CHERAN: a sierra TAEASCAN village — BEALS 



63 



Ownership of livestock similarly poses ques- 

 tions. The wealthy man who keeps a consider- 

 able number of bulls whose main use seems to 

 be to enhance his social prestige by having the 

 bulls selected for riding at a fiesta may also sell 

 them for beef if he needs money for productive 

 enterprises. Sheep are capital in much the 

 same sense that land is capital. A yoke of 

 oxen or a burro may be used to aid production 

 and are also rented. A horse, on the other 

 hand, is close to a "conspicuous expenditure." 



Probably the minimal capital required in 

 Cheran is for the production of certain services. 

 A water carrier needs only two 25-liter oil cans, 

 a bit of rope, and a piece of wood to make a 

 yoke. A tabia maker (one producing heavy 

 hewn planks or beams) needs only an ax and 

 some oak wedges he cuts out himself, and 10 

 pesos to join the cooperative (formerly he 

 would have needed only enough to pay the tax 

 for use of communal lands). A digging stick 

 and a knife would suffice to gather raiz de paja, 

 while herbs need only a bit of cloth to tie them 

 in. At the other extreme are the owners of 

 threshing machines, nixtamal mills, or trucks, 

 the latter requiring a cash outlay of between 8 

 and 10 thousand pesos. 



For the farmer, aside from land, very few 

 capital goods are necessary. Ox teams and 

 plows may be rented and paid for out of the 

 crop ; even land may be secured on a sharecroi) 

 basis. A special machete for weeding is, in 

 fact, the only indispensable tool. Such farm- 

 ing, however, will bring a relatively small 

 return, probably little, if any, more than could 

 be earned by a hired laborer. 



At the other extreme, a landowner, farming 

 his own land, should own an ox team, yoke, 

 plow, machete, burros, and nets for transport- 

 ing the crop, adequate storage facilities, and 

 sufficient cash to hire labor at crucial periods 

 such as planting and harvesting. A man so 

 situated will reap the best possible return from 

 his labor. 



The major investment of a farmer is in land, 

 storage facilities, and livestock. His ox yoke 

 and plow he may make himself, and the few 

 metal tools needed are not costly. In general, 

 the investment in tools and equipment is much 

 less than that required in manufacturing or 

 some service occupations. A sew-ing machine 



is more costly than all the farmer's tools, espe- 

 cially the heavy type required to make hats. 

 Even the sandal maker's lasts, hammers, and 

 knives probably are more expensive than farm 

 equipment. 



CREDIT, LOANS, AND INTEREST 



No organized credit facilities exist in the 

 village, but money loans are sometimes made. 

 Storekeepers are perhaps the only group who 

 consistently make use of credit and who also 

 often make loans if they have capital. The 

 major use of credit by storekeepers is to buy 

 goods, especially cloth. Sometimes a down 

 payment is made on cloth, the balance being 

 paid when the cloth is sold. This facility seems 

 to be extended primarily by wholesalers in 

 Purepero. Most ordinary store transactions, 

 whether buying or selling, are for cash. 



One storekeeper also makes cash loans, main- 

 ly to butchers and nixtamal operators, who are 

 apt to need considerable sums for a short time. 

 The reported interest rate is 10 percent a month. 



Other credit transactions are of two kinds. 

 Most significant is the lending of money for 

 which lands are given as security, known as the 

 empefio de terrenos. In this type of transac- 

 tion, the lender takes possession of the lands 

 and utilizes them until the debt is repaid. The 

 owner in the meantime must pay all taxes on 

 the land. In other ca.ses the lender does not 

 take possession of the lands unless the debt is 

 not repaid at the end of a term agreed upon. 

 In either case, should the land have a standing 

 crop at the time the lender takes possession, 

 the crop is divided equally between the bor- 

 rower and lender. There are some cases, al- 

 though relatively few compared with the situa- 

 tion in many parts of Mexico, where lands have 

 been held and cultivated by the lender for many 

 years.'-'- The owners have been unable to pay 

 the debt but have continued year after year 

 paying the taxes, in hopes ultimately of redeem- 

 ing the land. 



— In some parts of Mexico this is an extremely common form of 

 exploitation. I have been told of regions where families have 

 Ecciuired control of large areas by encouraging small landowners 

 to go into debt to them. The lenders have, in effect, established 

 haciendas, but have been overlooked in the general agrarian reforms 

 because the lands appear on the government records as belonging 

 to numerous small owners. Often, ironically enough, the land- 

 owners are hired laborers working their own property in a futile 

 effort to redeem their debts, but they never succeed in doing more 

 than maintaining a large estate tax-free for the wealthy hacendado. 



oOfiSeO— 46- 



