LAND OWNERSHIP AND PRACTICES 



71 



(1) Norberto and Petroiia Salanic were brother and 

 sister, the latter widowed and with one son, Leandro 

 Resales. Petrona and her son had no land, and lived in 

 various borrowed houses. Norberto, sorry for them, gave 

 his sister 2 cuerdas (0.4 acre) of coffee land on which to 

 build a house; this was half of a certain piece of land he 

 owned. The whole piece had been pawned to a Ladino 

 for $50, so Norberto could not give his sister immediate 

 legal title. Instead, he took her to the town hall, and 

 there, before witnesses, turned over the land. Shortly 

 afterward, in 1936, Petrona died. Her son Leandro 

 inherited the land, which had never come into Petrona's 

 possession. In order to pay for his mother's funeral, 

 Leandro pawiied the land for $20 to Ag\istfn Yax6n, the 

 informant. No document was turned over, but there was 

 a witness. Norberto paid to the Ladina $33 to apply on 

 his debt of $50; he expected to pay the remaining $17 that 

 year, and thus redeem the land and turn the half of it 

 over to his nephew, Leandro. 



In September 1937 Norberto himself died, leaving as 

 sole heiress to his property a daughter, grown but unmar- 

 ried. She recognized that half of the land had been given 

 to her aunt, Petrona, and now belonged to her cousin, 

 Leandro, who had meanwhile gone to the lowlands to look 

 for work. However, she did not have money with which 

 to bury her father, and she now made an agreement with 

 Ventura Lopez (her father's father's brother's son) : she 

 would give bim her half of the land mentioned and he 

 would pay the funeral expenses and also repay the $17 

 still due the Ladina. Ventura accepted, and after the 

 funeral tried to sell the land. He asked $50 for the 2 

 cuerdas, and nobody would buy it. Then he went to 

 Solold, where lived the Ladina to whom the land was 

 pawned, and offered to sell it to her. The woman had 

 not previously heard of Norberto's death. Now she ar- 

 ranged to repay Lopez the funeral expenses and to keep 

 possession of the land herself. A few days later she came 

 to Panajachel and in the presence of Norberto's surviving 

 relatives took {possession of the entire 4 cuerdas of land 

 (to which she had the document), refusing to recognize 

 Norberto's gift to his sister, hence Leandro's rights to 

 half the land. 



Now Yax6n, worried about the $20 he had given to 

 Leandro, received a letter from the latter, who had heard 

 of what had happened, asking if it were true, and if he 

 should come to Panajachel to try to reclaim his land. 

 This letter was answered to the effect that Leandro should 

 come, and 2 weeks later he did come and was unsuccessful 

 in his suit in the local courthouse. He then went to SololA 

 to complain of the lack of justice, but nothing ever came 

 of the matter. Meanwhile, Yax6n forgot about the land 

 itself and simply obtained recognition by Leandro of his 

 $20 debt to Mm. 



It would be difficult to conclude from this 

 account whether any land sales were involved, 

 and yet there were several land transfers — all but 

 one in the end illegalized. 



(2) Quirino and Vicenta Quiche are two of several grown 

 and married children of Santiago Quiche, a rich Indian. 



Quirino is married to one Elena Resales (Juan Resales' 

 father's sister). On November 12, 1936, he explained to 

 Resales difficulties he was having with his father, Santiago. 

 Elena's mother long ago ceded to her a cucrda (0.2 acre) 

 of truck land with the proviso that she should net take 

 full possession until after her (the mother's) death. Before 

 she died, however, the mother pawned this piece of land 

 to Santiago Quiche for $3.33. When she died, Santiago 

 let Quirino use the land "because it really belonged to his 

 wife (Elena) anyway." Some years later, Quirino and 

 Elena pawned the land to Vicenta, Quirino's sister, for 

 another $1.67. When Santiago heard of this, he told 

 Quirino that since he and Elena now considered the land 

 theirs to pawn, they should repay him the money he had 

 given Elena's mother with the land as security. Quirino 

 had no money, however, and suggested that his father 

 pay Vicenta what she had given him (Quirino) and take 

 full possession of the land himself. To avoid difficulties, 

 Santiago did so. 



Years later, Santiago divided his lands among his chil- 

 dren, stipulating that this particular piece should go to 

 Vicenta. Now Quirino reported that he liad $5 in his 

 possession and wished to redeem the land. He said that 

 he had offered the money to his father but that they had 

 quarreled when his father refused it, saying that the land 

 now had a new owner, Vicenta, with whom he should deal, 

 while he himself insisted that since the money had been 

 borrowed from Santiago, it should be returned to him. 

 He added that no written documents were involved in the 

 transactions, nor witnesses, and that he was considering 

 going to the courthouse in the matter. 



On January 7, 1937, Santiago Quichfi told Resales his 

 side of this story. He said that 18 years before, Elena's 

 mother had sold him the cuerda of land for $3.33, the deal 

 made without documents and only before witnesses. Now 

 in his old age he had divided his lands, and had given this 

 piece to his daughter, Vicenta. But now Elena, the 

 daughter of the woman who had sold him the land, had 

 come to claim it, ofTering him $3.33 and saying that the 

 land had not been sold, only pawned. "The worst thing 

 is that she who is quarreling with me is my daughter-in- 

 law." Santiago went on to say that he could not give 

 her the land, for he has other heirs to consider; besides, 

 he continued, both Quirino and Elena had sold lands 

 inherited from their parents, because they do not work. 

 He added that if Elena went to court, he would not only 

 prove his case but would shame her by recounting all that 

 she and her husband had done to their parents. 



Elena won her case (having obtained the original docu- 

 ments) and on July 20 Vicenta Quiche reported to Juan 

 how badly she had been WTonged by her. She said Elena 

 had taken away the land, her inheritance, because of 

 personal animosity. She added that her hope now came 

 from the fact that another brother (Rafael) had promised 

 to give her a cuerda of coffee that was part of his inherit- 

 ance; and the purpose of her visit was to ask Resales to 

 draw up a document for this so she would have no further 

 trouble. 



There are probably few pieces of land without 

 some confusion in their histories, for most are the 



