1university of california

It would be accurate to summarize bar behavior and extend it to all of Utila: if amicability is involved, then groups may mix; if intimacy is hinted then the groups remain separate. Thus, on one hand it is possible for people to go to church and school side by side, but on the other hand a white family would not entertain a colored family for dinner.

The preceding statement refers not only to individuals in one-on-one relationships, but also applies to groups; on occasion, groups can act as self-conscious units to demonstrate how clear the ethnic (stratification) lines are drawn in Utila. The paramount example of this group phenomenon is the so-called Olimpia Massacre referred to in Chapter IV. Although the incident occurred in 1905, it is still alive--in several different versions--among contemporary Utilians. The several versions of the story have to do with differing explanations for the piracy that resulted in robbery and multiple murder. Variations in the scenario aside, the end of the affair is most important because when the culprit, a colored Utilian, was caught on the mainland he was brought back to Utila and promptly lynched. Not only was he hung without the benefit of a trial, but according to one informant was buried in the cemetery in a standing position until public opinion forced reburial in a horizontal plane (even then he was buried on a north-south axis rather than the traditional east-west axis prescribed for Christians in Utila). White outrage over the piracy, even though colored islanders also had been murdered, has derived from assumed colored animosity towards whites (the hangman of the Olimpia murderer had his house mysteriously burn down shortly after the hanging), and subsequently whites have acted as a group to obtain retribution or at the least prevent further episodes of anti-white feeling.

Far less bloody, and more contemporary an example of self-conscious ethnic group action, occurred during the research period. Two young white female tourists from the U.S. visited Utila. They were just two of approximately a score of young people who toured Utila during our stay, but they alone of all those visitors--several of whom were stereotypic "hippies"--were escorted out the island by outraged Utilians. Reportedly, they made the error of associating too closely with one of Utila's lower class colored men. Broad hints were made that they had had sexual or other intimate relations with him that are proscribed between colored and white: hence their ouster. In this situation it was not just whites alone who expelled the women since the value system of upper class colored people was equally violated; both white and colored acted to mend the breach in proper behavior.

Finally, Utila's ethnic stratum and class distinctions are demonstrated through the selective emigration or sojourning of islanders. By and large, white Utilians remove to areas in the southern United States when they go north; colored Utilians, on the other hand, go to Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. Without question, the decision to go to northern or southern U.S. cities and towns is conditioned by known attitudes toward non-whites found in these respective locales. The fact that Utilians are both sensitive to these attitudes and travel to places where their respective groups predominate would support the conclusion that they themselves hold similar attitudes.

All of the evidence taken together provides a model of Utilian society that has three distinct strata within each of which are gradations that differentiate the more or less affluent, vocal, and socially active individuals or families from one another. The fact that this situation is now intimately bound up in Utila's remittance economy rather than just in tradition per se is the crucial point.

Men originally opted for service in the merchant marine because few or no occupational alternatives existed for them either on or off the island. Currently, world-wide merchant shipping appears to be so secure that there is no threat to Utila's source of affluence. Yet, men and women alike see difficulties in pursuing a life style dictated by merchant mariner service. The question therefore arises as to why people do not go into other livelihoods. The obvious answer to this question is provided, for the most part, by the continued lack of economic opportunity in Utila noted above in Chapters III and IV (e.g., in merchandising, tourism, and industry), and likewise by the well perceived difficulties that islanders would experience by permanent emigration to the United States (e.g., the higher cost of living and the faster pace of life). In addition, however, it could be hypothesized that Utila's social organization--centering on the stratification phenomenon--could itself be a positive motivation for perpetuation of merchant mariner service.

On one hand, white and upper class colored Utilians can--according to their own words and actions--attain the symbols of "the good life" (my phrase) by continuing their involvement in the merchant marine: the importance and comfortability afforded by remittances are defined by the pattern of stratification. The lower social elements in Utila might well serve as an inducement to continue going to sea simply because they illustrate to higher-ups what would happen if they did not (i.e., by demonstrating a depressed life style). Field data record that all white, propertied informants were hostile toward Spaniards in particular for having already inflated laborers' wages (the truth of this could not be verified), but more especially for the rumored threat they posed to Utilian land (through government land reform). It seems likely that higher strata Utilians would want to maintain as much economic distance as they could, figuratively speaking, between themselves and people like Spaniards; this they can only hope to do via their remittance economy.

On the other hand, viewed from the perspective of lower strata and lower class Utilians, the social system supported by remittances is beneficial and attractive from two standpoints. First, it provides a model for upward economic--and social--mobility that is not ignored by lower strata people. For example, it encourages non-English speaking Hondurans to also go into the merchant marine (since this service is not exclusive to English speakers), the proof of which lies in the number of visas issued to seamen, or seamen in transit (see Table 5 above). With added income and acquisition of the proper symbols of higher class, a Spaniard may ultimately attain white status through marriage into the white community, as illustrated below in the Montenegro example. Secondly, whether individuals go into the merchant marine themselves is immaterial insofar as benefitting from the system of stratification and the remittance economy: funds sent home by absentee sailors often go for maintenance work, housebuilding, and other jobs (all dictated by the sailors' positions in the social hierarchy) that directly engage day laborers.

Thus, although Spaniards might still be relatively disadvantaged socially and politically, their economic security and basic life style are incalculably better than on the mainland, a fact that is supported by the recent addition of 30-40 more coastal Spaniards to the island population for this stated reason.

In the broadest sense of the term group, Utila's various social strata represent the most inclusive social groupings in the island. Yet while ethnicity and all of the other factors involved in stratification cannot help but touch many aspects of day-to-day living, not all situations and transactions are best understood by reference to them. Also important are the various formal and informal assemblages that develop from common residence, mutual liking, and so forth.

Formal groups in Utila are expressions of the foremost institutions in the island and help to pinpoint some of the core values in the system. To facilitate discussion I have lumped the formal groups under five headings and will treat with each of these separately.

1. Religious groups. Within this category fall the five Protestant Christian denominations in Utila: Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal Church of God, Baptist, and Jehovah's Witnesses. All five denominations have churches, and all have ministers or elders to lead in various services, although the Methodists do not have a resident pastor, and the Pentecostal and Jehovah's Witnesses congregations are led by people from the United States.

In terms of their membership figures and total importance to Utila, only the Methodist, Adventist, and Pentecostal groups need be considered here, and from the outset of discussion it would be helpful to think of the Methodist Church as a conservative element in Utilian society--Establishment, in effect--as opposed to non-Establishment, in effect--as opposed to non-Establishment (though not necessarily "progressive") Adventist and Pentecostal churches.

The Methodists claim (according to William Miller, a U.S. citizen who taught at the Methodist College for more than a year) the largest number of church members, somewhere around 50% of all Utilians. From my own observations and from the comments of Dolly Cooper, one of the most active figures in the church, the majority of these members are nominal rather than practicing Methodists. Nevertheless, according to Rose (1904:72), Wesleyan Methodism was introduced in 1852 and rapidly garnered most of the islanders to its membership. Although some of the early members were unquestionably fervent in their religiosity, indications from informants are that the church actually constituted a kind of social diversion for the isolated Utilians rather than a vehicle for advancing one brand of Christian orthodoxy. The strict, fundamentalist tenets of Methodism (proscriptions against drinking and gambling, for example) were honored in the breach--especially as regards drinking--but membership was no doubt advantageous and from other than a recreational standpoint as well. An examination of the baptismal records at Utila's Methodist Mission (dating back only to the 1920s) shows many Spanish surname Utilians being baptized into the Protestant faith. In-as-much as most, if not all of these one-time native Hondurans were at least nominally Roman Catholic upon their arrival in Utila, subsequent acceptance of Methodism (or one of the other Protestant faiths) probably counts as a part of their ultimate acceptance into white Utilian society (as just discussed above). Relatively early in the island's history--c. 1891--the exclusivity of Methodism was challenged by Seventh Day Adventist missionaries. In Guanaja, farthest distant of the Bay Islands, nearly the entire population was converted to this sect, but in Utila missionaries were able to lure away perhaps only 20% of the faithful (not all Utilians, also according to William Miller, profess some denominational affiliation) and this figure appears to have remained stable until the present. What particular points of dogma, or matters of style, may have attracted people away from Methodism I do not know, but sociologically speaking it appears that Adventism is associated with slightly lower class Utilians--either colored or white--although representatives from founding families are also numbered in Adventist membership.

Pentacostals are a "high profile" group in Utila along with the Adventists, and with almost as great a frequency and intensity have evangelistic programs with speakers brought in from outside Utila (usually from the United States). The composition of the congregation again tends to appear slightly lower in class than the Methodists, but is on a par with the Adventists and also boasts people from founding families in the congregation. The basic observable differences between Adventist and Pentecostal are that the latter observe Sunday as the sabbath, but more importantly emphasize speaking in tongues as a crucial part of religious experience.

The relationships between the several denominations--neither unfriendly nor ecumenical--are not themselves important to this study; and, in fact, it is not for theological purposes that discussion of Methodists and others is introduced. Rather, it is for the ancillary functions that the churches perform--for their roles as Establishment-Non-Establishment institutions--that they merit attention.

As noted, Methodism was the first faith introduced into the island and has probably served as a vehicle for ethnic mobility for Spanish surname individuals. Like many Establishment institutions elsewhere in the Western world, it has earned many laurels but is currently sinking further and further into decline. The Methodist Mission in Utila maintained a parochial school--first grammar, then secondary--off and on for at least the last 80 years. During a significant portion of Utila's history it was the Methodist Mission that provided whatever formal learning islanders were to receive without going to the mainland or to the United States. It was also the Mission that solicited medical assistance for Utilians--in the absence of resident doctors, dentists, etc.--and provided space for regular clinics.

Educational and health services were, than, auxiliary responsibilities born by the Methodists, but these were often engineered by lay people rather than full-time resident pastors (who have been provided by English rather than the physically closer U.S. Methodists). A decline in attendance at services, a decline in actual membership, and abbreviated services through lack of lay participation have all correlated, it seems, with changes in the world outside Utila and with the problem in the last few years of finding a resident pastor who would be sensitive to Utilian culture and could mitigate some of those changes taking place in the United States, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. Utila's last two ministers have stayed only a relatively short time in the island before moving to Roatan where they could oversee Methodism in all of the Bay Islands. In a sense, Utila has been a training ground for those seeking higher positions in the church organization. More importantly, these two ministers have run counter to local culture by, among other things, too excessive an insistence on "brotherhood" among all peoples, white and non-white. The last minister was a native of Costa Rica, colored, and married to a Guyanese wife. He was labeled by several informants as being too much inclined to "civil rights" ideas rather than to advancing Methodism. It was during his tenure in Utila that the secondary school--"college"--was closed (in April 1973) due to controversy surrounding two young teachers imported from the United States. Several serious breaches of behavior are attributed to them (improper wearing apparel such as shorts and T-shirt on the male; overly harsh discipline such as suspension of a student for incomplete homework; charges of hypocrisy against elders given the existence of "outside," i.e., illegitimate, children). In sum, Utilian informants pointed to the closing of the school and the role of the minister at the time for the decline of Methodism in Utila. My own analysis shows additional cause, however. The dogmatism of some of the older members (e.g., in regard to gambling) appears laughable to many islanders who find little other recreational outlet. Most important, however, is the fact that the evangelical Adventist and Church of God denominations present a positive attraction to Utilians in two forms, one of which is dynamic ceremony that is emotionally stimulating, the other of which is psychological pacification by leaving the local value system alone, which the Methodist ministry is notorious for attacking.

Insofar as the several denominations having direct impact on the remittance economy is concerned, all of them certainly advocate financial responsibility, domestic fidelity, and hard work in general for professing Christians. The educational contribution, in the form of grammar and secondary schools, is of more tangible importance to the remittance economy, however; it is quite clear form informants' accounts that facility with the English language and with mathematics has given Utilians an advantage in obtaining work on ships or permission to emigrate to the United States. If the Methodist Church no longer provides schooling for Utilian youngsters then this service will devolve on others by default; the alternative is to leave Utila with grammar school education alone, and this cannot prove sufficient for securing a job as automation and more sophisticated technology demand increased expertise from sailors.

One of the male teachers married a colored Utilian and to all intents is colored at this point (his only associates in the island are the Spaniard soldiers in the government Cuartel). Two women teachers and one other male have married into the white population and are now white islanders, though in a slightly marginal sense since they speak little or no English. The contemporary Spanish school in its several classes contrasts markedly with the English language school, and not simply because of the difference in the language of instruction. Miss Phyla Bodden, a descendant of one of the older Utilian families, teaches fifty-three grammar school youngsters. She considers herself a mainstay of traditional Utilian culture, and as a repository of British-American background of the island population. Instruction at Miss Phyla's is considered (by students, their parents, and Miss Phyla) to be superior to the Spanish public school. In public school, instruction is given in Spanish, which is a second language to most islanders, and in addition there are no textbooks. All lessons are given to public school children by dictation, then the students recite their lessons until, by rote, they have mastered them. This "gab school" technique produces a literacy level of around third grade (in the U.S.) for graduates; mathematics are ponderous compared to private school, and no vocational training that might have practical applications is given. The absence of a public secondary school further limits the quality of public education in Utila, but it is not altogether the fault--by omission or commission--of the Honduran government. Monies were provided by the government for a secondary school building, and foundation pilings were actually poured, but the bulk of the funds were--according to informants--misappropriated by two Utilians who subsequently migrated to the U.S.

Miss Phyla's school is allowed to operate at sufferance of the local public school head, and could be closed at her whim (for non-compliance with unwritten standards that she alone in Utila is allowed to interpret). With the potential threat of private school closure, Miss Phyla and her students' parents take an embattled posture; she, during the course of a half dozen interviews, said repeatedly that the Honduran government is jealous of the higher standard of living among this English speaking minority and wants to "keep the Bay Islanders down."

Despite help from Standard and United Fruit in getting United States text books for use in her school, Miss Phyla has an uphill fight to give quality education in her school (high costs, overcrowding, lack of teaching aids, etc.). Students go to Miss Phyla's--as opposed to public school, or even no school at all--because of their parents' wishes, not from a burning desire on their part to be scholars or to maintain an English heritage per se. It escapes most youngsters that the attitude fostered long ago (cf. Rose 1904:158) regarding formal education--that it really is unnecessary--has resulted in at least one Utilian recently being denied seaman's papers on the grounds of illiteracy.

As a group, the Credit Union, or its leadership at least, underscores the differential involvement of people in the remittance economy, class gradation within social strata, and the solidarity of strata themselves. Most important here is the variable participation in the remittance economy in combination with the impact that the Credit Union can have.

A glance at the roster of Credit Union officers for 1975 would show that the officers have been selected almost exclusively from "old heads" (here used to signify members of the founding white families, plus their supporters from the upper class colored stratum). Thus, the people who determine credit policy are, in effect the dominant segment of the population; they are the ones who have established the values of Utilian society, and can--by granting or denying loans--help to perpetuate class distinctions within strata through the mandatory life styles that might thereby be imposed.