quiroga: a MEXICAN MTJNICIPIO — BRAND 



65 



Michoacan)"' makes the area 100 sq. km. Accept- 

 ing the largest estimate of 120 (which we beHeve 

 is somewhat too large), we get a density of 72.2 

 persons to the square kilometer. This can be 

 compared with the figure of 19.4 for the State of 

 Michoacan, and 54.9 for the tiny State of Tlaxcala 

 which is the most densely populated state in 

 Mexico. At the most, the municipality of Qui- 

 roga contains less than 3K acres of land per 

 individual, and this includes mountain, lava flow, 

 and eroded barren slopes, as well as some arable 

 land. It will be noted that during the past nearly 

 130 years the population of the area covered by 

 the present municipality of Quiroga has oscillated 

 between about 5,000 and 10,000 or 12,000; that 

 of Quiroga and its ranches between about 2,700 

 and 5,500; and that of Quiroga town between 

 about 2,000 and 4,000. Unless the water supply 

 is increased materially, probably the above- 

 mentioned entities wUl never greatly exceed the 

 previously attained upper limits. Excess popu- 

 lation has been, and will continue to be, siphoned 

 off to the great labor markets of the large Mexican 

 cities, northern Mexico, and the United States. 

 For many years now Michoacan has been the 

 leading Mexican entity in the provision of manual 

 laborers or braceros for the United States, and 

 apparently Quiroga has provided more than her 

 share. This matter is considered elsewhere. 



POPULATION BY SEX 



Mexico is a land with a long-established popula- 

 tion, and as one consequence there is a slight 

 superiority of females over males — for both the 

 Republic of Mexico and the State of Michoacan, 

 the ratio is about 49 males to 51 females. Such a 

 condition has obtained in the Quiroga region for a 

 long time, as is shown by table 5. 



Table 5. — Distribution of population by sex 



1 Does not agree with totals. 



it> See: Mexico. Secretaria de Hacienda y CrSdito Pliblico, 1940. 



In 1930, while Tzintzuntzan was still iacluded 

 in the municipality, females constituted 50.97 per- 

 cent of the popidation, or almost exactly the state 

 and national percentage. In 1940 the figure had 

 changed to 50.14. This lowering of the proportion 

 of females to males may represent oxdy a higher 

 concentration in the Tzintzuntzan area that had 

 been withdrawn since the 1930 census. Within 

 the town of Quiroga proper, females comprised 

 51.11 percent of the population in 1940, but this 

 rose to 53.04 percent in 1945. Much of this change 

 may be attributed to the bracero program which 

 attracted so many men from Alichoacan in the 

 1940's, and also the much higher wages that labor 

 commanded in northern Mexico and the large 

 urban centers. An anomaly is the rather con- 

 sistent predominance of males over females ia the 

 ranchos. When the total area of Quiroga town 

 and its ranchos is considered the percentage of 

 females is found to be 50.03 in 1940 and 52.00 in 

 1945. The only explanation that occui's to us for 

 the local preponderance of males in the ranchos 

 is that the population there is almost entirely 

 agricultural, and since most of the families own 

 farm lands (excepting in the two minor ranchos of 

 Zirandangacho and La Tirimicua) there is plenty 

 of work for all. 



POPULATION BY AGE 



In our census we did not ask for the specific age 

 of individuals. The information is available in 

 the general census of 1940, and the general trends 

 probably have not changed much since that census. 

 We did list individuals as adults or children; aU 

 married individuals, boys more than 20 years of 

 age, and girls more than 17 years of age were con- 

 sidered to be adults, and all others were listed as 

 children. We give the information derived from 

 the censuses of 1940 and 1945, but the data are 

 not very reliable. In checking the civil register 

 and the ages given in the 1940 census we have 

 discovered a number of discrepancies. In evalu- 

 ating the data on ages a number of points must be 

 kept in mind. In the first place, most of the 

 individuals are not time- or calendar-conscious, and 

 often make honest mistakes in remembering their 

 age. The birthday or the saint's day is the 

 important thing to celebrate, and which year it 

 represents is not considered important. Individ- 

 uals between about 14 and 29 years of age are 

 usually much more accurate in their memoiy or 



