CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 93 
aldea of Santiago Atitlan. (Here were the ancient 
colonial cacao lands of the Zutuhils.) Local residents 
verify this, explaining further that the area was a 
“high forest’ before an Atiteco named Francisco 
Chicajau (hence the name Chicacao, according to 
natives) came in with a small band of some 30 of 
his fellow villagers. They cleared a limited area to 
graze their cattle. Then, on the date mentioned 
above, the land was “traded” from Chicajau, whose 
house stood on the corner of the present square of 
Chicacao. No reason was given for the acquisition of 
this land; but one has only to glance at the list of 
“rural districts” included in the 1930 census under 
Chicacao, and between the lines the story unfolds. 
There were 99 settlements listed ; 83 for which dates 
are given were founded between 1880 and 1900. The 
lowest of these is Roselia, 250 m., the highest, Baja 
Vista, 1,150 m. This was a part of a “mushroom” 
growth which occurred all along the piedmont, a de- 
velopment which separated ancestral colonial lands 
from Highland municipios; which brought thousands 
of Indian laborers out of the Highlands, many des- 
tined for permanent Lowland residence; and which 
sounded the death-knell to many already declining 
cacao groves. Juarros (1823, p. 22) states that 
Guatemala cacao was beginning (early 19th century ) 
to lose its prominent place in world trade, owing to 
South American competition. Railway construction, 
which called for cross-ties of trees also used as cacao 
shade, was said to have furthered the collapse of this 
culture. Much of the ancient “cacao mines of the 
coast’”’ thus went back to woodland and secondary 
savanna. 
The last step in the political fortunes of colonial 
Atitlan (Chicacao) came with its absorption by the 
Lowland Departmento of Suchitepequez. Until 1934 
Chicacao had remained in the Departmento of Solola 
(the old corregimiento de Atitlén)14° Then, along 
with Santa Barbara, San Juan Bautista, and Patulul, 
it was shifted bodily, so that now its cabecera, or 
“state capital,” is Mazatenango, in the piedmont, in- 
stead of Solola, high in the mountains. This was a 
logical (though late) and practicable shifting of 
boundaries as an adjustment to the new plantation 
growth, facilitating communications between the 
many piedmont coffee fincas and their piedmont ter- 
ritorial “seat.” 
1442 The map by Fuentes y Guzman (1932-33, vol. 2, opposite p. 60) 
shows this corregimiento to have formerly embraced (late 17th century) 
not only all of Solola (before 1934) but much of southern Quiché as 
well, almost to the Cuchumatanes, for it included San Andrés 
Sajcabaja. 
By the series of changes outlined above, then, the 
cacao lands of the Zutuhils have not only been shifted 
into a new municipio, but have become incorporated 
within another departmento, the old Provinca de 
Suchitepequez, or Zapotitlan. Yet, the dominant, 
native costume of Chicacao is still that of the modern 
Atiteco; bright-red skirts and variegated head band 
“halos,” unmistakable raiment of the women of Santi- 
ago, fill the Chicacao plaza. These women, local 
inhabitants, are among the few large permanent 
groups in the Lowlands who preserve their original 
dress. And the Zutuhil language prevails, though 
there are certain variations from the Atitlan dialect, 
and there is more Spanish spoken—characteristic of 
the Lowlands. These generalizations cannot be 
made for the municipio as a whole. They must be 
confined to the environs of Chicacao and other 
settlements where former Atitecos predominate. 
Though this includes a majority of the coffee fincas 
of the municipio, there are many others of different 
provenience, so that an ethnic melting pot has been 
one of the results of the coffee boom. 
To cite a few illustrations: The fincas of La Indian 
(population 100, 1930) and Nanzales (established 
1890; population 66, 1930) are peopled almost en- 
tirely by Cakchiquel-speaking Solola colonos or 
rancheros (permanent colonists) ; Colima, owned by 
a Totonicapan Ladino (founded 1885, population 
79, 1930), is occupied almost solely by Quiché-speak- 
ing Totonicapefios, both rancheros and temporadis- 
tas (those who come down only for the harvest) ; at 
Los Angeles (founded 1900) there are 125 (1930 
census) rancheros from Santa Maria Chiquimula 
(Quiché speech) ; Filadelfia (population 100, 1930) 
has colonists from Totonicapan, Nahuala, and sev- 
eral of the Lake villages, El Manatial (founded 
1887, population 300, 1930), La Estelina, and Las 
Esperanzas, are occupied mostly by Indians of San 
Juan, San Marcos, and San Pablo; others, such as 
Los Horizontes, Bolivia, and El Brasil, have mostly 
colonists from Santa Clara, Santa Lucia Utatlan, 
and Nahuala (all Quiché speech) ; La Abundancia 
has become almost a labor colony of San Juan la 
Laguna Indians. A large percentage of the former 
Juaneros have gone to the finca to live as laborers, 
with land (about 4-5 cuerdas each) and house pro- 
vided, and wages of 12-15 cents a day. (For labor 
data on fincas, I am indebted to Don Jaime Pensa- 
rena, a labor-promoter of Chichicastenango. ) 
