Word: luna
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Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (190,000). Biggest by far of the operating unions, it was founded as the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen in 1883 by eight railroaders meeting in an Albany & Susquehanna caboose at Oneonta, N.Y. Brotherhood President Charles Luna, 56, began his rail career as a construction helper on the Santa Fe in Texas. The word "trainmen" does not apply to a particular job; it is a generic term that covers both conductors and brakemen. In general, the members of Luna's union tend to be men with less seniority than the members of the older, more exclusive...
...centuries, the peasants of Sullupucyo have accepted their lot. But in the past year, leaders of the Communist-lining Social Progressive Movement (M.S.P.) have succeeded in organizing a number of peasant unions. For the first time, Luna's peasants are beginning to mutter that they will refuse to work the four days for the hacienda unless they get more for it-and will not be evicted. When Luna had 18 squatters arrested recently for trespassing, the hacienda's peasant union, through their lawyer in Cuzco, got the men freed. Hacendado Luna does not see any need for agrarian...
Chicha & Coco. "We treat our colonos very well. They have no cause for complaint," says Luna's foreman. "If they want it," he says, "we even give them a daily ration of chicha and coca." Chicha is a crude corn whisky; coca is a mild narcotic leaf that deadens pain and kills hunger. Luna lets his peasants graze a limited number of livestock free (most hacendados charge one head for ten as a grazing fee). He also allots each family two acres of cropland on which to grow food-potatoes and corn, and in season turnips and cabbage...
Peasants see the whole thing differently. Clad in filthy woolen ponchos, they were a humble lot. They doffed their hats and greeted me as "Doctor." But one who could speak Spanish (most know only Quechua) asked with surprising bluntness, "Are you on the side of Doctor Luna or are you for us?" Told that I wished to report how they live, they broke into smiles, lined up like children before a benevolent elder, and gave me a bear...
Three days each week, Sullupucyo's peasants are permitted to work for themselves. Although Luna denies it, the peasants charge that their market is controlled by the hacienda, which buys their surplus produce at considerably less than market price. Failure to sell, as failure to accept any other hacienda rule, they say, means immediate eviction...