64 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 

 Table ^.— Population, 1882-1945 



1 Tzintzuntzan was a part of the municipality of Quiroga. 



' The remainder of the 1910 data are available, but my library is not at hand and this census is lacking in the University of Michigan library. 



tered between 1868 and 1879 can be attributed 

 to the addition of the population of Tzintzuntzan 

 and its dependencies. The changes registered 

 from 1879 to 1882 to 1889 in the municipality and 

 in the town of Quiroga indicate a rather slow but 

 consistent gain in the municipality, although the 

 lack of change from 1879 to 1882 in the town of 

 Quiroga is suspicious. There was a slow decline 

 in the municipality, and a faster decline in 

 Quiroga and its ranchos between 1889 and 1910. 

 What could have occasioned this is uncertain, 

 although the coming of railroads into the region 

 during this period undoubtedly contributed to 

 the reduction of the importance of Quiroga as a 

 transportation and trade center. Apparently the 

 high-water marks in the population and impor- 

 tance of Quiroga and its municipality were reached 

 between 1852 and 1862 (when Quiroga became a 

 mJla, and then capital of a district), and again 

 between 1887 and 1907 (when there was the 

 greatest agricultural, industrial, and construction 

 activity in the history of Quiroga). Between 1910 

 and 1921 Quiroga participated in the great re- 

 gression produced by the revolution. Low-water 

 actually was reached between 1914 and 1918, 

 when portions of the town were sacked and 

 burned, and some suburbs were abandoned. 

 There was a general movement away from the 

 ranchos and from Quiroga itself to larger centers 

 of population which were not at the mercy of the 

 bandit and revolutionary groups that preyed on so 

 much of Michoacan and Mexico at this period. 

 Between 1920 and 1930 there was some natural 

 growth, but much of the growth is locally attrib- 

 uted to the return of natives from the United 

 States and other parts of Mexico. There is in- 

 dicated a sUght increase in Quiroga, and in the 



area of the present municipaUty, from 1930 to 

 the present, although the ranchos have gained 

 proportionately more. The population figures 

 derived from the building census of 1939 can be 

 disregarded since that census was not primarily 

 concerned with population. The very small gain 

 between 1930 and 1940, and even smaller rate of 

 gain indicated between 1940 and 1945, for the 

 town of Quiroga is the most striking phenomenon 

 in the recent population history of Quiroga. 



According to official Mexican statistics, the 

 increase of population for all Mexico between 1930 

 and 1940 was 18.7 percent, and for the State of 

 Michoacan it was 12.7 percent. During this 

 period, for the area covered by the present munici- 

 pality of Quiroga the increase was only 9.4 per- 

 cent, and for Quiroga town and its ranchos the 

 increase was a trifle less than 9.1 percent. Such 

 a small rate of increase, despite the improvement 

 of business due to highway improvement in this 

 period, is difficult to e.xplam. Part of the explan- 

 ation rests in the birth and mortality rates which 

 are discussed later. However, probably the re- 

 sources of the natural enviromnent in the area are 

 so strictly circumscribed that growth (natural 

 increase or total growth) never will be considerable. 

 Undoubtedly the insufficiency of water for irriga- 

 tion and for domestic consumption is the single 

 greatest limiting factor. A comparison of densi- 

 ties further indicates that Quiroga probably will 

 not grow greatly in the future. The 1940 census 

 gives the present municipality of Quiroga a density 

 of 105.76 persons per square kilometer. Mathe- 

 matically this density would make the area of the 

 municipality about 82 sq. km., although the 1940 

 census credits Quiroga with 120 sq. km., and the 

 Secretaria de Hacienda (in its 1940 monograph on 



