CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE So 
there are several days of extraordinary commercial 
activity immediately preceding Holy Week.1!® The 
appearance of unusual trade goods from distant 
centers and in large quantities is a striking com- 
mercial feature of such fairs. Cattle from eastern 
departments, salt fish from the Mexican coast, 
honey from Lowland fincas, especially those around 
Antigua, chile from Asuncién Mita, and woolens 
from Momostenango are some of the things that 
reach Solola in unusual volume during the big 
fairs.1°° Lowland palm leaves and bright-colored 
fruits for decorations are brought to Highland 
markets in great quantities for Palm Sunday (pls. 
12, 13, 14). 
The great fair of Momostenango, the wajxaquip 
batz (“8 monkeys”) occurs every 260 days (May 4, 
1940, e.g.), according to the Maya calendar. 
The most famous pilgrimage in Guatemala has 
long been that of the Black Christ of Esquipulas. 
u9 Holy Week (Semana Santa) itself is celebrated only by religious 
processions (pl. 15), church and cofradia meetings, and other ceremo- 
nies, there being no market at all during this period. 
120 For a detailed description of the Semana de Dolores fair, see 
McBryde, 1933, pp. 119-121. 
Mrs. Maudslay wrote (1899, p. 49) of it as follows: 
The great festival of the year is held in January, and then 
for a week or more the usually half-deserted little town of 
Esquipulas swarms with pilgrims. In old days its fame was 
so great that it attracted worshippers all the way from 
Mexico and Panama and the fair which was carried on at 
the same time was the great commercial event of the year. 
Thither the English merchants from Belize brought their 
wares and carried on what was practically the whole of the 
foreign business of Honduras, Salvador, and Guatemala, 
taking in exchange the native-grown indigo .. . now steam- 
ships and railways have so changed the course of trade that 
the fair is of not more than local importance. 
If this statement is accurate, there has been a 
re-emphasis upon Esquipulas since the Maudslays’ 
visit. Pilgrims going to and from the great fair are 
still to be seen on trails far distant from the mecca 
wearing their traditional hat ornaments of Spanish 
moss and bright yellow pods. Annually, hundreds of 
Salvadorefios visit Esquipulas, as do many Indians 
from the western Guatemala Highlands, and Ladinos 
from Guatemala City and elsewhere.!*1 
11 For a good modern description of the Esquipulas fair, see Fergus- 
son,, 1937;, ch, 15: 
SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLEMENT 
PATTERNS 
SIZE AND COMPOSITION 
Ladinos are ordinarily the town-building element. 
With a fairly large Ladino nucleus, a sizable center 
of population generally assumes the character of a 
town, even though Indians may greatly predominate. 
Without many Ladinos, a much larger center of pop- 
ulation may be a big agricultural village. Santiago 
Atitlan, for example, with a population of over 5,000, 
is a village despite the fact that it is twice as populous 
as the town of Solola, with 2,600 in 1930. Santiago 
village is predominantly Indian, with probably not 
over 100 Ladinos,!2? whereas in Solola over half, or 
nearly 1,500, are Ladinos. Solola has not only much 
European blood, but other European features, such as 
the various administrative offices of the Departmento, 
a theatre, a public library, two “hotels,” several stores 
of general merchandise, artisans of many sorts 
(mostly migrants from the towns of Quezaltenango 
and Totonicapan), and whitewashed adobe and red- 
tile-roofed buildings and dwellings. There are several 
121 One would not learn this from the official published census, which 
is based upon the entire municipio, for there are a number of Ladinos 
on the several fincas. 
good cobbled streets in Solola, and the plan is rectan- 
gular (pl. 10, a, b, d, f; maps 20, 21). Santiago, on 
the other hand, has a compact mass of stone-and-cane- 
walled, grass-thatched houses, many of them of the 
primitive, square type with pyramidal roof, clustered 
for security upon a low, fairly level lava terrace of 
about three-quarters of a sq. km. (its density is about 
8,000 per sq. km. or 20,000 per sq. mile), and built 
along a network of narrow, zigzag, stone-walled alleys 
that seldom approach a straight line (pls. 24, b; 25; 
47; map 20). There are (1936) hardly more than a 
half dozen Indian butcher shops and about as many 
small home-stores (tiendas), the latter usually owned 
and operated by Ladinos, selling matches, pitch pine 
(ocote), candles, cloth goods, staple foods such as 
rice and sugar, and other items, all in small quantities. 
Santiago is a merchant-agricultural community, de- 
pending upon the crops planted on the ample, fertile 
slopes of the volcanoes and upon returns from the 
trade voyages of the middlemen who penetrate far 
into Highland and Lowland alike. Only local trade 
is carried on by the women, who congregate twice 
daily in the plaza, at noon and at sundown (pl. 25, e). 
Women also do most of the fishing. 
