CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—MCcBRYDE 143 
Capotitlan report of 1579, to the effect that President Villa- 
lobos of Guatemala had ordered the nopal introduced, and 
that it was there in abundance (Zapotitlan) with cochineal, 
but no one had attempted to exploit it (Anon., Ms. 1579, 
p. 18.) Médel also wrote of tunas in both Mexico and 
Guatemala in the middle 16th century. A fine white one is 
mentioned in particular as good to eat, though “wild” red- 
fruited ones were common “in all parts of the Indies” and 
they were usually called “figs.” This apparently accounts 
for the common early appearance of the word “fig” (here 
applied to tuna) in colonial literature. 
From this there appears little doubt that certain species of 
Nopalea or Opuntia, or both, were introduced from Mexico 
for cochineal culture. In all likelihood it was mainly N. 
cochenillifera, probably native to Mexico. 
BLUE-DYE PLANTS 
Blue is the only color in dye-stuffs locally produced in 
Central America that is used in any quantity today in the 
Guatemala cotton-textile industry. There are two plants 
commonly employed in its application. These are anil or 
jiquilite (indigo, Indigofera suffruticosa and I. guatemal- 
ensis) (Standley and Calderén, 1925, pp. 112-113) and 
sacatinta or tinta (Jacobinia spicigera). 
Indigo is a Lowland plant, having an upper limit which 
probably does not exceed 750 m. in Central America. Guate- 
mala has never been a large-scale producer of the plant. 
In the literature, from the 16th century to the present, there 
are few references to indigo in connection with the modern 
area of western Guatemala. Dollfus and Mont-Serrat (1868, 
(p. 113) give as the upper limit 500 m. (1,640 ft.), but cite no 
production figures or any cultivation methods. Ponce’s com- 
panion mentions “native indigo” only in the Province of 
San Salvador (Ponce, 1873, p. 399). Apparently, judging 
from 16th-century literature, in the great cacao areas, from 
western Salvador into Soconusco, there was no indigo. Since 
their environmental requirements are much the same, indigo 
probably could not stand the competition, for cacao was 
money, in the literal sense of the word. Juarros, early in 
the 19th century, writes of Salvador, a country whose Indians 
were then “highly civilized and all speak the Spanish lan- 
guage;” that it produced “chiefly indigo, now [1800-1810?] 
almost exclusively .. . in this province,” though some was 
formerly grown outside of it (Juarros, 1823, p. 30). Sapper’s 
economic map of 1895 showed two indigo areas, one in cen- 
tral Chiapas, the other in central and eastern El Salvador 
(Sapper, 1897, map 4). Janes (1940, pp. 198-202) refers 
to the importance of indigo in Guatemala, but this was the 
Captaincy-General, which included Salvador. The only 
present-day Guatemala place names mentioned in connection 
with indigo are Guazacapan, Jalpatagua, and Escuintla 
(Milla, 1879-82, vol. 2, pp. 285-286), all in the eastern 
Pacific lowlands, adjacent to the Salvador producing area. 
Standley (1920-26, p. 441) states that indigo was used by the 
pre-Columbian inhabitants of Mexico, This was probably 
the source of the “black” used in dyeing the black cloth (the 
dark indigo blue in Guatemala today is sometimes called 
“black”) demanded from certain towns as tribute by Mocte- 
zuma (Cortes, 1770, pl. 27, foll. p. 176). The origin of 
American indigo is probably Mexican. An Old World 
species was later introduced (Jndigofera tinctoria) and much 
‘ American, probably native to Mexico. 
used (Standley, 1920-26, p. 440). Standley (1931, p. 222) 
points out one cause for the decline of indigo, in the danger 
to those engaged in extracting it. Chemical dyes produced 
in Europe, especially Germany, began to offer serious com- 
petition to natural dyes between 1860 and 1870. 
Today the indigo used in quantity in Southwest Guate- 
mala for dyeing threads, employed mainly in skirt weaving, 
is all imported from Salvador, put up in cakes. It was 
similarly prepared at the time of Ponce’s visit (Ponce, 1873, 
p. 399). 
Mixed with indigo in dyeing thread are aniline dye (mainly 
German in 1936) and an infusion of fresh leaves of the saca- 
tinta, cuajatinta, orstinta (Jacobinia spicigera). It grows in 
abundance along the Pacific versant, having an upper limit 
of probably 2,000 m. (6,562 ft.), for it is apparently absent 
from the Quezaltenango-Totonicapan Valley. There in the 
markets, especially of the dyeing center, Salcaja, the green 
leaves are sold in large bunches. For the country as a whole, 
the greatest consumption of sacatinta comes in washing, for 
it is the chief “bluing” plant of the Indian women, who wash 
their white clothes with it to get a bluish cast. This is 
reported as widespread also in Mexico, Salvador, Honduras, 
and other parts of Central America, various species of 
Jacobinia being employed. Standley suggests that the use of 
the infusion (which turns acid red, like litmus) in whitening 
clothes is pre-Columbian, and that the plants are therefore 
232 
COTTON 
Cotton (algodén, Gossypium spp.) cultivation seems to 
have declined in the Pacific Lowlands, though not so much 
so as some of the crops already mentioned. Sixteenth cen- 
tury accounts (manuscripts herein cited) list cotton among 
the major crops, from Guazacapan to Suchitepequez, mainly 
along the piedmont. Today in the Southwest it is found only 
in small patches,** mostly from around Mazatenango, and 
westward into Chiapas. Mazatenango is the main market, 
and it is sold there in some quantity, to itinerant merchants 
(Maxeijios in particular) and to Indians, who come from as 
far as Huehuetenango (Todos Santos) to buy it, apparently 
for home consumption. 
White cotton (G. hirsutum) and red-brown (ircdco, G. 
mexicanum) are both grown, the former in larger amounts. 
The highest elevation at which I have seen cotton (white) 
is 1,600 m. (5,249 ft, San Pedro la Laguna).™ Both are 
probably natives of Mexico. G. hirsutum appears commonly 
to have escaped from cultivation, a point also brought out by 
Bukasov (1930) and Standley (1920-26, p. 785). 
Brown cotton was given the Aztec name “Ichcaxihuitl” 
(“wool-plant”). It is probable that this was the origin of 
22 Jacobinia as used in washing clothes is described on the following 
pages: Standley, 1920-26, p. 1346; 1930, p. 423; 1931, p. 360; 1936, 
p. 369; 1938, p. 1225; Standley and Calderén, 1925, p. 204. 
28 Bukasov also mentions the limited quantities of cotton grown in 
small plots in Chiapas and Central America (op. cit., p. 182). 
24 Here the tall, yellow-flowered plants attain a height of 12 feet, 
though 8 feet is more common. It is often planted among fields of corn, 
manioc, maguey, etc., is said to bear 3 years; is trimmed back every 
May at maize planting, and grows out again with maize. Cotton is 
annually planted by Indians of Santo Domingo ‘Suchitepequez, where a 
Ladino farmer said that better results obtain from cutting back, and 
that plants would bear for 2 or 3 years. 
