Nentón

About Nentón:

Nentón shares its northern and western boundaries with the Mexican state of Chiapas. San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán lie to the east, San Miguel Acatán and Jacaltenango to the south. From Huehuetenango city you take the Inter-American Highway toward La Mesilla and turn north at Camojá, onto the paved road to the town. Gracias a Dios sits further north, right on the line, and the drive there is slower, with long stretches of gravel; on the Mexican side the road carries on to Lázaro Cárdenas, La Trinitaria and Comitán. The Franja Transversal del Norte highway, which starts at Modesto Méndez in Izabal, ends at finca La Trinidad inside the municipality, and the aldea of Yalambojoch lies on that route.

Farming still feeds most households. Maize and beans cover most of the cultivated ground, cattle graze the pastures, and a little coffee is processed into parchment for sale. Work is seasonal and informal, and a farmer short of land rents a manzana for the season rather than buying. Gracias a Dios has traded with the villages across the line for as long as anyone remembers, and since the early 2000s it has also been a stop on the migrant route north. That traffic, together with money sent home from the United States, has filled the aldea and the nearby caserío of Los Jazmines with big new houses, hotels, posadas, pharmacies, currency changers and mototaxis.

The land runs from 500 to 1,500 metres. The low ground around the town is hot and dry; the higher country toward the Cuchumatanes is milder. Much of it is limestone, with pasture and maize on the flats, and the karst shows in two landmarks: Laguna Brava, or Yolnabaj, a turquoise lake more than five kilometres long near Yalambojoch and El Aguacate that takes a four-wheel drive to reach, and the Hoyo Cimarrón, a sinkhole about 170 metres across with forest growing on its floor. Long droughts are the climate fact that matters to a buyer. When the rains fail the harvest fails with them, so on any farm or house plot the first question is where the water comes from.

Close to 50,000 people live in Nentón, and Chuj is spoken alongside Spanish. The place began as San Benito Nentón, an aldea of the parish of Jacaltenango, and became a municipality on 5 December 1876; its fiesta for the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas falls on 15 January. In 1970 it was written into the agrarian development zones of the Franja Transversal del Norte, and in 1994 refugees coming home from camps in Mexico settled the old finca Chaculá as Nueva Esperanza. Most families own the house they live in. Buyers are mainly local households, families with relatives working in the United States, and people who trade at the border.

Houses in Nentón:

In the town, houses spread out from the parque central. Older ones have adobe or timber walls under sheet-metal roofs; newer ones are concrete block with cement floors. Gracias a Dios and Los Jazmines look different, with tall, brightly painted block houses, many of them paid for with remittances. A house on the road into Gracias a Dios stands among hotels, posadas and pharmacies, so when you weigh houses for sale in Nentón there, think of it as a possible business as well as a home. Ask how the house gets its water, and on an adobe house look hard at the walls, since earthquakes are one of the hazards this municipality plans for.

Land and Lots in Nentón:

Building lots come up around the town, in Los Jazmines and along the road to Gracias a Dios, some of them cut from older fincas such as La Fortuna. Farm land is mostly limestone flats in maize and beans and hillsides in pasture, and some large holdings still carry their old names: the haciendas Miramar and La Libertad, finca La Trinidad. Before you buy land in Nentón, walk it in the dry season and see for yourself where the water is. Seasonal leasing is part of farming here, so make sure the person selling is the owner on record and not a tenant who has worked the parcel for years.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Nentón from Huehuetenango?

  Follow the Inter-American Highway toward La Mesilla and turn off at Camojá, between La Democracia and the border. A paved road takes you from there to the town. Gracias a Dios is further north on a slower road with gravel stretches, and Laguna Brava needs a four-wheel drive and, for most visitors, a night on the way.

• Can a foreigner buy land in Nentón?

  Often not. Article 123 of the Constitution keeps ownership and possession of property within 15 kilometres of the border for Guatemalans by origin and companies formed by them, and Nentón touches Mexico on two sides, so Gracias a Dios and much of the north and west fall inside that strip. Urban property and rights registered before 1 March 1956 are exempt. Ask a notary to place the parcel against the strip before you talk price.

• What is the main title risk on farm land here?

  History. Nentón lay inside the agrarian development zones created in 1970, so some parcels reached their owners through state land grants, and returnee communities such as Nueva Esperanza at Chaculá settled whole fincas as a group. Find out whether the parcel was ever adjudicated, whether the transfer was completed, and whether it is part of a collective holding. the property registry will show the chain of owners; walk the boundaries with the neighbours as well.

• Is water hard to find?

  It can be. Long dry spells hit this municipality hard, and limestone ground does not hold surface water for long. Ask whether a lot has a municipal or community connection and how it held up last dry season, and budget for a tank or cistern if it does not.

• What is Gracias a Dios like as a place to buy?

  Busy and commercial. Its economy turns on cross-border trade and on people travelling through toward Mexico, and police and migration checkpoints line the road in. Business there rises and falls with that traffic, so visit more than once, at different times of day, and talk to neighbours and to the municipality before you commit.