136 



CONSUMER GOODS 



two kinds of vendors : those who bring the produce 

 of their own towns '" or from some one other 

 place/'' and those who have "stores" containing a 

 limited variety of goods from various places. 

 There are two kinds of "stores" that come to the 

 local market: One run by Maxenos, has salt, 

 chUe, a variety of spices, cigars, cigarettes, 

 matches; often panela, peanuts, shrimp, and raw 

 cotton; occasionally straw hats, cookies, and other 

 things. The other is larger, usually set up in a 

 canvas booth, with yard goods (cheap cotton and 

 sUk prints) ; clothing such as shirts, trousers, under- 

 garments, socks, handkerchiefs, Indian-woven 

 textiles and garments (partly for the tourist trade) ; 

 pins, needles, thread, buttons, hooks-and-eyes, 

 combs, mirrors, etc.; cotton, wool, and silk yams; 

 enamelware dishes and utensils, china, and occa- 

 sionally glassware; cheap table "silver," trinkets 

 and cheap jewelry; often chewing gum, cigarettes 

 and matches, flashlights, batteries and bulbs, and 

 so on. Some owners of these larger stores are also 

 Maxenos; others are somewhat Ladinoized Indians 

 from Totonicapan, San Cristdbal, or Quezal- 

 tenango. 



Table 50. — Vendors in the Panajachel market 



"• Thus, Maienos with pitch wood; Tepanccos and Andresanos with corn 

 and beans; Catarinecos with rush mats, fish, and crabs; PableiSos with 

 hammocks and rope; Sololatecos with vegetables; Cruzefios with citrus and 

 other fruit; Santa Lucia Indians with bread and cookies {roaguitos) ; and so on. 

 The classification is not, of course, perfect, for example, Atitecos who bring 

 fruit from the coast also bring fish from home. 



I" For example, Maxefios with lime from Santa Apoloola or pottery from 

 Totonieapto, and Atitecos with fruit from the coast. 



Compared with those at Solola, Tecp^n, or 

 Chichicastenango, the Panajachel market never 

 has a great number of vendors. On weekdays 

 from two or three to a dozen outside merchants 

 were counted (table 50), and at the height of the 

 Sunday market, 168.'^ During the period of 

 market counts, the following items were brought 

 for sale: 



Solold Corn, pork products, eggs, panela, 



coffee beans, potatoes, vegetables, 

 fruit, horsebeans, rice-and-milk, 

 wooden toys, "dry-goods store." 



Chichicastenango.- Corn, horsebeans, potatoes, eggs, 

 bananas, "spice-store," "dry-goods 

 store," pitch wood. 



Totonicapdn Corn, hor-sebeans, potatoes, eggs, 



leather goods, pottery, spices. 



Santa Lucia U Bread. 



Tecpdn Corn, rosquitos, pitch wood, "dry- 

 goods" store. 



San Andres Corn, beans, horsebeans, vegetable 



pears, chickens, eggs, tamales, corn- 

 husks. 



Patanatic Corn, sandals. 



Santa Catarina Corn, eggs, tomatoes, chilacayote 



points, pig-bananas. 



San Antonio Corn, tomatoes. 



San Lucas Tomatoes. 



Cerro de Oro Tomatoes, rush mats, beans, papayas. 



Atitldn Tomatoes, coast and citrus fruit, 



green peppers, coffee beans, turnips, 

 lake fish, rush mats. 



San Pablo Tomatoes, limas, pitch wood, ham- 

 mocks, rope. 



Tzunund Tomatoes, citrus fruits, sugarcane. 



Santa Cruz Limas, white sapodillas. 



PRICES 



Official data on prices during the period of study 

 include relatively few of the many items that the 

 Indians of Panajachel produce, buy, and use; and 

 are reliable only for prices prevailing in Guatemala 

 City. Where there is a geographical break-down 

 it goes only to Departamentos, hot municipios 

 Reports on prices collected in each town cannot 

 be very accurate, and there is probably justifica- 

 tion for not publishing them. Nor can local 

 officials asked to report prices be blamed, since 

 prices of many items vary considerably from day 

 to day and from vendor to vendor on the same 

 day, fixed in particular cases by bargaining. It 

 is therefore difficult to say what "the price" of 

 many a commodity is. Frequently the only 



"» The Sunday of the count happened to be Palm Sunday, which in some 

 towns calls up an extraordinarily large market; however, the Panajachel 

 market that day appeared to be typical of most of the others observed. 



