CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 87 
their physical settings. Thus Patztm is elongated 
northwest-southeast, Chicacao northeast-southwest, 
and San Antonio Suchitepequez nearly east and west 
(map 20). The streets of Quezaltenango trend vari- 
ously in different sections. The large northwest sec- 
tion of town, apparently built later, has an alinement 
coincident with magnetic north,!*° as does the eastern 
point of Salcaja. 
Smaller villages are usually highly irregular in 
form. There is generally a central square, or even 
several blocks laid out in rectangular fashion, with 
the rest taking devious curved or zigzag courses. 
Santiago Atitlan illustrates this type, in contrast with 
the regular pattern of Solola, Tecpan, etc. (map 21). 
The greater number of its pathlike streets may well 
be pre-Columbian in origin (see p. 86). ¢ 
The ethnic pattern in Southwest Guatemala is as 
constant as the rectangular aspect of the towns. In 
the central portion of a mixed settlement, Ladinos 
and a few foreigners are dominant economically and 
politically as well as numerically, whereas the 
Indians are generally poor, and live on the out- 
skirts.27. Among the foreign elements on coffee 
fincas, as well as in the towns of the Highlands, 
Germans are most numerous (1940). Commonly 
they are hotel proprietors and storekeepers. 
Each town has a central square, usually called 
“parque central” or merely “parque,”’ to distinguish 
it from the market, which is called “plaza” more often 
than it is “mercado.” Sometimes the two coincide, 
but in most towns the market has been moved from 
the central square to make way for modern beautifica- 
tions, and with it has gone the word “plaza” (ex- 
amples: Quezaltenango, Monostenango, Solola, Pan- 
ajachel; maps 21, 22, 23, 24; p. 83). 
The central square in a large town has the church 
on one side, the Government building perhaps on 
another, and stores, shops, garrison, and very often 
schools around it. In the smaller Indian villages 
there may be only the church and a municipalidad 
(municipal building for meetings of local chiefs and 
justices, jail, etc.), and frequently the only Ladinos 
are the secretario, who can read and write official 
records and messages, and the maestro, or school 
teacher ; in some cases there are a few Ladino store- 
keepers and minor political or military officials of 
various sorts; usually also, the several manufacturers 
and handlers of liquor, as at Santiago Atitlan, are 
Ladinos. 
“328 1891 declination of 6° 42’ east. 
127 A few exceptions to this may be found, as in Quezaltenango, where 
there are some relatively wealthy Indians. 
The church is in most cases the striking landmark 
of any community ; usually a large whitewashed stone 
structure, with ornate facades and bell towers, dating 
back to Colonial times. There may be but a few scat- 
tered huts around it, making the time-honored place 
of worship even the more impressive by contrast (pls. 
22, a, b; 23, b; 27, b; 38, a, f; 46,d; 47). Asa result 
of severe earthquakes,}*5 many of these picturesque 
relics are in ruins; the most famous being those of 
Antigua Guatemala, the capital of. the Republic from 
1543 until 1773 (pl. 44, a, d). Large numbers of 
churches which are still intact are no longer con- 
stantly ministered by resident clergy, who come from 
the nearest parish to conduct Mass on certain special 
occasions, such as the fiesta titular, or day of the 
patron saint of the village. 
There is no uniformity in the arrangement and fac- 
ing of the church and other major structures. The 
church may be on the south side, the jefatura (‘“gov- 
ernor’s”’ office and residence) and national police (not 
on the plaza) to the north, with the barracks on the 
west, as in the case of Solola (map 21) ; or the church 
on the east side may face the Government buildings 
to the west, the barracks and national police being 
along the south, as in Quezaltenango. In Chichicas- 
tenango the main church is on the southeast corner, 
facing west toward the smaller Calvario church (a 
common feature of Guatemala towns) directly op- 
posite (pl. 28), with the municipalidad offices on the 
east, just north of the principal church. Most of the 
settlements visited by me have the church on the 
southeast, east, or south side (in descending order of 
frequency), and the commonest direction of facing 
seemed to be toward the northwest, west, or north 
(Solola and San Cristobal Totonicapan churches face _ 
almost true north). Churches in the Cuchumatanes. 
villages commonly face west-northwest. 
Often the positions of the market and central square. 
have been shifted. In Momostenango, for example, 
where the church faces west toward a large, open. 
square (of packed dirt, which is covered, on market 
days, with blankets spread to dry), the “‘parque” is 
removed to the south, and the market square is adja- 
cent to the church on the north side. The square 
upon which the church faces may have been the main 
one when the town center was built, though there is 
no evidence of other large buildings ever having 
13 Often, where church bells have been dislodged by earthquakes, 
these have been hung in low shelters at ground level instead of having 
been replaced in their original belfries, even though the church building 
may still be intact. Many illustrations may be seen in villages around 
Lake Atitlan, where crude thatch shelters generally have been put up 
for the bells (San Antonio and San Pablo, for example). 
