Although the study of archaeology and anthropology has flourished in Mexico, that of geography has not. The substantial monographs on limited regions of that vast and complex country are written almost exclusively by foreigners. The state government and the Instituto de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas have performed a substantial informational service in supporting the translation from German and the publication at a modest price of Helbig’s detailed regional study. The technical problem was substantial, for there are many photographs and large fold-in maps, and appropriate special papers were used for their reproduction.
The translation is generally good if rather grimly thorough. Spanish overprints in red appear on the maps even for a single preposition or toponymic generic. This thoroughness is carried too far in the bibliography where not only are all titles in Spanish but even the names of the journals in which they appear. The serious reader will be hard put to find Comunicaciones Petermann, and my guess is that he will never identify Periódico Geográfico (Geographische Zeitschrift).
The book itself is a curious combination of technical notes on flora and geologic structure combined with general observations from a travel diary. It is anything but easy to read, and the reader is likely to be put off by a ten-page section in which all published maps of Chiapas are criticized in excruciating detail. Repeatedly it is stated that a tiny town is a centimeter or two misplaced.
Digging more deeply into the volume, however, proves to be singularly rewarding, even exciting. Helbig was exploring a long settled but almost roadless and undeseribed land. He covered many hundreds of kilometers on foot and horseback and applied a sharp eye to significant details in the cultural landscape, noting especially contrasts between Indian colonies and those of ladinos. Both groups are still expanding the frontiers of settlement in both highland and lowland Chiapas. One senses the dust and scorching heat of the dry season in the Grijalva Valley and the damp chill of evenings on the plateau to the north.
Two contradictory impressions of general significance stand out. One is the explosive vitality of the agricultural pioneering that is sweeping over this long-backward and underdeveloped part of Mexico. Enterprise and a belief in and desire to achieve progress are not lacking in the humblest rural communities. On the other hand concern for ecological adjustment scarcely exists. Destruction of forests and soil erosion on steep slopes that are being cleared and cultivated stimulate new clearing and further damage. In less than a generation there will be no place to go. Preconquest ruins in now desolate locations suggest an insecure future for a potentially rich and prosperous region.
