LAND OWNERSHIP AND PRACTICES 



65 



when delta lands alone are counted, the general 

 picture remains pretty much the same, as seen in 

 chart 10 and the following summary: 



6 families own more than 51 percent. 

 12 families own almost 75 percent. 

 19 families own almost 90 percent. 

 25 families own more than 95 percent. 

 34 families own 99 percent, leaving 

 11 families owning together only 1 percent of the land, 

 and 17 families landless. 



Put another way, less than 10 percent of the Ladi- 

 nos of Panajachel own more than 50 percent of 

 Ladino-owned delta land, while on the other end 

 of the scale almost half of them own together but a 

 hundredth of the total. Even less evenly distribu- 

 ted are the very valuable coffee and truck lands 

 of the delta, of which 



5 families own almost 51 percent. 



11 families own more than 76 percent. 



17 families own about 91 percent. 



21 families own about 95 percent, and 



30 families own 99 percent, leaving 



4 families owning together 1 percent, and 



28 families without any. 



Since the Ladinos are usually only partly de- 

 pendent upon agriculture for their living, this 

 distribution is ordy a partial index of the distri- 

 bution of wealth among them. Moreover, land 

 owned by Ladinos outside of Panajachel are not 

 included. Since the large landowners of Pana- 

 jachel tend also to have other sources of income, 

 and to own land outside of Panajachel, inclusion 

 of additional data would probably show even 

 greater difference in the wealth of the rich and the 

 poor. 



INDIAN OWNERS 



It has already been pointed out (charts 6 and 7) 

 that Indians owti only 18.7 percent of all Pana- 

 jachel land, but twice the proportion in the delta 

 (37.2 percent), and that the proportion of Indian 

 land in intensive cultivation is relatively great. 

 Wliat land they do not own probably passed from 

 Indian into Ladino hands in the past two or tlu-ee 

 generations. This seems likely both because 

 there were virtually no Ladinos in Panajachel 

 before about 1850, and because they would have 

 had little incentive to exploit such land as is found 

 in Panajachel until coffee became a commercial 

 crop. Probably as much as half of what Ladinos 

 own came to them in the two decades preceding 

 this study, which was the period of increasingly 



profitable coffee culture, as well as of the arrival 

 of city families who found on the shore of the lake 

 sites for hotels and chalets. Indeed, a good part 

 of their land was lost by the Indians during the 

 depression years of the thirties when they de- 

 faulted on debts or were forced by some necessity 

 to sell. The general rule is that transfer of land 

 from Indian to Ladino is a one-way process: 

 Ladinos obtain Indian land, but the reverse is 

 rarely true." However, at the time of study 

 the peak of such transfers may have passed, for 

 there was growing resistance to sell land to 

 outsiders, and when an Indian needed money he 

 seemed to go first to other Indians. 



It should not be supposed that with so much 

 land alienated, the Indians have been reduced 

 largely to worldng for Ladinos. Among compen- 

 sating factors are (1) that the Indians are able to 

 rent a large proportion of Ladino land; (2) the 

 diminution of Indian holdings was accompanied 

 by a decrease of Indian population (from 2,092 in 

 1893 to 1,145 in 1921 ") as many no doubt mi- 

 grated to plantations;" and (3) increasingly 

 greater exploitation of and larger returns from the 

 sale of their fruits and vegetables to the growing 

 Ladino population. 



Nor does the transfer of lands to Ladinos neces- 

 sarily mean that there are more landless Indians 

 now than formerly, since before the land was so 

 monopolized by Ladinos, a few rich Indians may 

 have owned as much. 



Absentee owners own 13.8 percent of Indian 

 land, and 18 percent of Indian delta land. Their 

 proportion in intensive cultivation is higher than 

 that of the resident Indians (their proportion in 

 truck a third greater — see chart 7) and they have a 

 particular preference for onions and pepinos. 



All but four of the absentee Indian owaiers live 

 in neighboring San Jorge, the hamlet of the muni- 



" A few cases of sales of land by Ladinos to Indians were noted. Bolh 

 groups seem to follow the custom of otTering land first to a previous owner, or 

 one who owns adjoining land. Thus I have a note (November 1939) con- 

 cerning an Indian who supposes that the Ladino owner of land formerly 

 his did not offer it to him before others because he was presumed too poor 

 to be able to buy it back. I had assumed this custom to be Indian until an 

 Indian recalled that one of the ways the first Ladinos enlarged their holdings 

 in Panajachel was by suggestmg to their Indian neighbors that— to be good 

 neighbors— they should offer land to them first. 



<• 4th Census, Part I, Guatemala, 1924, p. 186. From 1921 to 1940. the 

 number of Indians increased again to 1.524 (6th Census, 1942, p. 222). 



" In some cases they probably left when for some reason they lost their 

 lands and in others they doubtless went to plantations for other reasons and 

 theu more readily sold their Panajachel lands. In 1936-37 several Indian 

 families freed from plantation obligations by new laws returned to Pana- 

 jachel; but having no land, and no way of making a living, they soon left 

 again. 



