QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



219 



Table 33. — 19^0 census data on schooling in Quiroga and 

 ranchos 



4 with 6 years, 2 with 5 years, 3 with 4 years, 3 

 with 3 years, 11 with 2 years, and 5 with but 1 

 year. Many of these individuals (physician, 

 priest, teachers, et al.) were not natives of Quiroga. 



An inspection of the data given above shows that 

 schooling and literacy are virtually nil in the 

 ranchos (excepting Atzimbo which once had a 

 private school), and that cuarteles II and III 

 (which contain the Calvario district) have the 

 greatest concentration of illiteracy. The ranchos 

 with no school facilities are truly neglected, but 

 the large number of illiterate children in Quiroga 

 town (which has two public schools) shows that 

 economic conditions must be improved and that 

 a real desire for education must be inculcated 

 before illiteracy will be drastically reduced. At 

 present there are many families in which the 

 parents or even the grandparents are literate 

 while none of the children have been to school. 



Quiroga has no public library, bookstores, 

 stationery shops, or periodical stands. The near- 

 est location of such establishments is Pdtzcuaro, 

 and a few miles more distant is Morelia, the best- 

 equipped cultural center in the State. There are 

 two Quiroga men who act as distribution agents 

 for newspapers and several other periodicals. 

 The average circulation is as follows: 



Daily Mexico City 

 newspapers : 



Excelsior 17 



Novedades 10 



El Nacional 5 



Universal 2 



Weekly newspapers: 



Restauraci6n 52 



Weekly magazines: 



Poliefa 30 



Jueves de Excel- 

 sior 25 



Sucesos para 

 Todos 15 



Biweekly magazines: 



La Familia 15 



Monthly magazines: 



Selecciones 17 



Migndn 2 



Also, the journal of the Sinarquistas had a large 

 "give away" circulation. 



For a time in the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century the Elizarrards brothers ran a printing 

 establishment in Quiroga, and novels of crime and 

 adventure were among the items printed. For 

 several years, about 1898-1900, the local tax collec- 

 tor (Aureliano Macias) published a newspaper, 

 El Paladin. 



LANGUAGE 



At present Spanish (more precisely, Castilian) is 

 practically the only language spoken in Quiroga 

 and its ranchos. As has been indicated elsewhere, 

 probably the inhabitants of the ranchos (with the 

 exception of La Tirimicua) never had a language 

 other than Spanish. However, Cocupao started 

 as an Indian community in which only the Taras- 

 can (Purepecha) was spoken, and throughout the 

 colonial period there are references to the use of 

 interpreters by administrators in their dealings 

 with the natives of Cocupao. As has been shown, 

 Cocupao gradually became a mestizo community, 

 and concomitantly Spanish replaced the Tarascan 

 language. Some time during the nineteenth 

 century the bulk of the Tarascan-speaking popu- 

 lation became concentrated in the San Miguel or 

 Calvario district, and by the end of the century 

 the last of the native speakers of Tarascan died. 

 The State census of 1889 gave the population of the 

 town of Quiroga as 3,407 "Hispano-Americanos" 

 and 625 "Indigenas" (Indians). However, no 

 information was given as to how many of these 

 "Indians" could speak Tarascan. A number of 

 the older men in Quiroga in 1945 stated that their 

 fathers spoke both Tarascan and Spanish. Writing 

 as of 1884, Le6n states that the Indians of Quiroga 

 spoke Spanish and poor Tarascan. According to 

 our census of 1945 there were 6 individuals who 

 spoke Tarascan as their mother tongue (these 

 were bilingual Indians from the Tarascan pueblos 

 of the municipality, and two of their children 

 born in Quiroga) , and one mestizo who had learned 

 Tarascan while living as a child in Santa Fe. 

 The census of 1940 showed two Spanish-speaking 

 persons who also spoke Tarascan. 



The foreign language understood by the greatest 

 number of people is English. There were 45 

 individuals who admitted having some knowledge 

 of English from having lived in the United States, 

 and three others had studied English in school. 

 However, only two individuals ever tried to con- 

 verse with us in English, and it is doubtful if many 



