CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



107 



represented in the fiesta. Each major tradi- 

 tional occupation is required to hire a band, and 

 the comisionados must raise the money by tak- 

 ing up a collection or by paying out of their 

 own pockets. A separate set of comisionados 

 is named to take up another collection to hire 

 music for the celebration of the Octava. Vol- 

 untary service is also given by the bee hunters. 

 The total comisionados for this fiesta probably 

 reaches 250. Cotnisionados for a fiesta often 

 put in many days of labor. 



One final type of comisionado should be men- 

 tioned, the men named to do communal labor. 

 Probably every eligible man has to put in 2 

 or 3 days a year on such work. This may 

 be for work assigned to a barrio, or it may be 

 some community-wide program such as cutting 

 poles for the erection of an electric light system. 



At a rough estimate, probably each man 

 eligible for commissions gives about 14 days or 

 nights of service a year to the community, if it 

 be taken into account that about half the adult 

 males are exempt for reason of age or service 

 such as office holding, school teaching, store 

 keeping, etc. However, the work is probably 

 very unevenly distributed, for there is no sys- 

 tematic method of assignment. A person who 

 raises many objections or who is not in proper 

 economic condition may evade many commis- 

 sions. For example, no right-minded mayor 

 would commission a poverty-stricken man to 

 bring out a moro. Consequently, persons who 

 are conscientious and do not complain are apt 

 to receive many more commissions than others. 



Reserva. — The reserva consists of 11 men 

 armed by the Government (State or Federal?) 

 with modern weapons and, in 1940, captained 

 by the real political boss of the town, Moises 

 Valencia. Although all were agreed that the 

 11 were chosen by the people, no one seemed 

 to have any idea of the mechanism of choice. 

 In all probability the group was chosen in the 

 same way Valencia was chosen political boss, 

 through aggressiveness in defense of town in- 

 terests and personal popularity. Even a town 

 the size of Cheran does not need formal elective 

 machinery at times in order to express popular 

 will, as will be seen in the discussion of elections. 

 During the disturbed period in Michoacan dur- 

 ing the installation of President Camacho, the 

 reserve received instructions from the military 



district commander to arrest all strangers and 

 send them to Uruapan. So far as I could learn, 

 nothing was done. 



Representative of the people. — The represent- 

 ative of the people or representante is named by 

 the people at a town meeting along with two 

 other persons, forming an administrative com- 

 mittee. The representative is the presidente of 

 the committee, another is a secretary, and the 

 third is an ordinary member or vocal. The ap- 

 pointments are confirmed by the Governor and 

 last until the people elect new ones at another 

 junta or town meeting. None of the members 

 receives any pay but the work is not onei'ous. 

 Usually signing a few papers is the major duty. 

 The reward, according to one member of the 

 committee, is in being selected as one of the 

 best "elements" in the town. 



The collection of funds for use of the forest 

 lands is done by the inevitable comisionado 

 system. With the approval and, if necessary, 

 the backing of the mayor and aiiuntamiento, the 

 committee names the comisionados who collect 

 28 centavos from each householder every 2 

 months for the right to cut firewood on public 

 lands. This money is used to pay the Federal 

 taxes. 



At present no one is supposed to cut wood 

 for lumber, charcoal, posts, etc., without secur- 

 ing a permit from the forestry service. (As 

 indicated elsewhere, efforts were being made to 

 concentrate all activity in the hands of a 

 cooperative. The description here is of condi- 

 tions before organization of the cooperative.) 

 To prevent unauthorized exploitation of the 

 forests by Cheran residents, or poaching by 

 persons from other towns, a forester is em- 

 ployed to patrol the woods. The source of pay 

 of the forester is obscure, but he is entitled to 

 make use of a certain amount of fallen timber 

 on his own account and if he encounters 

 poachers from other towns (such as Zacapu, 

 Carapan, and Purepero), he may either con- 

 fiscate their products and sell them or charge 

 the poachers 20 or 25 centavos for each burro 

 load. The proceeds are kept by the forester. 



The institution of the representante is rea- 

 sonably old ; at least it has been in existence as 

 long as men now living. While the representa- 

 tive apparently has no official responsibility, if 

 things go wrong he is blamed. In 1939, a 



