CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



West of Lake Patzcuaro and south of La 

 Canada is the rugged area known as La Sierra, 

 extending as far west as the town of Tinguindin. 

 This region is relatively homogeneous, with an 

 essentially temperate climate. Although the 

 elevation of towns varies from about 6,000 feet 

 to about 9,000 feet, generally the temperature 

 is cool. Heavy rainfall and the presence of 

 numerous 10,000-foot peaks apparently com- 

 bine to prevent cultivation of most subtropical 

 plants. Extensive steep, forested slopes and 

 lava flows are interspersed with numerous val- 

 leys and depressions in a high state of cultiva- 

 tion. Only in the west, where rainfall appar- 

 ently is less, are a few tovvms favored by a 

 milder climate. South of La Cafiada and about 

 equidistant from Uruapan, Zacapu, and Patzcu- 

 aro is Cheran, largest of the mountain Tarascan 

 towns and, until very recent years, one of the 

 most isolated. 



Situated on a sloping bench, Cheran looks 

 westwai'd over a long depression, dotted with 

 villages and interrupted here and there by 

 cinder cones rising as much as a thousand feet 

 above the depression (pi. 1, upper and lower, 

 left). North and south of Cheran, the series 

 of peaks which bound the depression to the west 

 culminate in two 10,000-foot cones. Eastward 

 is another smaller basin of fertile soil, similarly 

 marked by cinder cones and by the striking 

 isolated volcanic peak of El Pilon, also over 

 10,000 feet in height. 



Except for occasional marginal farm clear- 

 ings, the steeper slopes, and those areas where 

 relatively recent lava flows make cultivation 

 impossible, are covered with forest. The pre- 

 dominant species are three or four types of 

 pine, but completely pure stands are rarely 

 found. Usually there is a fair intermixture 

 of oak and madroiia, while, beginning at the 

 level of Cheran, fir trees occur and increase in 

 number at higher elevations. These forest 

 lands provide one of the important resources of 

 the Cheran population. 



Wherever the land is sufficiently level to per- 

 mit regular cultivation, the forest has been al- 

 most entirely cleared away. In many places, 

 areas hundreds of acres in extent are contin- 

 uously cultivated. Maize and, to a much smal- 

 ler extent, wheat, are almost the only field 

 crops. Cultivation of these, plus exploitation 



of the forest resources and the breeding of a 

 few sheep and cattle, provide the sustenance of 

 the great majority of Cheran's population. 



The town of Cheran has a population of 

 about 5,000. The community is unique among 

 Tarascan towns, not only for its large size — 

 almost 2,000 more than that of any other 

 settlement — but because the viunicipio of the 

 same name contains only two, unimportant 

 rancherias. Most viunicipios in the Tarascan 

 area consist of one moderately large settlement, 

 the cabecera, and a surrounding group of small 

 settlements known as tenencias, and still smal- 

 ler communities known as rancherias or by 

 other classificatory terms. Usually the total 

 populations of these municipios approximate 

 the population of Cheran or even exceed it. 

 Consequently, the unique feature of the municip- 

 io of Cheran is the concentration of almost 

 the entire population in the cabecera. 



Despite the concentration of population in the 

 cabecera, the municipio of Cheran comprises 

 a large area. Much of this area is mountain 

 and forest, but there are many relatively large 

 tracts of arable land (maps 2, 3). This cir- 

 cumstance, in part at least, has been the cause 

 of numerous boundary disputes and some loss 

 of territory. The most notable recent loss of 

 territory has been the secession of the one 

 tenencia of Cheran, the rather large settlement 

 of Cheranastico to the northwest, which seceded 

 in 1939 and joined the municipio of Paracho. 

 The immediate cause of this secession again 

 appears to have been a boundary dispute be- 

 tween the tenencia and the cabecera. 



Cheran differs from the ordinary Tarascan 

 agricultural village only in size. Throughout 

 the area the type of settlement is the compact 

 village. Probably in most cases the villages 

 represent settlements of Spanish type, with a 

 central plaza about which are the church 

 (sometimes not actually on the plaza), the 

 municipal building, and, more recently, the 

 school. From the central plaza radiates a 

 rectangular grid of streets, modified only where 

 necessitated by the irregular terrain (maps 

 4, -5). Li the case of a large settlement such 

 as Cheran, there usually exists some fragmen- 

 tary legend of origin of the settlement through 

 amalgamation of aboriginal groups dispersed 



