74 



LAND OWNERSHIP AND PRACTICES 



another piece of the house site had just been 

 redeemed. 



THE INHERITANCE OF HOUSEHOLD NO. 58 



Manuel Cululen (chart 13) was widowed and 

 then died himself while son Santiago and a female 

 ward (parentage unloiown) were still children. 

 The orphans took residence with Miguel Quiche 

 (their mother's brother) who also had children of 

 his owai. Manuel had about two-thirds of an 

 acre of truck land (including his house site) on 

 the west side of the delta. Miguel took the 

 furnishings and utensils from the abandoned 

 house, a bull that Manuel had left, and the use of 

 the land, as if they were his own. However, 

 nobody questioned that the land belonged to 

 Santiago and (presumably in smaller share) his 

 foster sister. When the girl matured, she married 

 and lived on the coast and both she and her hus- 

 band eventually died without ever claiming any 

 of the land left by Manuel. 



Santiago stayed with his uncle until the latter 

 died, then remained with his cousins until they 

 quarrelled, when he went into the service of the 

 local priest under whose uifluence he learned 

 Ladino ways, continued to work the land left him 

 by his father, and saved some money. He 

 eventually left the priest, married Francisca 

 Matzar, and built a site of his father's. For some 



reason they later left this house and after living 

 for awhile with Francisca's parents on the east 

 side of the river, built another on a quarter-acre 

 (also on the east side) which Santiago bought. 

 He sold the land that his father had left him, 

 partly because of the difficulty of working it during 

 the rainy season, and with the money bought 

 from Lorenzo Matzar (who later became his 

 wife's step-father) another third-acre a little 

 above his house site. There was money left for 

 the burial of his four eldest children who died 

 within a relatively short period. (All together five 

 of his six children died without reaching maturity.) 

 Later Santiago was able to buy another fifth-acre 

 near his house site. 



Although Francisca's parents owned seven or 

 eight acres of land, besides two steers, Francisca 

 inherited nothing. Apparently her father did not 

 divide the land before he died. When Francisca 

 (the youngest of three) married, her brother Jorge 

 and sister Micaela remained at home, both of them 

 married. When the parents died they began to 

 sell land "in order to eat well and to drink." 

 Francisca at first demanded her share ; but Santiago 

 told her that he would provide more land if they 

 needed it, and her sister and brother would suffer 

 later for the wi-ongs done her. He did however 

 remove from pasture and sell one of the two steers 

 to pay for a mass for her deceased parents. 



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Chart 13. — Genealogical reference to the inheritance of household No. 58. 



