66 



LAND OWNERSHIP AND PRACTICES 



cipio of Solola that is half way up the road to the 

 city of Solola. Althouj^h Jorgenos and Sololatecos 

 have almost identical language and costume, and 

 presumably culture, San Jorge has been recognized 

 as a separate community since the earliest recorded 

 times.'" Panajachelenos say that a Jorgeno 

 obtained Panajacliel land about a century ago; his 

 name is known, and so are some of his descendants. 

 He is said to have owned most of the lower west 

 delta when it was almost uncultivated pasture land 

 with large patches of cane. He planted vegetables 

 on some of the land and sold or rented other parts 

 to his compatriots for the same purpose. His 

 descendants, some of whom live now in Panajachel 

 and are counted as resident Indians, still own some 

 of the land. 



Besides the Jorgenos, three Sololatecos and an 

 Indian living in the hills above San Andrds own 

 Panaja(;h(il land. The number of Jorgeno land- 

 owners depends on the exact ownership of two of 

 the pieces of land said by local people to be owned 

 by "about three" and "about eight" Jorgeno 

 families, respectively. If the "about" is dropped, 

 there are 28 Jorgeno owners, thus 32 absentee 

 Indians who own a little over 31 acres of Pana- 

 jachel land, almost 29 in the delta. Tlie average of 

 something under an acre compares with 12.3 acres 

 for ab.sentee Ladinos. In the delta the average 

 holding of 0.9 acre compares with 1 .7 acres for 

 absentee Ladinos, 4.7 acres for resident Ladinos, 

 and 0.9 acre for resident Indians. The average 

 coffee-truck acreage is however relatively high 

 (chart 9). The land of the absentee Indians in 

 1936 was the most intensively used hi Panajachel, 

 in most striking contrast to that of absentee 

 Ladinos. It may be said that outside Ladinos own 

 land in Panajachel while outside Indians have 

 farms in Panajachel. 



RESIDENT INDIANS 



It is with the land of the resident Indian com- 

 munity that this study is chiefly concerned. 

 Data on resident Indian land ownership as well as 

 population are both more complete and more 

 accurate than on that of other classes. 



In 1936 the 155 Indian households in Pana- 

 jachel " owned slightly less than 200 acres of 

 Panajachel land and about 24 acres outside the 

 area studied. Only 127 of the 155 families owned 

 land, however, so that the average of 1.5 acres 

 per household is increased to almost 1.8 acres per 

 landowning household, as compared with 10.3 

 and 13.6 acres, respectively, for resident Ladinos. 



Almost two-thirds of the landowning families 

 own at least two parcels. Indeed, almost two- 

 fifths of them own at least three. At the other 

 end, 10 percent owTa from 5 to 15 pieces each. 

 The parcels in the delta are usually very small — 

 90 percent of them under an acre (table 11) — but 

 by purchase or inheritance the family typically 

 accumulates several of them. 



Of the resident Indian lands, 6 households own 

 almost 25 percent (chart 10 and taVjle 10); 15 

 almost 50 percent; 38 about 75 percent; and 105 

 more than 95 percent. As with the Ladinos, 10 

 percent of the households own half the land, while 

 at the other extreme more than a third of the 

 people own less than 1 percent. Delta lands 

 exclusively are less unequally distributed: 



26 families own about 50 percent, 



54 families own about 76 percent, 



82 families own about 90 percent, 

 100 families own more than 95 percent, and 

 116 families about 99 percent, leaving 



1 1 families with 1 percent and 



28 landless. 



Table 11. — Size of Indian delta lota 



» Diego dc Ocafta wrote. In 1662, that the towu called "San George" had 

 been located at the lake shore until, 20 years bi-fore. It had been destroyed by 

 a river and bad been rebuilt half way up the slope (VSsqucz, 1937, vol I, p 

 191). 



" In table 4 the number Is shown as 157, but that includes the dual house- 

 holds of two polycynous men; for purposes of land distribution, each of 

 the dual households is better treated as one. 



Or, to put it another way, a wealthy 17 percent 

 of the families own half the land while a poor 

 quarter of the people together own a hundredth. 

 The distribution of coffee-truck lands is similar 

 to that of all delta land. 



This inequality is less if one omits from the 

 reckoning immigrant families who have come to 

 Panajachel as laborers or artisans. Of the 20 such 



