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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — ^PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



LOCAL AND TEMPORARY MOVEMENTS OF 

 POPULATION 



Within the municipaUty there is a considerable 

 movement of families from one quarter of Quiroga 

 to another, and between town and the ranches of 

 La Tirimicua and Zirandangacho. In part this 

 is an attempt to get closer to the place or area of 

 employment or work; but more importantly it is 

 a shifting from one rented house to another, which 

 shifts are conditioned by availability and rental 

 rates. According to the 1940 census 61 percent 

 of the families lived in their own houses, but this 

 does not provide a true picture of the condition 

 in the town of Quiroga since nearly all of the 

 rancho families (excepting in Zirandangacho) 

 own their homes, while in Quiroga proper the 

 percentage is reduced to 51. Although we did 

 not keep a complete check on local movements 

 while we were in Quiroga, it was our impression 

 that about 10 percent of the families shifted quar- 

 ters within town during the period January 1945 

 to February 1946. 



Most of the traveling is restricted to a radius of 

 some 30 miles, and is usually for one or another of 

 four reasons: to buy or sell in the daily and weekly 

 markets of nearby communities, to participate in 

 reUgious or other festivals, to visit relatives or 

 friends, or to obtain temporary employment. The 

 people of the ranches travel much less than do 

 those in town. Longer and more frequent trips 

 are made by a very small number of people com- 

 prising the traveling merchants, arrieros, and 

 chauffeurs who frequently go as far as Jahsco, 

 Guanajuato, Guerrero, and the Federal District. 

 Unfortunately, we made no exact check of the 

 number of individuals who had ever been as far 

 as Guadalajara or Mexico City, or outside of 

 Mexico. However, our notes indicate that a 

 comparatively large number had been to Mexico 

 City. Such travel has increased in recent years 

 with the introduction of several busses which pass 

 through Quiroga headed for Mexico City every 

 day. 



Because Michoacdn traditionally has sent more 

 workers to the United States than any other Mexi- 

 can entity, we made a survey of those who had 



been in the United States or who were reported 

 to be there. Since we did not talk with every 

 male adult ia Quiroga, although we interviewed 

 some member of every family at least t^vice, our 

 results probably are not quite complete. In 1945 

 there were 92 male residents of Quiroga (81 ia 

 town and 11 in the ranches) who had been in the 

 United States, and 18 (none from the ranches) 

 were reported to be there as braceros. This gives 

 us a figure of 110 Quirogans who were or had 

 been in the United States out of an adult (married 

 or more than 20) male population of 1,000. It 

 would be of interest to determine how this per- 

 centage of 11 would compare with those of other 

 Mexican communities. Some of the Quiroga men 

 had gone to the United States as early as 1904, 

 but the majority had gone between 1915 and 1929, 

 and more recently since 1942. 



THE DISABLED AND DEFORMED 



According to the 1940 census there were in 

 Quiroga and its ranchos 23 individuals with speci- 

 fied defects which were distributed as follows: 8 

 cripples, 5 Wind persons, 2 demented, 2 paralytics, 

 2 deaf, 1 deaf-mute, 1 mute, 1 humpback, and 1 

 person lacking ] hand. Although we did not ques- 

 tion for these items in our census, observation 

 indicated that the numbers in the various cate- 

 gories ran about the same as in 1940. There may 

 have been but 1 demented and 1 paralytic, and 

 2 individuals v^nth humped backs. It is note- 

 worthy that there was reported only one person 

 with a defect (a crazy woman) from the ranchos, 

 and but 3 (1 blind and 2 cripples) in the third 

 cuartel. Although we noted a number of morons, 

 there seemed to be no cretins or other types of 

 idiots. The incidence of goiter, wens, and visible 

 tumors was quite small. There was only 1 albino, 

 and we saw no harelips. The most prevalent 

 markings or disfigurations were from smallpox, 

 although a number of the men carried visible scars 

 from knife wounds. 



Altogether, the population appealed to us as 

 being able, well-informed, intelligent and clean. 

 Such aspects of the population as race, language, 

 religion, education, occupation, wealth, and habi- 

 tation, are discussed elsewhere. 



