QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MTINICIPIO — BRAND 



57 



and is entitled to a parcel. However, no indi- 

 vidual may acquire more than one allotment or 

 parcel, even by marriage or inheritance. Since 

 there is not enough arable land available to make 

 allotments to all who are eligible, allotments are 

 made in conformity with the agrarian code which 

 gives preference according to age, size of family, 

 length of residence, and other factors. The un- 

 married boys between 16 and 21 and the old single 

 men over 50 are at the bottom of the eligibility list. 

 Practically speaking the certificates of allotment 

 constitute titles, and the parcels can be trans- 

 mitted from father to son (providing that the son 

 does not already possess an allotment). How- 

 ever, protracted absence from the community, 

 unexcused failure to cultivate the parcel, and a 

 few other reasons are cause for the parcel to revert 

 to the community to be reallotted to the person 

 at the head of the waiting list of eligibles. The 

 ejidatarios of Quiroga do not reside on the ejido, 

 and a number of them possess private properties — 

 which they may do, providing that the area of the 

 private holding is less that that of the allotment. 

 SLx residents in El Calvario own rural property, 

 and 52 own urban property — and most of these 

 owners are also ejidatarios. 



INDIVIDUAL PRIVATE PROPERTY 



The remainder of the property in Quiroga be- 

 longs to individuals. By law the church may not 

 own property, and no agricultural landowning 

 corporations are allowed, excepting the ejidal 

 community. However, two or more farmers may 

 own jointly a small piece of property which they 

 farm collectively. 



LAND REGISTRY AND TAXATION 



All of the real estate in Quiroga and its municipal 

 area theoretically (according to the Federal and 

 State constitutions) must be recorded in the local 

 tax office. At the time of initial recording or 

 listing the pertinent papers {escrituras or titulos) 

 must be presented for inspection. These papers 

 are commonly of four types: (1) a few individuals 

 from Quii'oga (none to our knowledge) may have 

 inscribed their lands (after proving a clear title) 

 in the Gran Registro de la Propiedad in Mexico City 

 and, if so, would have certified copies of the in- 

 scription; (2) a few property owners in Quiroga 

 have registered then- titles in the State Eegistro 



835847—50 5 



Publico de la Propiedad in Alorelia, and have 

 certified clear titles; (3) the majority possess 

 escrituras (bill-of-sale or transfer of property) 

 executed before the local juez menor (at which 

 time a comprobante or voucher would be made out 

 by the judge and sent to the tax collector's office) 

 or notarized at some Juzgado de Notaria Publica 

 in Morelia or other large city; and (4) a few 

 individuals have titles that were executed during 

 the colonial period. Periodically, dm-ing the 

 colonial period and more recently, titles to all 

 properties were inspected and lists or padrones 

 of properties and taxpayers were compiled for the 

 guidance of the tax collectors. In Michoacdn 

 titles were vindicated and registered in 1843, 

 1867-71, and in 1915. There are still a few 

 Quiroga titles that are in the pre-1915 status, and 

 many pieces of property that have been acquired 

 since 1915 by purchase or long undisputed occu- 

 pation have not been declared. Each year there 

 appear on the tax rolls several pieces of property 

 with the notation "not listed previously" or 

 "unlcnown to the treasury" (ignorado del fisco). 

 All taxes on real estate are collected in the State 

 tax collector's office (receptoria de rentas) in Qui- 

 roga town. The present office is in a private home 

 on Calle Ocampo. The State is divided into a 

 number of tax districts, one of which has its head- 

 quarters or administracion in Pdtzcuaro, and Qui- 

 roga depends from the Pdtzcuaro office. The 

 receptoria in Quiroga directly covers all of the 

 present municipality of Quiroga, and sub-recep- 

 torias in Tzintzuntzan and Teremendo are attached 

 nominally to Quiroga. The Quiroga office con- 

 sists of one dark unlighted room, several desks, 

 tables, chairs, and bookstands, and the archives. 

 The staft" consists of the receptor or recaudador (tax 

 collector) and two assistants who look up records 

 and make entries in ink. In recent years at least 

 none of the tax collectors has been a native of 

 Quiroga, and their stay is commonly only a few 

 years. The previous tax collector was in Quiroga 

 from 1941 to 1945, and the present tax collector 

 (Don Antonio CasteUanos Mendez) took over 

 April 8, 1945. Although the tax office in Quiroga 

 was a going concern in 1843 (and possibly as early 

 as 1824), the archives contain no records earlier 

 than 1907. The records consist of three chrono- 

 logic groups of large leather-and-board bound 

 volumes. Each group comprises 2 series of sepa- 

 rately numbered volumes: 1 for urban properties 



