Spanish to English Art/Literary Slang Regionalisms?

context is as follows: an eyewitness to the armed conflict between Zapatistas and government forces in the state of Chiapas, right next to Guatemala. The speaker is native to the region, and speaks in a register that reminds me (an African-American) of the things I hear down South, here in the U.S.

He describes what seems to be looting, and talks about how everybody, including rich people, were grabbing everything in sight and making off with good from stores that have been broken into amid the chaos. Obviously, I'm not asking for help translating the entire passage. I'm just giving context. He says:

"Salí y miré: un chingo, hartos hombres había… Ya después me dijeron que habían abierto las tiendas. Ahí venía la gente. Los pobres, que lo necesitan, traían sus cosas de comer; pero son pobres, ni modo, lo necesitan, ¡ahí pepenaron! Ahí sí que el que jue vivo se armó, el que jue pendejo no pepenó nada. Pero todos, hasta muchos ricos agarraron, ¡qué vergüenza ni qué vergüenza! ¡Uno tiene vergüenza, pero un montón de gente de dinero caso tenían vergüenza: el de la Superior ¡tres refrigeradores y estufa y cosas de buena marca se llevaba! ¡Y ese cabrón tiene un chingo de casas en todo el pueblo!"

My rough transliteration of the passage is something like:

"So, those who ha’ they wits about ‘em made out like a bandit; those who [stood around watching were left holding the bag]. But everybody, even a lot of rich people, were looting, with no shame whatsoever -- now that’s nerve for you!

I want to do justice to this writer, the noted poet Efraín Bartolomé. This is from his work "Ocosingo", and, throughout the short book, his prose strikes me as being very artful and deceptively difficult to render, for all its seeming simplicity.