El Palmar Quetzaltenango
located southwest of the country, the palm is a municipality in the department of Quetzaltenango. documents named in mid-nineteenth century. and Santiago del palmar, not knowing the exact date of its founding as a town and municipality
, a fact that we have is the Governmental Decree
July 22, 1873, where the Liberal administration
batch transfer orders vacant losterrenos El Palmar. This agreement was amended
October 17 of that year, assigning an exten sion of 12
chivalry lands constitute
since their municipal lands. Under the pretext of bringing them out to the public till would increase the country's wealth, with such agreement El Palmar lost some of its traditional territorial domains: "... if you consider the little benefit that drew Indians from their land, ... the need for public finance and funding had
desirability of public lands in question to pass into the hands of entrepreneurs who exploited them, not only for their benefit, if not for the general benefit of agriculture ... "
Indeed, as then happened to other indigenous communities was only carrying out the expropriation of peasant lands for the emerging agricultural exports coffee.
Since the second half of the nineteenth century, taking in part the expansion of the international division of labor
that made Latin America
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supplier of food and raw materials for industrialized countries then in Guatemala Coffee came to replace the declining cultivation of cochineal to become
l
to main agricultural export activity. Promoted in various ways by the ruling class of the time, this process was accompanied by a general expropriation of land. The loss of the suburbs of El Palmar was precisely within this dynamic, since it is located in a region whose altitude difference - 700 to 1,000 meters above sea level - provides optimal weather conditions for growing coffee.
In fact, the installation of coffee producers in the area, had been giving since years ago and had already created conflicts with indigenous people, in the form of confrontations, destruction of coffee, etc. In 1863 for example, made an illegal planting coffee in the communal lands of the population. The reaction of the inhabitants of El Palmar and San Felipe - Indian village neighbor to El Palmar - was the burning of the crop, as reported by the mayor of Retalhuleu
the Ministry of the Interior: "
... More than a thousand Indians place called El Palmar, Quetzaltenango jurisdiction have made common cause with those of San Felipe and have taken part in these attacks ... viewing the state of things sent to suspend the seed and the same way that land concessions effect, but nevertheless the Indians of San Felipe insist on the destruction of the coffee. " (Newsletter CEUR USAC)
It was socio-economic processes that indigenous and mestizo poor could not stop, up from decades ago with the proclamation of political independence in 1821 that Guatemala had been allowed to take an important step in structuring its economy of agricultural exports. These processes were initially offset by the expansive nature of the scarlet little, and because the post-independence civil war affected the functioning of the productive apparatus.
The development of coffee in 1860 he immediately printed another dynamic agro-export activities, mainly affecting the Indian economy of subsistence, whose lands were viewed with greed for the new crop: "What all these villages derive their wealth in land? What income available to the municipalities of these towns
who lack the necessary elements for development? ... With regard to the suburbs, these major sources of wealth, are remarkably widespread in many of the indigenous peoples who cultivate only maize and beans, and much later today and will not be able to occupy only a very small part of that extension, for example, San Felipe
has 38 horses, 11 7 / 8 strings and 172 1 / 2 square yards, just blocks employed in coffee 1.101 2 strings ... immense plateaus and valleys are fertile and well watered, which could cultivate coffee, getting great results.
That is, the new way of thinking about the dynamics implemented with coffee, put into practice in the areas adjacent to El Palmar, came to cause conflict. A document of 1864, for example, reported that the natives of the towns of San Felipe, San Antonio Samayac, Santo Domingo, Cuyotenango, San Sebastian and El Palmar, planned "to meet all the destruction of plantings in that Palmar, to begin in the village San Felipe and continue in every place where they have been "
But protests and burning of coffee would not stop the ambition of the landowners, who saw in the commons a source of enrichment as the encroachments continued, sometimes to the point of purchase Indian authorities themselves. Another way to access them, was through the implementation - since 1829 - long lease Census, taking advantage of the Indian economic hardship, he practically forced to give up their land in exchange for usufruct lease negligible. Although legally these will still belong to the community, was granted by indefinitely, the usufructuary may transfer his rights to third parties. Usually leads to permanent loss of property, which is why the communities were opposed to the census long lease, then, under the pretext of "protecting agriculture," Departmental the magistrates themselves in arrendamiento6 granted, thereby causing violent conflicts , p
ues the Indians never passively accept the usurpation of their property.
Liberal Revolution of 1871 gave the opportunity to arrange legal maneuvering that allowed landowners to eliminating obstacles to development
of coffee. The Census long lease had secured the occupation of large tracts of land, but without having legal ownership over them, to overcome this obstacle, the January 8, 1877 a decree was issued abolishing this form of lease, but also stated that usufruct land in that form became private property. Thus, legally sanctioned, the process of usurping lands not only accelerated but it was irreversible, leading to the enrichment of new social groups
became part of the Guatemalan elite.
In the land expropriated arose mainly farms dedicated to growing coffee.
According to a report in 1888, only General Lisandro Barillas,
then President of Guatemala, had in the town of El Palmar with four properties covering a total of 55 horses, where they planted coffee and sugar cane, the latter also encourage cultivation of large estates.
VOLCANO ERUPTION OF SANTA MARIA, 1902.
The 1902 eruption lasted from 24 to 26 October and is
considered - with the Cosiguina in Nicaragua, 1835 - as one of the most impressive so far in Central America: the eight are from San Felipe noticed a huge column of black ash with a host of fiercely whirling eddies, crossed by thousands of rays and curved lines of red and greenish light. around the volcano and its surroundings and huge explosions shook constantly be heard up to 160 miles away. ( Vulkankunde, Stuttgart, 1927 Sapper )
Notwithstanding the extent of the disaster, the first reaction of the authorities was to deny it. The eruption had been a few days before the festival of Minerva, which is celebrated with great pomp on 27 and 28 October each year at the end of the school, and to allow
dictator Estrada Cabrera, "Protector of Youth", satisfy your craving for greatness. Therefore, all the government's concern was to avoid knowledge of the disaster
to blur these celebrations came prepared this year with special
ostentation. When it became impossible to hide the fact, went so far as to say that the
eruption happened in Mexico, not Guatemala: "... the period
ico
official manifesto of
gobierno al pueblo establecían la verdad de que la erupción se verificaba en México y que
la república yacía en la feliz situación de siempre, al amparo del más humano y solicito de los gobernantes.” Fue sólo hasta el 3 de noviembre que el gobierno reconoció oficialmente la situación, pero minimizando sus efectos: "El volcán arrojó una lluvia de tenue ceniza hasta la
distancia de 14 leguas..." asegurándose que solo había ocasionado "... la pérdida de unas pocas
fincas de café..."
Sin embargo, la erupción sí había sido fatídica - comparable en su dimensión y efectos
tal Once only the seismic events of 1917-1918 and 1976 - and was afe
ctado especially the rural poor in western Venezuela, where it caused death among the population and
considerable losses in agriculture :"... causing extensive flooding in low
land, many changes in the course of rivers and the shores of the sea coast. In addition,
distances of vegetation and wild animals were destroyed or severely
damaged, so that diseases in the human population multiplied.
months
lasted until the animals returned to their previous places. Years until vegetation
could take possession of the lost ground again. Large number of people had died due
Falls homes or killed by lightning or bombs. Humongous were
economic damage, because many houses, which were not protected by heavily
sloping roofs were crushed under the weight of the ash, many roads and bridges were ruined by
large avenues, many plantations and domestic animals
lost because of the heat or the weight of the ash falls "
apparently dormant until that date, the 1902 eruption caused the formation of
a crater at the bottom of a lake formed around 1903. From then to 1906
continued volcanic activity, but mainly in the form of eruptions geiserianas, without major
destroyers.
From 1906 to 1922, the Santa Maria remained calm and in June of that year initiated a new cycle
volcanic activity that lasted until 1929 and would be especially ominous for
The palmar. On this occasion, the eruptions of Santa Maria led to the formation of a second crater
a "lava hill" as Sapper, ie what would become
Santiaguito volcano.
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