32 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
vee 
in Highland markets, usually with mules for trans- 
pott; there are also a few men. The coastal vendors 
are all men, using trucks which they hire, with 
drivers, for the purpose. They go mainly to San 
Felipe, Mazatenango, Cuyotenango, Retalhuleu, 
Coatepeque, and Colomba, returning with loads of 
Lowlands products, especially salt, panela, coffee, 
fruit, rice, maize during Lowland harvests (mainly 
August through October), and hoja maxdn (Calathea 
macrosepala), selling all of it mainly in Quezalte- 
nango. Other important Highland markets are 
those of San Cristébal Totonicapan, Cantel, San . 
Francisco el Alito, and San Juan Ostuncalco. High- 
land maize goes to the Lowlands mainly in June. 
It was said that 6 or 8 trucks (4 to 5 men to a 
truck) made the weekly circuit, as many as 14 trucks 
attending fiestas. A reliable informant stated that 
they went as far as Ayutla, and that formerly they 
got over to Tapachula, before increased export duties 
and governmental regulations put a check upon this 
international border commerce. Potatoes are re- 
portedly taken to the Escuintla market from Almo- 
longa by train, and two truckloads of them are said 
to go weekly to Guatemala City. 
As in the Lake Atitlan fablén region, most vege- 
table seeds are imported in packets, from the United 
States, especially California. These are sold abun- 
dantly in markets near the tablén centers. Before the 
World War, according to local reports, much seed 
came also from Germany. Onion seed is locally pro- 
duced. Much of this seed was said to have been 
brought from Oaxaca, Mexico. 
Gardens at Almolonga are not made up of tablones 
like those of the Solola area, but are more irregular, 
with ditches around them. Some, at least, are wider 
(5 yd. in many cases). Fertilizer is necessary, 
especially for onions, both leaf litter and, to a lesser 
extent, animal manure being used. On slopes along 
either side of the valley, cabbages are grown only 
during the rainy summer. Suckers from old stalks 
are planted rather than seeds, as a rule. There are 
two common varieties of these so-called ‘‘native” 
cabbages. 
AGUACATAN 
»As Almolonga (2,300 m. or 7,546 ft.) 1s the west- 
ern counterpart of Solola (2,150 m. or 7,054 ft.), 
having similar altitudes and crops, so, Panajachel 
(1,600 m. or 5,249 ft.) has rather a parallel in Agua- 
catan (1,700 m. or 5,577 ft.), at the south base of 
the Cuchumatanes, in the Huehuetenango area, on 
the northern edge of the region considered in this 
study (map 3). Irrigation is easy because of the 
water of the Rio Negro and its numerous small 
tributaries, including springs that gush from beneath 
the massive limestone beds of the Cuchumatanes. I 
observed only onions planted under conditions similar 
to those of Panajachel in irrigated, fertilized tablones. 
Garlic appeared to be grown in gardens within the 
milpa, usually in plots of 2 or 3 cuwerdas, or about 
half an acre. These are not tablones, though they are 
irrigated in the latter part of the growing season 
(September—February ).*7 
Of all the southwest region, and even areas border- 
ing it, Aguacatan is the outstanding center of garlic 
production. As a few cloves of garlic will serve 
to season a great amount of food, 20 large sacks 
(about 80-100 Ib. each) of this condiment sold 
wholesale by as many men every Friday in the San 
Francisco el Alto market*S may be regarded as a 
considerable quantity. The extent of this garlic 
trade is evident from the following observation. On 
one occasion I observed, at the Guatemala—El 
Salvador border inspection station, 4 merchants 
from Quezaltenango on a bus crossing into the latter 
Republic. Their cargo consisted of 6 large loads 
(about 100 Ib. or 45 kg. each) of Aguacatan garlic, 
all bought in San Francisco el Alto the previous Fri- 
day. These Quezaltecos said that until about 10 
years before (1926) they all came on foot, with 
cargoes carried by mules: some 50 men in all, en- 
gaged in trade into Salvador. 
Vegetables are supplied throughout Southwest 
Guatemala from these few centers (map 12). Re- 
cent expansion of the cultivation around Lake Atitlan 
(particularly onions and cabbages) is mentioned in 
a later section (p. 125). Occasionally, as at Pueblo 
Nuevo, it was reported that such European vege- 
tables were grown in small plots for home consump- 
tion. To a large extent, these garden crops of Old 
World origin, such as beets, carrots, and cauliflowers, 
are eaten by Ladinos, the Indians apparently con- 
suming very little other than onions and garlic, and 
those in no great quantity. They seem never to have 
acquired a taste for them. Though they eat greens in 
abundance, they prefer less expensive wild or native 
cultivated varieties, to which they are accustomed. 
47 In view of the limited time spent in this section, my observations 
were not extensive, and these remarks might not be applicable to the 
entire community. 
48San Francisco is about 40 miles by trail! and road south of 
Aguacatan. 
