San Rafael la Independencia

About San Rafael la Independencia:

San Rafael la Independencia lies some 90 kilometres north of Huehuetenango city and 350 from Guatemala City, entirely surrounded by other Huehuetenango municipalities: San Sebastián Coatán and Santa Eulalia to the north, Santa Eulalia and San Pedro Soloma to the east, Soloma and San Miguel Acatán to the south, and San Miguel Acatán and San Sebastián Coatán to the west. It takes up less than one percent of the department. The usual way in is the RN-9N through Chiantla, San Juan Ixcoy, Soloma and Santa Eulalia as far as the aldea of Pet, then 13 kilometres on the RD HUE-03 and RD HUE-16, a narrow road with long unpaved stretches. A second road leaves the RN-9N at Ixtiapoq, in Soloma, and covers 30 kilometres of dirt on the RD HUE-04, while a third climbs from the Huista valleys through Jacaltenango and San Miguel Acatán and is passable only with four-wheel drive. Inside the town the streets are paved, and buses, microbuses, pickups and tuk-tuks run to the aldeas, Huehuetenango, Barillas, Soloma, Santa Eulalia and Jacaltenango.

Money sent home from the United States carries the local economy, and many families have two or more members working there. Young men in particular leave for good, while others go seasonally to pick coffee and work maize fields in the Huista region and across the border in southern Mexico. At home the crop that earns cash is onion, irrigated from springs and sold within Guatemala and on to other Central American markets, with technical support from the Cooperativa Rafaeleña, which also backs young growers. In Los Molinos the river still turns small mills that grind wheat into wholemeal flour, sold around northern Huehuetenango as flour or baked into pan sheca. Trade goes on every day in the town, Thursday and Sunday are the big market days, and the Banrural agency and rural bank outlets there spend much of their time paying out remittances.

Almost the whole municipality is slope. Gradients of 30 to 65 percent are normal, the soils are stony and clayey, and the land is classed as fit mainly for forest, which still covers 41 percent of the territory, including the Virgen de Guadalupe ridge shared with Soloma, San Miguel Acatán and Santa Eulalia. That steepness makes landslides a recurring risk, above all around Ixcaná I and II, Ixtinajap, Solomxaj, K’aan, Incú, Paatzlaj, Jolomwitz and Ontelaj. The cold bites hardest from November to January, and frost, hail and strong wind are the hazards onion growers worry about most. Rain falls from May to October, the months when the dirt roads into town and out to the aldeas are slowest.

Nearly everyone here is Maya Akateko. Akateko is the language spoken at home, and Spanish has spread through bilingual schooling and migration. Nine people in ten live outside the town, in more than twenty aldeas and caseríos such as Ixtinajap, Lajcholaj, Ixcanac I and II, Tataj, Caxnajup, Achí and Villa Linda, and Ixtinajap works as a second centre with piped water, electricity and primary schools. San Rafael was an aldea of San Miguel Acatán until 21 May 1924, when it became a municipality named for its patron, the archangel Raphael, and for Central American independence; the boundary between the two was fixed in 1931. The patron fiesta peaks on 24 October, and the municipal building houses the Centro Cultural Akateko, a small museum of clay pots and water jars, grinding stones and textiles.

Houses in San Rafael la Independencia:

There are no apartment blocks or gated estates in San Rafael la Independencia. Housing means a family home, either in the town and its sectors of Solomcu, Saapoj, Cementerio and Yixchoch or out in the aldeas, and the whole municipality has just over 2,000 of them. Living conditions have improved over the last fifteen years on the strength of remittances, and across Huehuetenango building a house is one of the main things that money goes on. The town is where services gather: water to the house, electricity, rubbish collection, the health centre and the only secondary schools. Before you settle on one of the houses for sale in San Rafael la Independencia outside the centre, find out what it is connected to and how far it is from the health posts in Ixcanac or Lajcholaj, and visit any hillside house after heavy rain.

Land and Lots in San Rafael la Independencia:

Farmland comes in small units worked by families, nearly always on slopes better suited to trees than to crops. The parcels that earn the most are the irrigated ones, mainly in Villa Linda, Cantetaj, Los Molinos and Canmox, where spring water reaches the onion beds. Wooded ground has its own use, since these soils suit managed forest and the PROBOSQUE programme pays incentives for protecting and managing it. The municipal development plan also sees a future for cold-climate fruit such as apples, pears, peaches and blueberries. Around the town, the same plan sets out areas for new housing, commerce and mixed use, and reserves landslide zones, water recharge areas and sacred sites for protection. Compare land for sale in San Rafael la Independencia by slope, water and what the plan allows on it, not by size alone.

FAQ:

• How do I get to San Rafael la Independencia from Huehuetenango?

  Take the RN-9N north through Chiantla, San Juan Ixcoy, Soloma and Santa Eulalia to the aldea of Pet, then turn left for the last 13 kilometres on a narrow road, much of it unpaved. The alternative is 30 kilometres of dirt from Ixtiapoq, in Soloma. From the Huista side you can come through Jacaltenango and San Miguel Acatán, but only with four-wheel drive. Between May and October, allow extra time on any of them.

• What should I check before buying a plot on these slopes?

  Start with the ground. Landslides are a known risk around Ixcaná, Ixtinajap, Solomxaj and Incú, and the municipal plan keeps landslide zones and water recharge areas for protection rather than building, so ask at the municipality how the plot is classified before you agree a price. Then confirm the title in the Segundo Registro de la Propiedad in Quetzaltenango and walk the boundaries with the neighbours. If the parcel lies near the line with San Miguel Acatán, check which of the two municipalities it is recorded in.

• Does a property come with water?

  Not by itself. Springs such as those in Lajcholaj, Incú, Ixcanac and Achí belong to the community, and when two communities share a source they agree its use between them. A hose crossing the plot is not a right to the water. Ask who controls the spring, whether onion growers irrigate from it too, and how it holds up at the end of the dry season, because local people say the flows have been dropping.

• Should I buy in the town or in an aldea?

  The town has the paved streets, the health centre, the bank, the biggest market and every school beyond primary level. Ixtinajap is the second centre, with piped water, electricity and primary schools but no health post; Ixcanac and Lajcholaj have one each. The other aldeas are quieter and closer to the fields, in exchange for a trip to town for almost everything else.

• Will frost or wind limit what I can grow?

  Yes. Frost, hail and strong wind are the main threats to onions and other vegetables, and the cold is hardest from November to January. A sheltered, irrigated plot is worth a great deal more here than an exposed ridge of the same size. On the steepest ground, trees often make more sense than crops, especially with forestry incentives on offer.