Santa Bárbara

About Santa Bárbara:

The municipality sits on the south-western edge of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, between the valley of the río Selegua on the east and the basin of the río Cuilco on the west. San Sebastián Huehuetenango and San Rafael Pétzal lie to the north, Malacatancito to the east, San Gaspar Ixchil and Colotenango to the west, and San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa, across the line in San Marcos, to the south. You reach it from Huehuetenango city on the Inter-American Highway towards La Mesilla, turning off at Chicol. Until recently the last stretch was a rutted dirt climb that took 30 to 45 minutes and got worse every rainy season; the new 7.5 km concrete road, a Q125 million job, is meant to serve some 30 communities along the way. Microbuses run between the town and Huehuetenango, but many caseríos further in are still reached by dirt track or on foot.

Farming is the work here for most men and many women. Maize and beans go to the family table, while peaches, oranges, lemons, avocados, apples and some coffee are the crops people sell, each grower on his own, and in aldea Tojcail a cooperative was set up to grow Persian limes. The peaches are what give the town its nickname, tierra del durazno. When mines opened in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán in 1958, that town became the main market for Santa Bárbara and its neighbours, and Huehuetenango city serves for everything bigger. Incomes are among the lowest in Guatemala, and migration fills part of the gap: in 2021 nearly one household in five had seen someone leave, or try to leave, for the United States in the previous ten years, most of them young men.

This is steep, rocky country. The mountains rise to around 2,500 metres, slopes run from 12 to 45 per cent, and the shallow soils are better suited to trees than to ploughing, so the good farmland is in the small valleys locals call joyas and rejoyas, where vegetables, fruit and potatoes grow. Water is the scarce thing. There are few springs, rain runs off the rock instead of soaking in, and many of the streams feeding the Cuilco and the Selegua shrink to almost nothing or dry out in the summer months. The rains, from June to November, bring the opposite problem: when Storm Agatha hit in 2010, landslides and swollen streams damaged houses in Tuimojbap, Tuichuj, Tierra Blanca, Moxnam and Tojcham. From November to February it is properly cold, and the peach orchards depend on that.

Santa Bárbara is almost entirely Mam and almost entirely rural: Mam is the language of nineteen homes in twenty, and women still wear the blue traje the town is known for. The colonial church in the town centre is the oldest sign of the settlement, first a Dominican mission, then a doctrina of the Mercedarian convent at Malacatán; in 1770 the archbishop counted 284 families here. The municipality’s communal lands rest on a title issued on 5 June 1888 for 196 caballerías, and in 1904 the government folded Santa Bárbara into Malacatán before it won back its standing as a municipality. Beyond the town there are six aldeas, Chicol, Cruz Quemada, Sacpic, Tojcail, Tojchiquel and Xoconilaj, and dozens of caseríos, and the whole municipality comes together for the fiesta of Santa Bárbara on 4 December.

Houses in Santa Bárbara:

Houses here are built by local families, some of them with money sent by relatives in the United States. Chicol, on the highway, has two-storey houses with all services connected; up in the town and out in the caseríos, services thin out fast. In 2021 three households in four had electricity, but only one in four had piped water and one in twenty a sewer connection, with most using a latrine. When you look at houses for sale in Santa Bárbara, ask where the water comes from and for how many hours, whether there is a tank, and how waste is handled. On a hillside lot, find out whether that caserío has had slides and check the retaining walls for cracks.

Land and Lots in Santa Bárbara:

Here land is bought and sold in cuerdas. Plots in Chicol beside the asphalt and the highway are the ones most often offered, and larger tracts come up there too. Further up, parcels in Xoconilaj and its caseríos are sold for a house and a milpa, sometimes with coffee, and lots in places like El Pacate come with a right of way to the road written into the sale. Some sellers have registered deeds and some do not, so ask early. Before you buy land in Santa Bárbara, see it in the rainy season, check how steep it really is, and find out whether it has a spring or a share in a community water system, because without one the plot is worth far less.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Santa Bárbara?

  Take the Inter-American Highway from Huehuetenango city towards La Mesilla and turn off at aldea Chicol, at kilometre 269. From there the RD HUE-11 climbs 7.5 km to the town, which is 23 km from Huehuetenango in all. The road is being rebuilt in concrete, so ask whether the last stretch is finished when you plan a visit. Microbuses run the route.

• Should I look in Chicol or in the town?

  They are different markets. Chicol sits on the highway, close to transport and the trade towards Huehuetenango, and that is where plots by the asphalt and houses with full services turn up. The town is higher, colder and quieter, with the municipal hall, the church and the market, and land there is tied more to farming. Choose by what you need day to day.

• What should I check on the title of a plot here?

  Start with who actually owns the ground. The municipality’s communal lands go back to an 1888 title, so some land near the town may be municipal ground used by families rather than private property. Many parcels have also been split among heirs over generations, often without new paperwork, and older documents may refer to the years when Santa Bárbara belonged to Malacatán. Find out whether there is a finca registered in the property registry behind the sale or only possession rights, get a notary to pull the registry history, and have the adjoining owners confirm the boundaries on the ground.

• Is water a problem?

  It can be. Springs are few, the rock lets rain run off, and many streams dry out in the summer months. Only about one household in four had piped water in 2021, so a plot with its own spring or a confirmed connection is a different proposition from one without.

• What can the land be used for?

  Most of the municipality is too steep and shallow-soiled for intensive farming and is best kept under trees. The valley floors are where maize, beans, vegetables, potatoes and fruit do well, and peaches, citrus, avocados and some coffee are what growers sell. In aldea Tojcail, Persian limes have been grown through a local cooperative.