QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



171 



the spring of 1945) averaged $8 to $10 a dozen 

 for cuartas, $10 to $12 a dozen for cuatros, and 

 $14 to $18 a dozen for treses. These prices were 

 given to us by the painters and not by the curio 

 merchants. These prices indicate that we were 

 given consistently low figm-es for income per 

 dozen bateas by the batelleros, or the maqueadoras, 

 or the pintorts, or by all three groups since the sum 

 of the average costs per operation does not equal 

 the wholesale price in any case. For example, 

 the batelleros sold 1 dozen bateas en bianco of the 

 cuarta size for an average price of $5; the average 

 cost for maqueando these bateas was $0.55; and 

 the average cost of painting was $1. Tliis totals 

 only $6.55 per dozen, as compared with a low 

 wholesale figure of $8. Perhaps the gross income 

 of each person involved in the elaboration of 

 bateas should be increased 20 to 25 percent. 

 There was no general agreement as to how many 

 bateas of all sizes were made in Quhoga each 

 year. Estimates ran from 2,000 to more than 

 10,000 dozens a year. Although Quiroga bateas 

 can be seen all over Mexico and in many cities of 

 the United States, we doubt that the annual 

 production is more than 5,000 or less than 2,500 

 dozen. 



CHAIRS AND CARPENTERS 



As indicated in the discussion of bateas, carpen- 

 try has been an occupation in the Pdtzcuaro area 

 since prehistoric times. During the colonial peri- 

 od the principal items made by the carpenters of 

 Cocupao were chests and writing tables for export, 

 and such items of domestic use as benches, tables, 

 chairs, windows, and doors. However, since many 

 of these homely items were either lacking in most 

 homes (e. g., chairs and windows) or were home- 

 made, the professional carpenters were not numer- 

 ous. This continued to be the case until 1939 

 when the commercial chair industry was estab- 

 lished in Quiroga. According to the 1940 census 

 there were 35 carpenters in Quiroga, and by 1945 

 the number had risen to 58. This is an extraor- 

 dinarily large number for a community where 

 houses are not made of wood. These carpenters 

 can be divided into three groups; (a) some seven 

 or eight men who caiTy on traditional carpentry, 

 but who never make chairs; (6) about 20 men who 

 elaborate a variety of items from tool handles to 

 chairs; and (c) another 20 or so men who make 

 only chairs. All of the men in the first group and 



a number from the two other groups own their 

 carpentry shops, which usually consist of a room 

 in the home equipped with workbench, vise, planes, 

 hand saws, chisels, mallet, and drawshave. The 

 majority of the carpenters concentrate on chair 

 making, which was the leading industry in Quiroga 

 in 1944 and 1945 but which had begun to decline 

 in 1946 due to a reduction of orders from the 

 United States. 



The Quiroga chairs are made of pinewood, with 

 seats of tule, in six sizes. Three general operations 

 are involved in the manufacture of these chairs. 

 The carpenters cut pine lumber into the required 

 pieces and assemble the frame. Then women and 

 children weave the tule seats onto the frames. 

 Finally, painters varnish and decorate the chairs. 

 Although the chair industry started in 1939 on a 

 cottage handicraft basis, it is now concentrated in 

 the hands of about a dozen men who own 8 work- 

 shops or talleres de sillas in which more than 95 

 percent of the chair frames are made. All of the 

 weaving of the chair bottoms (entvlando) is farmed 

 out on a piece-work basis. Much of the varnish- 

 ing is done by employees of the larger shops, who 

 also pack the finished chairs for shipping. Per- 

 haps one-third of the painting is done in paint- 

 shops attached to the chair factories, and the 

 remainder is done in the homes of the painters. 



AU of the pine lumber comes from mills in the 

 Pdtzcuaro and Tacdmbaro areas. The larger op- 

 erators purchase the lumber at the mills and have 

 it trucked to their shops in Quiroga at costs vary- 

 ing from 30^ to 32^ a board foot. There is one 

 lumber dealer in Quiroga who supplies the small 

 operators and the individual carpenters. Lumber 

 purchased in small quantities costs from 34^ to 

 45^ a board foot. The average price of the lum- 

 ber consumed in chairs is about 32?f a board foot. 

 The difi'erence in cost of the lumber explains in 

 part why there are only four or five individual 

 carpenters who make chairs. The majority of the 

 carpenters work fuU or part time in the eight shops 

 which employ from 2 to 15 carpenters each. The 

 number of employed or journeymen carpenters 

 varies from 39 to 48. These numbers include 

 quite a few individuals who are "rough carpen- 

 ters" — actually manual laborers who do odd jobs 

 in the chair shops but who are not experienced 

 carpenters. Chair carpenters earn from $3 to $6 

 a day. The larger shops are equipped with elec- 

 trically powered lathes, cu'cular "Disston" saws, 



