quiroga: a MEXICAN Mxnsricipio — brand 



185 



restaurants, it is evident that very few Quiroga 

 families can afford the luxiu-y of domestic help. 

 Actually there are 21 households which employ 

 criadas, and a number of these servants are young 

 girls less than 15 years old. Only four women 

 gave their occupation as washerwoman (lavandera). 

 Possibly this nimiber is correct for those whose 

 only income is from washing clothes, but there 

 are a number of housewives who occasionally 

 "take in washing." As there is no public laundry 

 or laundry-place in Quiroga most of the women do 

 the family wash themselves and at some nearby 

 spring or stream. Only a few families possess 

 tubs and washboards. If the washing is done by 

 a lavandera, the normal charge is $1 for a day's 

 work plus the cost of the soap. 



We have already mentioned the one bootblack 

 (a cripple or cojo) in Quiroga who divides his time 

 between shining shoes and boots and making 

 palm-fiber hats. There are but four professional 

 watercarriers {aguadores) in Quiroga, although 

 many others carry water for hire on occasion. 

 However, the bulk of the water consumed in the 

 homes of Quiroga is carried in water jars or ollas 

 by women and girls from the nearest public foun- 

 tain or faucet. The aguadores employ a maroma, 

 which consists of two kerosene cans (latas or 

 botes) suspended by cord from each end of a pole 

 which is balanced over one or both shoulders. 

 The water is carried at 5^ a bote or lOfi a trip. 

 There are no beauty parlors (salones de belleza) 

 for the women of Quiroga, but for the men there 

 are 8 barber shops (peluquerias) attended by 12 

 barbers. Actually only 4 of the shops are full- 

 fledged barber shops with mirrors and barber 

 chairs (slightly antiquated), and the others are 

 little more than a bo.x or kitchen chair in the front 

 room or yard of some house. Many of the 

 barbers combine barbering with other professions 

 such as shoe mending, tailoring, and farming, and 

 but 5 or 6 are strictly barbers. 



PROFESSIONS 



Under this heading we have lumped a somewhat 

 incongruous group of occupations ranging from 

 beggar to physician. In 1945 there were but two 

 professional beggars (limosncras) in Quiroga, and 

 other than these two poor old women we saw no 

 beggars or begging. This speaks very highly for 

 the industry and self-respect of the people of the 

 area. The two limosneras had no relatives and 



were too old to earn a hving in any other fashion. 

 There were two photograph shops (fotografias) and 

 two fotografos who earned most of their living in 

 other pursuits — one as a carpenter and school 

 teacher and the other as a tailor. There were two 

 drug stores (boticas), one kept by a physician and 

 his \vife, and the other by a boticaria who appar- 

 ently had a license or degree in pharmacy. The 

 physician's shop carried a small assortment of the 

 medicines that were most in demand or which he 

 most commonly prescribed, and the other shop 

 had a larger array of patented medicines and the 

 materials for some simple compounds. The 

 more common types of medicines were laxatives 

 and purgatives, "painkillers," and a number of 

 specific medicines for diseases of the digestive 

 tract. There is but one permanent physician 

 (with degree from the Military Medical School in 

 Mexico City) who first came to Quiroga in 1939-41 

 as chief of the local ejidal medical service, and who 

 returned in 1944 to take up private practice. In 

 addition, during the past few years there has been 

 one or another physician assigned to Quiroga in 

 connection with the Social Medical Service 

 (Servicio Medico Social) . Two women (including 

 the physician's wife) term themselves midwives 

 (parteras), but several other women also serve as 

 midwives on occasion. One man and one woman 

 (both quite old) were well known as herb doctors 

 (curanderos) , and we were told that there were 

 two or three others in Quiroga. 



The church is represented by the parish priest 

 (aura, pdrroco), appointed by the Archbishop of 

 Morelia, and the sacristan. However, there is a 

 religious school with six women teachers who 

 almost certainly are nuns, although they do not 

 wear a special garb other than severe, black 

 clothing. In the two federal schools there are 

 nine teachers — two male directors or principals, 

 five female teachers, one male teacher of music 

 (maestro or prqfesor de mlisica), and one male 

 instructor in woodworking (maestro de carpinteria) . 



HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS 



The term hotel (recently introduced into the 

 Spanish language) implies a certain magnitude 

 and a completeness of service which do not exist 

 in Quiroga. However there is one so-called hotel, 

 the Hotel Central in the Portal Matamoros front- 

 ing onto the Plaza Principal, which occupies part 

 of the largest private structiu-e in Quiroga. This 



