QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MinSflCIPIO — BRAND 



81 



diphtheria, scarlet fever, and meningitis have not 

 been important causes of death. More than 80 

 percent of those who die of whooping cough, 

 measles, dipththeria, "vomit" and smallpox are 

 under 15 years of age. Considering the entire 

 population, we can generalize that in years with 

 a comparatively low number of deaths there is 

 a more even distribution of deaths among the 

 various age groups — always excepting the infants 

 under 1 year. Approximately 3 percent of the 

 deaths are in the 15 to 19 age group, 14 percent 

 in the 20 to 39, 11 percent in the 40 to 59, and 

 19 percent in the 60 or older age group. 



SEX AND DEATH 



We did not analyze the age-scx-cause of death 

 relationship very thoroughly. However, it is 

 quite apparent that the mortality is greater both 

 absolutely and proportionately among males than 

 females from birth until at least the age of 19. 

 Probably the females maintain an advantage for 

 10 or 15 more years, since deaths in childbirth 

 are far offset by violent deaths among males. 

 Among the children under 15 we did not find any 

 cause of death in which there were proportionately 

 more females than males. Among adults there 

 appeared to be a slight preponderance of female 

 deaths from such causes as tumor, cancer, rheu- 

 matism, and senile exhaustion. 



NATURAL INCREASE IN POPULATION 



From 1940 to 1945 inclusive, there were 1,139 

 births and 512 deaths in Quiroga and its ranchos. 

 This represents a net increase of 627 individuals, 

 which yields a rate of about 26.1 per thousand 

 inhabitants per year. This can be compared 

 with the national average of 20.4 and the average 

 for Michoacdn of 22.3 (computed for the period 

 1936-40). In other words, Quiroga has an amiual 

 rate of increase of about 2.6 percent. However, it 

 must be kept in mind that this is the natural rate 

 of increase, and no allowances have been made for 

 migration into and out from Quiroga. Actually, 

 between the March 6, 1940, census and our census 

 (which can be considered as of June 30, 1945) 

 there were 945 bhths and 449 deaths, for a net 

 gain of 496. Nevertheless, the gain indicated 

 between the two censuses was only 260, which 

 would indicate that 236 were away temporarily 

 (braceros et al.) or had moved permanently. 



ORIGINS OF THE POPULATION 



The population of Quiroga and its ranchos is 

 predominantly of local origin. From a study of 

 the civU and parish records (where place of birth 

 is given with nearly every inscription) it would 

 be possible to make an exact study of the origins 

 of the population for the past 150 years, but we 

 contented ourselves with the returns of the 1940 

 census and of our census of 1945. The Federal 

 census of 1940 gives only the State or country of 

 birth and the nationahty. In 1945 we obtained 

 not only State or country of birth, but also birth- 

 place within Michoacdn. The results are given 

 in tables 18 and 19. 



Table 18. — Origins of inhabitants of Quiroga, according to 

 1940 and 1945 censuses 



At first glance it would appear that the number 

 of out-of-state residents had almost trebled be- 

 tween 1940 and 1945. We have reason to believe 

 that the 1940 census takers overlooked a number, 



