Once again Cam set off for Mexico City in his old Buick. He took with him many large heads of leafy green lettuce. He intended to present a head of lettuce to each person he met with. This was his way of showing them just what the Indians were capable of growing with a little help and knowledge.
In Mexico City, Cam met with many government officials. Each person Cam spoke to was very impressed. Although Cam didn’t return with everything on his wish list, he did return with an old truck and a promise from Professor Zamora, the new director of rural education, that he would visit Tetelcingo to see for himself the progress being made there.
In early January 1936, an important visitor did come to Tetelcingo. Cam was weeding the garden in the village square when he heard the children start to shout, and it seemed like every dog in the area was barking. Cam wiped his hands on his coveralls and stepped out from behind a row of pole beans.
At the far end of the square, two large, black limousines, undoubtedly the first ever to enter the village, had pulled to a halt. A chauffeur jumped out of the lead car and opened the back door. A man in a dark suit stepped out. Cam stood in amazement. He immediately recognized the man as President Cárdenas.
Cam stood staring as the president shook hands with the village people who crowded around him. As he watched, Cam wondered what on earth the president of Mexico was doing in such a tiny, out-of-the-way place.
A few moments later, President Cárdenas’s gaze fell on Cam. “Buenos días, señor presidente,” Cam said as he stepped forward to shake the president’s hand.
The president smiled. “Buenos días, señor Townsend,” he replied.
The words whirled in Cam’s head. Señor Townsend. The president knew his name!
“I have read about your good work,” the president went on, “and I have come to inspect it for myself. First let me speak to the people.”
At first Cam was too shocked to speak. Then he regained his composure. “Certainly, señor presidente. I would be honored if you would come to my humble trailer and see the work we are trying to do.”
That is exactly what happened. After President Cárdenas had addressed the people of the village, he walked with Cam over to the house trailer, where the two of them sat together under the shade of a bamboo and cheesecloth awning. The president explained how he had been sent the Aztec reading primer Cam had prepared and had wanted the government to publish. This had led him to make inquiries about Cam’s work. And the inquiries had brought the president to Tetelcingo to see firsthand what was being done for the Indians.
Cam was both honored to show his notes on the Aztec language to the president and surprised by the many questions the president asked about them. President Cárdenas asked questions only a translator would think to ask. Cam spoke of his desire to bring more translators into the country to start work on some of the other five hundred unwritten languages spoken in rural Mexico. After a while, the president began plying Cam with other questions. Who had made the garden outside? Would other translators make gardens, too?
Cam nodded. “Yes, señor presidente,” he replied, “Each translator would come to your country to serve the people, just as Jesus came not to be served but to serve.”
President Cárdenas looked impressed. “That is exactly what Mexico needs,” he said, gently patting Cam on the shoulder. “Bring in all the translators you can get to come.”
Long after the sleek, black limousines had disappeared down the dusty road, the president’s words were still echoing through Cam’s mind: Bring in all the translators you can get to come. That was exactly what Cam intended to do.
Chapter 15
Uncle Cam
It was July 1936, and Cameron Townsend surveyed the group of young people sitting in a semicircle around him. It was the first morning of the third Camp Wycliffe, and once again the camp was being held at Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. Eighteen students were seated on the nail kegs in front of Cam. Fourteen were enrolled as full-time attendees, and four were part-timers. Eunice Pike, a nurse, sat smiling between her brother Ken and the other single female student, Florence Hansen. Florence was a petite blonde who had recently graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Cam didn’t like to think about it, but he’d already had a disagreement with L.L. over having single female students. L.L. had been shocked when Eunice and Florence applied for Camp Wycliffe. He had never for a moment considered that single women would respond to the call to live and work among remote Mexican tribes. In his mind it was a job for men, and he had wasted no time in telling Cam he should not accept female applicants. Cam, though, would not hear of it. After all, he pointed out, Camp Wycliffe was designed to weed out those who didn’t have the stamina to survive in a primitive situation. He would wait until then to make a decision on the women, and he encouraged L.L. to do the same.
On the first day of camp, Cam told the students about the changes he had seen in Tetelcingo in the time he had been there. He showed them photos of Mayor Martin Méndez and told of how the mayor had come complaining to Cam that “the book” was stopping him from doing the bad things that up until then he had looked forward to doing. Cam also described the unexpected visit by President Lázaro Cárdenas and the president’s invitation for Cam to bring as many translators as he could to Mexico. Last, he told them about all of the things that the president had done to help the Indians. A week after the president’s visit, government trucks had begun rolling down the potholed road and into Tetelcingo. The first truck brought fruit trees, already in bud; the second carried a load of purebred pigs; and the third, a huge bull and a cow to improve the bloodline of the local cattle.
Cam explained how overwhelmed he was at President Cárdenas’s personal interest in his project—interest that didn’t stop with fruit trees and farm animals. There was much more. Several hundred acres of fertile land around Tetelcingo were purchased from Ladino landowners and given to the Indians so that they could grow their own crops. A small parcel of the land was set aside for a new school. Agronomists from the university in Mexico City were sent to help the Indians find better ways to grow crops, and a sprawling new irrigation system was dug. Simple land-tilling equipment was donated, along with a generator. Wires were strung to every house in the village so that the people could have electric lights in their homes.
Mrs. Cárdenas became interested, too. She sent clothes for the children and a sewing machine so that more could be made. A playground was built, and the government was even surveying a tract of land between Tetelcingo and the Pan American Highway so that a modern connecting road could be built. This would provide the Indians a way to get their new crops to market in Mexico City.
Everyone seated on the nail kegs around Cam cheered what was happening. It had been exactly a year since the students in the second Camp Wycliffe had prayed that God would change the hearts of those in the Mexican government. What a change they had seen in a year.
Camp Wycliffe went smoothly. This time instead of being a student, Ken Pike was one of the lecturers. L.L. had his doubts about this. After all, Ken was only in his early twenties and looked even younger than that. But Cam saw tremendous potential in Ken Pike as a linguist and wanted to do all he could to encourage him. As it turned out, Ken was one of the most popular speakers, since he had firsthand stories about what life was like in a remote Mexican village. By the end of the camp, Ken had proved himself to be a knowledgeable and entertaining lecturer.
The two women students had shown as much ability during the camp as any of the men, and Cam could see no reason not to take them along on the trip south to Mexico. This time, though, Cam’s niece Evelyn did not accompany them to Mexico. She went back to college to finish her degree, and her cousin, Ethel Mae Squires, took her place as Elvira’s nurse and helper. By now, the young recruits in Camp Wycliffe had followed Evelyn and Ethel Mae’s example and referred to Cameron Townsend as “Uncle Cam,” a name that stuck. In the years to come, thousands of people all over the world would also refer to him that way.
Everyone was getting used to another name as well. Although Cam and the students and teachers in Camp Wycliffe called themselves Wycliffe Bible Translators, there were some problems with that name. Following Camp Wycliffe the year before, Bill Sedat had encountered a lot of difficulty getting into Guatemala. Immigration officials at the border had wanted to know what educational institution was sponsoring him. They cared little that he was a Wycliffe Bible translator. They wanted a letter of recommendation on official letterhead from the sponsoring institution. Of course, there was none, and when Bill wrote to Cam about the situation, it got Cam thinking about how to deal with it. By the time the third Camp Wycliffe had rolled around, Cam had come up with a plan. It was time to form their own sponsoring institution. Indeed, Cam was aware that many of his contacts in foreign countries were a result of his linguistics work and not his missionary work, though in his mind they were one and the same. Consequently, he had come up with the name Summer Institute of Linguistics. The name sounded official, and the students liked it. And so SIL, as the name was quickly shortened to, was born.
The new organization needed a committee to run it, and so Ken Pike, Brainerd Legters, and Max Lathrop, students from the previous Camp Wycliffe, along with Eugene Nida, a student in the present school, were chosen to form the committee. Cam, of course, was given the position of director, but he insisted the rules of the new organization be written in such a way that as director he did not have the final say in any decision. He insisted the committee have that say. Most people had never heard of such a thing. A director should direct, many of Cam’s friends told him. But Cam was insistent. He did not want SIL to be a “one-man band.” He said everyone in the organization was expected to work hard, and everyone should have a voice in what happened.
In the fall of 1936, two carloads of would-be Bible translators drove into Mexico City, where Cam had rented an apartment for them. The day after their arrival, an official government car pulled up in front of their apartment house, and a courier climbed out. He carried with him an invitation from President Cárdenas. Cam tore open the envelope and read the card inside. The president had heard that Cam and a new group of translators were in town, and he was going to host a banquet in their honor. The banquet would commence at three o’clock that afternoon.
The group erupted into a flurry of activity. Best clothes had to be unpacked and ironed, and Elvira gave a crash course in how to behave around the president of Mexico. By two-thirty Cam, Elvira, Ethel Mae, and the ten young translators were ready and waiting as the enormous presidential limousine pulled up to the curb. Colonel Beteta, the president’s chief of staff, stepped out and greeted the group before they all piled into the car.
The limousine wound its way through the back streets of Mexico City and on up into the foothills surrounding the city. The car climbed steadily until they arrived at Chapultepec Castle, the magnificent home of the French Emperor Maximilian. Colonel Beteta took them on a guided tour of the castle while they waited to be summoned for the banquet.
Finally, a bell sounded, and Cam led the group into the ancient dining hall where kings and princes had dined in times past. Standing at the head of a long carved table was President Cárdenas. He reached out and embraced Cam like a long-lost brother. Cam greeted the president warmly and asked if he could introduce his group of translators. One by one, the translators stepped forward and shook hands with President Cárdenas. Next the president introduced the government officials he had invited to meet the group: the governor of the state of Michoacán, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo, and the undersecretary of foreign affairs.
