CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 67 
distinguishable from the native hand-woven ones. 
The only Cantel yarn sold was said to be unbleached 
white. The total production of the mill, all goods 
being sold within the country, was estimated to be 
only 10 percent of the total Guatemala consumption 
of manufactured cotton yarn and cloth goods. 
PALM-LEAF RAINCAPES (SUYACALES) 
All swyacales (palm-leaf raincapes) used in South- 
west Guatemala with the exception of the Cuchu- 
matanes margin and possibly parts of the Department 
of San Marcos, are supplied by the municipio of 
San Sebastian Retalhuleu, which specializes in this 
industry, almost to the exclusion of anything else. 
The habitat, distribution, and utility of the corozo 
palm are treated elsewhere in this study (see p. 145). 
Here, only the fabrication of swyacales will be de- 
scribed. .The process is as follows. Segments of 
the immense pinnate leaves of the corozo palm are 
stripped from the midrib and boiled for a half hour 
in large kettles of water to which a small amount 
of salt has been added. Then they are carefully 
spread out to dry and bleach in the sun for about 2 
days, at the end of which time they are nearly white, 
and quite tough and pliant. They are sewn together 
with strong twine, locally spun from fitafloja fibers 
which are bought at stores,!® the leaf segments be- 
ing overlapped and joined by four rows of close 
transverse stitches, about 5 inches apart. Generally 
this is women’s work (pl. 2, b). There are two types 
of swyacales, one in which the ends of the leaf seg- 
ments are trimmed so that the edges of the cape are 
straight and parallel with one side hemmed; the 
other, fringed along one side, where the pointed ends 
of the leaf segments are left free and uncut. There 
is usually a difference in the wearing of the two, in 
that the first is thrown longitudinally over a man’s 
head so that it falls back over his shoulders and pro- 
tects his cargo, if he has any, as well as his body; 
whereas the fringed one is wrapped around, with the 
loose ends down, and the straight edge up about the 
shoulders. The latter is best suited to a man without 
a pack on his back. Generally, Indians on the trail, 
when caught in a heavy rain, are more interested in 
keeping their cargoes dry than in avoiding the water 
themselves. In a market place during a downpour, 
wares are protected by swyacales more often than by 
canvas or rubber sheets, for only wealthier merchants 
can afford the latter. 
106 The price quoted in 1936 was 8 cents per pound, enough for 8 
dozen suyacales. 
Adult-size suyacales are about 2 by 5 feet, and they 
sell for 10 to 15 cents. Children’s sizes are also 
made and marketed. The rush season for these gar- 
ments corresponds to the time of greatest rainfall, 
from April through October, in most of the High- 
lands. Merchants on trade journeys to the pied- 
mont carry their suyacales, rolled and attached ver- 
tically to the cargo packs, all the year round (pl. 13, 
a). Inthe mountains, however, where rains are con- 
fined to the summer half year, they usually carry 
them only during that season, and swyacales do not 
begin to appear in the Highland plazas until April 
(pl. 2, c). A woman seldom carries one, and when 
she does, it is rolled up and placed on top of her 
head basket to protect whatever goods there are in 
it. The suwyacal is strictly an Indian garment, though 
Ladinos, who generally wear rubber ponchos when 
it rains, may help cover pack-animal cargoes with 
palm capes. : 
It was reported in Chicacao (1936) that some 
suyacales are made in San Miguel Panan, but this 
was not verified. (See Sapper, 1905, pp. 24-25.) 
PALM HATS 
(Map 17) 
The center of hat production is Santa Cruz 
Quiché, which, with nearby San Sebastian Lemoa, 
supplies virtually all the hats worn in Southwest 
Guatemala, though some are made also in cantones 
of Chichicastenango, according to Sol Tax. The 
source of most of the palm leaves,1°* vendors of them 
say, is a place called Palmar, near San Miguel Uspan- 
tan, far to the northeast. Strips of the leaves are sold 
on a large scale in the plazas of Chiché, Quiché, and 
Lemoa, most of them to Indian’men who sew the 
strands into hats on sewing machines. Some few 
men are said to do this work by hand, but the ma- 
chine-sewn product is preferred. 
The chief hat merchants of the western region are 
the men of San Francisco el Alto, who, after buying 
them in their home market, retail them as far west 
as La Union, San Marcos. The Maxefos sell most 
of the Quiché hats in the region to the south, includ- 
ing the piedmont plazas of Chicacao and Patulul, and 
eastward as far as Guatemala City.1°* 
106 A fan palm, the identification of which I was unable to ascertain. 
107 Most hats sold in the Guatemala market, however, apparently come 
from Honduras (Santa Barbara was named as a major supply center), 
brought largely by itinerant merchants, particularly Quezaltecos. One 
of these, on one occasion, sold 10 dozen hats from Santa Barbara to a 
Ladina stall vendor. He had taken 500 pairs of Momostenango blankets, 
bought there, to Honduras, through El Salvador, and sold them for $2 
each (100 percent profit, reduced by duties, he said, to 50 percent). 
