish-speaking in the area. Father Clark is well qualified for this apostolate since he served for five years as .Assistant Director of the Latin American Bureau of the United States Catholic Conference. Ordained in 1955, Father Clark served in St. Mary's Parish in New Bedford· until 1963 when he went to Washington' to the USCC. After ,his five years in that post he served a year as Special Assistant to the Apostolic Delegate to Canada before returning to the Diocese. Father Clark holds a Master's Degree in Church History and has written a book on Latin America.
Prelate Explains Subtle Racism ' PHILADELPHIA (NC) - The executive director of the Cardinal's Commission on Human Relations tol~ members Of the Philadelphia chapter of the Religious Public Relations Council here that religious communicators must overcome "the institutional subordination of a people." "There's a 'difference between the indirect overt racism and' 1 subordination' of p~op/~," Msgr. Philip J. Dowling noted.
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"It's our duty as religious communicators to speak of the difference and explain it to the people. There's a reality going on in the country that must be spoken of and we must find the words to express it."
Honest, Appealing What will probably remain with the reader is the portray~1 of the' Petrakis parents and df Naka, an old woman who 'was ~ kind of unpaid family servant. The reality, he explained, is It was evident that, in his Cgro",ing years, the author had great- that a great deal of racism exer admiration for his mother ists .without the direct intent of than . for his father. But hIs any individual or group. "But father's merit and even nobility 'the result, is racism," Msgr. were appreciated by him later Dowliing said, "and it must be on":'" perhaps too late, ,he sug- exposed... · .The problem is finqing the gests. . ":" ' This memoir is honest an'd ap- correct words, according to pealing. In detail, it differs from Msgr. Dowling:,u ' : the experience .of others who "Words can blQck the meaning li\(ed . i~ 'othe~ ,e.thni( f!.nclosurbs ofl.',~hai you say because of the iii American .~ownsarid cities. rea~t~on .that· the words cal.J$~I" But there "is:' ~ basic samen'ess he said.', "Very often,·a· reader which 'Mher no longer tiyphe/l- has an adverse reaction to a ated Americans will wistfully particular word and dismisses everything after it." recognize. l.•
been worked out after he met with Frank Fitzsimmons, Teamsters' union acting president. Meany's announcement contained no information as to how immediate the terms would become operative. They are the same as already agreed upon by UFWOC and the Western Teamsters Conference Aug. 12 with the aid of the U.S. Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on farm labor. Furthermore, both unions are still faced with the same major problem-the refusal of more than 200 California vegetable growers to rescind contracts previously signed with the Teamst~rs.
A PRIEST INVOUR FAMILY? THE HOLY FATHER'S M.ISSION AID TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCH
A Have you ever wished you had a son a priest? FUTURE Now you can have- a 'priest of your own'-and PRIEST share forever in all the good he does. . . . NEEDS Throughout the Near East each year, grateful YOUR bishops ordain hundreds of new priests trained HELP by peopl~ like you.... Their own families are too poor to support them in training,' b'ut good Catholics in America 'adopted' these sem'inarians, encouraged them all the way to ordination.... In some inspiring cases, this suppoRl was given at personal sacrifice.... How can you begin? Write to us now. We'll se~dl' you the name of a young seminarian who needs you, and he will write to you. Make the pay·, fTlents for his training to suit your convenience ($15.00 a month, or $180 a year, or the total $1,080 all at once). Join your sacrifices to his, and at every Sacrifice of the Mass, he 'will always remember who made it possible.
...•• HOW TO S-T·R·E-T-C-H FOOD BUDGETS
Look at the nearest $IObill. What is it actually worth? Only what it will buy. Today, it will hardly buy enough to feed afamily for twQ days. In the Holy Land, it will feed' a poor refugee family for' an' :e'ntire month. The Holy Father asks your help Jor the refugees, more than half of them children. Your money mUltiplies-as you give it away.
...•• MASS November is'the month of the Holy Souls. Why FOR not send us your Mass reQues~s. right now? Sim• YOU ply list the intentions, and then you can rest .. 'AND assured the Masses will be offered by priests in YOURS India, the Holy Land and Ethiopia, who receive no o~her income.... Remind us to send you information about Gregorian Masses, too: You can arrange now to have Gregorian Masses of· fered for yourself, or for another, after death.
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Dear ENCLOSED PLEASE FIND $ Monsignor Nolan: FOR Please return coupon with your offering THE CATHOLIC
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EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
NEAR EAST MISSIONS TERENCE CARDINAL COOKE, 'President
,MSGR. JOHN G. NOLAN, National Secretary Write: CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE Assoc, 330 Madison Avenue· New York. N.Y. 10017 Telephone: 212/YUkon 6·5840
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