EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



169 



WEALTH AND PROPERTY 



LAND OWNERSHIP 



In Tzintzuntzan wealth is largely limited to 

 tangibles. A few persons know about banks and 

 savings accounts, but Morelia is the nearest place 

 where money could be deposited, and, as far as 

 I know, no one avails himself of this mode of 

 putting idle cash to work. The very existence 

 of life insurance policies, stocks, and bonds is 

 unknown. The average person considers himself 

 fortunate to have a house, a bit of clothing, 

 and the basic tools for his trade; the disposition 

 of idle money is a problem which he rarely has 

 to face. For the few individuals who are able to 

 save beyond their immediate needs, silver mon- 

 ey and land are the only safe forms of invest- 

 ment. Though silver is known to be nonproduc- 

 tive, for centuries it has been the symbol of 

 wealth and to it there is an emotional attach- 

 ment matched only by that to land. It is more 

 than money; it is a way to ensure one's small 

 savings. Through fire, revolution, and other 

 vicissitudes of life it keeps its value, and hence 

 is too valuable to be used in daily monetary 

 transactions. Coins which find their way to Tzin- 

 tzuntzan are rarely spent; they are hidden away 

 in trunks, odd crannies of the house, or buried. 

 Silver money is spent only as a last resort. 

 Rather than have it pass from one's hands a 

 debtor borrows, giving land, animals, or house 

 furnishings as security, in the hope that some- 

 how paper money can be obtained to repay the 

 debt. Only as a last desperate expedient will 

 silver savings be hauled forth from their hiding 

 places. The result of this hoarding is that small 

 change is very scarce in all rural Mexico, and 

 finding change for a $5 note becomes a major 

 task. In some places $1 notes torn in half cir- 

 culate freely, with a value of S0.50 for each sec- 

 tion. Apparently rural Mexico will soak up any 

 amount of silver currency issued by the Govern- 

 ment. 



The exact amount of wealth hidden away in 

 this fashion is difficult to determine. For ob- 

 vious reasons, no one will say how much he has, 

 or even admit that he has anything at all. It 

 seems probable that most families have at least 

 a few coins "salted away," but very few have 

 large amounts. This is because land is just as 



safe an investment as silver, and also returns in- 

 terest. Hence, any large sums of money are al- 

 most invariably used to buy land. And once a 

 man possesses land he sells it only in dire emer- 

 gency. This keen competition for a limited com- 

 modity pushes the price of land to fantastic 

 heights (p. 76). 



The case of Ignacio Estrada is illustrative of 

 the concept of land as a form of investment for 

 one's money. In 1939 he had the good fortune 

 to pick up three hectares of the finest lakeshore 

 land for SI, 200. In 1945 he refused an off'er 

 of $20,000. What would he do with the money? 

 By itself it was worth nothing, and since pay- 

 ment would be in paper it would have the added 

 disadvantage of being subject to destruction, 

 theft, or depreciation. The only thing to do 

 would be to buy more land, and the odds would 

 be against getting land as good as that which 

 he already had. "What would I have done with 

 all that paper?" he asks, and that, to any Tzin- 

 tzuntzeno, would be the final answer. "And if 

 the offer had been for silver, Ignacio?" Yes, 

 that was a theoretical question at least, and the 

 answer would require some thought. But since 

 no such off^er would be made, why worry about 

 it? 



All of the land of the municipio, except town 

 lots, presumably is registered in the office of 

 the State tax collector. These records include 

 14 books each with 200 accounts, some of which 

 are, of course, canceled out through sale since 

 the municipio books were set up in 1931. With 

 the aid of the tax collector property owned by 

 persons in Tzintzuntzan, Ichupio, and the Ojo, 

 and property in the immediate vicinity of these 

 three settlements, was listed. The principal re- 

 sult of the work was to see how thoroughly 

 unreliable tax records are as a guide to land 

 ownership. In Tzintzuntzan, 99 male landown- 

 ers and 36 female landowners, a total of 135, 

 are listed in the current accounts. They own 

 property assessed at approximately $43,000 on 

 which taxes of about $557 should be paid. The 

 areas of only 18 of the holdings of the 135 

 individuals are indicated; in a sample milpa 

 known, listed at 10 ares, measurement showed 

 it to be 62 ares. Most are named, follow- 

 ing local custom, and others are simply listed 



