San José la Arada

About San José la Arada:

The municipality sits just south of Chiquimula city, with Chiquimula to the north, San Jacinto to the east, Ipala to the south and San Luis Jilotepeque, in Jalapa, to the west. The road out of Chiquimula reaches the town after ten kilometres and carries on south over the hills to Ipala. Heavy trucks bound for the capital sometimes take this route when the main highway is blocked, so the stretch can fill with freight at short notice. Guatemala City is 185 kilometres away. Buses run mostly to Chiquimula, and that is where onward connections to the rest of the country begin. Saspán and Tierra Colorada have paved access; most other aldeas are on rural roads.

San José was an aldea of Chiquimula until a government decree of 11 September 1924 made it a municipality. The news reached the village on the 16th, and that is the date the town still celebrates. Residents call themselves Josefinos, or Caleros after the lime the area is known for. The patron fair for Saint Joseph peaks on 19 March and includes livestock events, and 2 February marks the anniversary of the battle. The town has six barrios, El Centro, Vista Hermosa, Nuevo, La Línea, La Estación and El Palmarcito, and six colonias, among them El Paraíso, Las Brisas, El Mirador and Padre Juan Bartnowski. Two of those barrio names recall the railway from Zacapa to the Salvadoran border at Anguiatú, which crossed the municipality until trains stopped in 1985; at Santa Rosa its 1929 tunnel and bridge still stand, with the rails in place.

Seven in ten working people farm, and the crop is mostly maize and beans. Roughly half of the land planted with grain is rented rather than owned, and the surplus goes to market in Chiquimula or Ipala. Drip irrigation has brought tomato, sweet pepper and aubergine to some plots. Lime quarries gave the town its nickname, and bentonite and kaolin are also dug here and trucked to Sabana Grande and San Esteban for processing. Local workshops turn out wooden furniture, roof tiles and clay brick. The town holds the health centre, the only upper-secondary schools in the municipality, cooperatives and bank branches, though it has no municipal market. Paid work is scarce, and many families have someone who has migrated for it.

This is Corredor Seco country, semi-arid, sunny and exposed to long dry spells that have cost farmers whole harvests. Almost 94 per cent of the soil is rated class VII, which in practice means land suited to forest rather than crops, and pine is the native cover. That cover is shrinking: wildfires burned more than a thousand hectares between 2011 and 2017. Piped water reaches nearly every home, but springs and wells drop in the dry months and supply is then rotated by sector. The town’s sewage runs untreated into the Río San José, so riverside ground near the town is less pleasant than it looks on a map. Most buyers are families from the municipality building or enlarging a house and farmers adding a few manzanas.

Houses in San José la Arada:

Homes are family houses, concentrated in the town’s barrios and colonias and in the larger aldeas. In town, municipal water, rubbish collection and electricity are standard, and close to six hundred homes are on the sewer line. In the aldeas, rubbish collection now reaches El Carrizal, El Rincón, Los Encuentros, Joya, Los Cimientos, Quebrada de López, Saspán, Santa Rosa and Tierra Colorada, while rural drainage mostly empties into ditches. When you look at houses for sale in San José la Arada, ask whether the house has its own storage tank or cistern, because in the dry season the supply reaches each sector only on its turn. A house near the main entrance or the road to Ipala is handy for the run to Chiquimula, but truck traffic comes with it.

Land and Lots in San José la Arada:

Rural land is measured in manzanas and sold as grain fields, pasture or pine-covered hillside. Larger parcels with frontage on the paved road toward Chiquimula also come up, a short drive from the department capital. The municipal land-use plan sets aside urban and urban-expansion zones for housing, and separate protection zones for landslide and flood risk, the historic monument, and mining. Find out which zone a parcel falls in before you plan to build. Clearing pine needs a licence from INAB, and some parcels are enrolled in forestry incentive programmes that carry their own obligations. A lime or clay pit next door changes both the dust and the value, so walk the neighbouring land too.

FAQ:

• How far is San José la Arada from Chiquimula and Guatemala City?

  The town is ten kilometres from Chiquimula city by road, and Guatemala City is 185 kilometres away. Most public transport runs to Chiquimula, and the same road continues south to Ipala.

• Is water a problem here?

  It can be. The municipality lies in the Corredor Seco, and in the dry season springs and wells run low and the supply is shared out by sector. Ask the seller where the water comes from, how many hours a day it runs in March and April, and whether the property has storage.

• What should I check on the title of a parcel near the municipal boundary?

  The line with San Jacinto is disputed, and the conflict came to light when San Jacinto went through its cadastral survey; there is also a mismatch with Ipala around Cececapa. For land in the southeast or along the southern edge, confirm which municipality the parcel is registered under, check the entry in the property registry against the cadastral map, and find out whether the land is currently rented out.

• Where are the schools and health services?

  The town has the health centre and the only upper-secondary schools, and Saspán and El Rincón have rural health posts. Lower-secondary schools run in El Rincón, Los Cimientos, Saspán, Santa Rosa and Tierra Colorada. Hospital cases go to Chiquimula.

• Is the land good for farming?

  Most of it is better suited to forest than to crops, and dry spells regularly hit maize and bean yields. Irrigated plots growing tomato and sweet pepper do better, so a parcel with a reliable water source is the one to look for.