7S 



LAND OWNERSHIP AND PRACTICES 



the key to a chest in whicli he had tMo or three 

 thousand silver pesos. He had not divided any 

 of his land or chattels. He left no will except 

 directions that he be buried in Solola rather than 

 in the local cemetery which was always in some 

 danger of being washed out. 



Besides liis widow, Jos6 was survived by four 

 sons and two daughters. The sons, in order, were 

 Jos6 Maria, Julian, Leandro, and Juan Francisco; 

 the daugliters were Maria and Elena. The first 

 three sons were married. All were living at home 

 except Julian, who married against his parents' 

 wishes and quarreled with them when he asked 

 for a share of the land. The widow, Francisca 

 Calel, thus foimd herself the head of a considerable 

 establishment with much money which (according 

 to the disaffected son, Julian) they were not averse 

 to using. Several years of neglect of the proper- 

 ties, and fiestas shared by many Ladino friends, 

 and the 30-odd laborers attached to the house- 

 hold, end with the money gone and the family 

 selling mules and small parcels of land. 



Son Julian then stopped the sale of property 

 and invoked the laws of inheritance by which the 

 widow received half and each child one-sixth of 

 the other half. In general the widow and daugh- 

 ters were given lands closest to town, the sons the 

 lands farthest away. In general also the larger 

 pieces were split several ways among the heirs 

 while the smaller ones remained intact. Tools 

 and utensils were divided between men and women 

 according to their use. 



The widow survived Jos6 Gil 22 years, and died 

 in 1928. She continued to sell her property, part 

 to others and part to son Julian (the only child 

 to increase rather than lose his heritage), and died 

 owning no land at all. Jos6 Maria, the eldest 

 son, kept two families — one with a San Pedro 

 woman. He gradually sold all his land, and in 

 1932 he died in poverty, leaving four daughters. 

 Four of five children by his first wife, meanwhile, 

 lived on plantations on the coast and the fifth, a 

 woman, married in Panajachel; none inherited 

 land. 



Leandro did not long survive liis father. What 

 remained of his property went to his wife, Petrona 

 Salanic, and young cliildren, who continued to 

 live with Francisca and to sell land. Petrona 

 married again. Eventually she and her son Lean- 

 dro lost the rest of their land, and when widowed 

 again Petrona became one of the poorest women 



in town. Young Leandro went to work on the 

 coast. 



The two daughters, Elena and Antonia, married 

 and eventually lost their inheritance. Antonia 

 died early, childless. Elena married Quirino 

 Quich6 and they still live with their surviving 

 children. Quirijio as well as Elena mherited land, 

 most of which they sold. Now thc}' own but one 

 small piece of land (No. 10 above) inherited by 

 Elena. 



The youngest son, Juan Francisco, was a child 

 when his father died and rcmamed with his mother 

 even for a time after he married. When she died, 

 he sold what remained of his land and became a 

 day laborer for his brother Julian. At the time 

 of this study he was landless and homeless and 

 "not quite right," working for Jos6 Resales, 

 Juli&n's son. 



Juli&n was independent of his parents when 

 his father died. Ho soon had much of his in- 

 herited land under cultivation and began to 

 augment it and to buy livestock, including cattle. 

 His success aggravated the strain of relations 

 between hun and his mother and sisters who 

 (he claims) employed black magic to destroy him. 

 Eventually the rest of the family became suffi- 

 ciently reconciled to sell land to him rather than 

 to outsiders so that he recovered a large part 

 of his father's estate. By 1928, at the apex of 

 his fortunes, Julian was probably as rich as his 

 father had been, possessing less land, but more 

 of it in cidtivation, and having more domestic 

 animals. 



He owmed at least 60 acres of delta land, 

 including the parcels above numbered 1, 8, 9, 11, 

 and 12, (the first was flooded by the river in 

 about 1924 and rendered nearly useless) and 

 seven or eight hundred acres of hill land including 

 the lots numbered 13, 14, and 15. He grew 

 large quantities of corn, beans, anise, chile, 

 coffee, and vegetables. Some 20 laborers were 

 in his debt, each as much as 8,000 pesos 

 (paper, now worth $133.33). He had 5 riding 

 horses, 2 or 3 pack mules, 20 head of cattle, 5 milk 

 cows, 6 sheep, and a canoe. The profits from his 

 operations he put back into the land, for domestic 

 expenses were paid by his wife from the sale of 

 fruit, of the eggs of her 60 chickens, and of the 

 ducks and rabbits and of the 10 pigs she fattened. 



Celestina Garcia, Julian's third wife, was the 

 mother of all seven of his surviving children, thi'ee 



