56 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



This matter dragged along until 1938 when another 

 ejidal census was taken (which showed a minimura 

 of 60 individuals with ejidal rights), and a presi- 

 dential resolutioii was issued in favor of the 

 ampliacion provided that no umocent or "im- 

 mune" third parties were injured. The authorized 

 expansion was never carried out because there 

 were no available lands {por imposibilidad 

 material). At present the 68 ejidatarios farm 

 between 75 and 150 hectares annually in the 

 arable lands of the ejido, which are all m Icuacato 

 at distances between 3 and 7 miles by trail from 

 El Calvario. 



The history of the local administration of the 

 ejido has been quite eventful. The first definite 

 organization was the three-man (president, secre- 

 tary, and treasurer, and their suplentes or alter- 

 nates) administrative committee which functioned 

 from December 1929 until October 1932. The 

 lands were apportioned in a fashion that was un- 

 satisfactory to many who did not belong to the 

 ruling clique (composed of Leocadio Martinez 

 and various members of the Valdovinos, Peiia, 

 Chagolla, Floras, Anita, and other families), and 

 apparently oidy about 40 out of the 78 ejidatarios 

 were able to harvest crops of wheat m June and 

 of maize in December of 1931. On October 4, 

 1932, a new committee was elected by 53 active 

 ejidatarios, which committee functioned until 

 February of 1935. In 1932 the agrarian com- 

 mittee obtained the chapel of San Miguel for a 

 headquarters building, and in October of that year 

 local gangs (recruited from the peones or laborers 

 for the large landowners in the area) led by men 

 who had participated in the Cristero Revolution 

 of the 1920's terrorized the ejido with the tacit 

 support (so the ejidatarios claina) of the ijicumbent 

 municipal president. In February of 1935 a new 

 committee was elected (now termed Comisariado 

 Ejidal) which functioned until January of 1939. 

 This was the period of attempted expansion, of a 

 State-imposed municipal govenunent (1935 to 

 1937), of agrarian domination of the municipal 

 council (beginning with Jose Jesiis Chagolla who 

 succeeded the assassinated presidente in May of 

 1937), of much fighting between the people of 

 El Centro and of El Calvario, and of several 

 assassinations including Leocadio Martinez in 

 December of 1938. In 1938 the administration 

 was partly reorganized to include a supervisory or 

 vigilante committee {Consejo de Vigilancia) which 



also consisted of a president, a secretary, and a 

 treasurer. The two committees elected in January 

 1939 (for a 2-year period) ran into much difficulty 

 with numerous complaints of lack of equity 

 among the allotments or parcels of land. Espe- 

 cially obstreperous were seven ejidatarios who con- 

 trolled good land out of all proportion and who 

 refused to obey the administrative committees. 

 In 1939 a cooperative was formed (Cooperativa 

 Forestal Quiroga) to work the forest products 

 (wood for bateas, charcoal, turpentine, lumber, 

 etc.) in the monies of the region which were under 

 the supervision of a forest inspector representing 

 the Federal Government. Conditions quieted 

 do\vn somewhat in 1940, and the history to date 

 has been comparatively quiet and bloodless. At 

 present the administrative committees are elected 

 for 3 years (1941-44, 1944-47, etc.). The ad- 

 ministrative group (Alesa Direcliva) while we were 

 m Quiroga was composed of 12 men elected by 

 the ejidatarios, and comprised the 3 members of 

 the Comisariado Ejidal and their 3 alternates 

 (President — Pedro Valdovmos and Maxmiiano 

 Valdovinos; Secretary — J. Carmen Chagolla and 

 Indalecio Chagolla; Treasiu-er — Martin Flores and 

 Forthio Salmer6n), and the 3 members of the 

 Consejo de Vigilancia and their 3 alternates (Pres- 

 ident — Jesus Chagolla and Miguel Valdovinos; 

 Secretary — Felix Flores and Basilio Peiia; Treas- 

 urer — R6mulo Flores and Pedro Ruiz) . The chief 

 function of the Consejo de Vigilancia at present 

 is to see that each ejidatario farms his parcel 

 in a proper manner. 



The title to the ejidal lands is vested in the 

 community known as the Ejido de Quiroga. This 

 land is inalienable. The regular State land tax is 

 paid by the community, but apparently only a 

 nominal acreage has been declared for the arable 

 portion of the ejido, since the tax rolls carry a list- 

 ing of only 75.34 hectares (valued at 9,099 pesos) 

 out of the 606.38 hectares in the entire ejido. The 

 ejidal lands consist of commons (pasture lands 

 and woodlands) and of the parcels which have 

 been allotted to the individual members of the 

 ejido. Certificates of allotment are issued to each 

 ejidatario, and these individual allotments are 

 registered in the National Agrarian Registry. 

 Theoretically every unmarried male over 16 years 

 of age, every married man regardless of his age, 

 and every woman who is the head and support of a 

 household, is a member of the ejidal corporation 



