Ixchiguán

About Ixchiguán:

Ixchiguán covers 184 square kilometres between Tajumulco to the south, Sibinal to the west, Tacaná and San José Ojetenam to the north and Tejutla to the east. The RN-12, a two-lane asphalt road, climbs 45 km from San Marcos to the town centre and carries on to Sibinal, Tacaná and San José Ojetenam, so traffic for the whole northern corner of the department passes through. Long stretches of it are potholed. Guatemala City is 295 km away by way of San Marcos and the Inter-American Highway. Fifteen minutes out of town on the road north, Cerro Cotzic rises to 3,683 metres, and the highest community in the municipality, Los Pocitos in the Barrancas microregion, sits at 3,429.

The place began with sheep. In the mid-1700s families from Tajumulco brought their flocks up here for the pasture, and some of them, Chilels and Ramírezes above all, stayed for good. Ixchiguán became a municipality in its own right on 9 August 1933, separated from Tajumulco. Today it lives on potatoes: some aldeas get three harvests a year, the coldest get one, and maize and cold-weather vegetables grow alongside. Households also earn from seasonal work on the coffee farms, from jobs across the border in Mexico, from the trade in traje, and from relatives in the United States, where Worthington, Minnesota, became the main home of Mam speakers who left these mountains.

The ground is volcanic and steep, and the municipality is organised into five microregions: Ricardo Chávez around the town, Cutzulchumá, Molinos, Grijalva and Barrancas. Molinos and Grijalva have the best farming soil, and Grijalva the gentlest slopes. Frost, hail, snow and landslides hit hardest in Cutzulchumá, Molinos, Grijalva and the upper part of Ricardo Chávez, and many villages stand on ground prone to slides. That shapes building more than anything else here: a house needs a sound retaining wall below it, a roof that takes hail, and walls and windows that keep the night cold out.

Close to 24,000 people live in Ixchiguán. Mam is the language of the municipality, and K’iche’ is spoken in two communities. The town has spread until it joins the cantones of San Juan, Buena Vista, Cotzic, Grijalva and Nueva Alianza, and the aldeas include Calapté, Choapéquez, Tuichán, Julischín, Bexoncán and San Antonio. The big feast is San Cristóbal in July; on the fifth Friday of Lent the town honours Jesús Nazareno with the baile de la Granada, and pozunque, a maize drink seasoned with ash, goes round. This is a town of owner-built family houses, not of developments or apartment blocks.

Houses in Ixchiguán:

Houses here are single-family and low, one or two storeys, packed together in the centre and more spread out where the town meets the fields. Along the main streets many have one or more ground-floor rooms opening onto the pavement, used as the family’s own shop or let to someone else, so the house with a shopfront is the standard mixed-use property. Most homes were built by their owners, and the municipality has not been issuing building licences, so quality varies a great deal from one house to the next. Look hard at the retaining walls, the roof and the drainage before anything else. If the house fronts the RN-12, check that it does not sit on the road’s right of way.

Land and Lots in Ixchiguán:

Land is what most people here are after. Inside the town, plots of one or two cuerdas are still planted with potatoes and vegetables, and these are the lots that turn into house sites as the centre fills in. Nuevo Ixchiguán, a canton on the RN-12, is semi-flat and was divided years ago into house lots handed to families; the municipality has marked it out for the town’s expansion, which makes it the most practical place to look for a building lot in Ixchiguán. Out in Molinos and Grijalva the land is farmland, and potatoes wear soil out fast, so a field without terraces or contour barriers will need work. Springs and landslide zones are set aside for protection, and some land is communal, held and managed through community authorities rather than by a single owner.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Ixchiguán?

  Take the RN-12 north from San Marcos: 45 km of two-lane asphalt to the town centre. The road continues to Sibinal, Tacaná and San José Ojetenam, so there is steady traffic, but potholes slow the trip. From Guatemala City it is 295 km by way of the Inter-American Highway and San Marcos.

• How much does the cold matter for a house or a plot?

  A lot. Cold fronts bring frost in the dry season, hail falls in the rains, and Cerro Cotzic has been under snow, as it was in 2012. A house here has to hold heat, take hail and stand on stable ground. On farmland the cold sets the calendar: the warmer aldeas get three potato harvests a year, the coldest only one.

• Where is the town growing?

  Toward Nuevo Ixchiguán, on the RN-12. It is semi-flat, already divided into house lots, and the municipality has earmarked it for expansion. The cantones closest to the centre, such as San Juan, Cotzic and Nueva Alianza, have already filled in to the point where they read as part of the town.

• What should I check before buying land near the Tajumulco line?

  The boundary with Tajumulco has been disputed since 1933, when Ixchiguán was split off, and the demarcation proposal drawn up in 2017 by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, the Registro de Información Catastral and the property registry would move some communities from one municipality to the other. Before you pay, confirm at the property registry that the parcel is registered, which municipality it falls in, and that the seller is the owner on record. Ask at the municipality and the community authority too, because part of the land here is communal.

• Is the land good for farming?

  Molinos and Grijalva have the best soils in the municipality, and Grijalva’s gentler slopes make it the easiest to work. Potatoes are the main crop, with maize, beans and cold-weather vegetables. Potatoes wear the ground down, so if a field has been cropped hard, budget for terracing, contour barriers and organic fertiliser.