CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — SEALS 



111 



In relation to external politics, most Cheran 

 inhabitants have little interest. There are many 

 people who are willing to take a free ride to 

 some big rally for one or another presidential 

 candidate, eat heartily of the free meal, and 

 cheer the candidate's speech enthusiastically. 

 The following week they are quite as ready to 

 accept the hospitality of the opposing candidate, 

 and at election time be too disinterested to vote. 

 Not only is interest lacking, but there is con- 

 siderable cynicism about the external Govern- 

 ment agencies. As one humble farmer re- 

 marked, "Almazdn o Camacho, ique nos im- 

 porta? Aqui siempre estamos en la riata — 

 Almazan or Camacho, what does it matter to 

 us? Here we are always in the noose." 



Some interest is also awakened by the dis- 

 covery of the Indians as a colorful adjunct to 

 ceremonials. At the inauguration of Camacho 

 as president, some Federal agency (probably 

 the Departamento Avtonomo de Asimtos 

 Indigenas) took the town officials, the band, and 

 a group of moro dancers to Mexico City. The 

 Cheran citizens lucky enough to get such a trip 

 are always pleased, but it is doubtful whether 

 they are much interested in the reasons. 



FISCAL SYSTEM 



Just as the economy of Cheran in general is 

 partly a money economy, the governmental 

 system is also based partly on money. The 

 presence of hired officials immediately requires 

 some form of cash income for the town. This 

 income is derived from the following sources: 



1. Taxes on each beef slaughtered. 



2. Taxes of $1.15 on each bill of sale for an 

 animal. 



3. Fines. 



4. Business licenses. These are collected 

 by the State tax collector, who remits 40 percent 

 of collections to the municipal treasury. 



5. Registration of brands. Every cattle 

 brand must be registered and the registry re- 

 newed in the first 3 months of each year. This 

 is the biggest source of income for the muni- 

 cipio. Three pesos are collected by the muni- 

 cipio, which also collects and remits 30 centavos 

 to the State government and 15 centavos to the 

 Federal Government for each brand. 



6. Market tax (piso de plaza) . Every 

 vender in the plaza on Saturdays and at the 



fiestas (except Corpus) must pay a small tax 

 based on the amount of space occupied. In- 

 come from this source averages $5 or $6 weekly. 



7. Cei'tification of documents. This is 

 rather rare, consisting of charges for copies 

 of documents, marriage or birth records, etc. 



8. Taxes on forest products. All forest 

 products sold outside the community are taxed 

 by the Federal Government and must be accom- 

 panied by a certificate of origin. Dealers in 

 the large centers pay the tax, surrendering the 

 certificate of origin. The Federal Government 

 then remits 30 percent of the tax to the State 

 government and 20 percent to the municipal 

 government. 



It should be noted that real estate taxes in 

 Mexico are a monopoly of the Federal Govern- 

 ment and there are no local taxes. Ten percent 

 of all local collections other than the registry 

 of brands is paid to the State government and 

 5 percent to the Federal Government. 



The income from all these sources varies. 

 In the first 3 months of the year it may exceed 

 $300 a month. At other times it may be as 

 low as $125 a month. In the year Pedro 

 Chavez was treasurer it totaled about $1,800. 

 In 1940 it must have been considerably higher, 

 but the investigators were already sufficiently 

 on sufferance to be unable to demand access to 

 the current town records. 



Expenditures against income are as follows : 



Per Tnonth 



Two policemen at $0.75 (a third 



policeman was added in 1941) $45.50 



Municipal secretary 45.00 



Court secretary 30.00 



Treasurer (25 percent of income 

 at an estimated $150 montiily 

 average) 37.50 



Monthly average $158.00 



In addition, there are some occasional small 

 irregular expenditures, for instance, painting 

 the plaza benches for a fiesta etc. These are 

 small, for the regular expenses pretty well use 

 up the regular income. The treasury usually 

 has only 2 or 3 pesos in it at the end of the year 

 and often shows a small deficit of 10 or even 20 

 pesos. For this reason, unusual expenditures 

 are financed by a collection. 



The treasurer is required to make three types 

 of reports, one to the Federal Treasury Depart- 



