THE LAND 



41 



calh'. On the other hand, chart 3, b, as clearly 

 shows that coffee is grown very much more on 

 Ladino land than on Indian land. Actually, 

 78.3 percent of the delta coffee land belongs to 

 Ladinos, while 73 percent of all truck land is 

 Indian-owned. If the land rented by Indians 

 from Ladinos is added, the Indians indeed have 

 82 percent of all of the truck land. The dif- 

 ference between Indian and Ladino is the over- 

 ruling factor in the use of land: wherever Ladinos 

 own land they tend to grow coffee; wherever 

 Indians own land, the\' tend to grow truck 

 crops. In order to test this rule in detail map 5 

 compares the relationship in sections of the delta 

 that were divided arbitrarily for another purpose. 

 The figures (table 5) show that there is an ex- 

 ception to the rule; the following analysis both 

 explains the exception and gives additional 

 insight into patterns of land use. 



Table 5. — Location of Indian and Ladino coffee and truck 

 lands 



(1) The Ladinos consistently own much more 

 coffee than truck land. The notable exception is 

 in section W5 where almost all the coffee-truck 

 land, including that of Ladinos, is in truck. The 

 land involved here is dominated (and was in the 

 past even more dominated) by nonresident In- 

 dians from San Jorge la Laguna. Both in San 

 Jorge and Panajachel they grow vegetables and 

 no coffee. All of their land is in truck, and this 

 may influence the local Indian and Ladino W5 

 landowners in that direction. However, another 

 factor is the relative "age" of various sections. 

 Truck gardening is the traditional Panajachel 

 occupation, coffee having come in relatively 

 recently. The east delta without any doubt was 

 always heavily populated and intensively culti- 

 vated, while the west delta was more thinly popu- 



lated and less intensively cultivated. Indians 

 recall when on the west delta there were large 

 forests of cane so thick that animals and even 

 people became lost in them. One of the reasons 

 why Indians took to replacing truck with coffee 

 is that the land was no longer producing truck 

 crops abundantly. This must have been espe- 

 cially true in the east delta, a fact that is part of 

 the explanation of why the Indians have a larger 

 percentage of their land in coffee in the east delta 

 than in the west. Conversel}', the Indians talk 

 about the land of section W5 as "new land," and 

 one concludes that it is devoted almost exclusively 

 to vegetables partly because of the Jorgeno tradi- 

 tion, and partly because it has been producing 

 truck products most profitably. 



(2) There is a tendency for the Ladinos to have a 

 greater proportion of their land in cofTee where 

 they own a greater percentage of the land; but 

 the proportion of their land in coffee is greater 

 east of the river than west (table 6).-° 



(3) There is some tendency toward a constant 

 relation between the proportions of land devoted 

 to coffee and truck by Indians and by Ladinos. 

 Thus in five sections (Wl, W2, W5, El, E5) the 

 proportion of Indian coffee to coffee-plus-truck is 

 about a third the proportion of Ladino coffee to 

 coffee-plus-truck. In two sections (E2, E3) it is 

 about a half, and in two others (W4, E4) higher. 

 Only one section (W3), exceptional in most 

 respects, is unique — the proportion being about 

 one-sixteenth. If it is assumed that the propor- 

 tion of one-third is "normal," it is seen that 

 sections E2, E3, W4, and E4 have (by alternative 

 interpretations) either an abnormally large per- 

 centage of Indian coffee to truck, or of Ladino 

 truck to coffee. In terms of the first statement, 



" The fact that the sections east of the river do not run in as smooth order 

 In this respect as those west is doubtless partly due to the smaller universes 

 Involved. Thus, for eiample, the Ladino land of section El is all owned by 

 three families who happen to be coffee producers and who have virtually no 

 truck land anywhere. 



