CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 127 
15). Local foot-loom (cotton) textiles, skirts, hui- 
piles, and zutes, and “ready-made” clothes are sup- 
plements by cotton goods from the electric looms of 
Cantel by the jaspe (tie-dye) skirts and zutes of 
Salcaja and San Cristdbal, the huipiles of Totoni- 
capan, and the famous blankets and woolens of 
Momostenango. Baskets are brought from Agua- 
catan, ropes from Coban, hats from Quiché, lime 
from San Francisco, Cabrican, and Santa Maria 
Chiquimula; and so on; special products from 
centers in every direction (see maps 9, 10, 13, 15, 
16, 17, 18). Highland broadbeans, piloy (large 
butter beans), and peaches meet coastal rice, panela, 
and pineapples. 
Though a linguistic boundary is crossed, and the 
western villages of the valley fall within the region 
of the Mam dialect, while the rest speak Quiché, 
paucity of distinctive costume types is apparent. 
From Cantel to Momostenango, from Totonicapan 
to San Marcos, the same peg-bottom, ill-fitting and 
shrunken blue denim suits, of modern European de- 
sign, make all Indian men practically indistinguish- 
able as to provenience (pls. 12, e, 13, a). There 
may be a bright-colored, distinctive, trouser belt of 
hand-woven material here and there, but that is the 
only identifying feature. The same condition exists 
on the Coastal Plain, with white trousers and often 
no top garment. One has but to step out of the 
high Quezaltenango Basin southward, however, in 
the strip above the Lowlands, to find distinctive dress 
still worn. The robes of San Martin men are strik- 
ing, for example (pl. 39, b, c), and the men of Zunil 
who have not become Ladinized still wear a purple- 
and-orange-striped white suit (short trousers and 
capelike shirt of women’s huipil cloth) that resembles 
the Lake Atitlan dress. Almolonga men have 
special ceremonial costumes, including double panta- 
loons (pl. 31, a), of a type said to have been com- 
monly worn a few generations ago, but otherwise they 
dress like Quezaltecos. These municipios where 
men have distinctive dress are also among the few 
surviving centers of stick-loom weaving. Just as 
the Lake Atitlan Basin is an area of isolation 
and diversity, so the Quezaltenango—Totonicapan 
Valley is one of intercommunication and relative ho- 
mogeneity, bordered by areas of distinctive costumes. 
Even among women whose dress is generally 
distinctive, many villagers in the Highland Quezalte- 
nango region are difficult to identify. No one could 
mistake a Quezalteca or a woman of Almolonga, 
Cajola, or Olintepeque; but one cannot always be 
sure about the identity of women from San Cristobal, 
San Andrés, Cantel, and San Francisco. Since 
stick weaving is no longer practiced (except for 
San Francisco zutes, and foot-looms turn out only 
skirts, zutes, napkins, belts and the like, the women 
have no huipil patterns of their own. They buy 
the electric-milled white cotton, and a few of them 
add a distinctive touch of collar embroidery (p. 52). 
In this valley, among the professional itinerant 
merchants there are even many women middlemen 
who buy in one town and sell in another,!*® or sell 
goods in a number of different markets!§* during 
the week. 
San Francisco has probably the greatest “mush- 
room market” of the entire Highlands; it is chiefly 
a wholesale market. From an almost deserted vil- 
lage on all other days, high on a cold, wind-swept 
ridge, it becomes a crowded market center for 
thousands of Indians every Friday (pls. 35, 36). 
This is an illustration of commercial development 
due largely to intermediate location between several 
diversified producing areas. Though no pottery is 
made there, it is sold in great quantities, coming in 
from at least five centers on almost every side, both 
near and far. Numerous middlemen stock up with 
it, for resale in various smaller Highland centers, 
but particularly the Lowland plazas. Momostenango 
blankets, and local ones as well, are offered for sale 
in large stacks, and side streets are carpeted with 
newly made ones drying in the sun. Blankets are 
piled high on mules and shipped to Quezaltenango 
by hundreds. Sheep and raw wool come from many 
sources in the neighboring high country, and wire 
wool cards made in Chiantla are much in demand. 
The many loads of garlic 188 that come from far- 
away Aguacatan, in the deep valley of the Rio Negro, 
far exceed the production of Panajachel, which is the 
chief source of garlic in the Lake region. Little pigs 
are driven by the hundreds down the trail, each 
squealing on the end of a string, to be sold in Lowland 
1% Tllustrative of this were five Olintepeque women, who bought 
mixed pottery, from three or four sources, on Friday at San Francisco 
el Alto and resold it Sunday at San Juan Ostuncalco. They carried 
large loads by tumpline. Ordinarily, such merchants are men (p. 80). 
287 One group of women, soap merchants of San Andrés Xecutl, sold 
regularly at San Cristébal on Sunday, Salcajad on Tuesday, and San 
Francisco on Friday (pl. 39, a). I recognized only two who visited all 
three places. There were alwys about six of them. Such circuit trade 
is extremely rare around Lake Atitlan, because of relative inaccessi- 
bility and the scarcity of markets. 
188 T have seen Quezaltec middlemen, who have bought this Aguacatan 
garlic here in quantity, crossing the border into Salvador to sell it. Salt 
is brought up by truck; chiefly by a Ladino storekeeper of San 
Cristébal. This is also the case now in San Marcos, Quezaltenango, 
and other large Highland centers. 
