EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



181 



leave office they fight like everything to be re- 

 elected. They don't want to leave office." The 

 largest source of income for the president is 

 his share, averaging about $6 per couple, of the 

 charge for marrying people. Since up to 300 

 marriages may occur in one year, this is very 

 worth while. He also receives a part of most 

 fines levied, both in cash and produce. Often, 

 if the person pleads lack of money, the presi- 

 dent will say, "Bring me 20 adobes," or 50 tiles, 

 or a turkey, or whatever can be agreed upon. 

 There are also other means by which the presi- 

 dent can profit by his office. 



Judges have no fixed salaries, and support 

 themselves, aside from their own normal trades, 

 by the fines which they levy. The judge's sec- 

 retary receives, in addition to a salary of SI. 25 

 daily, a small part of each fine. The police- 

 man, who actually puts little time on the job, 

 is remunerated at the rate of $0.75 daily when 

 he works. 



ELECTIONS 



For purposes of elections the municipio is 

 divided into five sections. In theory Tzintzun- 

 tzan with Ichupio, Tarerio, and Ucasanastacua 

 forms one section, Ihuatzio a second, with the 

 other three divided among the remaining vil- 

 lages. In practice, in order to give Tzintzuntzan 

 greater control, each of the four cuarteles is 

 assigned to a separate section so that, for prac- 

 tical purposes, Tzintzuntzan controls the elec- 

 tions. Very few persons from other villages come 

 to vote, so a few votes from each of the four 

 cuarteles is sufficient to determine the winner. 

 Three regidores, or councilmen, are elected in 

 the odd years and two in the even, so that there 

 is no break in council functioning. These elec- 

 tions, held on the first Sunday in December, vary 

 somewhat from accepted procedure, partly be- 

 cause of lack of knowledge of correct electoral 

 procedure and of imperfectly understood State 

 laws governing such affairs, and partly because 

 officials usually wish to perpetuate themselves 

 or their friends in office. The election of 1945 

 afforded a good deal of comic relief to the dead- 

 ly seriousness with which it was organized. Po- 

 litical talk began in October, and there was 

 talk of candidates being submitted by the PRM,^ 



1 Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana, the party which 

 emerged from the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and which has 

 remained in power ever since. Before the national elections 

 of 1946 the neime was changed to PRI, Partido Revoluciona- 

 no Institucional. 



by the agrarian group, by the Sinarquistas, and 

 by a vague group known as the Sector Popular, 

 which in some way was supposed to represent 

 the "independent" voters. 



As matters turned out, the retiring president, 

 himself a Sinarquista, presented a list to the 

 local State deputy of Tzintzuntzan for approval, 

 which was accepted. No other lists were com- 

 pleted. Theoretically each registered male should 

 receive a credential from the president. In prac- 

 tice, not all credentials were distributed. Elec- 

 tion day found three voting tables in the presi- 

 dencia (apparently there should have been four, 

 corresponding to the electoral districts of the 

 municipio). Almost no voters came from other 

 villages. Each voter legally should vote for 

 three regidores from a larger list. Actually there 

 were only three men on the ballot, so their elec- 

 tion was certain. Each credential told the voter 

 at which table he should vote, where he was 

 presented with a ballot with one name only, 

 which he had the option of marking or not 

 marking. When a few objected, arguing that 

 they wanted to vote for other candidates as well, 

 they were indignantly told by the president that 

 at their table one must vote for the indicated 

 candidate — their credential clearly told them 

 which was their table, and to please stop trying 

 to make the election a disorderly affair. After 

 voting, the boxes were kept sealed for 3 days, 

 as provided by Federal law, after Vv'hich the men 

 in charge of each table formally met, counted 

 votes, and announced the election of the new 

 regidores. As matters turned out, two of the 

 three new regidores were generally acceptable 

 to the community, and when the new president, 

 Marcial Rojas of Cucuchucho, a Tarascan, was 

 announced, there were few grumblings on the 

 part of the villagers. Hence, in spite of certain 

 deviations from strict democratic procedure, the 

 new municipal government was probably as com- 

 petent as could have been selected through any 

 other method. 



Interestingly, elected officials usually are very 

 young men. Zeferino Villagomez, president in 

 1945, was 28. Guillermo Morales, sindico, was 

 25. Very rarely is an elected official past his 

 30's. This accent on youth is rather hard to 

 explain, but apparently it is due, in part, at 

 least, to the feeling that government service is 

 an obligation of all able-bodied males, and that 

 it is desirable to acquire the status which accrues 



