CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 125 
have been established here, notably Agua Escon- 
dida,*** and there are several Ladino finqueros in the 
municipio. The supplementary specialty is the culti- 
vation of aniseed (in fields like milpa, but planted at 
the end of the rainy season), which they sell far and 
wide. Anise js used mainly for flavoring drinks, such 
as pinol; in the capital it is used in baking. Vazquez, 
writing about 1700, says: “much anise is gathered 
especially in the north” (Vazquez, 1937-38, p. 172). 
According to informants in both communities, anise 
and pepinos have changed places in the last 50 years, 
anise before then having been much planted in Pana- 
jachel, where it is not cultivated today. Pepinos, 
requiring milder temperatures, were introduced into 
Panajachel, it was said, 10 or 15 years ago, from 
San Antonio. These reports are mentioned also in 
Tax’s Panajachel manuscript, though he gives no 
dates. Local tradition is frequently inaccurate in this 
regard. 
At low levels, near the village, tomatoes and beans 
are important, and recently (mainly since 1933) 
tablon-culture has spread here from the west, with 
crops confined as yet (1936) to onions and cabbages. 
That the latter are not abundant there is indicated in 
the purchase of cabbages, among other vegetables, by 
Antofieros in the Panajachel market, primarily for 
resale in Patulul. Wheat, having a summer growing 
season (May-November), is much planted on the 
higher slopes (pl. 23, c), though in one field it is as 
low as 1,650 m. This is the lowest that I have seen 
it in Guatemala. As would be expected, the yield 
here was poor. 
Industrial pursuits are lacking at San Antonio, and 
even fishing is extremely rare, confined to the placing 
of a few small traps (garlitos) along the shore. 
Commercial activity here is secondary. A few 
men, said to number about 15, buy vegetables from 
Solola and Panajachel, in the latter market, and re- 
sell them in the plaza of Lowland Patulul. Their 
intermediate position on this important trade route 
favors such traffic. Local residents reported a small 
market at San Antonio, though I never verified this 
by personal observation. The village is on a “‘cross- 
road” between the Chichicastenango—Solola to San 
Lucas—Patulul and the Santiago Atitlan to Patzum- 
Tecpan routes, crossing at right angles. Santiago 
merchants, en route to the two last-named plazas 
(convening Sunday and Thursday, respectively), 
111t is here that Robert Redfield has established a sociological re- 
search base. 
beach their 15 or 20 canoes at San Antonio and climb 
the steep trail behind (pl. 23, d). The few Chichi- 
castenango and Solola merchants who take the cir- 
cuitous land route to the Sunday and Thursday 
Lowland markets, go through San Antonio mainly 
on the same days, as well as on Fridays and Tuesdays 
(also Solola market days) from the San Lucas mar- 
ket. Thus, though some merchants are passing 
through on virtually every day of the week, there 
seem to be more at one time on Wednesdays and 
Saturdays, when both coast-bound and east-bound 
groups of merchants converge. The vendors were 
said to line up as on the small fincas, remaining only 
a short while. Because of the relative isolation of 
San Antonio, the merchants have only local buyers, 
and were it not for the more distant objectives of 
the comerciantes, there would: be little or no mar- 
ket. There are actually only three real market places 
on the Lake, Santiago, San Lucas, and Panajachel 
(map 19), all of them in large communities, on con- 
verging trade routes, and readily accessible. 
GRANARIES OF THE EASTERN LAKE REGION 
The municipios of San Andrés Semetebaj, Tecpan, 
and Patzim, northeast and east of the Lake, grow 
maize in large quantities, and constitute the greatest 
granaries of the Lake region, more significant by far 
than the southwestern municipios, Santiago and San 
Pedro. The eastern municipios have the lands for 
it,18* the smallest of them, San Andrés Semetebaj, 
being considerably larger than the combined area of 
all five of the north shore Lake municipios. 
At San Andrés, Old World broadbeans, or habas 
(Vicia faba), are grown with maize, as around Que- 
zaltenango (having elevations that are comparable), 
and there are wheat and some potatoes planted mostly 
by Ladinos but their specialty is bush beans in sep- 
arate fields, frijoles de suelo. Anise culture (mostly 
Ladino) seems to be coming in more and more, 
brought from San Antonio, where, at Agua Escon- 
dida an undetermined disease is said to have reduced 
the yields considerably between 1929 and 1936 (time 
of observation). 
Patzim and Tecpan have their industrial special- 
ties as well as large-scale agriculture, the former town 
supplying the area with candied popcorn, sold in 
great quantities during fiestas. In Tepcan, wooden 
articles are made, such as double-edged combs, loom 
182 Roughly 55, $0, and 160 sq. km., respectively. 
