HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK 41 
jority of the sales are for cash. Although Satur- 
day is the principal market day in Chupaca, a 
small market is held throughout the week; usually 
there are no more than 50 vendors, and the market 
is confined to one side of the plaza. 
The baking of bread for sale in Huancayo and 
elsewhere is an important occupation in Chupaca, 
and there are from 30 to 40 small bakeries, most 
of which are operated by women. Flour is ground 
locally in an ancient mill situated on the bank of 
the Chupaca River. An additional occupation, 
which also tends to be confined to the women, is 
wholesale dealing in eggs; these colectoras, as the 
women are called, make the rounds of the outlying 
farms, buying up lots of eggs which are later sold 
to dealers from Huancayo and Orcotuna, The 
principal market for Jauja Valley eggs is Lima. 
In a general way, there is a tendency toward 
economic specialization by barrio in Chupaca. 
One barrio specializes in raising garden vegetables, 
two in the production of milk, one in baking, and 
one in shoemaking. For although manufactures 
and handicrafts are less important in Chupaca than 
elsewhere in the Jauja Valley, shoemaking is a 
profitable industry.”* Cured hides are purchased 
from the tanneries of Huancayo, the shoes made 
in Chupaca, and the finished products later sold 
locally or at Huancayo’s Sunday fair. What 
little weaving is done in Chupaca is exclusively for 
local consumption. 
Informants estimate that in the neighborhood 
of 150 individuals, including both men and women, 
make seasonal trips to the Coast to work on the 
cotton plantations of Canete Valley. In general, 
these cotton pickers, who are recruited from the 
lower economic brackets of the town, leave 
Chupaca after the harvest in April or May and 
return in October or November in time for plant- 
ing. Not infrequently a man is accompanied by 
his entire family, and it is usual for groups of 
relatives and friends to return to the same hacienda 
year after year. Laborers for the Coastal plan- 
tations are recruited by a group of men called 
enganchadores or contratistas, most of whom are 
natives of Chupaca who have worked on the 
Coast and who receive a commission from the 
75 Most Jauja Valley towns have specialized industries and handicrafts: 
Cajas produces felt hats, tiles, and bricks; San Gerénimo, silver filigree, na- 
tive-woven belts and shawls, chairs and baskets; Sicaya, cheap garments 
machine sewn by the women of the town; Hualhuas (between Cajas and 
San Gerénimo), blankets and rugs; Mito, pottery. In all cases these are home 
industries, and in most cases the artisans who produce these articles are also 
farmers. 
701701—_47_—_-4 
hacienda administrators.”* The customary sys- 
tem is for these individuals to advance money to 
impoverished Chupaquinos, who later go to the 
haciendas enganchado (literally, ‘“hooked’’) to 
work off their debts. It is said that few of the 
cotton pickers remain permanently on the Coast, 
and that the number of those who go has declined 
in recent years owing to the high incidence of ma- 
laria amorg the returning laborers. 
Owing to fear of real or imaginary diseases 
which are believed to be contracted in mines, few 
Chupaquinos—an informant estimates 40 or less 
individuals—seek seasonal employment in the min- 
ing centers of the central region. Men who are 
accustomed to such work go, during the slack 
period between harvest and planting, to the mines 
of Yauricocha, Casapalea, Morococha, Huan- 
cavelica, and to the smelters of La Oroya. Be- 
cause there is often no opportunity for their wives 
to earn money at the mines, the men usually 
go alone. 
Formerly arrieros from Chupaca made several 
trips yearly to the Chanchamayo region of the 
Montana and to the lowlands of Hudnuco Depart- 
ment to purchase oranges, avocados, coca, and other 
tropical products. Owing, however, to malaria 
contracted in the jungle and to the compe- 
tition offered by trucking companies, these jour- 
neys are at present made less frequently. 
There is so great a similarity in the content 
and organization of fiestas throughout the Jauja 
Valley that the discussion which follows for the 
neighboring town of Sicaya will serve in general 
for the entire region. The principal fiesta of 
Chupaca is that of the patron saint, San Juan, 
which is celebrated on June 24. Other important 
feast days are Las Cruces (May 1), Santiago 
(July 25), Ano Nuevo (January 1), and that of 
the Virgen de Lourdes (February 12). 
SICAYA 
Sicaya is situated on the right bank of the 
Mantaro River some 7 miles distant by road from 
both Huancayo and Chupaca. The town is built 
along the edge of an old lake terrace, high above 
the flood plain of the river. Below it, from the 
base of the terrace to the very river bank, stretch 
rich green fields of alfalfa and garden vegetables 
watered by broad, swift-flowing wrigation ditches 
78 For a discussion of these seasonal migrations to the Coast and of the 
system of enganche, see Castro Pozo, 1924, pp. 100-102 117-124. 
