CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 29 
cialty, which factor probably has acted as a stimulus 
to this crop since its introduction. The two prin- 
cipal sorts are jalea (sirupy jelly) and mermelada 
(preserves). Sold widely in great quantities but 
almost exclusively during Lent, garbanzos are har- 
vested at a period that coincides with the religious 
fast. 
Barley and oats.—Barley and oats are raised on 
a small scale in some sections. The commonest type 
of the former is a large species of Nepal barley,** 
which is sold in the markets especially by itinerant 
Maxefios along with a dozen or more miscellaneous 
seeds, roots, and herbs, each in a separate little sack 
or package (pl. 14, b). Barley is consumed on a 
small scale as a “medicinal” plant, usually in broth 
(atole). For oats I have had only vague reports, and 
no specific data. 
HIGHLAND FRUITS 
The only fruit trees of Old World origin that are 
grown on a large scale in the Highlands of South- 
western Guatemala are apples and peaches. Both 
were grown in Guatemala at an early date, as attested 
by the Ponce account (1873, vol. 1, p. 441) which 
mentions them in 1586. Totonicapan was particu- 
larly cited for the abundance of apples, and “some” 
peaches. The latter were noted especially at Coma- 
lapa, though they were said to be abundant even on 
the low-lying Lake village of Panajachel (1,575 m.). 
They are not to be found in the latter locality today, 
however. 
Almost invariably, these fruits are of very poor 
quality; they are small, green, hard, and generally 
must be cooked in order to be made appetizing. Both 
fruits are especially abundant in the vicinity of Toto- 
nicapan and Argueta. Peach trees are quite numer- 
ous in Solola, and even bear as low as Santiago 
Atitlan, yet the chief source of supply is Argueta, as 
many as 50 women from there commonly selling 
apples, peaches, and jiabas in the Solola market on 
Friday (map 22), during the height of the fruit 
harvest (September). 
A few regions in the southwest produce high-grade 
apples, Chichicastenango, for example. Here, large 
red fruits resembling winesaps are produced on a 
small scale, along with the ordinary apples and 
peaches. 
The desultory manner of cultivating fruit trees 
merely by planting seeds without grafting largely ex- 
plains the low quality of the fruit. Gradual degenera- 
38 Specimens identified by Prof. J. W. Gilmore. 
tion has probably been continuous since Colonial 
times, with seeds planted for generation after genera- 
tion, and little if any new stock brought in. 
LOWLAND CROPS 
Rice.—Rice is commonly grown in small inde- 
pendent Indian fields and in fincas along the pied- 
mont, mainly, it seemed, between about 300 and 750 
m. (984 and 2,461 ft.). I was told that “upland” rice 
(not flooded) was the usual type. 
Four varieties were listed at Santo Domingo Suchi- 
tepequez: criollo, cimarron, perlas, and colima. 
Rice is marketed, dry and polished, in small quan- 
tity by itinerant merchants °° in the plaza, and by 
stores. It is often prepared in a thick, pasty, steam- 
ing hot broth, with milk, and sold usually by local 
women in the market. 
Sugar.—* Sugarcane is grown and processed al- 
most entirely in plantations along the piedmont, many 
of them low coffee fincas, where cane is planted in 
stream bottoms between coffee-covered ridges. Lake 
Atitlan alluvial “shores, at 1,560-1,600 m. (5,118- 
5,249 ft.), are about on the upper limits of sugarcane 
growth. The labor of cutting and grinding cane is 
done mostly between January and May. Nearly all 
of the sugar consumed in Guatemala, especially that 
used by the Indians, is in the form of crude, dark- 
brown cakes (panela), common throughout Mexico 
and Central America (pl. 39, g). The cooked cane 
juice is poured into wooden molds where it crystallizes 
and hardens into compact blocks of a pound or two 
each. Shapes vary, there being hemispherical, square 
and flat, and ‘“‘flower-pot” (truncated-cone)- forms. 
The hemispherical ones are generally packed together 
as spheres (pantes), wrapped in dried banana leaves, 
usually two pantes to a package. They are largely 
trucked into the Highlands, wholesale, by shippers 
who are usually also storekeepers, and are redis- 
tributed among Indian merchants for retail, as at 
Solola, Quezaltenango, San Cristébal Totonicapan, 
and other towns. 
White sugar appears in markets in small quantity 
among mixed cargoes of itinerant merchants (q. Vv. 
under “Rice”, this page, ftn. 39). 
39 Usually by Maxenos, who have small sacks of it, often along with 
salt, panela, sugar, coffee (oro or unroasted bean), spices (especially 
chile), cigars, dried shrimp, trinkets, etc. (pl. 14, b). 
+ Oviedo (1851-55, vol. 1, pp. 118-123) mentions the introduction of 
sugar into the West Indies, and the first lucrative mills there, early 
in the 16th century. Toward the end of the 16th century, however, 
sugar was not yet being produced in quantity in the environmentally 
favorable Pacific Lowlands of Guatemala, for it was doubtful whether 
there was a good market for this product (Anon., Ms. 1579, p. 18). 
The west coast was isolated from Europe at that time. 
