QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MTINICIPIO — BRAND 



55 



At present, so they claim, all but five heads of 

 family in El Calvario are active agrarian members 

 of the ejido, and these five are not members be- 

 cause the priest has told them that they would be 

 damned forever should they receive lands from the 

 Government. Effectively, the heads of family in 

 El Calvario constitute the Comunidad Indigena 

 and also the ejidatarios of the Ejido de Quiroga. 

 The members of the local ejidal administrative 

 committee are considered to be the representa- 

 tives of and spokesmen for the Indian community 

 of the Barrio del Calvario in both internal and ex- 

 ternal matters — whether political or pertaining to 

 lands. It thus appears that the Ejido de Quu'oga 

 and the Comunidad de Indigenas de Quiroga are 

 today one and the same entity. 



THE EJIDO DE QUIROGA 



In 1915 two men, representing the Barrio del 

 Calvario and the extinct Comunidad de Indigenas 

 de Quiroga, petitioned the Governor of Michoacan 

 (in accordance with the agrarian law of January 

 of that year) for a restitution of lands formerly 

 held or claimed by the Comunidad de Indigenas 

 de Quiroga. These claimed lands were in the 

 possession of mdividuals in Santa Fe, Tzintzunt- 

 zan, Patambicho, Corrales, Atzimbo, and Quiroga, 

 and in many instances had not been in the posses- 

 sion of Cocupao-Quiroga for more than 300 years. 

 At this time (1915-16) it was stated that the 

 community of Quiroga held no community lands. 

 In May of 1918 the petitioners from Quiroga 

 admitted that it was impossible for them to 

 present all the necessary documents to obtain 

 restitution of usurped lands, and they changed 

 their petition for restitution to a request for a 

 grant of new lands {dotacion). The agrarian 

 committee in Morelia made the change to a 

 request for a dofacion in January of 1920. Then 

 there was an unexplained lag of 9 years until 

 August of 1929 when a census was takea of the 

 Calvario community which showed only 36 men 

 with rights to a dotacion. In October of 1929 the 

 engineer representing the National agrarian 

 committee confirmed the results of the census, 

 and projected a tentative ejidal grant on lands 

 belongmg to the Spanish Berrueco brothers in 

 the Hacienda or Rancho de Sajo, to Sra. Beatriz 

 Palacios Viuda de Ponce in La Tirimicua, and to 

 Sra. Soledad Tovar Viuda de Villanueva that 



were scattered hi Icuacato. In November of 

 1929 the Governor of Michoacan resolved in 

 favor of an ejido of 217.5 hectares taken entirely 

 from the Berrueco lands in Sajo, and provisional 

 possession was given the ejidatarios on December 

 17, 1929. Although a local administrative com- 

 mittee {Comite Particular Administrativo Agrario 

 del Ejido de la Villa de Quiroga) was organized 

 m December 1929, apparently there was little 

 activity on or concerning the ejido until 1931. 

 In June of 1931 the ejido boundaries were surveyed 

 (a poor job); crops were planted, harvested and 

 accounted for to the agrarian administration; a 

 census was taken m April which showed 78 

 Individuals with rights to obtain or participate 

 m a dotacion; and on October 11, 1931, a presi- 

 dential resolution confirmed the ejido. Definitive 

 possession was granted on April 10, 1932, by which 

 time the ejido had been extended to include 606.38 

 hectares (565.68 from the lands of the Berrueco 

 brothers, and 40.70 from the lands of the widow 

 of Villanueva). Presumably each ejidatario (of 

 the 78) had a parcel of 5 hectares of good dry- 

 farming land {temporal primera) or 8 hectares of 

 second-class dry-farming land and brush land 

 {temporal de segunda y monte alto). A careful 

 survey March 9, 1934 (at which time permanent 

 monuments were placed on the boundaries of the 

 ejido), showed that the majority of the ejido 

 comprised the nonarable lava flow or Malpais de 

 Icuacato. Presumably the ejido contained 16.70 

 hectares of temporal de primera, 216.40 hectares of 

 temporal de segunda, and 373.28 hectares of 

 monte alto, which works out almost exactly the 

 theoretical proportions of each class of land that 

 sliould be available per ejidatario. The ejidatarios 

 of El Calvario estimate that each one does not 

 average more than 20 litros de sembradura de maiz 

 (a variable acreage because of differences in spacing 

 of the seed and numbers planted, but in no case 

 amounting to more than 2.5 hectares of arable 

 land). Consequently the ejidatarios must supple- 

 ment their agricultural mcome by making bateas 

 (wooden bowls) and domg other types of work 

 that may be available when they are not occupied 

 with their fields. In 1935 the ejidatarios requested 

 an extension of lands {ampliacion) at the expense 

 of some of their large landholding neighbors from 

 El Centre, but these landholders protested that 

 they owned only small properties that were within 

 the maximum limits set by the agrarian code. 



