San Juan Atitán

About San Juan Atitán:

The municipality covers 64 km² of mountain, with Todos Santos Cuchumatán to the north, San Sebastián Huehuetenango to the east, Santiago Chimaltenango to the west, and Santa Bárbara, San Rafael Pétzal and Colotenango to the south. From Huehuetenango city you follow the Inter-American Highway towards La Mesilla as far as kilometre 277, then turn right onto a cement road that climbs past the Sechul farm in San Rafael Pétzal and reaches the town after 10 km, 36 km in all. In the early 2000s that last stretch was a dirt track only a four-wheel drive could handle, and paving it has brought the town within easy reach of the highway. Guatemala City is 287 km away. The RD HUE-10 runs straight through the centre and on towards the neighbouring municipalities, but most roads out to the aldeas are still dirt: microbuses and moto-taxis use them in the dry season, some need a four-wheel-drive pickup, and the rains make all of them harder.

Farming is the main living, on land that was never really meant for it. Maize and beans feed the household, potatoes are the crop sold outside the municipality in any volume, and in recent years more and more families have turned to coffee. Cabbage, carrots and tomatoes go on the gentler slopes, and peaches, apples and plums do well at this height. Weaving is done at home and for the family’s own use; it is not something people here sell. Many households, above all in the aldeas, have someone working in the United States or seasonally on the south coast. The money they send goes first into building a house, buying property and buying a vehicle.

Nearly all of San Juan Atitán, 99.5 per cent of it, is land classed as fit only for forest: shallow soils on slopes of 32 to 50 degrees. About half of it is still under pine, cypress, Guatemalan fir and oak. That slope decides more about property here than anything else. Landslides come most often around Cuate and Cojtón, and wherever a hillside has been cut into a terrace for a new house or opened up for a new road without any retaining work. The ground has moved under the town as well: subsidence in October 1970 cracked several houses and the school, and some walls still show it. Higher up, in Cojtón and Tuispichón, frost damages maize, beans and potatoes, which is why greenhouses have gone up there.

Almost everyone here is Maya Mam. Mam is the first language and Spanish the second, the people call themselves sanjuaneros, and the fiesta for San Juan Bautista falls on 24 June. The town has the municipal hall, a health post, schools through diversificado, banks, internet, transport and a few places to eat, and people from all 32 communities come in for paperwork and business. Santa Isabel, 3 km away by cement road, is the second centre, with a Wednesday market that draws people from Santa Bárbara and San Rafael Pétzal. Tuiscap, the same distance out, got the health centre because it has flat ground, and it holds its own market on Sundays. On a clear day, the hill of Twi’ Q’uq’, above the town to the north, looks south all the way to the Tajumulco volcano.

Houses in San Juan Atitán:

New houses here go up in stages, as money arrives from relatives in the United States, and the buyers are nearly always local families. In the town, look hard at older walls: the 1970 subsidence left cracks in several buildings, and you want to know whether a crack is old and stable or still opening. On a sloping plot, ask how the platform for the house was cut and whether it has a proper retaining wall, because cut terraces are exactly where landslides start in this municipality. Water is the other question. Most homes take it from a pipe outside the house rather than a tap inside, and it is rarely chlorinated, so find out which system the house is on and how reliable it is. If you are comparing houses for sale in San Juan Atitán, the ones in the town, Santa Isabel and Tuiscap sit on cement roads; elsewhere, drive the access in the rainy season first.

Land and Lots in San Juan Atitán:

Land is sold in small parcels measured in cuerdas, and there is not much of it to go round: holdings are small, and on many of them the soil is worn out. In practice you are choosing between a building lot near the town, Santa Isabel or Tuiscap, where the cement road and services are, and a farm parcel in the aldeas, where the road is dirt and the slope steeper. Plots up around Cojtón and Tuispichón are frost ground, which limits what will grow. A spring on or near the land is worth asking about, but the springs here are communal property and many already feed whole communities or the towns below. Before you buy land in San Juan Atitán for its water, find out who already draws from it.

FAQ:

• How do I get to San Juan Atitán from Huehuetenango?

  Take the Inter-American Highway towards La Mesilla, past San Sebastián Huehuetenango, and turn right at kilometre 277. A cement road runs 10 km past the Sechul farm and up into town, 36 km from Huehuetenango city in total. The roads from the town out to most aldeas are dirt, so allow more time for those.

• Does a plot with a spring come with the water?

  Not necessarily. San Juan Atitán has a river and a dozen springs, and they are held as communal property; several feed piped systems for communities here and in San Sebastián Huehuetenango, San Rafael Pétzal and Santiago Chimaltenango. Before you pay for water you think you are buying, ask the community committee and the municipality who has rights to it.

• Where is landslide risk highest?

  Around Cuate and Cojtón, and on any site where a slope has been cut for a house platform or a new road without retaining walls. Almost the whole municipality is steep, forest-class ground, so walk the plot after heavy rain, look at the slope above it as well as the plot itself, and treat fresh cuts with suspicion.

• What should I check on title for such a small parcel?

  Holdings here are tiny and keep shrinking as each generation divides them, so the parcel you are offered may be a share of a family plot whose boundaries follow a ditch or a row of trees. Ask whether it is registered in the property registry or held only by possession, get every heir to sign, and walk the boundaries with the neighbours. If the plot is wooded, ask whether clearing it for a house will need a licence from INAB.

• Is there more to the municipality than the town?

  Yes. Santa Isabel and Tuiscap are the two other centres, each 3 km out on a cement road, with water, electricity, small shops and their own market days. Tuiscap has the health centre, which serves the whole municipality. The other aldeas, among them Checoche, Tuiscacal, Tuismache, Cojtón and Tuispichón, are reached mostly by dirt road.