preface|xi
CentralResearchDevelopmentFund.Inaddition,wereceivedgrants-in-
aid fromthe American Philosophical Society, the Wenner-Gren Founda-
tion for Anthropological Research, and the Jacobs Fund of Bellingham,
Washington. We are very grateful to these institutions for their generous
financial help, without which our work in the Córdoba-Orizaba region
would not have been possible.
It is difficult to single out every individual and institution that, in one
wayoranother,helpedustowritethisbookandcarryoutthefieldworkon
which it is based, but we would like to express our appreciation to those
thatmadethemostsignificantcontributions.Tothemunicipalauthorities
ofthecitiesof FortindelasFlores,Córdoba,Orizaba,Coscomatepec,and
San Juan de la Punta, we are grateful for administrative support. We are
intellectually and professionally indebted to John M. Roberts, Barry L.
Isaac, Doren L. Slade, Lisa Moscowitz, Leonard Plotnicov, L. Keith
Brown, Richard Scaglion, Marc Bermann, David Robichaux, and Timo-
thy D. Murphy, who read parts of the text, made constructive criticisms,
suggested changes in style, presentation, and organization, or discussed
theoretical or methodological matters.
We are grateful to the countless municipal authorities of the Córdoba-
Orizaba communities where information was collected for their open-
ness and willingness to help and for the time and effort they devoted to
establishing the proper conditions for fieldwork. Our chief informants in
the cities of Fortin de las Flores and Córdoba are Orquidea Alvarez,
Juan Landt, the late Daniel Rabago, Rubén Calatayud, Luisa Albuerne,
Cecilia Frizzi, Silvester Hernandez, Alicia Ramirez, Federico Massieu,
and Gloria Fagoaga de Massieu.
We also want to express our gratitude for the generosity and avail-
ability of our informants in the many rural communities in which we col-
lected information. To the more than twenty ritual kinsmen (compadres,
comadres, ahijados,and ahijadas) whom we have contacted in the region
during the past twenty-five years, we can only say that the deep bonds
between us have been an important source for the subtler aspects of
class, ethnicity, and mobility.
And we are very grateful to the three main interviewers, Carlos
Altamira, Federico Massieu, and Laura Carpio, who administered the
two extensive questionnaires that generated most of the quantitative
data on which this book is based. They did a splendid, accurate job in
the onerous work that this task entails.
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