The first and last encounter with Jan de Vos

Resumen

Those of us who had the privilege of treating Jan de Vos often remember the moment we first met him. Finding him was a real eye-opener. Like many of his friends, I remember very well that first moment, which I also noted in my notes of April 15, 1976. We found ourselves in what seemed to be almost paradise (although in reality it was not so much), in the ejido Tzeltal de San Jerónimo Tulijá, in the Lacandon Jungle.

This ejido in the municipality of Chilón was located in the middle of an exuberant jungle but it was beginning to be dismantled quickly, and there was still the memory of the centuries-old mahogany trees that had been extracted by the logging company. Fortunately, there were rivers with crystalline waters and waterfalls, abundant fauna and above all, few mosquitoes! San Jerónimo had thousands of hectares with land of relatively good quality and its inhabitants began to dedicate themselves to extensive cattle ranching. The ejido had a central town of about 80 wooden houses with tin or cardboard roofs, with a central plaza or park, which in its southern part had a large church under construction. The town had about 400 inhabitants plus another 300 who were scattered in 10 small towns located on the limits of their land