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A DISSERTATION
TULANE UNIVERSITY
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
APPROVED:
Professor W l ^ a a m J ffith
Chairman
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PREFACE
lating economic development within its borders. During the last three
Pacific highlands and later into the Alta Verapaz, a remote, undevel
the Germans turned to coffee cultivation, and their work and invest
tion and marketing of coffee, the nation’s chief export crop. In the
Alta Verapaz they had achieved virtual hegemony over the economy of the
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gave the government a pretext to end German economic power "by confis
Erwin Paul Dieseldorff was one of the Germans who was attracted
His career in the Alta Verapaz spanned nearly half a century, from
1889 to 1937t and during this time he built up, from a modest beginning,
but retail merchandising, the areas over which the Germans exercised
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rial from manuscript sources the author used Guatemalan law books,
interviews with members of the Dieseldorff family and with persons who
worked for Dieseldorff. Also of value were the reports of the German
Berlin.
persons for their assistance and cooperation in the research and writ
ing of this study: Professor William Joyce Griffith who suggested the
from which the present study developed; the late Dorothee Neal de
who gave the author permission to use the Dieseldorff family papers
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mala and its former director, the late Albertina Galvez; the Hemero-
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE.......................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................ vi
INTRODUCTION ................................................... 1
BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................... *+55
vi
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LIST OF MAPS
vii
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INTRODUCTION
particular, would not only increase their population, but would give
not produce consistent results. In some areas the changes were super
national life of the country. Size, however, did not always determine
the effect, and in a country like Guatemala, which was small, under
1
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which would help to develop the economy of the nation and bring into
that it possessed.
1823 and 1826 the government made contracts with individual promoters
the 1830's and 181*0's with impresarios who represented European colo
nization companies, but in all instances the early schemes were re
last quarter of the century the government turned once again to the
dividual basis.
Germany prompted him and many like him to venture abroad, and his
potential investor.
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settlements on public lands. In 1825 and 1826 the states made con-
2
tracts with several colonization impresarios, but none of the con
1826 inhibited new projects, but by the middle 1830*s the Republic
talists from Great Britain, Belgium, and the German states, who formed
notable venture in the Isthmian area was the undertaking of the British
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of the colonists that the company recruited were from the German
g
states. During the following decade the German states provided not
3
William J. Griffith, Empires in the Wilderness, Foreign
Colonization and Development in Guatemala, l83^-l8M (Chapel Hill,
19^5), PP. 13^7"198, 201.
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idealistic garb— the promise of a new life for the poor of Europe and
The execution of the plans had revealed that the publicized Ideals
companies now denounced them and counseled, "If the Immigrant must go,
the advice of the press, for during the late 1850's the pattern of
immigration.
new phenomenon, for prior to this time the German states had taken
the German states during the nineteenth century, however, led many
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and the French and to carve out spheres of influence of their own.^
holds in Africa and in the islands of the Couth Pacific, were ex
and the historian Heinrich von Treit.schke, but other writers, such
Q
Heinrich von Treitschke, Politics, 2 vols., trans. Blanche
Dugdale and Torben de Bille (New York, 1916), Vol. I, pp. 117-119*
Q
The bibliography of German workB that expounded the ideas
of colonial and commercial expansion is extensive. Two lengthy and
almost entirely different listings appear in: Mary Evelyn Townsend,
Origins of Modern German Colonialism, 1871-1885 (New York, 1921),
pp. 198-201; [Austin Harrison]?, The Pan-Germanic Doctrine, being a
Study of German Political Aims and Aspirations (London, 190k), pp.
ix-xiv.
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As early as 18^1, List pointed out the need for a strong, well-
their national loyalties, rather than to the United States, where they
became assimilated into the population after one or two generations .11
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During the l8U0's and the 1850's the press played an important
4-v, 12
them.
could exploit. One traveler observed that the great poverty character
12
Hansen, pp. 33-3^.
13
Among the books written by German nineteenth century travelers
in Central America were the following: Julius Frobel, Seven Years*
Travel in Central America. . . (London, 1859)j Wilhelm Heine, Wander-
bilder aus Central-Amerika (Leipzig, 1853); Wilhelm Marr, Reise nach
Central-Amerika (Hamburg, 1870); C. F. Reichardt, Centro-Amerika. . .
(Braunschweig, 1851); Karl Scherzer, Travels in the Free States of
Central America. . ., 2 vols. (London, 1857); Otto Stoll, Guatemala,
Reisen und Schilderungen aus den Jahren 1878-1883 (Leipzig, 1886).
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the lack of labor, capital, and commerce. It followed, he pointed out,
that German immigrants, even with limited capital resources, could take
to Central America.
additional market outlets, for new sources of cheap raw materials, for
Bremen, and Ltibeck conceived the idea that German economic expansion
overseas could again make the North Sea ports the commercial center
the Pacific islands, and to Latin America, and provided them with
capital and credit to locate and develop new markets and previously
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During the l850's and l860's Klee and his successors also represented
17
the government of Prussia.
various reasons. The domestic market was only meagerly supplied with
European goods, and the size of the population and the physical location
of the country between the Caribbean and the Pacific gave it incipient
land grants and tax immunities offered opportunity to open vast areas
cultural crops, such as coffee, and to export the produce through the
imported manufactures.
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& Co., E. Ascoli, and Rieper, Augener & Co. These firms were importers,
real estate and commission agents, and retail merchants, and offered
partners of Hockmeyer & Rittscher was the director of the company that
ports. Rieper, Augener & Co. were agents for the Norddeutscher Lloyd
Line, which offered steamship service between Bremen and the Pacific
+ I8
ports.
that existed at this time in the environs of Guatemala City and Antigua,
duction. Land had been cleared in these areas at an earlier date for
and the development of chemical dyes had begun to make this crop un
small scale, to cultivate coffee, and some had marketed their crops
id
Gaceta de Guatemala, Vol. XVI, Nos. 2, 3, 73, and 90, January
22 and 29, 1869, July 5, and November 12, 1870; Boletin Oficial
(Guatemala), Vol. I, Nos. 27 and 6H, February 17 , and August 5, 1872.
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export staple, for the climate and soil of the Guatemalan highlands
For two decades, until about 1875, there was a steady trickle
nent, and the expansion of the German merchant fleet, the seeds planted
by men like List and Treitschke reached fruition. The clamor for colonies
pace, as merchants and traders acting as agents for German import houses
Germany was not unique, however. During the last two or three
swept Western Europe like a tidal wave. This was the period known as
the era of the ’’new imperialism” or the "new colonialism” when the old
colonial powers like Great Britain and France acquired vast new posses
sions and the colonial have-nots like Italy and Germany staked out
empires of their own, when church missions and trading outposts became
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first protectorates and then colonies, and when the nations of Europe
divided among themselves large portions of the African and Asian con
tinents and many of the islands of the South Seas. This was the period
merchants, and professional men left the Old World in search of in
emigrated, many to the United States, others to Chile, Brazil, and the
like his predecessor Mariano G£lvez in the l830fs, was of the firm
foreign settlers, with their native vigor and their superior skills
and knowledge, would not only help the country to realize the advantages
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19
nat ion's populac e .
the 1820's and 1830's, which had been formulated to attract largely
1877 > the Sociedad de Inmigracion, composed of ten nationals and ten
19
Chester Lloyd Jones, Guatemala, Past and Present (Minneapolis,
19^0), p. 56; J. Mendez, Guia del inmigrante en la Republica de Guatemala
(Guatemala, 1895)> PP* 6-7- Mendez reiterates Barrios' views in the
opening section in which he dedicates the book to Barrios.
20
Guatemala, Recopilacion de las leyes de Guatemala emitidas por
el gobierno democritico de la Republica de Guatemala, edicion oficial
(Guatemala, 1889), Vol. II, pp. 17-18. Hereinafter this work is cited
as Leyes de Guatemala.
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immigrant could receive a free grant of land from the terrenos baldios
hands. All Immigrants were exempted from military service, and those
who settled on terrenos baldios were exempted for ten years from all
road work. Under the law the Sociedad de Inmigracion became the
offered by Guatemala.
ment. The Barrios government revised the land laws of the country so
terrenos baldios into private holdings. Most of the baldios were placed
They eliminated many delays caused by government red tape and the poor
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of a free land grant they offered, the laws gave Germans and other
was determined that the Indian population should provide the labor
ment passed a law in April, 1877* that gave plantation owners the legal
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These resident laborers were called colonos, and the law sanctioned a
system of debt peonage by which the owner could tie these people to
the land and thus avert the problem of having to find new workers every
four years'. During the harvest season, when additional hands were
needed, the planter could request as many as sixty men, who worked for
^Mendez, p. 69 .
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tude towards Germans and its efforts to attract settlers from that
over that of other nationalities. Jose Maria Reina Barrios, for ex
For the most part these consular posts were occupied by Germans, many
29
German Foreign Ministry Archives, Guatemala No. 1. Negative
microfilm at the University of California, Berkeley. UC III, Reel 22,
Frames 198-199* Letter: Werner von Bergen, German Minister Plenipo
tentiary, Guatemala, to Chancellor Caprivi, Berlin, March 15, 1892.
Ibid., Reel 22, Frames 278-280. Letter: F. C. von Erckert,
German Charge d'Affaires, Guatemala, to Chancellor Hohenlohe, Berlin,
June 18, 1897* Hereinafter this microfilm will be cited as GFMA.
OQ
Guatemala, Memoria de la Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores^
presentada a la Asamblea Nacional Legislativa en 1903 (Guatemala, 1903),
p. 71* For a number of years Guatemala's chief diplomatic official
in Europe was the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary,
resident in Paris, whose Jurisdiction included France, Great Britain,
Belgium, and Germany, but in 1902 the Guatemalan government accredited
a second Minister Plenipotentiary, resident in Berlin. Subsequent
references to volumes from this series will be cited as Memoria. . .
Relaciones Exteriores (date).
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likewise expanded its diplomatic representation to Guatemala by
33
accrediting additional consular posts and raising in 1889 the rank
tained both a most favored nation clause and articles granting prefer
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Germany, for although the two countries granted mutual privileges and
assistants for their offices, and managers and overseers for their
but if they had managed to accumulate some capital and had made credit
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there were about one hundred Germans in Guatemala City and some twenty-
Marks, and the annual value of business of the German houses wbb about
. 39
1*0,000,000 Marks. * By the turn of the century Germans were the leading
contributed a part of the capital for these enterprises, but the larger
Germany.
ties with business houses in Germany, which extended them credit, they
tween 1897 and 1913 the value of German exports to Guatemala averaged
0*7
F. C. von Erckert, ’’Die wirtschaftlichen Interessen Deutsch-
lands in Guatemala,” BeitrSge zur Kolonialpolitik und Kolonialwirtschaft,
III (1901-1902), p. 275-
38Ibid., p. 283.
3^GFMA, Reel 22, Frame 369* Newspaper clipping from the Nord-
deutsche allgemeine Zeitung, December 9» 1897*
1*0 .
Erckert, p. 27**; GFMA, Reel 22, Frame 300. Statistical chart
dated 1895-
1*1
Germany, Statistisches Jahrbuch fur das deutsche Reich. .
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Guatemalan imports and did not occur at the expense of North American
and British trade, which also increased during this period. In the
degree of the Bremen market, during the l850's and the i860's. Ham
burg by the end of the century had become the clearing house for almost
all the coffee imported to the continent, and from this port the
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finance enterprising young men who wished to start new coffee plan
tations.
that existed, the nascent coffee industry with its product of proved
acquisition and labor. The later arrivals quickly followed suit, and
increased production.
vert into coffee orchards fields planted to cactus for raising cochineal,
to clear and plant virgin lands, and to sustain the undertaking during
would enable them to market their crop profitably, and thus supply
the Pacific ports of Champerico, San Jose, and Ocos through which their
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tions with German commercial firms and other investors, who willingly
and coffee exports Jumped from 16,000,000 pounds in 1873 to more than
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from foreigners. Its lands were virgin and its resources, untapped
the basis on which German activity began in Guatemala, did noc exist
in the department, and the Germans believed that the first enterprises
The region also contained large areas of unclaimed public lands, which
there under nearly ideal natural conditions, and although it was pro-
duced chiefly for local consumption, the prospects for expansion were
interior were most primitive, the Polochic River offered some facilities
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for the export of a hulk commodity from the department. On the hasis
bonanza.
grants in Guatemala City, Antigua, and the Pacific highlands. Imm igrants
with local German commercial firms and then gradually extended their
Franz Sarg, arrived in the Alta Verapaz in the late i860 1s. They
During the 1870's a few more Germans settled in the department. Some
tives and friends arrived to join their established countrymen, and the
1+7 -
Guatemala, Censo general de la Republica de Guatemala, levan-
tado en el ano de 1880 (Guatemala, l88lT, p. 150.
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Italians, Frenchmen, and Spaniards— hut these were only a handful. The
steady influx of Germans continued until the 1930's, and all together
the group formed a small hut influential foreign enclave, which re
and to improve the quality of the crops as well. Thus they came to he
not only the largest landowners hut the leading coffee producers in
they were ahle to prepare coffee for market more quickly and efficiently
lation of the department was drawn into it. The small landowners,
both ladinos and Germans, who lacked processing equipment and market
outlets, sold their crops to German exporters, who had often times
permanent and temporary labor force and also became small-scale sup
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between the river ports and Livingston on the Bay of Honduras; con
Europe. Much of what they accomplished was made possible by the avail
who came to the Alta Verapaz during the late l880's and the 1890's,
and his career, which spanned almost half a century from 1888 to 1937,
of his arrival, countrymen who had preceeded him had already set in
motion the wheels of change that were to transform the Verapaz, and
system that he found there. In this respect, neither he nor the other
that Dieseldorff did not introduce any new elements into the existing
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areas around the globe. Thus, his emigration to Guatemala and his
for his career serves as a case study to test the generalizations com
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host country when it extended special privileges to attract immigrants
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CHAPTER I
Europe and emigrated to Guatemala in 1888. His decision was not acci
fortuitous. He was born into a family that had been active in the
commercial life of Hamburg and Central America for many years. From
sound advice and valuable connections with banking and import firms
Verapaz and become a coffee planter and exporter followed the prece
dent set by an uncle and two cousins, who had emigrated there before
him.
one of the leading bill brokers in the Hamburg grain market. Although
the family fortunes failed to daunt his sons, three out of four of
Erwin's father), and Heinrich Rudolf (H. R.)— went on to amass fortunes
of their own.''’
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various commercial houses until 181*3 when he and a man named Hasteos
started an export business. The firm prospered, and four years later
2
Notebook kept by Erwin P. Dieseldorff while in London, [1885-
1888], pp. [1*], [7], Dieseldorff Collection, Special Collections
Division, Tulane University Library, New Orleans. In subsequent
citations the abbreviation "DC” will be used for the Dieseldorff
Collection.
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for Godefroy & Co., the well-known firm that had initiated German
trade in the South Pacific. In time he went into business on his own,
first outfitting merchant ships with naval stores and supplies, and
was born in 1831. As a young man he also worked for his brother in
Belize. About i860 he decided to go out on his own, and with money
mala. The venture failed, unfortunately, when the first crop was
k
destroyed by locusts. In the meantime, he heard of the Alta Verapaz,
tunities for profit, and thus in 1865 he made the arduous trip to
Coban and became the first German to settle permanently in the area.
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able to buy property and expand his activities into coffee production
and export.^
He was an artist and spent most of his life in Vienna. There he met
Marie Rethey, whom he married in 1848. The couple had two sons,
Stefan August (August), born in 1852, and Wilhelm Anton (W. A.), born
widow moved to Hamburg, where she settled permanently with her two
tial clerk for a coffee import and export company. Once in Guatemala,
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the other hand, was more interested in coffee production and in the
the second son of Johann Peter Daniel Dieseldorff and Marie Rethey.
Dieseldorff’s mother died when he was four, and a year and a half
later his father married Marie Louise Sophie Behrens, whom young
Erwin and his older brother Arthur came to regard as their mother.9
financial success of his father and his two uncles, as well as the
stories they must have told of their experiences abroad, could not
but fire his desire to visit new areas— Africa; Australia, Central
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America— and seize for himself a share of the riches found there.
to the point that he could easily have dissipated his energies and
and advise him and to guide him into channels where he could employ
ly. Rather than travel leisurely through various parts of the world,
taken into junior partnership his nephew August, who acted as his
agent in Coban.
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r ial
from Belize, and, significantly, coffee from Cohan. The exports the
company handled were equally varied, the most prominent heing dry
Shortly after Erwin started work, his uncle became too sick
nephew with the entire operation of the company. His duties involved
and responsibility for the vault keys and bank book. The young man
scarcely knew English and had little managerial experience, and the
British found his German script illegible. He must have done a good
his salary.
ship and management of his own business became too much of a burden.
In May, 1886, he decided to sell out and go to work for another estab
& Co., which also had an office in Belize. Erwin took this occasion
were satisfied with his work and increased his annual salary from
*1 p
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£ 120. the first year to £ 150. the second (Erwin had brashly asked
his father’s will, Erwin was to receive U5,000 Marks from the estate
of his mother Marie Rethey. The money was invested in real estate
mortgages, which Erwin could not collect until he reached his majority
in 1889. From his father's own estate he was to receive 3,000 Marks
Marks on July 1, 1899; and after 1900 an estimated 500,000 Marks, one
lit
quarter of the remainder of the estate.
him a partner in the firm in 1890. The two men discussed the matter
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himself ever to allow Erwin to buy into the company. Young Diesel-
visited in London for several weeks. The men saw a great deal of
the Coban area, but Erwin had not yet formulated precise plans.
open an account with Leckie & Co. with an advance credit from the
Dieseldorff's request, pointing out that Erwin had only vague ideas
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The sole offer Leckie felt he could make was to allow Dieseldorff to
deposit with the firm monies not to be used for commercial trans-
17
actions, on which the company would pay It % annual interest.
support money from his father’s estate and some that he borrowed
from August, he was able to finance the trip. On October 10, 1888,
he sailed from Liverpool for New York with August and his wife Agnes,
their son Fritz, and several servants. From New York the group
on the Bay of Honduras, where they arrived at the end of the month.
sea and the Alta Verapaz. His more experienced cousin served as a
guide to point out to him the many transport problems that existed.
First the party took the small paddle-steamer that provided service
between Livingston and the fluvial port of Panzos, along the route
area, appeared squalid and insignificant, it was the entrepot for all
From Panzos to Coban the group traveled by mule over the only
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porters to carry the baggage and all the provisions and bedding
where the road was very narrow and steep, and often blocked by fallen
for coffee was the main topic of every conversation. He became ac
cluding the German Vice-Consul in Coban the Baron Hans von Turkheim, the
engineer Oskar von Nostitz, and the brothers August and Hermann Helm-
rich, who were related to his stepmother. His countrymen pressed him
objective except the desire to advance his position. From the begin
l8
Letters from Erwin P. Dieseldorff to his mother, Letters # 1
through # 8, written between October 10, 1888, and November 10, 1888,
DC. Dieseldorff in his letters always addressed his stepmother as
"mother.” Hereinafter in references to correspondence and to most
documents the name Erwin P. Dieseldorff will be abbreviated to EPD.
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department drew his interest to coffee and aroused his natural curi
pulperos, machines that removed the red outer skin of the coffee
bean, the first step in preparing the coffee. His friends explained
in detail the design of the apparatus and pointed out the importance
integuments adhering to the beans and left the coffee ready for market
in its final form, as oro or green coffee. During his stay at Samac
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the industry and frugality of German planters, and perhaps even more
21
so by the profits their efforts promised to produce.
natives. He observed that his cousin August was liked by both Indians
and ladinos, because he shook hands with everyone and spoke to all
Kekchi, the local Indian language, and Erwin was quick to see the
do as August does and come out with the most incredible flatteries—
his offer, and together the two men traveled extensively in the area
southwest of Coban, explored caves, and dug around old Indian burial
Ol
EPD to his mother, Letter # 10, November 2 9 » 1888, and Letter
# 11, December 5, 1888, DC. August Helmrich's diligence and thrift im
pressed Dieseldorff, for except on Sundays, Helmrich spent the entire
week on his finca working. Helmrich lived with only the barest neces
sities. He considered a bed an extravagance and slept on a table in
stead. Although his economical existence seemed rather extreme,
Dieseldorff noted that hard work and frugality had a tangible result,
for Helmrich was quickly developing Samac into a flourishing plantation.
p p
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and soil of the department. He also became doubly aware of the hin
of the firm of Koch, Hagmann & Co. about a position for Erwin. Koch
had attended school with August in Liibeck, and he had been employed
obliged August and offered Erwin a job at Miramar, one of the com
worker who was allowed to work for a short period of time without
as possible. August believed that the offer would give Erwin a good
Alta Verapaz was entering a period of great expansion, but for the
other friends, such as the Helmrichs and von Nostitz, believed that
Erwin would profit from the experience and urged him to take Koch's
offer.
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with Oskar von Nostitz. This segment of the journey vividly illustra
ted to him the Verapaz’s almost complete isolation from the rest of
the country. Coban lay only some 120 miles from the capital, but the
see the problems involved in picking the beans and preparing them for
Pli
EPD to his mother, Letter # 13, December 27» 1888, DC.
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it was cleaned. After the coffee was processed and bagged, the finca
with spurs into the interior, was a serious impediment to both local
group of Indian laborers, mozos, who were to cut down the old coffee
supervision of Indian workers. At the same time he was able for the
sary among the younger plantings of the Verapaz, which was used to
27
rejuvenate old trees that had ceased to yield a profitable crop.
telligence, had persc-.nally tried to teach him all that was involved
he had profited from the experience, but because the position was
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28
if he remained any longer. He had considered for some time a prop
area for fincas available for purchase, but he was unsure about the
Swiss resident of the region who proposed to return with his family
The plantations were fully developed and equipped, but the price
30
Zollikofer asked was more than Dieseldorff could pay. A few other
inquiries convinced him that he would most likely encounter the same
situation in all parts of the south coast, where the value and cost
Pfl
EPD to his mother, Letter # 21, February 21, 1889, and
Letter # 28, May 9, I 889, DC. In an unguarded moment he wrote his
mother, wDoch sehe ich, dass die Sache als Volontair ziemlich mist-
lich i s t In the May letter, however, he defended his decision to
accept the position and said that a Volontair position was invaluable
to a person who wanted to learn about a business quickly without a long
period of apprenticeship or obligation.
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the department. They pointed out that land prices in the Verapaz were
far lower than in the Costa Cuca, and that in the Verapaz there were
took into account the cora ..derations that fincas which were not
at low prices. A finca that had some land already in production not
but it would yield a small income while he cleared new areas and put
32
them under cultivation.
He circled the Verapaz from Cobfin south and east through the
could, examined carefully those that were for sale, and studied the
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•a*3
lines of communication. His purpose was "to become familiar with
that the money would not be sufficient for his purposes, for the pur
pay the money he had borrowed from August Dieseldorff for the trip to
Cobfin was cheap, expenses incurred in his travels through the depart
ment had been high. He had had to buy two horses and a mule, as well
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Convinced that he had ample knowledge of the coffee business,
inheritance would amount to more than 700,000 Marks, but for the
present much of the money was unavailable to him. That being the
lining his plans and asking for an advance of 100,000 Marks. Diesel
dorff recounted his training under Hagmann at Miramar and the in
out the sound prospects for making money from coffee in the Alta
argued, but wanted to use the money to make more. His father, he was
certain, would have extended him the necessary capital. The inherit
ance was invested in German government bonds that paid 1+ 1/2 % in
terest. Erwin offered to pay 5 % to the estate and put up his claim
37
to the remainder of the money due him as security.
that he did not extend the credit requested, because in the following
for 1,900 pesos and one for 1,800 pesos, which bore an annual interest
OO
rate of 6 % and were to be paid off by August, 1893. At the same time
Dieseldorff bought his first finca from Slattery for 5*000 pesos,
which amount was included in the loan. The remaining 12,000 pesos
and the Indians resident on the land had cleared small areas to cul
mediately went to work starting coffee seedlings and planting new trees,
luck would have it, he found the opportunity to sell the property at
a large profit. Two merchants from Guatemala City, Eugenio Silva and
Teodoro Durfin, made him a cash offer of 26,000 pesos for the land,
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Ho
and in June, 1890, he sold it to them at this price.
abilities, advised him to keep the money and reinvest it while profits
from land speculation were high. Erwin could pay off the loan at a
later date and use the money to buy other properties or to develop
||2
Seacte. In 1891 Dieseldorff moved to Seacte, determined to expand
finca in almost the same manner as they did. His dwelling was a
cold, damp hut constructed of thin poles placed vertically and tied
corn and beans. Living among the Indians, he became fluent in their
^°Land sale document for Chamcarel (June lH, 1890), DS, Secol
Box.
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collect data on the plants and herbs used by the Indians for medicinal
purposes.
Life at Seacte was difficult and lonely, for there was much
work to do and there were few opportunities for contact with Europeans.
Trips to Cob£n were rare. The finca lay only some twenty-five kilo
meters (15*5 miles) from the departmental capital, but the connecting
route was a narrow trail over steep, mountainous terrain where slick,
sharp rocks made footing so treacherous and low spots were so deep
in mud that only sturdy mules could make the journey safely. A trip
riding each way. During the long rainy season it was well nigh im-
had to supervise the planting and care of the coffee trees, the
43
Interview with dofia Matilde Dieseldorff de Quirin; Erwin P.
Dieseldorff, "Las plantas medicinales del Departamento de Alta Verapaz,"
Anales de la Sociedad de Geografxa e Historia, XVI, 2 (December, 1939).
p. 93. Dofia Matilde recounted to the author stories her father told
her about his experiences at Seacte. In the article cited Dieseldorff
speaks of the years he spent on the finca.
There is a personal account of the hardships and loneliness
felt by another German who worked for several years on an isolated
finca of the Verapaz in: David Sapper, "Costumbres y creencias
religiosas de los indios Queckchi," Anales de la Sociedad de Geografia
e Historia, II, 2 (December 1925). p* 190.
44 ^
Even today the finca Secol-Seacte is accessible only by
muleback.
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at Miramar and in the Verapaz, but this time he was working on his
solely on his shoulders. In the end his work bore fruit, and he
which served him well in later years when he had to supervise the
about the prospects of the coffee business, but he was more realistic
success. His efforts taught him that real profits came from hard work,
not from speculation in buying and selling land. His success with
Seacte was in a sense a moral victory too, for it proved that Leckie
and Sohle, who had lacked faith in him, were wro^g. Equally signifi
he made, the associations he formed, gave him a love for the land and
I15
Unless otherwise indicated, material for the following sections
came from interviews with Dieseldorff's daughters, dona Matilde Diesel
dorff de Quirin and Frau Gertrude Quinckhardt; with his first-cousins,
Mrs. Marla Luisa Dieseldorff de Hempstead and Miss Rosita Dieseldorff;
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the following decades, with funds from his inheritance and from other
tion.
and with don Arturo Morales de la Cruz and don Manuel Burmester, who
worked for Dieseldorff for many years. The author supplemented infor
mation obtained from these sources with data from the pressed copy
letterbooks and loose correspondence in the Dieseldorff Collection.
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with a large and varied stock. His endeavors outside the coffee
business, except for the store, met with little success, and after
more often from Guatemala, leaving the operation of the firm tempo
see his family sometime in 1890 or 1891, but for the next few years
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his work in Guatemala prevented his making another trip. After 1898
end of the coffee harvest, and returning in the early fall in time to
paying court to her for about two years, he married her in Eisenach
to live with him. The German community in the town welcomed the
couple warmly and tried to make the young bride feel at home. None
theless, Hanna was not able to adjust to life in Cob£n, and after a
The reasons for her departure are unclear. She had a delicate
the town, coupled with the absence of heating in the hou._s, aggravated
k6
Marriage certificate for Erwin P. Dieseldorff acid Albertina
Johanna Gressler (September 20, 1902), DC, Family Documents.
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her condition so that she could not keep up with the rigorous pace
of outdoor life led by her husband. Undoubtedly she also missed her
for many of the wives of wealthy German planters of the Alta Verapaz
spent all or most of their time in Germany. After Hanna left Cob£n,
his wife could not share with him life in his adopted country. Her
presence in Berlin meant that the annual trips to Europe now had
with her father. Later she married Max Quirin, a German from
many years. The other two, Hanna's children, both born in Berlin,
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and the couple settled in Hamburg. Willi, several years after his
the war in Europe, Dieseldorff was unable to leave the country until
once again in his hands, he faced still another struggle finding the
efforts, but the physical deprivations suffered during the war and
the worries and tensions of the years 1919 and 1920 seriously affected
his health.
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assist him, ultimately the major decisions were his concern. His
business survived the crises, but as the years and the work began to
His illness made him realize that he could not continue at the head
teach him the business, in anticipation of the day when the firm
would be his. Willi, who was not quite eighteen, had lived up to
had worked for several months on the fincas, Dieseldorff brought him
to Coban to become fully acquainted with the office routine and with
formal education.
For the next few years Erwin Dieseldorff remained at the head
of the business. Yet he came to depend more and more on his son-in-
law Max Quirin to manage the operation in Cobin, and on his son Willi
coffee in Europe. From London Willi began to seek new outlets and
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better prices for Dieseldorff coffee in Great Britain and in the Low
European countries.
1937 he had his son Willi return to Coban, and in September he trans
ferred ownership of the firm to him. He gave his son all his prop
erties, except for two that he kept temporarily, and a finca that he
tis of the cervical spine. They recommended him to continue with the
case the pain persisted, they suggested his having a complete course
Lq
of X-ray therapy over the spine.
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rest of his life, as his wife had been. The idea was unbearable for
for interment. The site he chose for the grave had been one of his
tall pines rose like spires between gigantic black boulders, and
from where the panorama of Chajcar, its buildings and its orchards,
could be observed.
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traito are reflected time and time again In hla actions. Physically,
himself with great formal dignity, and his bearing was commanding.
for the man was complex. He treated the people beneath him, such
cases alienated him from various members of the family and from a
number of his fellow Germans. For similar reasons his relations with
quarters were in the five-room area above the central office at Santa
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wines, and fine liquors, and he Invited both Guatemalan and German
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was also generous and helped persons In need who appealed to him for
maintained himself aloof from the German community, hut he did not
mingle with Guatemalans either, for his business and personal in
the ethnology of the Indians in the Alta Verapaz, and the flora of
Certainly, one can argue that he was a dilettante, for he was know
covery of some Indian relics near Coban a few weeks after his arrival
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57
in Guatemala awakened his curiosity, and his exploration of Indian
eg
burial sites with Dr. Karl Sapper further fired his enthusiasm.
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6l
and a clay vessel on which was painted a vampire-headed dlety.
Dleseldorff studied the two pieces for several years, during which
time he compared the hieroglyphs and figures on the vases with those
highly.
made on their land was monetary, rather than scientific. More im
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his efforts on analyzing the Mayan and Aztec calendar systems in order
nection with solar movements he began to work out his own calculations,
gy
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, "Extracto del libro antiguo gue [sic]
conserva la cofradia de Carcha," Internationaler Amerikanisten-Kongress.
Vierzehnte Tagung, Stuttgart, 190^ (Stuttgart, 1906), pp. 399-^02;
International Congress of Americanists, Verhandlungen des XXIV Inter-
nationalen Amerikanisten-Kongres se s , Hamburg, 7. bis 13. September,
1930 (Hamburg, 193^), PP. Ixi-lxii. These pages give the names of
persons who participated in the 2Uth Congress but whose papers do not
appear in the published Proceedings. Dieseldorff, who read a paper
entitled "Die Erklarung einiger Stelen, Altare und Temple von Copan,"
is among those listed. Because of the long delay in printing the volume,
some of the participants took back their manuscripts, and consequently
many of the papers were unavailable for publication.
68
Correspondence with Dr. Hans Ludendorff, DC, Mayan Studies
Material.
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71
Geografia e Historia in Guatemala, the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia
72 73
y Estadlstica, and elsewhere.
in the field of Mayan studies through his published works, his active
71
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, "El calendario Maya de Quirigua,"
Anales de la Sociedad de Geografia e Historia, XII, 3 (March, 1936),
pp. 272-277; Erwin P. Dieseldorff, ^La arqueologla de la Alta Verapaz
y los problemas de los estudios Mayas," Anales de la Sociedad de
Geografia e Historia, XIII, 2 (December, 1936), pp. 183-191; Erwin P.
Dieseldorff,^'La causa por la cual los Mayas de Quirigua comenzaron su
calendario en 22 de septiembre del aHo 3373 A . J . C . Anales de la
Sociedad de Geografia e Historia, XVI, U (June, 19^0), PP* 271-279*
72
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, Los secretos contenidos en el tablero
del templo de la Cruz de Palenque, la .joya mas valiosa de la pre-
historia mundial, conservada en el Museo Nacional de Mexico, D.F.
(Mexico, 1939)• This is a reprint of a speech given on September 19,
1939.
73
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, Explanatory Notes to the Lecture on
the "Mayan Intercalary Systems" of the Calendar, to be. Given 3rd August
193** at 11 A.M. at University College (n.d., n.p."5T
7*+
Miscellaneous correspondence, DC, Mayan Studies Material.
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that he found and through purchases and gifts. Nothing pleased him
were only fragments, but he also acquired many rare and exquisite
examples of Mayan art. At the time of his death his collection num
bered more than three thousand items, which Willi donated, in his
were only an avocation for him. His contributions were minor ones,
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Pennsylvania Museum staff who came to the Alta Verapaz on field trips
78
consulted with him concerning their work. Dieseldorff and his
became interested in this work during the period between 1890 and
mozos he had to rely on his own knowledge and skill, and on the
77
Dieseldorff, Seler, and Forstemann, p. 66k.
78
Correspondence with J. Alden Mason and Mary Butler, DC, Mayan
Studies Material.
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tut at the same time he began to observe the local curanderos, who
practitioner. The two men worked closely together, and Cucul taught
Dieseldorff all he knew about the plants of the area and their cura
results with others interested in the field, such as Hans von Tiirkheim,
an amateur herbalist who had spent many years collecting and classi-
8l
fying the flora of the department. To broaden his knowledge Diesel
dorff became acquainted with medicine men from Yaxcabnal, Cham£, San
Pedro Carcha, Chajcar, Secac, and Santa Cecilia, and in this manner
botanical names, and enumerating the medical uses of each, but other
able for the general public. The plant, whose botanical name was Sida
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escobilla. except in the Alta Verapaz, where the Kekchl Indians called
its medicinal properties. When mesbe vapors were inhaled or the ex
dorff envisioned many other uses for mesbd\ but he realized that he
an exhaustive study.
by the vacuum process. He then enlisted the aid of Dr. Adolf Spangen-
bought several inhalators and other equipment for the hospital and
o2
Bills of lading, Letterbook, "Ferrocarril Verapaz," No. U,
pp. 197, 202, 205, 207, 323, 331, 337, 3 k 6 , DC.
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each of the eighteen cases that had had pulmonary bleeding prior to
skin, the bones, and the stomach were cured with surprising rapidity
although among the patients were many old cases that had not responded
willing to experiment with the mesbe. In the next two years a number
Oo
Dr. Adolf Spangenberg, "Mesbe, ein neues Heilmittel gegen
Tuberkulose," Reichs medizinal Anzeiger, XXXVII, 18 (August 30, 1912),
pp. 1-8.
8U
Dr. Butzengeiger, "Erfahrungen mit Mesbe in der Behandlung
chirurgischer Tuberkulosen," Munchener medizinischen Wochenschrift,
No. 3 (1913), pp. 1-U; Dr. V. Chlumsky, *'Uber Mesbebehandlung bei
chirurgischer Tuberkulose und bei infizierten Wunden," Zentralblatt
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a primitive home remedy, and that it could hardly have any salutary
effect. There were, however, at least ten doctors, who publicly de
ists from Hamburg and Berlin and medical professors at the Universi
fur Chirurgie, No. 9 (February 28, 191*0, pp. 369-370; Dr. Neuber,
'*Versuche mit Mesbe gegen Tuberkulose," Zentralblatt fur Chirurgie,
No. 1, (January 1+, 1913), pp. 10-12.
Dieseldorff also published privately, pamphlets containing
testimonials of physicians and patients who had obtained favorable
results using the drug: Briefliche Mitteilungen von Aerzten uber
Mesbe bei Lungentuberkulose ([Berlin, 191** ?]); Briefliche Mitteil
ungen von Patienten uber Mesbe bei Lungentuberkulose ([Berlin, 191** ?]).
Or
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, Heilung von Lungenleiden durch In
halation von Mesbe (Berlin, 191*+); Erwin P. Dieseldorff, Mesbe bei chirur
gischer Tuberkulose (Berlin, 191*0; Dr. Adolf Spangenberg, Mesbe bei
Lungentuberkulose (Berlin, 191*+).
Dieseldorff also had printed the following advertising sheets:
Mesbe ([Berlin, 191*+ ?)); Dr. Adolf Spangenberg, Mesbe. Ueber das
Tuberkulose-Heilmittel Mesbe ([Berlin 191*+ ?]).
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own funds and in the next two yearB spent more than $ 20,000. for
staff and equipment. Among the ItemB purchased were sixteen inhala-
eighteen months the staff was enlarged and medical facilities expanded
when the First World War began and dealt a catastrophic blow to the
hospital. The shortage of supplies and the demand for medical per
from the mesbe. By the end of the conflict Dieseldorff found himself
The failure of the Mesbe Institute was not only a great finan
the drug and working to establish a hospital for its use, his plans
had come to naught. For the next ten or twelve years he ceased
working with medicinal plants and devoted his time to the business
of the mesbe.
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Paul Wirsing, a friend and countryman who provided much valuable data
study about 1939* The following year the Guatemalan government pub
poor state of health prevented him from pursuing the matter aggressively.
After his death the mesb6 was everywhere forgotten, except perhaps in
CobSn, where people still chuckle kindly when they recall the man's
fanatic faith in the curative powers of the plant and his incessant
widespread use of the mesbe, Guatemala might perhaps have enjoyed a new
export crop. But Dieseldorff's efforts were not so much in the in
and disease.
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today In virtually the same manner as It did when he was Its head.
took time and a great deal of work but Dleseldorff,with talent and
and commercial potential of the Alta Verapaz, and at the same time
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CHAPi'ER II
son in 1937» he owned no fever than fifteen fincas, whose total area
imagine that it did not always exist as such, but was, in reality, the
result of almost fifty years' labor. The size of the enterprise tends
conceals the fact that the whole was made up of many individual
most other landholders in the Alta Verapaz, but there was nothing
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credit could and did obtain property in the same way.^ For this reason
phenomenon of the origin of the latifundia system since the Alta Vera-
who formed the bulk of the population, still lived in tiny communitLea
throughout the mountain valleys on land they had posseuned and culti
vated since time immemorial, to which, however, few had ever obtained
5
title from the Guatemalan government.
3
The land titles of the Dieseldorff properties clearly sub
stantiate this statement, for in almost every instance the deed in
cludes original documents for all the transactions Involving the par
ticular property from the time the government first granted title up
to Dieseldorff's purchase. Since most of the properties changed hands
several times before Dieseldorff bought them, the documents in the
land titles are a revealing cross section of land tenure and present
extensive documentation of the different ways Guatemalans, Indians,
Germans, and other foreigners acquired and disposed of land in the
department.
h
During the colonial period the Dominicans with royal sanction
had controlled the area and maintained it closed to colonization. Even
after Independence persons of European descent were slow to settle in
the department.
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The land laws of the 1870's had declared all untitled lands to be pub
was a land rush in the department in which both speculators and seri
the baldlos, many with Indian residents who remained on the land and
been respected until the overthrow of the Spanish rule in 1821. The
Republic of Guatemala . . . considered all land, not properly titled
by the Spanish Crown, as belonging to the nation, so that the old
titles lost their validity. From that time onwards these titles
became mere relics. . . . Before 1821 each generation had renewed
the old title by having it rewritten, both in Quecchl and Spanish,
as the damp climate causes the writing to become indistinct in a short
time, but . . . [after 1821] this [was] no longer done." Erwin P.
Dieseldorff, Draft of article entitled ”01d Titles of the Quecchi
Indians” (September 15, 1903), p. 3, DC.
^The main law was in Libro I, Tftulo XIII, and Libro III,
Titulo V of the Codigo fiscal. Guatemala, Codigo fiscal de la
Repdblica de Guatemala, 1881 (Guatemala, [1881]), pp. 190-201, 370-
374. Hereinafter this work is cited as C6digo fiscal, 1881.
Among the subsequent amendments and additions were Decree
# 282 (August 31, 1882), which permitted persons to obtain grants
without public auction; Decree # 352 (September 19, 1885), in which
Barrillas declared that he would respect the grants made by Barrios;
Decree # Ul6 (November 20, 1888), which limited to thirty caballerias
(3,3^5 acres) the amount of land one person could obtain; Presidential
resolution of November 16, 1889, which established a new schedule
of honoraria for surveyors; Presidential order of February 8 , 1890,
which set new rules for surveying; Presidential resolution of
December 11, 1891, which reiterated the thirty caballeria limit
to grants; and Decree # 1+83 (February 8 , 189*0, which reduced the
grant limit to fifteen caballerias (l,673 acres). Leyes agrarias,
pp. H U - 115* 120 , 125-126, 127-129; Leyes de Guatemala, Vol. X,
pp. 237-238; ibid., Vol. XII, pp. 389-391.
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land that could he sold or comhined into larger units, and by allowing
terrenos baldfos laws opened the way for the development of the lati-
fellow-German, saying
•7
Letter: EPD, Coban, to F. von Quednow, El Salto, June 16,
1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 95-96, DC.
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for sale and to recognize which ones were good bargains. The
wife he bought, for example, three lots that he called Santa Cecilia
O
(1,360 acres) for 3,000 pesos in 1900, and from Jose M. Villacorta
a lot called Jula (916 acres) for 1,1+00 pesos in 19ll+.^ Purchases
Helmrich in I89I+ for 10,000 pesos .11 The price Dieseldorff paid for
Santa Margarita was low, for his cousin W. A. had bought the property
in 1880 for 9,500 pesos, and in the following years he and Helmrich
0
Land sale document for Chinasajquin, Secarranche, and Chicuc-
Benlinim£ (January 23, 1900), DS, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box.
^Land sale document for Jul£ (April 13, 191 *0» OS, Chajcar
Box.
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had extended cultivations, made improvements, purchased additional lots,
carel for U,200 pesos from the Frenchman Adolphe Dellatorre, who had
13
paid 5,000 pesos for it three years before. These transactions gave
not or did not want to keep the land. In this manner he acquired in
1893 his most valuable finca Chajcar (6,825 acres) for 12,500 pesos
500 pesos a property called Rocxaanacach (3,350 acres) that they had
inherited from their father.^ The elder Ligorria had purchased the
five lots that made up the finca in 1901 and 1902 for a total of
■^Land sale document for Chajcar and Ulpan (September It, 1893),
DS, Chajcar Box.
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when he bought for 3,000 pesos the Chichochoc retrilla from Augusta
17
Helmrich, daughter of the deceased August Helmrich.
heavily in debt and needed cash to pay their creditors. In this way
he obtained Secac (U,52l+ acres) in 1893 for 5,000 pesos from Eduardo
Felice, an Italian who had mortgaged this and four other fincas to
1ft
Kensett Champney for 35,000 pesos. From Victor Barrientos and his
wife Dieseldorff in 1899 bought Raxpec for 3,500 pesos, which paid
19
off a mortgage on the land held by Jose Maria Noriega. In 1901
Manuel Vasquez Meza sold Dieseldorff for 6,000 pesos three lots
(6,000 acres), two of which were mortgaged to Vital Prado for 10,000
20
pesos.
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the London firm of Chalmers, Guthrie & Co. two adjacent fincas, Cubil
guitz and Yaxcabnal (5,363 acres), which the company as one of the
creditors of the bankrupt planter Hans von Tiirkheim had been adjudica-
21
ted in public sale for 8,1+56.71 pesos. The price Dieseldorff paid
was moderate, because von Turkheim had paid 10,000 pesos for Cubilguitz
22
and 5,000 pesos for Yaxcabnal. From the Hamburg firm Riensch &
Held, Dieseldorff in 1905 obtained for 6,000 pesos a small finca ad
company had held a mortgage. In 1902 Riensch & Held had lent more than
who put up Chichaic and other properties as security, but when the two
failed to pay either the loan or the interest, the firm assumed owner-
po
ship of the lands. Similarly, in 190k Dieseldorff paid the Hamburg
(3,1+93 acres). The previous owners, Stalling & Winter, had mortgaged
21
Land sale document for Cubilguitz and Yaxcabnal (December 22,
1910), DS, Cubilguitz Box. Chalmers, Guthrie & Co. had had a first
mortgage of £ 5,000. on all of von Tiirkheim's properties. In 1905 they
settled accounts for one third the amount that resulted from the
liquidation of von Turkheim's holdings, which also had second and third
mortgages on them. Certificate issued by the Director del 5° Registro
de la Propiedad inmueble de los Departamentos del Norte (January 29,
1909), DS, Cubilguitz Box.
22
Land sale document for Cubilguitz (December 18, 1891), and
land sale document for Yaxcabnal (May 21, 1892), DS, Cubilguitz Box.
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the land to Gruttel in 1901 for 50,000 Marks (more than $ 11,000.)>
hut when the firm was dissolved in 1903 Stalling, to settle accounts,
2k
had transferred title to the land to Gruttel.
which was owned or formerly owned by Indians. Sometimes the lots were
purchase of land from Indians was common in the Alta Verapaz, and for
this reason he more often had occasion to buy lots from someone who
duction. In the semi-circle east of San Pedro Carcha, the best coffee
?ll
Notarized annotation dated September 19, 1901, on land sale
document for Sacchicagua (September 18, 1901), and land sale documents
for Sacchicagua (January 28, 1903, and March 19> 190U), DS, Secol Box.
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of Indian properties often faced a number of legal entanglements,
however, for in many instances the boundaries of the lots were obscure,
and sometimes the buyer acquired only dubious title to the land. Owner
Other groups obtained title under the Presidential Acuerdo (an executive
community received title to its traditional lands the land was surveyed,
boundaries were established for all the lots, and each landholder was
given individual title to the lot he occupied. This kind of survey was
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27
pro indiviso rights to the portion he claimed or occupied. Upon the
heirs, hut the heirs through ignorance or lack of money, seldom re
although only one or two persons might have actual possession of the
land, there existed a multiplicity of lost heirs who could appear and
party who occupied a lot had possession rights to the land but lacked
a clear title.
and integrated into the finca between 1398 and 1931 ten lots, which
Pfi
totaled 25*t acres. Concurrently, he acquired thirteen lots (2*+2
29
acres) around Santa Cecilia ' and nine lots (60 acres) around Santa
27
For example, the Indian community of Chacalte received title
to its land in l 89*t, but the eighty-four co-owners did not receive in
dividual. titles until 1897- Similarly, residents of Pocola received
title to their land in 1877 but did not divide the land into individual
parcels until 1896. Document for partition of Chacalte among the co
owners (May 17, 1897), DS, Chajcar Box; Document for partition of Pocola
among the co-owners (July 28, 1896), DS, Raxaha Box.
28
Land sale documents for lots registered as Finca 132, Folio
156, Libro 1, AV (August 29, 1911), Finca 319, Folio 132, Libro 2, AV—
two lots (December 28, 1898; March 22, 1905), Finca 2**7, Folio 218,
Libro 12, AV (November 21, 190*0, Finca 781, Folio 7, Libro 55, AV (July
21, 1931), Finca 71, Folio 95, Libro 1, AV— two lots (November 11, 1910;
April 5, 1911), Finca UU8, Folio 285, Libro 2, AV (November 18, 1911),
Finca 1631, Folio 189, Libro 6, AV (December 10, 191*0, and Finca IO 76-A,
Folio 312, Libro H, AV (April 5, 1911)» DS, Chajcar Box.
29
Land sale documents for lots registered as Finca 180, Folio
2*tU, Libro 13, la Serie,Lote 75 (December 27, 1898), Finca 198, Folio
223, Libro 1, AV (March 28, 1901), Finca 335, Folio 150, Libro 2, AV
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*>
30
Margarita. In the same manner he increased the size of the noncon
(95 acres).^
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The prices Dieseldorff paid were about the same as those paid
the land. As rule the cost per acre of an Indian lot averaged more
coffee producing fincas, Chajcar cost 1.80 pesos per acre; Santa Cecilia,
3U
1.87 pesos; Chamcarel, 1.17 pesos; and Sacchicagua, 1.1+3 pesos. In
comparison, the average was 3.18 pesos per acre in Raxpec; 1+.05 pesos
right purchases. The Indian owners of the two other lots had borrowed
3k
Land titles to Chajcar, Santa Cecilia and Jula, and Chamcarel
and Sacchicagua, DS, Chajcar Box, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box, Secol Box.
35
Land titles to lots bought from Indians for Raxpec, Santa
Cecilia, Chiquixjl, Chajcar, Pocola of RaxahS, DS, Raxpec Box, Santa
Cecilia-Secac Box, Chiquixjl Box, Chajcar Box, Raxah£ Box.
36
Land sale document for lot registered as Finca 81+, Fclio
203, Libro 58, AV (March 10, 1937)> DS, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box.
07
Mortgage agreement between Romualda Caal and EPD (May 19,
1928), DS, "Hijos" Box; Land sale document for lot registered as Finca
39j Folio 96, Libro 8, la Serie (December 30, 1887), DS, "Hijos” Box.
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og
Dieseldorff, had several times mortgaged the property to other persons.
the money was usually an advance on a coffee crop. The amount of mort
City. Noriega had acquired these rights from one of the co-owners of
Pocol£, Juan Cue, for 2,000 pesos in September, 1896. Cue, who was
illiterate, had bought Piff Indiviso rights to the lots from his neighbors
two years before for 1,257-67 pesos, but he was most likely a front
he instituted a suit to have the courts nullify the 1896 division and
represented him in court. The case dragged on for several years, until
Og
Document for division of Chitap among co-owners, lot adjudi
cated to Marcelino Yat Caal (December 15, 1927), and notarized annota
tions on this document (August 2, 1930; October 1, 1931; March 28, 1932),
DS, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box; Document granting supplementary title to
lot registered as Finca 39, Folio 96 , Libro 8 , la Serie (December 30,
1887), and notarized annotations on this document (September 19, 1896;
February 27, 1899; May 13, 190U; July 17, 1908), DS, "Hijos" Box.
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the rate of about one peso per cuerda (l cuerda - .108 acre), making
39
additional payments for any permanent cultivations, such as coffee.
Guatemalan, rather than directly from the Indian occupants, his decision
to press his claim involved him in a legal dispute with the Indians,
which resulted in his getting title to lands the Indians thought they
gery.
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. 1*3 . 1*1*
in the communal holdings of Chicansln and ten In Secansin. Some
gotten the land from the Indian occupants. Raxpec includes Beven such
1*5
lots that Dieseldorff bought from Max Krings and two bought from
but could not register the lot in his name. There was always the
sources to carry the case through the courts or to settle the matter
privately.
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that made up Raxpec, he acquired twelve (ll*7 acres) from Max Krings
(30 acres) from Heinrich Deinhardt, and eight (1*5 acres) from Guate
ation, a baldlo grant would appear to be the cheapest and easiest way
52
to obtain land. In actual practice, the acquisition of title to
public lands often proved to be expensive, for the buyer had to pay
1*9
^Documents for sale to EPD of twelve lots by Max Krings
(February 15, 1927), four by Adelaida C. de Bail 6n (March 18, 1931),
three by Rafaela Castro (July 27, 1937)» three by Victor and Barbara
Barrientos (July 19, 1899)» and one each by E. G6nzalez (September 13,
190U), Padre Urrutia (July lU, 1917), and Adela Pacay (March 21, 1931*),
DS, Raxpec Box.
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not only the purchase price but all costs involved In the denouncement
53
and subsequent legal process, the survey, and the evaluation of the
5I1
land. The legal process itself in many cases dragged on for many
years from the time of denouncement until the government granted final
land at the auction since there was always the possibility that someone
might outbid him. By the mid-l890's public lands suitable for the
his point of view it was more advantageous to buy land already in pri
vate hands.
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small baldlo of about 58O acres called Chiachal. This was a deliberate
move on his part. Chiachal, which waB situated near Seact€ that he
had bought five monthB earlier, came up for auction after the 123
Indian families living on the land had denounced it. The acquisition
additional land for the cultivation of coffee and food staples. Several
but bidding forced it up so quickly that the Indians had to drop out
them Juan Coronado, who in the closing minutes of the auction appeared
Moments before the auction was to end, he made a sudden appearance and
raised the price by 50 pesos with an offer of 300 pesos per caballerla
(2.69 pesos an acre). No one was able to better his bid before the
two hour time limit expired, and consequently the government officials
1891, after Dieseldorff had reimbursed the Indians for the expenses
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they had incurred, the President of the Republic granted him title to
the land.'**’
Although Dieseldorff himself did not speculate in the buying and selling
land buyers and speculators had set the pattern for acquiring public
limit to the amount of land one person could obtain. This omission
In May, 1897* Manuel Galan received title to San Antonio for 96.61*
59
pesos and the next month sold it to Ernst Altschul for 500 pesos.
~*^E1 Porvenir (Cob£n, AV, Guatemala), An5 1, No. 31, August 25,
1889.
Cg
Land title to and land sale document for Chamcarel (April k,
1889; July 16, 1889), DS, Secol Box.
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FabiSn Rodriguez received Sarruj Jucub in January, 1897» for 1,033.60
fifteen (1,673 acres), the maximum extension of land one person could
the twenty-three lots that made up his largest finca, San Diego-
Yslpemech.
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of more than U5»000 acres, was situated in the northern limits of the
Alta Verapaz and in the Peten along the Cancuen River. The land had
virgin stands of mahogany and chicle and was suitable for the cultiva
(2,800 acres) in the area from a German for 900 pesos in silver.^
At the time most of the land in the district was unclaimed and vir
sibility. During the next few years the rich potential of the area
drew speculators, who under different front names denounced and re
Verapaz was the Guatemalan engineer Ventura Nuila, who between 1905
and 1915 surveyed most of the baldxos denounced in the area. During
to Erwin Dieseldorff. At the same time some sold their land to Nuila
or + 4.1.
to other persons. 6 6
to the sale documents, Dieseldorff paid 1,000 pesos for each lot to
the titular owner, to whom the government had adjudicated the land
68
in each case for about 135 pesos. In all probability Nuila him
self paid the 135 pesos to the government, and the 9,000 pesos that
he received included the purchase price of 6,000 pesos for the six
lots. Without doubt the Indians at most received only a token sum.
cers were. Except for their names there is scarcely any information
about them. Some may have been mozos working for Nuila or Dieseldorff,
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really wanted the land for themselves and their families hut were
twenty centavos per hectare (2. h j acres) the baldio each had denounced.
They sought the President’s aid, they said, as a last resort, because
after having made great sacrifices to raise money for the legal process,
now just as they were about to receive title to their baldlos "there
that if the land appeared for auction, he would get it" by outbidding
them.70
all sold their land to Dieseldorff. Nuila's fine hand appears in the
proceedings since four of the petitioners were among the six whose
69
According to don Arturo Morales de la Cruz, who worked for
Dieseldorff and knows Nuila well, both men denounced baldios in the
Cancuen area using the names of their mozos.
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the baldlo grants made to other Indian denouncers, vhose land Die
the land directly after the denouncer had petitioned him to do so.?1
land would not appear for auction where bidding would raise the
tropical wilderness.
the legal process dragged on for many years without the denouncers’
getting final title. In 1913 and 1915 the Indians sold, on paper, their
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finally adjudicated the land several years later. The grants had the
fer the land for ten years, yet the three sold the lots to their
7I1
employer before the period had expired.1
type were not unusual in the department, and in none of these in
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amount of land that Dieseldorff owned set him apart from most other
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CHAPTER III
plan.
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° +»
oHHQ£al\aJ«J
nO'H wns
os o & a o
H CM ro -S’ tA VO f— oo O v O rj N
y
i
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scattered all over the department as many did. The function of his
resources.
1890 to 1898, 1899 to 1910, and 1911 to 1937. During the first
Paijfi (1896 or 1897), and Panzal and El Salto (before 1899); during
the second, Raxpec (1899), Santa Cecilia (1900), Cubilgflitz (1901 ff.),
(after 1901); during the third, Sachamach and Tzimajil (192*0, and
RaxahS and Chiquixjl (l92*t ff.).* During each of the periods Diesel
bought near Tucurd and in other regions has been sold or has outlived
unit, which made them easier to manage and less expensive to oper
to an area could serve more than one finca, and labor shortages
properties.
several large fincas. Immediately outside the town was Raxpec, and
p
San Pedro Carchd and San Miguel Turned are the formal names
of the two towns, but in usage the names are shortened to Carchd and
Tucurd.
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and Raxahi, and a little further north lay Secol. To the east, some
keystone of the Carchi complex, was the nucleus around vrhich he built
erties Chajcar, Secac, and Ulpin in 1093, and a few years later
the Cahab6n River from Chajcar, Although the four plantations formed
Secol, and to have an overseer for each. In much the same manner Die
seldorff formed his other Carchi fincas, Raxpec, Raxahi, and Chi
bought between 1901 and 1931, and San Diego-Yalpemech from twenty-
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Instead he bought Seacte and Chajcar, which were large and, at the
have hands available for use at any time, because during certain
periods of the year such as the harvest season, which lasted from
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and terraces to process and dry coffee, and a warehouse to store the
the main building a second story, which he used from then on as his
3
personal dwelling.
the fluvial port of Panz6s, Paijfi produced coffee, but for Diesel
the ships that came to the port, so that the coffee would reach
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PaiJ& provided forage for the mules, oxen, and pack horses that
carried the coffee,'’ and the stop was a rest for both animals and
contained trees that were cut and transported,on the return trip,to
Coban and to other fincas, where wood was scarce, for use as fire
main concern had been with the production of coffee on his own
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buying to supplement production. In the region northeast of CarchfL
town. Coffee buying did not require a large investment in land and
labor, yet its profit potential was great. Cereza coffee could be
Carchfi on the roads and trails leading into the town, was ideally
the town for sale. The original owners of the finca had devoted their
coffee from Indians and other small producers and was preparing it at
stopping place for goods and animals traveling between the Coban office
developed fincas and small Indian lots in order to increase his own
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merehandising.
amount of acreage already under cultivation and even more room for
and Pocola. The latter property and the additional Raxpec lots
provided new centers for coffee buying. A number of the lots were
food staples and with additional rations of corn and beans. As the
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Indians became scarce, and the amount of staples produced on the fin
land was much more valuable for coffee production. Therefore, Die
Dieseldorff for several years imported corn and beans, or bought them
tained large expanses of level ground, which, unlike the lands in the
hot climate and fertile soil easily produced two crops a year. After
the staples in an effort to provide food for the Indians on his other
fincas. This was not the only function of Cubilguitz, however, for
tend his activities into other aspects of the coffee business. With
to the final oro form in which it was exported. The Chichochoc retrilla
not only freed him from the problem and expense of having to pay to
have his coffee prepared for export, but because he could personally
control the hulling and sorting of the beans according to his own
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the small coffee producers of the department paid him to work their
coffee for them.? Often these finqueros also lacked adequate facil
ities to ship the coffee to the railroad, and Dieseldorff did not
kept in town. For much the same purpose he bought the finca Rio Frio,
situated between Santa Cruz Verapaz and Tactic almost half-way from
Coban to Paij&, to provide rest and forage for the animals on the
animals. Rio Frio produced no commercial crop, but most of its 1,100
Owing to the poor condition of the roads and trails and the
alimentation. With this in mind, since the trip to Paij£ took seven
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r 12 ?
along the road where the men and animals could stop to spend the
night. Along the roads and mule tracks leading from Cobin and Car-
of vehicles and many oxen and mules to transport coffee and supplies.
only deprived the fincas of much-needed hands, but one that he re
garded with distaste. Ox-carts were used to carry loads to Paija and
to the fincas served by roads, such as Chajcar and Santa Cecilia, but
Mules and pack horses served the fincas that carts could not reach,
but Dieseldorff did not buy them. Instead he began breeding, from
strains of his own choice, mules and oxen for draft animals, as well
fincas.
seldorff solved by utilizing his fincas. The carts made in Coban were
often of such shoddy quality that they did not survive more than a
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few trips* In order to make vehicles for transport that fit his own
employed material from his fincas. From Hlo Frio and Paija he ob
prises not connected with coffee. He had observed that the fertile
lands of the Alta Verapaz were capable of producing many other products
suitable for export, and that the hot lowlands of the department had
tempted to cultivate sugar cane, cacao, and rubber. The latter two
the cane syrup into panela (clayed brown sugar) for use cn his fincas
and for sale in Coban and Carcha. Soon afterwards he planted cotton,
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finca he began to cultivate corn and beans for sale at the store.
For about two decades the store produced a steady revenue. His long-
of rubber, cacao, and spices, but this plan was never realized.
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vate cardamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and black pepper, but spice production
Las Amazonas. The same water turbine that operated the retrilla
taking was to utilize all year around the water power available at
harvests.
imported. The first few years he carried stock mainly for Indians,
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Tzimajil, which were situated nearby and had a large number of Indian
Dieseldorff made between 1910 and 1937, his primary concern was to
enterprises.
complex shows some of the basic reasons for his success and to some
^ I b i d . , AHo XXV, Nos. 1269 and 1272, January 12, and February
2, 1935.
12
Notarized agreement between EPD and Max Krings for the sale
of Krings' coffee buying business at Chiquixjl (March h t 1925), DS,
"HiJos” Box; Notarized agreement between EPD and Max Krings for the
sale of Krings' coffee buying business at Raxpec (February 17, 1927),
DS, Raxpec Box.
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Verapaz and thus was able to acquire more extensive holdings than
staples and supplies, and the Coban retrillas for preparation of the
coffee beans.
revenues, but that did enable him to control his coffee business from
areas.
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of the parts complemented that of the others. Ills plan was not
the business encompassed more theui mere production, none except Richard
Alta Verapaz only the Sapper enterprise was comparable to that which
Dieseldorff built.
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CHAPTER IV
Germans who csme to the Alta Verapaz had to work several years to
and 19001 gave him additional capital with which to operate, and
side sources. Since he did not receive the entire amount at one
friends not only extended him personal loans, but more importantly
advantage over native-born citizens and most other Germans, who had
127
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capital advances that Dieseldorff was able to obtain during the first
decade and a half of his career enabled him to increase his holdings
tremendously and to begin putting into action the plans he had for
activities.
lie was hesitant to burden himself too heavily with debts, and the
basis.
The result was a one-man operation, which was stamped by his person
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enabled him to start putting into effect his plans for the business.
He used his money carefully. Buying land vaa naturally his most im
property and set aside a portion for running expenses and improvements.
capital to purchase land, and the amount that he had at his disposal
in June, 1889, and the 17,000 pesos loan at 6 % interest from Samuel
chase Chamcarel in July, 1889, for 5,000 pesos. ^ After the trans
11,000 pesos the same month^ made possible three important acquisitions
^Land sale document for Chamcarel (July 1 6 , 1889 ), DS, Secol Box.
^Land sale document for Chamcarel (June lU, 1890), DS, Secol Box.
^Land sale document for Seacte (June 7, 1890), DS, Secol Box.
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in his capital resources, which he used to buy more land and at the
interest from Haller, SShle & Co.,9 a Hamburg import firm that in
cluded as one of the senior partners Dr. Martin GBhle, tho testamen
?Land sale document for Secac-Ulp&n (July 31, 1893), DS, Chajcar
Box; Land sale document for Chajcar (September U, 1893), DS, Chajcar
Box; Land sale document for Santa Margarita (August 13, 189*0, DS,
"HiJos" Box.
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12
daughter of H. R. Dieseldorff and wife of W ( A. Dieseldorff. During
the next few months he bought El Salto and Las Amazonas, and later for
a total price of 12,000 pesos the key lots for Raxpec, Santa Cecilia,
13
and Cubilgditz# Dieseldorff repaid the loan from Julia Dieseldorff
lL
by installments and settled the account in July, 1913.
for 8,000 Marks and Candelaria for 2,000 Marks to Haller, S3hle &
l^Land sale document for Chajuch (July 19, l899)» DS, Raxpec
Box; Land sale document for Chinasajquln, Chicuc-Benlinimfi, and
Sacarranche (January 23, 1900), DS, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box; Land
sale document for Sarruj Jucub, Cantoloc, and Sauchil (December 19,
1901), DS, CubilgQitz Box.
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Banco Agrlcola Hipotecario with a loan of 50,000 Marks from Haller,
S3hle & Co., for which he had given the company a lien on Santa
20
Margarita. He used some of the remaining amount to buy an ad
properties until 1908 when the firm went into liquidation.22 Die
personal loan for 36,000 Marks at 5 % annual interest from his father-
in-law Carl Gressler to help pay off the debt. He guaranteed the
entire amount with a life insurance policy with the Equitable Life
and 1937* it appears that he did not find it necessary to make any
price of the large fincas he purchased was usually low enough that he
could pay for the land with funds from his regular banking accounts.
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and he incurred no new mortgages after the war. El Salto was mort
in 1898, the money that he received from his inheritance, and that
however, that these sums were not sufficient for him to carry out his
tiations and legalities involved took up too much time, and the
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rivalry, and one in which the buyer had to have at his command large
credit from which he could draw any time he needed money. For him
vanced him the money. The transaction did not involve Dieseldorff's
coffee for him, at the current market rate and after deducting a
rate. The charges were prorated according to the number of days that
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obligations abroad. For this reason they enabled him to operate more
scale. At the same time they permitted him to sell his coffee
since he paid only for the number of days he used the money. Fur
and New York, he was in a position to choose the most favorable mar
ket for his coffee and draw from the account where he wanted to con
sign and sell his coffee. Through his credit accounts he also made
acquisitions.
dorff 4 Co., owned by his uncle H. R., extended him the funds he
needed and sold his coffee for him.2^ The arrangement was only
firm did hot H&Vei the baplthl resources to advance him as much
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Hagmann & Co. of Hamburg and Guatemala, asking for financial back
uncle H. R. and his cousin August, and he had worked closely under
sented to his request and gave him credit for up to 1+0,000 Marks, which
pQ
he would cover with coffee consignments. The arrangement was on a
year-to-year basis and continued until 1898 when he closed the account.
Alta Verapaz. Koch, Hagmann & Co. turned down his request to raise
29
his credit to 100,000 Marks, and P. Leckie & Co. of London, from
whom he had asked for an advance of £. 3,000., once again refused him
two firms in backing his venture was perhaps that his timing was
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Marla Reina Barrios, it was unknown when order would be restored. Al
though the Alta Verapaz was generally isolated from the mainstream of
property.
lending policies that believed the market situation and the in
that had lent money during the l88 o's and 1090 's to other coffee
Hans von Tiirkheim, on whose properties Rosing Bros, held second mort
33e i Quetzal (Coban, AV, Guatemala), Ano 3, No. f2, June 20,
1882; El Boletlln Agricola (Coban, AV, Guatemala), Ano 1, No. 1, July
1, 1888; El Democrats (Coban. AV, Guatemala), AHo 3, Nos. 118 and 119,
March 25, and April 10, 1889.
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each (raised later to 100,000 Marks each) with Haller, SShle & Co.,35
vhich had. also made a long-term capital advance to him. At the same
time he also received credit up to 50,000 Marks from Peter Siemsen &
G. Amsinck & Co., who had helped the Sarg brothers establish themselves
in the Alta Verapaz,3® but his account with Amsinck was relatively
counts, for the next few years the main one was with Haller, Sohle &
and he was apparently satisfied with the way it marketed his coffee.
them,1*0 and eventually ceased using his account with RSsing Bros.1*1
35Ledger, "Libro Mayor,” 1898-1899, pp. 10, 11, 26, DC; ibid.,
1900-1902, pp. 6-8, DC.
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From time to time Dieseldorff had to find new sources of credit,
Haller, Sdhle & Co* until 1908, when the death of one of the partners
1*2
forced the firm into liquidation* By this time Dieseldorff was well
known in the coffee market, and he was able to make satisfactory ar
rangements with August Sanders & Co*, which had offices in Hamburg and
London and handled most of his coffee until 19ll*.^3 When World War I
product in the United States, and received backing chiefly from Eggers
& Heinlein, and to a lesser extent from Hard & Rand, both of New
tral European capitals, but his most important source of credit for
nearly a decade and a half, until 1936, was Fredk MSller S8hne, of
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his father's closest associates.1*^
kerage houses in Guatemala City, including Fredk Keller & Co., C. Lin-
tures, coffee buying and mozo wages for instance, required cash. Since
the banks in the capital, from where the money was sent by carrier to
dorff in the coffee buying business, for it enabled him to take ad
ing to allow him to exceed it within reason. "I will only draw the
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only currently necessary amounts, rather than take the entire sum
rowed was spent, and make certain that none of the money was
wasted.
ficient capital to establish and operate his enterprise, but the piv
otal reason for his success in the coffee business was his effictivfe
his financial resources efficiently and make a profit from his in
rigid control over the activities on the fincas and over the people
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administration was relatively simple, beoause he could direct the
work and the mozos on the finca by himself. After he began to ac
The lack of documents for the period from 1890 to 1898 makes
the need arose. By about 1898 the administrative system had reached
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the resident Indian laborers (colonos), At the apex stood Dieseldorff,
who controlled the entire system from the central office. Directly
under him were one or two Prokurlsts, experienced and trusted em
of attorney and managed the business for him when he was absent from
The administrators managed the fincas and received all their in
the very large fincas, such as Secol, Raxah&, Santa Cecilia, and
Chajcar, the manager had one or more assistants to help run the
them to oversee the work gangs and required them to appear daily
before the administrator to report the names of mozos who had worked
and what had been accomplished. The colonos were the manual
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fincas required, became more than he bduld cope with alone. To re
to maintain the company records, and for other matters that re
small concerns the categories of the hierarchy were fewer, yet the
base of the pyramid remained the same. The owner of a single finca,
Dieseldorff did in the beginning, but beneath him there were al
ways the alcaldes auxiliares, and at the bottom of the scale the
colonos.
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he exerciied over the entire operation was perhaps less common.
Whereas the tendency among the large finqueros was to become absentee
but even then he asserted ultimate control over decisions and planning.
patriarch whose word was fiat and who demanded complete obedience.
matter how small, for he was keenly aware that the privilege of being
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oppoaition to his orders.
prise and towards his employees and the mozos on his fincas was also
tect and increase the prestige of the CfamilyD firm made him love to
Dieseldorff could Just as easily have uttered the same words as the hero
of Heinrich Mann's novel Per Unterthan. who upon inheriting the family
with his orders through the elaborate system he created. The in
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only one line of communication with the fincas, however. From the
dependent on the central office for supplies and for all funds
to him for every cent used. In this manner he could more easily
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planned, and I hope I will soon see a much desired
change* I want you to come here* * • and bring me
your account books, and we vill examine everything
item by item.^®
himself and any level of the social order in the complex. The in
terested in their welfare and benevolently gave them his advice. Fre
quently the Indians' complaints were about the personnel on the finca.
in his st-ad and had the legal power to conduct business transac
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keep him informed of what was happening, of decisions they had made,
and of matters that required his attention,5T and he ordered the plan
tation managers to write him also.5^ His letters to Cobin were equally
long, and in this way he constantly made his presence felt. On his
decisions or actions.
operation depended entirely upon the leadership of one man, the owner.
because he was willing to stay in Cobin and devote the time to the
from Guatemala, his control remained unbroken, for his absences were
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might be, could run the business for an extended period of time
neglect their work; and some, who contemptuously regarded the man
recur, and for this reason he began preparing his son to take his
run his business in his own way. He had worked out in his mind
orders to his employees and to make certain they obeyed them. The
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backing he needed. His situation was rare, but not unique. A num
this source of money would have given him cash to expand operations
queros, such as the Baron Hans von Turkheim, Stalling & Winter,
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who had incurred heavy liens on their lands, had teen forced into
was unwilling to risk all he had— and fortunately he did not have to
when he obtained credit for expansion— but rather he gauged his rate
grew, he relied more and more on advance credits, and during the
plex enabled him to put his plans into action and, coupled with his
every operation. With the strong control and the firm authority
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CHAPTER V
extended the acreage planted to coffee, and at the same time he at
throughout his career, at the turn of the century with the new credit
his own.
coffee business. Annual exports grew from 296,900 pounds oro coffee
153
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grow at the sane rate as the acreage he owned. There were several
reasons for this. Much of the land that he purchased vas neither
the high cost of enlarging the amount of land under cultivation and
favorably with the annual totals for Guatemala. The country's cof
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or 20*2? %« During this same interval Dieseldorff'a grev 91*67 %,*> a
77*67 %.7
and a finquero could buy as many as he needed and set them out in the
ground. The trees grew by themselves and eventually bore fruit. Be
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156
siderable success.
Eaoh year during the month of May and the first part of June
the most Important activity on the plantations vas the setting out of
from young, vigorous trees that had consistently borne excellent har
vests for several years, removed the red outer skin by hand, and
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dried the berriee under shade. Next he plaoed the seeds in beds,
which he kept moist and shaded during the six or seren week germina
tion period. About six months later, when the seedling was approxi
healthy root growth. The young boys and older men on the plantations
two years after the seeds were planted, the alm&cigos were ready for
the coffee plant. For the plant to thrive the ground had to have
deep, fairly heavy topsoil, free of large rocks, and rich in humus
and the necessary mineral elements. The site also needed exposure
to the sun's rays to varm the soil and good ventilation to deter
After Dieseldorff had chosen sites for the new orchards, the
terrain of the Alta Verapaz made the work particularly slow and dif
ficult. First they cleared the ground and plowed the soil lightly,
plants were ready for transplant, Dieseldorff set out in the field
banana trees and chalums (Inga xalauenals) that would provide the
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153
coffee trees, the b u u u gay* a low ten** shade, and tha chalums,
which grav much taller, aarvad as a higher second soreen againat tha
ooffa* grove* Since tha haana developed bast under even ollsiatle con
ditions, the shade trees helped to keep tha temperature and humidity
in tha orchard constant and protected tha coffee bushes against frosts
dense a growth, bore an edible fruit, and the leaves of the trees
of the field. They dug holes two and a half foot deep (deeper if the
richness of the soil. The distance between rows vas twelve feet.^O
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and for tha ooffaa traaa to fora a natural vail of protaetlon against
high vinds.
Tha idaal tlaa for tranaplantlng vaa during tha rainy aaaaon.
Diaaaldorff and hia aaaiatanta ehoaa tha atrongaat planta, and tha
aoioa tlad tha dirt around tha almtcigo roota in a tight ball. Than
thay traaaferrad tha planta to the holes, aatting out about 1*50 to 550
par acre. Afterwards thay filled tha holaa vith good humus aoil and
vatered vail tha area three feat in perimeter around eaeh almicigo.
scanty and of poor quality. In most cases the first full harvest
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varied graatly fron yaar to yaar. For exaaple, aaoh saason batvaan
190b and 1917 ha sat out an avaraga of thirtaan thousand trass on tha
annual figuras ranged fron lass than 2,500 to more than 30,00c.12
Dieseldorff had available for this purpose. Other factors vara tha
number of healthy almiclgos ha had on hand and tha size of tracts pre
tion the number of vorkers he could count on having during the harvest
season and the number of vehicles and animals for transport at his
pick the b-ans, and if he did not have enough hands, the crop might
the demand, he could not move the crop from the fincas to Cobfin and
dates.
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8achalb, and Seool, During tha daoada fron 1905 to 1915 ha aat out
Tha annual average vas 7,160 traaa at Chajcar and 6,180 at Saohalb,
and at Saeol, for tha pariod 190b to 1917, it vas 6,731; however,
Diaaaldorff did not plant traaa every yaar on aach of thasa planta*
tions. At Chajcar he skipped tha years 1906, 1907, and 1913, and ha
Chajcar, Sechalb, and Secol, excluding those on the very old groves
Salto he set out about 9,850 alaicigos in 1920; 11,100 in 1921; 18,650
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16
192U had land prepared for about 1*6,000 trees By 1930 Dieseldorff
had a total of about twelve hundred aeres planted to coffee on all his
ture and coffee cultivation and to apply this knowledge to the care
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16
major producer, he vas willing to invest time and money in the prac
tice and application of the skills he had mastered to improve upon the
better types, and during the 1880's they imported trees from different
parts of the vorld. Among the varieties introduced vere Liberia and
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164
tventy shillings more per pound than the best CobCn Arabics. Almost
beans that the trees produced, although unusually large, vere shriv
pletely. He vas able to stabilise the variant and obtain hybrid seeds
that developed into trees bearing a product that combined the best
acceptance in the department. The trees bore good harvests and vere
more vigorous and disease resistant than Arabica. The beans vere
smaller than those of the Brasilian Maragogyp, but they had the shape
and appearance of Arabica and a flavor and aroma more closely com
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Verapaz. The coffee sold veil in the London and German markets, be-
canse the beans vere beautifully formed and almost tvice the size of
Arabica beans* Although the coffee lacked the exquisite flavor and
Chajcar betveen 1905 and 1915, ^8.9 % (35,000 trees) vere Maragogyp,
Betveen 1919 and 1923 he set out no Maragogyp trees at either Chajcar,
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planted both varieties at Secac (six to seven thousand feet above sea
level), Chajcar and Sechalb (four to five thousand feet), Secol and
than six thousand feet the coffee cherries of both varieties fell off
three to six thousand feet, vhere top grade coffees grew, but
Maragogyp sometimes did not thrive veil in the chill climate of these
CubilgQitz and £1 Salto. The trees there yielded large harvests, but
of course the quality of the beans vas not up to the level of those
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and starting seedlings from the beans produced* The nev trees had
more of the robust qualities cf Maragogyp and bore veil* The beans
but in most cases the results he obtained fell short of his expecta
tions. Java and Liberia fared poorly in the rainy Verapaz, he dis
Once a grove vas laid out Dieseldorff knew that careful main
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16
the wood absorbs the strength and nourishment, and the plant conse
feet, because he believed that at this height the fruit received the
old wood, which had already borne a crop, the entire tree could be
rejuvenated every four years. Cuts had to be made on green wood for
the branch to form fresh shoots; brown or hard wood did not develop
towards the center of the tree, across other branches, or into the
the tree.
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bigger, more regular sised harvests, vith large fruit of higher qual
very slowly, removal of too much wood could permanently damage the
tree or reduce the size of the crop for tvo or three years. Further
more , plant diseases could infect carelessly made cuts and weaken or
pruning. He divided the work gangs into groups of five. Over every
direct the vork, while he or one of his employees supervised the en
and to make certain that no tree vas missed and no step in the prun
ing process vas skipped. One worker cut off the top of the trunk, or
The third man manually removed tiny shoots growing at the bottom of
the trunk to facilitate penetration of air and vater to the soil, and
from secondary limbs, twigs that developed too near the main branch.
Using large shears, the fourth laborer carefully clipped the lateral
four inches from the primary, while the fifth topped the tree to an
even height.
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the noon, to a large degree determined the sise and quality of the
following crop, Isasedlately after the harvest the sap in the coffee
the coffee trees vere never truly dormant, From his reading or ex
perience he concluded that the vaxing of the noon caused the sap to
when the noon vas vaning, preferably during the last quarter, and he
workers to complete the Job during the brief tine he considered op
portune,^
tory crops. The average production life of the coffee tree vas
fifteen years. It vas uneconomical to replace the old trees vith nev
ones, vhich would not bear fruit for four or five years. By severe
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17
In tvo years, and the bearing Ufa vas extended another eight or ten
tively staple. Under his direction the fines laborers vith Machetes
cut off old trees as smoothly as possible about one foot above ground
level. They then stripped off all the old bark fron the trunk, pulled
up the veeds around it, and renoved the dirt surrounding the trunk and
roots and replaced it vith fresh soil* Within a year the trunk
sprouted four to ten nev shoots, of vhich the three or four strongest
vere saved and the others cut off*The regaining shoots grev rapidly
trees vere not only less resistantto disease but yielded small crops
that matured too quickly so that the fruit vas underdeveloped and be
low standard* Such beans vere easy to recognise and had little market
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vas laeking, the trees failed to develop sufficient foliage and the
else of the besns vas very small. The presence of any of these char-
amount of time and effort vas required to revitalise the soil. Trees
urine and manure of horses and oattle vere splendid isources of nitro
gen, and the excreMnt of chickens u d other fowl vas rich in phos
to a small area and plMed straw or corn husks in the stables In order
nated straw vith coffee pulp and parchment, healthy leaves from pruned
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r uU
chaluma for shade trees since these accumulated nitrogen in the soil,
potash content and mined large amounts for use on the fincas. Wood
the latter. As early as 1890 German planters in the Alta Verapaz had
existing groves became older and required more nutrients and as the
expense of buying and shipping the artificial fertilizer was out of pro
portion to the results obtained. During years when coffee prices were
low such imports were particularly uneconomical since the cost cut
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Alta Verapaz vho for many years had conducted experiments using vari
costs.32
and from studying the experiments of Gustav Helmrich and from his own
mountain slopes, where rain washed some of the soil away, generally
required more fertilizer than those in valleys. Where the soil was
heavy the best results vere obtained by one large treatment, but in
end of the harvest, when the sap had ceased to circulate, usually im
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nixed the decayed natter fron the ccnpoet heaps vith bone meal, potash
groves vere weeded and hoed, and the fertiliser vas sprinkled over
the soil out to the spread of the widest branches* The laborers then
worked the fertiliser into the soil to a depth of six to eight inches,
taking care not to daaage the root hairs of the plant* After appli
is in coffee a correlation betveen the health of the tree and its re
fungus or insect attacks, but that the finquero also had to take
ever, that constant vigilance vas necessary, because there vas alvsys
spectors and administrators to check the trees often for early signs
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r 171T)
tho vary vat cllasta. Tha disaasa attackad tha fruit, branches, and
laavaa of tha plant, and it eausad such savara dafollatlon that tha
larly vhen tha tree lacked tha strength to vithatand an attack, tha
the Verapas could be almost any tine of the year, and formed tiny,
spores that matured in about fifteen days, and bursting forth vere
that it vas not a menace since it usually disappeared during the dry
season and the trees, being accustomed to it, they said, vould soae-
Q]i
hcnr survive.''
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measures when necessary. In tha early 1090's, when he vas still rela
difficult decision to cut down and burn all the trees, because the
fungus vas too advanced to stop in any other vay.^ The lesson did
care, and vhen ever he found any telltale flecks, he cut off and
disease.
Baden The sprayers vere ideal for use in the Alta Verapaz since
they vere compact and portable, and the laborers could easily cany
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and it killed some insects that vere Beneficial to the coffee trees.
the Alta Verapas often vashed off the chemical Before it had
Europe and the United States, seeking their opinions and advice.^
distance Betveen trees and rovs vas also important. On the orchard
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that he had been forced to destroy the trees had been set six feet
apart sad the rows vere nine feet vide. The plants had grown together
so thickly that they completely blocked the rays of the sen and pre
least nine feet and increased the vi.au. of vue rovs to tvelve feet.
He laid oat nev fields from east to vest to permit the sun to hit the
cleared rovs and varm the soil. By thinning out unproductive boughs
and tvigs Dieseldorff facilitated air penetration into the trees, and
shade trees. In the long run these changes proved to be the most
There vere also insect pests that caused much damage in the
peared. These scale insects sucked the Juices of the plant, greatly
stances the coffee beans failed to mature, and the majority dropped
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D. C., advised him that the most lasting and least expensive manner
Another insect that attacked the coffee trees vas the coffee
fly (Cemiostoma coffeellum), a tiny vhite mite that bored into the
coffee leaf and consumed the parenchyma cells. Ita presence vas
lime mixed vith clayed brown sugar (panela) to make it adhere to the
|lQ
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The light attracted the coffee flies and blinded bhem, and they
dropped into the Teasel and perished. The lanterns used for this
Mannheim.1*1
From tine to tine there vere other insects and fungus diseases
that invaded the coffee groves. These included ants, aphids, plant
lice, leaf beetles, black spot, and various leaf blights. Although
these perhaps did not appear as frequently as the ones discussed above,
vere allowed to multiply, they vould destroy the tree or sap its
strength, thereby reducing the size of the crop and damaging the
shipping it along vith his own. More than one third of the coffee
that he sold abroad vas not grown on his plantations but vas obtained
Uo
through purchases from various sources. The business of coffee
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buying vas widespread in the Alta Verapaz, because there vere many
small producers lacked coostercial ties vith inporters abroad, and vere
Carch&, planted trees on their properties and sold the coffee to sup*
deter the seller from breaking his vord if he received a better offer.
pate the status of the market and his overhead costs, and to gauge the
profit margin vas reduced, and it vas preferable not to buy than to
pay such rates* The person who bought carefully could generally ex*
pect to make money, for skillful preparation of the beans greatly in
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fancy coffees alvays command high rates, I am sanguine about the sue-
this, aside from a natural desire to make money, vas that coffee beans
of more or less the same quality. The planter could blend the bought
coffee vith that produced on his own land and market the entire amount
when market prices vire high. At such times, they frequently made
acumen and training, but most likely because they vere forced to act
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business vas small and restricted to the area around the town*
1698 he began to put his scheme into effect and started vying aggres
sively vith his competitors. This vas possible because that year he
received from Haller, Sohle & Co* of Hamburg and RSsing Bros, of
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the Verapas for almost a decade* During that time he had become
ness practices of the people, and had cultivated the art of handling
them vith finesse. He had also mastered the Spanish and Kekchf
languages and could converse freely in both. Thus he vas able not
only to deal directly vith sellers, but to approach them in the cor
ing his first fev years he sometimes offered amounts slightly higher
JacquetH think they can dictate the prices ve pay. . . . They vill
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l«tn their lesson at their own cost* When the current rates
end had to adhere strictly to the price limits he set. The finca
purchase coffee vere conventional, for the system had already evolved
most other buyers in the emphasis he placed on price and quality, and
fee) and pergamino (parchment coffee). The sources and buying tech
niques for each type vere different* He generally acquired the un-
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pulp.
cost vas significant vhen large amounts vere involved. The offal froa
ceresa vas, furthermore, valuable for use in the compost piles that he
vith the dollar in 1890 but by 1930 vaa vorth only a cent and one half
in United States currency, made pulp coffee even leas expensive since
quality of the final product, Dieseldorff could make certain that the
he found, vere not as careful as he, and often the pergamino coffee
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around the flneaa of Santa Cecilia, Chajcar, and Secol, vhere there
mule tracks, vhich made them accessible and facilitated the transport
The height of the buying season v&s luring the period from July to
steadily.
From the fincas Dieseldorff and his agents vent out and ap
ent (the habilitado) vould cover sometime hetaeam Hmwmhsr and April
kg
A cash advance made in exchange for a vork cosaitment vas
also called an habilltaelon.
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tress, Dieseldorff could estimate the else end quality of the crop
persons who sold their entire crop to him.^ Since the quantities of
coffee vere small, the individual advances vere not large, seldom
vere sometimes oral, hut if they vere written, they vere seldom
such cases the debt vas carried on to the following year. Often it
more money than he believed the person could cover. When he had rea
his coffee elaevhere for example, he brought suit against him in the
^Agreement betveen EFD and Santiago Choc (July lk, 1909), D6,
Secol Box} Interviews vith don Arturo Morales de la Crus and don
Manuel Burmester.
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habilltedos did not sell the orop to another poraon until Diaaaldorff
kL
received tha amount due him.*'
opanad several small ahopa for buying ooffaa in tha raglon diraotly
northaaat of San Padro Caroht. Praetloally all tha land in tha araa
van ovnad by Indiana, who llwad in tiny villages (aldaaa) hlddan away
ordar to tranaport larga amounts of ooffaa out of the ragion tha buyar
Indian lands lay at an altitude of nearly four thouaand feat, and tha
rule, was lover than that grown in sections vhare service roads
existed.
tha buying centers, and it vas convenient for them to carry their cof
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The coffee buying lots wore saall, but their sise belied thair
these places* The majority of the lots ranged in sise frost one to ten
acres, but this was sufficient land, because he needed only enough
space to erect a rude building for an office and for teaporaxy storage.
Since the beans were not processed at the site but were taken daily to
possessed were the ones administered from Raxpec that dominated the
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came from the districts of Raxpec and Raxahft. The entire amount
ports.^
chases he siade from Max Krings. The latter, a German 1migrant who
had worked for Dieseldorff at one time, owned a number of tiny lots
in the area northeast of San Pedro Carchi, at Raxpec^0 near the town,
and at Chiquixjl, about fifteen to twenty miles farther into the in
terior. He had same coffee trees planted on the land, but since the
Krings' main activity was coffee buying. His business was not ex
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business end vas eager to buy, but he proceeded slcwly rather than
chase on favorable terns, because Krings had to sell for cash snd
scarcely any persons in the department could afford his asking price.
months of haggling, he got Krings to sell him the land and the coffee
for a period of ten years he could not extend the scope of his opera
tions, either under his own name or as the employee of a third party.
For the same length of time he could not establish a new coffee buy
ing business, for himself or for someone else, in any other part of
chase price.
^^Notarized agreement between EPD and Max Krings for the sale
of Krings' coffee buying business at Chiquixjl (March kt 192$), DS,
"HiJos" Box.
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Krings' economic situation vorsensd. Eighteen months later it
Dieseldorff could have it for $ 6,000* The entire property vas less
than 150 acres, but coffee buying produced a profit of more than
the coffee buying business separately from the land* He paid $ 2,000.
for it, and by articles of the contract Krings obligated himself for
pose conditions such as yours, that 1 leave the Alta Verapaz, that I
/L
Letter: CMax Krings3, Carchi/Raxpec, to EPD,CGermanyl,
July 7, 1926, DS, Raxpec Box; Letter: Max Krings, Carchi, to EPD,
Coban, September 17• 1926, DS, Raxpec Box.
^notarized agreement between EPD and Max Krings for the sale
of Krings' coffee buying business at Raxpec (February 17* 1927), DS,
Raxpec Box.
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Krings would not expand operations into new areas. This arrangement
important rival in the two areas where he bought the most ceresa. At
sive area. Setafta, Chimutut, and Tzapitz were some of the settlements
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The total anount that he purchased here vas large, and the present-
business for parchment coffee vas different from that for pulp. There
coffee.
ment coffee were similar to those for ceresa, but there were important
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from other buyers in the department. He adjusted the price range ac
cording to the type of coffee he vas buying, and offered the best
rates for that grown at high altitudes from orchards that consistent
cheaper rates since the vorld market price for these vas lov.T2 He
these contained some coffee the vendor had been unable to sell or a
less for coffees that they had bought unvorked and processed them
quality of the coffee,T3 tut most likely because he vas also trying
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clients*
snd consequently transactions for this type, unlike those for ceresa,
ated contracts vith them and bought pergamino from almost every
and the coonBission they received, one peso per quintal vas small
price* In same instances the price vas not fixed but vas to be one
peso belov the current rate in the department at the time of deliv
7I1 __
Letters: EPD, Cobin, to Manuel Conlledo, Panzal, June lU,
and August 30, 1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 87, 170-171, DC.
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Dieseldorff paid the same rate as for the other if the producer had
the place where it was grown and that he provided the carriers neces
sary to neve it. The coffee had to be properly prepared and dried,
the entire amount of coffee, he had to pay Dieseldorff ten pesos for
vas lenient if there vas Just cause for the shortage, such as a very
to one man who vas apparently affronted by his request, "I am asking
you to guarantee the loan, not because I doubt your honesty, for if I
natural that whoever makes a monetary advance should want to have his
capital assured."7®
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recipient vas trustworthy, or if the sun given vas not nore than a
fev hundred dollars, Dieseldorff asked only that he have a third party
lieve it necessary to have the loan secured, vhen the recipient vas
cally important*
This vas essential since he himself vas paying interest on the money
business. The rate, vhich vas specified in the contract, varied from
case to case, but it vas only slightly higher than vhat he paid his
go
creditors* Most cosnonly it vas 1 % per month on the balance due,
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believed that the creditor should regard the needs of the clients.
There vere buyers in the Alta Verapaz vho levied 2 % and 3 % Interest
ing contracts vith the ruse of offering to pay one peso or so more
per quintal than the current rate, but the interest charges, com
pounded monthly, ended up being much more than the price difference.
amount charged vas too high, the small producer realized little profit
86
and understandably became dissatisfied. In 1931 he petitioned the
81»
Letter: EPD, Coban, to Manuel Conlledo, Panzal, March 23,
1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," Ho. 1, pp. 7-9, DC.
ds
Letter: EPD, Cobfn, to Manuel Conlledo, Panzal, January
2k, 1902, Letterbook, "Fincas," Ho. 1, pp. 275-280, DC.
or __
Letter: EPDt Cobin, to Manuel Conlledo, Pansal, June la,
1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," Ho. 1, p. 87, DC.
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establishing penalties for violators,®^ Although there is no evidence
their coffee, vhich under other circumstances they might have diffi
buy at the rate set originally. The more daring, vho had been villlng
to take a chance and had not fixed an exact price, profited vhen the
market rose. Since many of the small producers owned few draft ani
mals and vehicles, the transport of coffee from one place to another
fee himself vas advantageous, as it saved them the costs and diffi-
89
culties involved.
of bought coffee he would have for export to the brokers who had
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word and selling to a higher bidder.?0 They gave him legal grounds
that vere not completely dry. Vet coffee in bags spoiled quickly
since mold end mildew set in easily. The damage vas irrevocable, and
for this reason the employees he sent to pick up shipments vere under
rejected coffee, because the beans were malformed and improperly de
veloped, or because the lot vas badly processed and contained too
many unpulped red berries, immature beans, black beans, and debris.?3
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under hie direction the total amounts he bought grew over the years
between 1696 and 1937. Correspondence, land titles, and other docu
ments offer further proof of this, for they reveal how he methodloally
expanded the range of his activities. His efforts to deal fairly vith
on the regular clientele that he had built up over the years, and
When hib son Willi took over, he realised vhat vas happening
and vhat could be done. One of his primary objectives vas to inten
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provided tha basis Willi naadsd to build up tha buslnass. Today tha
ing prloas and polielas ara made by the haad of tha firm.^
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policy, coupled vith his demand for quality and his respect for his
lived success.
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CHAPTER VI
Once the groves vere in production, the crop, vhen ripe, had to be
pergamino form vas carried out on the fincas vhere it had been grovn.
The beans vere then bagged and carried to Coban. There they under
vent final preparation and sorting. The coffee, nov ready for mar
ket, vas once again placed in sacks and sent, via Pancajche and
means quite so simple. The steps were exacting and the entire process
between the time the beans vere harvested and the time they vere sold
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trees had three or more flushes of blooms in a single year, and the
ripened within eight or nine months after the blossoms dropped off,
and it was not uncommon to see both flowers and berries on the same
tree.
During the first few months the coffee berry was bright green.
and finally, when it had reached its optimum weight and development,
flavor and appearance of the bean to such a degree that it lost its
commercial value since the foreign market demand for this coffee
(called triache) vas nil. Triache vas used only for local consumption
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a large labor force. The Indians who lived on the finca vere one
children— set about to pick and prepare the coffee. On the large
all the necessary tasks during the peak period, and Dieseldorff had to
bring in additional hands. For a time, during the 1880's and the
tion and experience Dieseldorff had quickly learned that the system
1891 and 1898 he invested money buying properties that, although not
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the coffee plantations vhere extra hands vere needed. Some of the
Rio Frio. There vere 123 adult Indian males at Chiachal at the time
Frlo.^ To augeent his labor supply he also made vork contracts vith
other Indians, males and females, vho lived in the vicinity of his
they complied vith their agreement and to have grounds for legal
women, adolescent boys, and older men. Since the groves vere planted
on mountain slopes, the vork vas difficult, and workers had to exer
cise caution not to lose their footing. The trees alvays had berries
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laborers to strip the branches but ordered then to pick off only the
there vere inportant reasons for using It: to prevent injury to the
renoved the foliage as veil as the fruit; and to assure the uniform
beans in baskets slung over the shoulder. When these vere filled,
they emptied the coffee into large burlap sacks, located at regular
carried the sacks, which held about fifty pounds, on their backs to
o
the beneficio or processing plant on the finca. Moving the coffee
stances there vas no alternative. Mules and burros, vhen they could
be spared, vere sometimes used, but many of the orchards vere ac
procedures. The fruit, classed as ceresa vhen first taken off the
tree, looked like a slightly elongated cherry. The red outer skin,
which vas thick snd fiberj u s , enclosed tvo beans. These resembled a
pebble split in half. The outer sides vere oval or round, and the
inner sides, which faced each other, vere flat. Surrounding the indi
vidual beans vas the fruit pulp, a sveet tasting, gummy substance of
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first covering, a tough textured, straw colored husk, vas the "parch-
sent," and the one beneath it, delicate as gossamer but closely adher
ing and difficult to detach, vas called the "silver skin*" To prepare
the coffee for narket the beans had to be completely cleaned by remov
ing separately and in sequence all four layers— the outer skin, the
fruit pulp, the parchnent, and the silver skin* Each step required
different techniques and equipment, and skill and patience vere neces
There are tvo methods of treating coffee, the "vet" and the
ripe and unripe berries vere harvested and prepared together, it pro
brought out the best characteristics of the beans and thereby maxi
vas such that only the big producers could afford it. Other planters
or partially treated.
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also gave the coffee a preliminary vaahing, a step that other fin*
his administrators and their assistants vho worked around the clock
in shifts. The standards of quality he set vere high, and his em-
o
ployees had to meet them or incur his wrath.7
taste to it. The purpose of pulping vas to remove completely the red
outer skin without injuring the coffee beans. For this operation
Spanish), which separated the beans from the skin by rubbing the
The pulper ejected the skin through a chute and emptied the beans
These vere put through the machine again, because the presence of un
pulped berries in the fermenting vats spoiled the flavor and color
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galvanized iron* The pulper itself vas raised about six feet above
ground level, and the coffee vas poured in from the top* Dieseldorff
installed hoisting devices to lift the heavy bags containing the beans
that the Indian laborers brought directly from the groves* He povered
both the holster and the pulper vith gasoline suitors manufactured by
the Otto Deutc firm*10 The finca managers had instructions from him
to examine the pulpera every morning to make certain that the disc
the unwieldy and costly Gordon pulpers, made by John Gordon & Co* of
London. The Sarg pulper used perforated discs to shell the coffee
11
berries. Although it operated effectively, it had the limitation
vas difficult to take the discs out and to replace them vith others
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to have at least tvo separate machines, one for Arabics and another
for Maragogyp.11* After the war manufacture of the Ssrg pulpers vas
unable to obtain parts for his old machines, gradually began to re
covers, vhich were punched vith bulb-shaped holes. These pulpers had
the advantage that the cylinder vas removable and a different one,
Raxahi, and Secol-Seact€, and one each at Chajcar, Sechafb, and Santa
Cecilia.1'* By 1930 there were only four Sarg pulpers still in opera
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for it not only determined the final color and flavor of the bean,
but improved its quality over similar varieties cured by the dry
and humidity. The colder the veather, the longer it took. Dieseldorff
lime. He also found that covering the vats to protect them against
air currents raised the temperature of the vater and hastened the
operation.^
vals until the exact point vas reached and the fruit pulp vas easily
fermented, the vater in the tank vas drained out, and the coffee vas
vashed vith fresh running vater for several minutes to remove all
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end mortar, whose liquid volume capacity ranged from thirty to forty
lfi
thousand gallons* Since the process took up to three days, at least
located vlthln the structure housing the pulper, and the top vas below
the level of the machine so that the coffee would drop through a shoot
into the desired vat. The tanks had a vater drain and an opening on
one side to remove the vashed coffee by pushing it out onto the ad
but most of the rain seeped into theground and collected in a net-
pi
vork of deep underground rivers that crisscrossed the department.
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sibla and lnatallad gaaolina motor pumps to move It. Tha terrain of
these three plantations vas so steep that the vater had to be raised
ing the vater level to a point above the fermenting tanks, vhich
more large-sise basins of stone and mortar to collect and store rain-
vater.2*4
vas drying. The mosos emptied the coffee from the tanks and spread
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The operation took four to eight diyi, depending on the weather. Dur
ing this time barefooted laborers, usually young boys and old men,
constantly turned the beans over vith vide-toothad wooden rakes. They
for protection from heavy tropioal deva. During long perioda of rainy
veather, the vorkers aarated' the partly dried coffee vith wooden
sonally supervised the drying of the coffee. They had to make cer
tain that the coffee vas constantly exposed to air. If it vas not,
the beans heated up, and the oil in them turned rancid. Under these
circumstances they developed such a foul odor that they vere called
of dryness separate and check each lot often. The drying operation
greatly influenced the quality of the coffee, and to secure good re
sults, the work had to be done properly. Over drying hardened the
hand, if the beans vere still partially vet vhen bagged, they soured
Dieseldorff carefully chose the men vho oversav the vork, selecting
the most experienced. The color test vas the simplest, for the
parchment turned a bright straw color vhen dry. This criterion vas
not consistently accurate, hovever. If the sun had been very hot, it
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v u possible that tha outalda had drlad fully and tha parehaant vas
tha propar ahada, but yat tha lnaida remained vat. Aa appaaranoa
methods of proof, ualng thair handa, taath, and aara. Whan tha cof-
faa vaa thoroughly dry, a paraon could aaaily raaova tha hull by
gantly rubbing tha baana batvaan tha palaa of tha hand. Sinoa tha
aftar thay had raaehad tha eorraot point* Purthamora, a dry baan
tha ovaraaar had aanplad and teatad a lot and detemlnad that it vaa
the benefiolo. There vere usually three to five on each finca, the
exaaple, there vere four large patioa, vhich encompaaaed a total area
tate noving the coffee, there vaa a primary terrace adjacent to tha
benaficio and placed a little below tha level of the fomenting vata.
Tha other patioa vere located around the first, each at a progres
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tarraeaa difficult. Sinoa there vara few flat areas, vary often
Dieseldorff had to out into tha Mountain to huild one part and to
extend tha other section beyond the slope. For this it vas necessary
face vas painted vith a Mixture of three parts ooal tar and one part
tvo each at Chiquixjl and Sechalb, and one each at Santa Cecilia,
side the patios to store coffee at nitfht and during rainy veather.
20
Letter and accompanying diagram: EPD, Cobfin, to Max Krings
Secac, June lh, 1901, Letterbook, "Fincas,” Ko. 1, pp. 86-69, DC.
29
Dieseldorff. Per Kaffeebaum. p. 27*
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He placed the galeras on the north and south sides to prevent their
casting shadows on the terrace. The sheds vere like long galleries,
shout eight to ten feet vide, closed on one side, vith roofs of gal
vanised iron. They opened directly onto the terraces, at the sane
level, so that the mosos, using flat vooden instruments, could quick
ly push the besns into the shelter. On the open front of the struc
ture vas a roll-up tarpaulin, vhich could be dropped to keep out the
each, but they vere essential for the protection of the coffee. Dur
ing the same period that Dieseldorff built the seven patios mentioned
ing shipment.
Alta Verapaz, because the climate vas vet, and the operation vas slow
ing to improve old devices and develop nev ones. Among them vas
32Ibid., 1927-1931, pp. 15, 10, 26, 29, 35, 36, DC.
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ment.
resort vhen extended periods of heavy rains made the normal procedure
because they evaporated the moisture out of the beans too quickly and
vith his conviction that beans from high altitude groves responded
their effect on the bean, economic reasons kept the number small,
for only the very large producers could afford to own and operate
one. The machines cost several thousand dollars, but this vas just
the initial outlay. Because the equipment vas bulky and heavy, the
and install it, and to run, maintain, and repair it as veil. The
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it. Moreover, operation of the machine vas costly, because vood, the
fuel used to heat the dryer, vas a scarce coamodity in many parts of
the department.
Cobin.^ This vas a central location, because it vas vithin one day's
valking distance of most of his major coffee fincas. Men and mules
together could quickly transport the coffee there vhen it vas neces
sary to do so.
situated far from Coban, almost tvo days' journey, and segments of
the connecting trail vere in bad condition. Since the plantation had
lem. During the height of the harvest season there vere not enough
men and animals to carry the coffee to Cobin to be dried, and occa
cided that the only solution vas to buy a second dryer for the finca.
ing Co., of Buffalo, Hev York, for use at Secol.^ The machine vas
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paid by check, vas about $ 2,000., F.O.B. Buffalo,®® and the cost of
ten feet in length and six feet in diameter, made of iron sheeting,
vere stationary blades, about six inches vide, to stir the beans and
aerate them. Attached to the machine vas a steam motor, vhich drew
each end of the drum. The flow of hot air could be regulated from
either side in order to dry the beans evenly and to prevent the
Asuntos," Ho. 6 , pp. 625, 637, 971-972, DC; Letter: R. Hesse for
EPD,CCobinl, to the Ferrocarril Verapas office, Livingston, June 5,
1925, Letterbook, "Ferrocarril Verapas," Ho. 7, p. 206, DC.
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|iO
temperature in the cylinder from becoming too hot. The Secol dryer
After the task vas completed, mozos put the coffee in burlap sacks,
one or tvo veeks before vorking it. This allowed the coffee to rest
and cool off slowly, a step he believed vas essential in order that
the beans develop and hold a good color. Not all producers consid
ered this necessary, and much of the coffee Dieseldorff worked for
li-a
others vas recently dried, J
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kk
and mortar vith a capacity of one hundred tons in vhich to store
the backlog. While in storage the coffee absorbed moisture from the
a fev hours. For this purpose he had tvo patios at Chichochoc, and
the parchment husk and the silver skin, polishing, sorting, and grad
The dry beans first passed through a mechanical huller (also called a
the beans. The cleaned coffee fell onto a moving vire-mesh screen
backed by an exhaust fan that drew out the loosened husk and other
the Hamburg and London markets, Dieseldorff also put the beans through
that removed any remaining particles of the silver skin and gave the
coffee a rich, lustrous sheen. The color of oro coffee grovn in the
lili „ *
Letter: Paul 0. Mittelstadt, CCobanl, to CD. B. Hodgsdonl,
Guatemala, January 9» 1920, Letterbook, nIGdG,n pp. 2h3-2UU, DC, WW
1 Int. Pap.
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ly enhanced its appearance and value. A fan once again removed the
size. The smaller beans vere ejected through the dustbz at the top,
and the larger, heavier ones through ducts nearer the bottom. Gen
erally Dieseldorff sized the beans into three categories— firsts (the
largest), seconds, and thirds. The final grading vas done by hand by
Indian vomen from the CobSn area, vho painstakingly examined the cof
fee and removed imperfect beans, vhich machinery alone could not de
tect.
U7 -
'All four of the processing plants vere in Coban and vere
owned by Germans. Besides Chichochoc, they vere Chimax (property of
Sapper & Co.), Magdalena (Christ Hnos.), and Samac (Gustav Helmrich).
The Guatemalan government nationalized all except Chichochoc during
World War II.
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of profit, and the results vere not alvays to his liking* Ownership
Otto Clauss^^ and the Helmrich brothers added nev buildings and
equipment. By 1900, vhen the Helmrichs sold the property to the firm
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of Stalling & Winter, it had tripled in value and vas worth more than
the plant, but evidence indicates that in the following years he made
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£2
vater turbine.
about $ 1,200. to enlarge the building that housed the machinery and
Co
“^General inventory of EPD's properties made by the IGdG,
March 31, 1919, DS, "Varios" Box.
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property vae the Cobfin Fiver, and the plant vaa located about one
hundred yards avay in order to escape daaage vhen the stream flooded.
In 1901 Stalling & Winter had constructed a simple earthen dam across
the river and dredged a canal to divert the vater to the mill. The
current actuated the turbine, and the vater then floved through a
second canal back into the river.^ Dieseldorff continued to use the
70
original machine until 1929, vhen he replaced it vith a larger one'
concrete dam vith three floodgates, vhich enabled him to regulate the
turbine, 73
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cal excellence alone vas not enough to guarantee goou results, xne
numan element vas also necessary to keep the machines in perfect run
yet, cracked them. If the grader vas not correctly adjusted, the
coffee vas improperly sized, and the fault vas seldom detected until
much later, vhen the coffee vas being sorted by hand. A sudden break-
dovn might hold up operations for several days, and the delay could
every stage of the operation. The man had to follov his orders im
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manager of tha lnganio for more than thraa decades Vantura made
certain that the coffee vaa vorkad in tha manner hia employer
prescribed.
proved tha efficiency of the machinea and yielded better result!. The
Hia reason for doing this vas that the friction involved in removing
the husk generated a considerable amount of heat, and vhen the machine
vas too full, the temperature rose to such a degree that the coffee
sorter. Since size vas one of the main criteria used in determining
found that its performance vas improved by not rushing, but rather
After the coffee vas completely cleaned and sized, the final
^Letter and enclosure; Max Quirin for EPD, Cobin, to the Jefe
Politico, Cohan, August 26, 1926, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las
autoridadesHo. 1, pp. 5^3—5^*5, 5k7, DC; Ledger, "Libro Mayor,"
1935-1937, pp. 115-119, 12k, DC.
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used. The Indian vomen who did tha work had to ba axparienoad and
poaaaaa a kaan aya and nimble flngara. Thay aat at long tablaa in a
apaeial room that had skylightc and vindovs on all sides, becauaa
but carefully, they picked over each lot of coffee and took out
veil as stones, pods, and any other foreign objects. The beans that
the table, and the faulty ones vere pushed aside into a trough.
Although the vork vas time-consuming, Dieseldorff had the best grades
in short shifts, a fev hours at a time, because the Job vas tiring,
vork.
great many vorkers vere needed to handle the large amounts that
arrived from the fincaa, particularly during the period from late
January to early April. Without enough laborers the mill ovner could
not possibly get his crop to market on time. The demand for sorters,
then as today, far exceeded the supply, and competition among the
owners of the four retrillas in Cob&n for available hands vas keen.
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As a result the cost of labor vas high, and the women, well avare of
mill owners made vork contracts vith the vomen, and bidding started
established by the Sarg brothers around 1870,®® was one of the oldest
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o<*
more than half of them vomen, lived on the land. There, as else
the vives of one's colonos than vith Indian vcaen vho lived in the
The final price he paid for Sachamach and Tzimajil vas $ 10,000.®^
The amount vas high, in comparison, for example, to what he paid for the
86
Chiquixjl coffee producing lots ($ 7,500.), hut he vas convinced
that having an assured lahor force for Chichochoc made the transaction
vorthvhile.
vas bagging the coffee, sealing the sacks, and marking them. For
protect the coffee in transit. Unlike the pergamino bags, vhich vere
rough handling without splitting open. The inner layer vas waterproof
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I~* 23§1
to keep the coffee dry and prevent it from toeing ruined. Diesel
dorff mainly used bags that had a capacity of 150 pounds, but he
also bought the one hundred pound size since on some occasions mozos,
rather than the usual ox-carts, carried the coffee to the Pancajch€
railhead. The price of the twill sacks vas high, nearly one dollar
long run.
The mozos put the coffee in sacks, vhich vere then veighed to
make certain that each contained the exact amount. For many years
the bags vere sewed shut by hand. This method vas not only slow, but
out the stitches and remove part of the coffee. As a result the bags
not properly done, the thread unraveled and the beans spilled out of
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thread, heavy lead fasteners that closed the bags securexy and de-
not to close the bags too tightly, but to leave sufficient airspace
93
for the coffee to move in order to reduce the strain on the fabric.*
marks Dieseldorff used classified the coffee for market. Since beans
divided the lots into size groups. The trademarks indicated point of
and for this reason they had to correspond exactly with t? ^ contents
of the bag.
while in itself slow, was made even more so because most of the men
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had the letters cut out. This too proved unsatisfactory since the
rounded suape ox tne sacks tended to make the paint smear. In 1930
ters, six inches high. Using indelible ink instead of paint, the
simple apparatus enabled him to stamp the proper mark on each bag
quickly.9**
Dieseldorff used the same symbols year after year for every
crop, because after his product became knovn on the market, buyers
continues to sell its coffee under the same trademarks. Most of the
ones were: "CHAJCAR R" and "CHAJCAR S & XM for the fancy, extra-hard
"CHAJCAR GYP" for Maragogyp for the same area; "SECOL S & X" (called
"SEACTE" before 1920) for Arabica from that finca; "SECOL R" for an
grown around Coban and San Pedro Carchi,; "EPDG COBAN" for beans from
the same region, vhich had been bought in the parchment; and "RAXAHA11
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quality of the coffee, because the beans held a good color only a
few months. After that time their value decreased, because they be
niques that Dieseldorff used, his production costs were higher than
between seven and eight dollars to produce one hundred pounds oro
comparison, the Guatemalan average during the early 1930's was eight
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would profit from his investment, and often said, "The market vill
100
alvays pay fancy prices for a fancy article." The standards of
strong, and the rates the product commanded were commensurate with
its quality. But for Dieseldorff the price of the reputation he en
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CHAPTER VII
areas, and severely limited the amount of coffee that could be ex
build roads and enacted a corvie law, which they believed would pro
ment.
ning recognized that they had to take the initiative to open neces
several reasons, were the most active. Since they owned some of the
largest plantations, they most strongly felt the need for an economic
243
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way system, and to this day there is still not a single smooth, hard-
money to open new routes to his fincas, but he cooperated with others
the most remote and isolated of the highland areas of Guatemala. The
mountains of the South Coast had been settled during the colonial
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and had built roads, however rudimentary, to connect the major towns
vith the capital. The Verapaz, on the other hand, was populated
tury commercial activity existed only on the local level and agri
coupled vith the lack of any roads, effectively isolated it from the
time the influx began there were no roads anywhere in the vast region,
but rather only footpaths used by the Indians. The first outside
settlers, such as Julio Rossignon, Franz Sarg, the Baron Oskar von
Nostitz, and Peter G&nther, saw the economic potential of the area,
particularly the northern section, but they knew that in order to ex
absolute necessity.
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distance and the terrain made the Journey difficult and expensive.
Even after the cargoes had reached the capital, they had to be trans
shipped to ports, vhich were far avay. The most direct and therefore
the most commonly used route was a path from Cobin to the fluvial
port of Panz6s on the Polochic River, and thence by water down the
Polochic, across Lake Izabal and down the Rio Dulce to the port of
trail between Cobin and Panzos the hardest part of the trip. The
first segment from Cobin through Santa Cruz, Tactic, and Tamahti to
and bars at the mouth of that river and of the Rio Dulce impeded the
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Franz Sarg took the opportunity to point out to him that the commer
sult, Cerna in 1870 ordered the building of the road,** and the
the next few years the unsettled state of affairs in the country
of the Verapaz, vho strongly opposed the opening cf a road from Cobin
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Yet at the sane tine coffee production was Increasing, and the trans
Charles Meany, attempted to ship his coffee by water, down the Carchi
however, because not only were there numerous snags and rapids along
the route, but frequently the streams ran underground for several
that the Cob&n-Panzos route was the most practical line out of the
did not act quickly enough to satisfy the planters and merchants of
the Coban area, vho Joined together and volunteered to provide the
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Cobfin and the old port of Telemln.*0 situated on the Poloohie down
the route.^ The government paid for the operation, but the cost
was relatively low. Few tools, except for picks and shovels, were
used, and these were supplied by the plantation owners. Labor was
free, because the Jefe Politico, General Luis Molina, a strong sup
quired every male between the ages of fourteen and fifty to pay an
annual road tax of two pesos or work on public roads for six days. 13
The work gangs that Molina provided were made up of Indians who were
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and from Tucurfi to PanzSs the dense, tropical vegetation grev back
ried on easily only during the brief dry season, and the ensuing
the deep gorge at the ChascoJ pass, where the road crossed the
erected an iron bridge of his ovn design and thereby cleared the way
In l88l the cart road between Coban and Panzos was at last
work, for it was nothing more than a narrow strip of crudely leveled
17
ground without permanent surfacing. ' But for the people of the
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Verapaz it vas a great triumph. Although it did not cut travel time
a means of transport.
in the form of Indian work gangs, gradually began to open new roads
San Pedro CarchS, and on through that town to the fincas Chimax,
and north to the fincas Saxoc and Cubilgfiitz. From Santa Cruz, situ
even more primitive than the one from Cob&n to Panz6s. Some could
accommodate ox-carts during the dry season, but most were merely
they were an improvement, for they crossed the major coffee producing
areas, and thus provided a route for the transport of the crop
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and animals into the department. Franz Sarg vas again the pioneer.
wheels from the United States,2® and during the 1880's he brought
forty pairs into the department. The heavy wooden wheels were about
forty-five inches high and were constructed with four large spokes
carts. He purchased one hundred oxen to pull them and trained Indians
21
to drive the vehicles.
tory, because they mired easily in muddy places and did not maneuver
op
well the sharp turns and steep descents of the road. Another German
sought to use mules as pack animals, but while these were acceptable
carriers for bringing coffee from the fincas to CobSn, they lacked
Panzos.2^
23Ibid.. p. 93.
pli
El Porvenir. Ano 1, No. 1*5, December 1, 1889.
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For the Indian burden-bearers the trip vas a health hazard. They
were accustomed to the cold climate of the highlands and often suc
that ox-carts were the most suitable vehicle of conveyance, and these
fic, the merchants and planters of the Alta Verapaz secured regular
time the only means of transportation between the tvo ports vas by
at the time there vas not enough traffic betveen Panzos and Livingston
Germans, vho saw that the service would be of benefit to them, agreed
also undertook to clear the Polochic of debris and to dredge the sand
bars at the mouth of that river and the Rio Dulce to permit naviga
the Coban-Panzos road had been opened and the Anderson-Oven line in
saw, had been short-lived, and the situation vas once again critical.
Coffee production had nearly doubled in the decade betveen 1880 and
1890, and neither the road nor the steamers were capable of handling
the increased load. Each year during the vet season torrential rains
destroyed large parts of the road, and the repair vork, vhich vas done
by Indians under the corvSe lav, could not keep pace vith the damage.
repairs as vere carried out were but stopgap measures, such as remov
low spots vith rock. ^ During rainy weather many segments vere
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in 1893, when at the end of the dry season almost tvo entire coffee
that the problems could be solved only through a Joint effort. First
poses del Norte, for the purpose of buying out the Anderson-Oven
^Rosch, p. 92.
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between Panzos and Livingston,3® and added service from the two ports
charged, as set forth in the company statutes, could not exceed $ 0.75
per hundred pounds, and the limit for passenger fare was $ 8.00,
lil
The operation proved to he profitable, and the company waa soon
agreement, which was renewed in 1899,**3 not only increased the com
37Ibid.. p. 3.
**3Ibid.. Vol. XVIII, pp. 178-181. The annual subsidy was re
duced to 6,000 pesos since the company had operated at a profit under
|_ the directorship of W. A-. Dieseldorff. |
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r 2571
by local authorities.
sider forming a second company to carry out the project if they could
^Ibid.. Vol. IV, pp. 197-200; La Voz del Norte (Salama, BV,
Guatemala), ASo 2., No. 52, September 10, TSSk,
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Miller, an engineer from the United States vho had also worked on the
London, Brussels, and Berlin, but for the first few months his efforts
growing coffee industry in the Alta Verapaz and of its profit poten
import houses in the city, agreed to help finance the venture. With
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The major Hamburg investors vere G. Miiller & Thomsen (150,000 Marks),
Adolf Kirsten (100,000 Marks), and Riensch & Held (100,000 Maries).
States investors, G. Amsinck & Co. (50,000 Maries) and Chase and Sanborn
(20,000 Maries). G. Miiller & Thomsen vere to act as agents for the
company in Germany.
Since he vas Just getting started in business, the amount he vas able
pledges had nearly reached 1,000,000 Marks, and the vay vas clear to
begin the sale of bonds in Germany to raise the remainder of the capi
tal. From Guatemala there vere no fever than fifteen German and
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road ccaipany) It vas decided to merge the tvo companies in order that
the profits from the steamship line be used to guarantee the 8 % an
nual return demanded by the Hamburg investors while the railroad vas
gauge line, the company imported most of its equipment and material
from Europe. From Germany it secured iron bridges, rails, and steel
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vas opened, but then the company ran into administrative and finan
quit, and the company had to find another engineering firm to con
tinue the project. Work vas suspended for several months until the
they had to resurvey the route from La Tinta to Tucurlx. Further add
ing to the building costs vas the pestilential climate, vhich had so
decimated the vork gangs in the past that laborers vere almost impos
By the end of the year the company had spent most of its capi
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the asalstanee of the Hamburg backera, vho agreed to aupply the ad
ditional funda the company needed on the condition that they be given
another 500,000 Marks in bonds were sold in Germany, and the money
the old cart road followed until it crossed the Polochic. Construc
route of the cart road and blaat the roadbed out of the rock vail of
the narrow Chamiquln gorge along the river. Under the circumstances
tion, vhich cost more than 1,OCX),000 Marks, completely exhausted the
extend the tracks to Tucurd, eight and a half miles beyond Pancajcht,
to obtain more money, and the little town of Pancajcht therefore be
came the permanent inland terminal of the line. Service betveen that
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route from Cobin to Panzda and ahortenad tha time required for tha
planters to grow and export more coffee. Up until World War II the
Ferrocarril Verapaa carried almost all the coffee exported from the
area.
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r 264 1
Livingston during the harvest season, and one a month at other times.
uniform rate.
vith a serious problem. Physically the port vas far from ideal, for
it vas extremely shallov and deep-water vessels could not enter the
harbor. Ships had to anchor more than a mile out at sea and load and
^®Erckert, p. 281.
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to transport cargo and passengers between the wharves and the ships,
costs extremely high. Between 1900 and 1922 repairs were carried on
as usual by Indian labor gangs under the road work lav,b^ out re
and the available manpower was inefficiently used. In 1909, for exam
ple, 1,012 men working six days each on the Coban-PancaJch€ road re
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Most of the route lacked conduits along the side of the road
formed in low areas. The Indian work gangs filled the mires vlth
rock, but as they vere seldom instructed hov to do the Job properly,
that is, to dig the mud out first, heavy rains quickly washed avay
Alta Verapaz repairs vere generally financed from the road tax col
store it near the terminal until time for shipment. For this reason
66
Ervin Dieseldorff purchased Paija in 1896 , about the time that con
the area included Dieseldorff & Co., Richard Sapper, Sterkel Hnos.,
^ I n 1912, for example, 281 such holes vere filled with rock,
and the following year 367 . Ibid. (1913), pp. 53-5^; ibid. (191*0,
pp. U2-l*3.
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£7
Moritz Thoma, and J. M. Coronado. This solution was hardly practi
cal, however, for only a few coffee producers could afford such an
Tactic area founded the Comitl de Ccmercio for the purpose of fixing
the road from Tactic to Tamahfi, which vas one of the worst parts of
to the municipality ten Indians a week for special road repairs, and
68
they paid the men's wages and all other expenses incurred. While
accounted for most of the trade in and out of Livingston, the tax
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made discreet inquiries regarding the amount of revenue the tax pro
how Livingston officials used the funds, and whether there vas any
69
public accounting of receipts and disbursements. 7 His investigations
bore out the fact that the receipts came largely from Verapaz trade,
ment to appropriate the revenues from the wharfage tax for the con
the department in late September, 1922, and for the next few months
71Fomento (1923), pp. 113, 307: El Norte. Ano XII, No. 579,
August 12, 1922.
72E1 Norte, Ano XII, Nos. 585 and 596, September 23, and
December 9, 1922.
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r 2691
the entire amount be used to open a mule track from £1 Estor, on the
. jh
north shore of Lake Izabal, to Cahabon ,1 a small town in the in
terior.
no funds during 192U and work on the project halted. At wits' end,
project,7** which gave the committee more than Q 36 ,U0Q. that year .77
Revenues from the wharfage tax vere not only uncertain, but
this reason the committee decided to raise additional sums within the
^Ibarra, p. 1*19.
76
Ibarra, p. U37»
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(Q 0.067) for each one hundred pounds transported over the Cob&n-
7O
PancajchS route.' In this manner those persons in the department,
such as Ervin Dieseldorff, vho vould benefit the most from the com
this fund.
the history of the department the builders did not have to depend on
human power alone, because the committee purchased machinery for the
for a major undertaking, but it vas more than had ever been used be
fore. Indian laborers, under the corvee lav, provided part of the
this method vas not sufficient. To augment the size of the vork
day.
Bo Persons vho ovned plantations in the vicinity of the road put
^ E1 Norte. ASo XIV, Nos. 678 and 69U, July 19, and November
8, 192k.
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8l
Dieseldorff did the colonos from Rio Frio, PaijS., and El Salto. In
addition, private individuals, such as Sapper & Co. and a group from
stance, the terrain rose sharply more than twelve hundred feet in
dug for the entire route, through swamps as well as mountains. Much
more machinery was necessary to expedite the work, but the road conn
were also hard to obtain, for although the wages were good (the rate
in most parts of Guatemala was ten pesos a day, and elsewhere in the
road, had been completed, but then the national government dealt the
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believed that the government could do the vork more efficiently, and
ing the responsibility for its completion in the hands of the munici
pal authorities in each town along the route, vho vere to vork on
For the next few months vork on the Coban-PancaJ ch6 road con
^ E l Norte, ASo XVIII, No. 899, August 27, 1927; ibid., Ano
XIX, No. 952, September 8 , 1928.
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r 273
vho vas one of the originators of the petition, made a tour of in
spection of the road vith the Jefe Politico of the department, and
order use of the macadam system in making repairs, and stated out
right that the old road committee, if reinstated, could bring the
69
job to completion.
From the latter part of 1929 until 1931 Quirin vorked on the road
should be used throughout the line, for although it vas slower and
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more expensive, it lengthened the life of the road and helped to cut
of the department. During the first year the national government al-
02
located Q 250. a month for the vork, but after July, 1930, the ap
road committee through the collection of the cart tax and through the
the department also lent their support to the comnittee in other ways.
Dieseldorff permitted the group to extract the sand needed for top-
97
ping from the riverbed at Santa Margarita and Chichochoc, and he
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r 275"!
allowed the builders to use his ox-carts and motor vehicles to trans-
98
port supplies and equipment.'
ties along the route had the responsibility of providing the neces
sary hands. Some they obtained through the corvle, but these vere
not enough. Moreover, the men they recruited vere for the most part
finca colonos or Indians vho lived near the town, and they bore the
tles.
laborer class to vork on the road for one week without pay. Vocal
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quelled the idea, however.100 The system that worked most success
from the flncas during the off-season, and vho received Q 1.50 for
dorff, for Instance, between June and August, 1930, sent more than
one hundred men from his flncas in the Carch& area to vork on the
Cobtn-Pancajchl road.101
years the line vas open to truck traffic, vhich cut to one day the
the road remained unsurfaced, however, and vork on these sections vas
tremendously, from Q 1.50 per one hundred pounds during the 1920's,
102
to less than Q 0.30.
102E1 Norte, Afio XXVIII, No. 1392, July 2k, 1937; Deutschtum
in der Alta Verapaz. pp. 68-69.
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construction, the planters of the Verapaz vere also improving the con
This vork vas necessary in order to speed the transport of coffee from
the fincae either to Cob&n or to the trunk line to Pancajch&, but the
plantation ovners, for the most part, had to bear the entire cost them
had to pass through the communal lands of Indian villages, vhose resi
blocked construction.^^
the road north from Coban and the tvo roads east from San Pedro
IqIj
Carch&. One of the roads out of Carcha crossed through the
Lanquin, passed near Raxah& and Chiquixji. The line out of Coban
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Chajcar, and Basis, Chicaeao, and Chiacam, vhich lay to the east of
Chajcar and Sechaib, had been repaired. The vork consisted of build
ing small wooden bridges over the numerous ravines, rivulets, and
breaks along the route, filling holes and mires vith gravel, grading
Chajcar there was also erected a large wooden bridge, vhich had a
stone and mortar foundation. The same year two miles of the road
through Chimax were repaired.10^ A few years later the Minister re
ported that during the previous tvelve months the road from Chajcar
to Chicacao and beyond had been entirely cleared, that three miles
Chiacam and Sasls the owners of the fincas had built a covered
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1.06
masonry bridge, 157 feet long.
had appeared for road vork vhen ordered by municipal officials, but
this system did not suit the best interests of either the landovner
tune time— during the harvest season, for example, or vhen the
other instances, the people vere put to vork improving roads that
ment extended the lav to include all roads and mule tracks that led
This step opened the vay for permitting the Indians to fulfill
10^Ibarra, p. kl8.
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his employees. In practice the law allowed finqueros to pay the road
tax for the colonos on his land and to give them the necessary corvie
Dieseldorff alone provided more than 3^0 men from Chajcar, Sechaib,
sent by the plantation owners, the Indian work gangs leveled and
widened the road, using explosives when necessary, dug new drainage
ditches and repaired old ones, and surfaced sections of the route by
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112
the macadam method. As a result, by the early 1930's the line was
transitable by trucks almost all the way to Chicacao, ten miles east
113
of Santa Cecilia, and travel time vas reduced from two days to
all his fincas. In the case of Chajcar and Santa Cecilia it had been
region, vhose owners vere villing to share expenses for their mutual
benefit. Since there vere fev wealthy fincas in the vicinity of his
Cubilgultz, vhich vere fifteen to twenty miles from Cob&n, the cost
would have been far out of proportion to the savings he could have
two fincas, as veil as Chiquixjl and Raxaha, with Cob&n, he used mule
the shorter route to Secol would have been one leading due north out
of San Pedro Carch&, the opening of a separate track vould have re
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miles out of Coban there vas a cart road, which had been built by
Victor Wellmann and the Sapper firm, vho owned plantations along the
point there vas only a mule track, vhich continued north for about
ten miles. Here the trail divided. One spur led east to the Secol-
Seactl complex, vhich vas situated tvo or three miles beyond the
fork; and the other northwest to Cubilguitz, some eight miles avay.
on the mule track. Using mozos from his fincas he widened the trail
to six to eight feet and paved the entire roadbed with small stone
his disposal. In 1926, for example, 118 mozos repaired about tventy-
five miles, and the following year fifty men put some ten miles in
good condition. The track vas used not only by Dieseldorff, but it
to the present day the mule track remains the only available land
ll]*Ibid.. ASo VI, Ho. 269, September 19, 1915; ibid.. Ano
VIII, Ho. 355, August 25, 1917; ibid., Ano XVII, Ho. 901, September
10, 1927.
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In the case of Chiquixjf and Raxahi, cost vas not the sole
two fincas, situated in the same region, vere both vithin tvo or three
miles of the Carcha-Lanquin road, and the terrain betveen the planta
tions and the road vas not particularly difficult. Raxaha and
in this rather extensive area. A road vould have made the Indian
track connected the fincas 1 beneficios and varehouses vith the road,
have chosen to keep the area isolated for the same reasons that he
did. Today the two fincas still can only be reached on horseback or
on foot.11?
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Pancajchl, and on the one from Coban to the Chajcar complex, he used
horses. The carts and mules also carried supplies to the fincas, and
Sometimes, when the backlog of coffee was too large for the
Not only were the Indians badly needed to work on the fincas, but
119
Dieseldorff apparently regarded this system with distaste. Instead
though they vere very slow, a team of four animals could pull a load
mule, on the other hand, vas two bags, or about two hundred pounds.
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a flat, wooden platform vith a wooden bow at each end. The bows vere
vas covered vith a tarpaulin. The wheels had four large, wooden
spokes and metal casings. In the early days it vas necessary to im
port wheels from abroad, but later Dieseldorff purchased them from
lOQ
Georg Wagner, vho manufactured them in Cob&n.
owing to road conditions the cost of upkeep vas high. Sharp rocks
along the narrow road tore the canvas, and although the material could
and axles, or other damages. For this reason Dieseldorff kept nev
equipment and spare parts at Rio Frio, situated betveen Santa Cruz
120E1 Norte. ASo XI, Nos. 512 and 552, March 12, 1921, and
January 1, 1922; Letter: EPD, Cob&n, to Jorge Wagner, Coban, February
23, 1926, Letterbook, "Varios Asuntos," No. 8, p. 3, DC.
121
General inventory of EPD's properties made by the IGdG,
March 31, 1919( DS, "Varios" Box; Record book, "inventarios," 1927-
1931, p. U, DC.
122
General inventory of EPD's properties made by the IGdG,
March 31, 1919, DS, "Varios" Box; Inventories for Chichochoc, Chajcar,
Sechaib, Santa Cecilia, Raxpec, Paija, and Rio Frio (1930), DC.
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drivers vere scarce and competition for them vas keen, he frequently
fleet of carts and the necessary drivers and draft animals, and they
All along the route the trains encountered steep ascents, as veil as
deep bogs, where it vas necessary to unhitch the animals and pull
each cart vith a team of six or eight oxen. The sharp descents vere
demanded that the drivers bring him the branded part of the hide to
make certain that the beast had actually died and had not been
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pastured fresh oxen at Rio Frio and PaijS. to use as replacements for
the ones that had perished or that vere too exhausted to continue the
Journey, Since the trip to Chajcar was much shorter and less tir
ing than the one to Pancajchi, substitute animals vere seldom neces
his other fincas. Mules vere the most common carriers. As beasts of
strength and stamina enabled them to carry heavier loads, and the
small size of the hoof gave them surer footing on the rocky mountain
trails and over svampy sections, either of vhich horses had trouble
betveen Coban and the fincas Cubilg&itz and Secol. To Chiquixjl and
mules.
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r 288*1
bring coffee from there. During the harvest season the mules at
horses and mules in Coban, and one or tvo on each of the fincas for
years later his livestock included 239 oxen, 99 pack mules, 29 pack
129
horses, and 28 mounts (mules and horses).
them. Buying was the less common method, because the beasts vere ex
pensive. A mule, for example, cost between $ 25. and $ U0., depend
ing on its age and size;1^® an ox, from $ 30. to $ l*0.^'L Therefore,
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r 2891
Dieseldorff also bred animals to Increase the size of his herd* He
used CubilgUitz and its annex Yaxcabnal for this purpose, because the
relatively level terrain, the fertile soil, and the vara climate made
mares and two or three asses, and he pastured the offspring there
until they vere ready for service.^^3 jn order to improve the line
herd of eighty to one hundred animals at each place, and the young
Although mules and pack horses are still used dovn to the
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roads during the late 1920's and the early 1930's gradually made ox
up, and two International trucks, one of which had a capacity of two
136
tons (or forty bags of coffee), the other, one and a quarter tons. ^
there were only three operating between Cob&n and Chajcar, and five
was able to make larger bulk shipments at one time and to move the
cargo much more rapidly. They also lowered his shipping costs sub
only a chauffeur, and any repair work that was necessary was done by
139
a mechanic in his employ. So as to keep the vehicles in good
136
Letter: CEPD1, Coban, to the Director General de Aduanas,
Guatemala, January 3, 1930, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades,N
No. 1, pp. 888-890, DC; Letter: Max Quirin for EPD, Coban, to the
Administrador de Rentas, Coban, January 12, 1931, Letterbook, "Asuntos
ante las autoridades," No. 2, p. 125, DC.
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in the Alta Verapax during the latter part of the nineteenth and the
were gradual, but they were of lasting value for the residents of
the region. In 1672 the government started a weekly mail run between
lUl
the capital and Coban, but as the coffee industry in the area grew,
office was opened in Coban in 1876 , and during the next fifteen years
lines were put up connecting Cob&n with other towns in the depart-
1 1±P
ment. By the late l880's direct communications between Cob&n and
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ceive the latest news of conditions in the coffee market, but the
who could afford to buy sets used them to contact agents in Guatemala
City, and this system continues to be used down to the present day.
stalled one betveen the station at Panz6s and the PancaJchS railhead,
and Sapper ic Co. had a line from one of its plantations to its ware-
1lift
house near Pancajchl. Ervin Dieseldorff had telephones on several
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tveen the central office in Coban and his fincus Chajuch, Chajcar,
owned in the area. At the same time he put up a line from the cen-
1 *il
tral office to the Chichochoc retrilla.
Guatemala City. In 1926 the reBidentB of the Cob&n area had cleared
a visit by air of President Jos6 Marla Orellana,"^2 but after his de
ing air travel and after almost a year they persuaded the town
152E1 Norte, Afio XV, No. 823, March 11, 1926; ibid.. Afio XVI,
No. 828, March 2&, 1926.
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planters of the area lent colonos from their fincas to work on the
isi*
project, and the landing field vas completed in 1929. The strip
was (and still is) unpaved, but it vas large enough to accomodate
small aircraft. The first few years service vas sporadic, but by
the late 1930's the airline Aerovlas de Guatemala vas making tvo
flights a veek betveen the capital and Cob&n. The planes, vhich
left Guatemala City in the morning and returned that afternoon, car
the route that had been used for decades, but betveen 1939 and 19^1
easy transit by trucks betveen the tvo tovns. The project had the
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would help lover the price of corn and other staples, vhich vere im
ported into the Verapaz through that port.1^ Ubico gave his approval,
and the Cobln-Salaml-El Rancho road opened for traffic about 1939 •
perhaps all the changes that the road would bring, but it meant the
farther away from Coban than Pane aj chi, it presented several advantages
faster and more efficient trains than the delapidated and unreliable
only to Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City, but to the Pacific ports
of San Josl and Champerico, vhich gave the coffee planters access to
freighters, and its extensive port facilities vere far better than
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much more quickly out of Barrios, because traffic there vas several
times heavier than at Livingston, and the vessels vere of much greater
lines.1 *8
to consider using the nev route, but many, it seems, preferred the
old vay to vhich they vere accustomed. During 1939 the railroad car
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the old markets on the continent, and the Hamburg-America Line and
3.62
other European firms vere forced to suspend service. Overnight
send their crops to Puerto Barrios for shipment on United States ves
proved irrevocable.
The nev traffic pattern out of the Alta Verapaz caused a num
Panzal, vhich had been used as varehouses and pasture lands, no longer
served any purpose and vere disposed of. The road from Tactic to
Pancajche, upon vhich so much effort had been expended for seven de
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quickly fell into disrepair. Yet in the long run, the situation
ment, for the new route was faster and more efficient than the old.
more than passive, the authorities of that country need not be in
one man in 1880 described the Coban-Panzos cart road, which was not
another stated that the Coban-Panz6s road had been "completely recon
ever" during 1916. ' Reports and editorials, which appeared in Coban
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One vas the attitude of the majority of Guatemalans tovards the de
until the latter part of the nineteenth century, persons from the
their ovn also made it easier for the government to ignore the region,
rather than vith Guatemala City, the national government may have
reasoned that the cost of extensive improvements vould have been un
Alta Verapaz, not the entire nation. In this light the construction
for it tied the Verapaz more closely to the capital and to the
Alta Verapaz betveen 1870 and the early 1930's (vith the notable ex
ception of the Coban-El Rancho road) vere made for the most part by
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transport, and thus the money he spent vas a necessary business in
vestment.
transportation system in the Alta Verapaz, the lavs and decrees that
Ferrocarril Verapaz and the nev roads not only speeded the transport
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economy.
For the finca Indians, who had done most of the work on the
patrones used them less frequently as carriers. Yet at the same time
the economic system, for they were needed in larger numbers to tend
life. Moreover, since footwear was all but unknown among them, it is
conceivable that they continued to use their own unsurfaced paths in
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CHAPTER VIII
others in the Alta Verapaz, did not lend itself to mechanization, all
stable, reliable source of hands throughout the year to tend the trees
and gather the crop and to perform many other subsidiary tasks as
well. During the harvest season the coffee planters also needed a
great many extra, temporary workers to help with the picking and
"mozos" in Guatemala.
Without them the system would have collapsed and the coffee pro
recognized this, for the men in power were either large landowners,
times before, laws that favored the landed interests and provided
them the legal means necessary to tie men to the soil or to secure
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r aon
from the economic fruits produced by their labor and from associa
tion vith their ladino preceptors. These ideas vere hardly unique to
that country. They were concepts whose roots were deeply embedded in
the colonial past; they vere concepts that had been propounded, and
during the independ. nee period. During the Barrios era the Liberals’
mands for the control of labor, and in response Barrios and his suc
the Indians. Local officials enforced and interpreted these lavs to
ward their best interests, for they too vere ladinos. The attitudes
of the oligarchy undervent scarcely any change over the decades, and
ally unaltered.
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land office and to secure legal title to it. Unfortunately for the
the country, and it vas firmly convinced that such a goal could be
best achieved by putting land into private hands. With this idea in
did not specifically mention the Indian classes, these people vere
ance for the fact that many of the lands legally classed as terrenos
baldfos vere in reality occupied by Indians vho had lived there for
generations. Although Indians had been bought and sold vith land in
the past, the lavfs omission, vhether intentional or not, opened the
vay for the vholesale purchase of Indian communal lands, vhich under
h
Leyes agrarias, pp. 86-90.
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desirable, because to the buyers the Indians vere part of the prop
erty ^ and the government lent them legal support in preventing the
vho surveyed Yaxcabnal and Cantoloc for Juan Prado, the denouncer,
reported that there vere Indians living at both places, and that they
0
assisted him in measuring the tractB. The government officials vho
surveyed Secac for the firm of Bird & Champney in 1885 stated that
they found more than forty families residing on the property.9 Soon
and the Indians subsequently came under the control of the recipient.
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also of dubious legality, because the size of the baldlo vas sixty-
one caballerl&s, more than twice the maximum amount the law alloved
for one grant. Final decision in the matter rested vith the Ministro
nouncer's son. he quashed the Indians' claim and granted the entire
at public auction. Here the Indians ran into competition from out
siders who were eager to buy the land, regardless of its quality, for
Finqueros vied aggressively with each other for such properties, and
the Indian group, the more likely it was to lose out at the auction.
Such vas the case vith the 123 Indian denouncers of Chiachal, the
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over a great many Indians in the hands of a fev persons. At the same
and forced them to become a part of the plantation system. Not all
the Indians accepted the change passively. Some fled from the Cob&n-
Carcha area and resettled far avay from the centers of population in
in 1889, ordered that each Indian family in the Alta Verapaz be given
15
title to a tventy-acre parcel of land. The lav had little effect,
but chiefly because it came too late. By 1889 fev inhabited baldios
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During the early 1870's landowners had renewed the old demands for
Laborers)
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The proposal had been a summation of all the practices in use and
all the lavs written on labor up until that time in Guatemala— 'the
colono system, the wage contract, the advance payment of labor, the
labor since the early seventeenth century. The Barrios law, despite
rary laborers employed on a daily basis). The colonos, under the law,
live and work on the finca for a period of not more than four years.
20
Shirley Lucas McAfee,WA Study of Agricultural Labor in
Guatemala, 1821-1871"(Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Tulane University,
New OrleanB, 1955), pp. 70-o0.
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requirements, but rather the lav stated that the patr6n and the
patr6n in getting the Indians to accept his terms and to make the
legal procedure as easy as possible. The lav also alloved the planter
they could repay vith personal service. There vas no limit to the
amount he could give them, but so long as they oved him money, the
lav prohibited them from leaving the finca, even if the vork contract
had expired.
time they vere to vork. Usually the patron gave the men an advance
to vork for him. The advance also provided the patron a legal tool
the debt vas paid off. They could not accept employment anyvhere
else in the country or receive an advance from any other person until
vritten statement from the patron that their account vith the finca
vas clear. The patron vho villfully refused to give a mozo such a
The 1877 Reglamento differed from the 1891* lav on one impor
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owners could request from the Jefe Politico the seasonal laborers
they needed. They were allowed as many as seventy mozos at one time,
and the men were obligated to work for as long as two weeks. Munici
up men for the labor gangs from among the Indiana who were not at
from the patron for each man provided. The money was meant to cover
their expenses, but it was also an incentive for them to fill their
quotas.
the Alta Verapaz the problem became more severe, as the terrenos
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the pronouncement vent into effect, Reina Barrios issued the Ley de
ovners in securing Indian laborers. The Ley not only deleted from
the old lav a number of the articles that had restricted the povers
regulation had stated that in cases vhere only one patr6n vas involved
2^E1 DemScrata. ASo 1, Nos. 38, b6, and 1*7, February 6, April
3 and 10, T5&7; ibid. . Ano 3, No. lib, January 27, 1889.
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ment vas not covered by the Penal Code and vas therefore merely a
civil offense. A man could be tried under the Penal Code only if he
had received advances from tvo or more patrones. The 189** lav omitted
altogether the distinction that put cases of a single debt within the
the customs of the region. The new lav extended to the patron the
ran avay from the finca oving money or service. It also empowered
him to seize all the property, money, food supplies, and animals be
longing to the mozos vho fled from the plantation or who, he suspected,
the patron.
incurred in such action vere to be added to the debt the men owed.
The officials vere to return the mozo to his patron, but if the man
refused to go back, or if the plantation owner did not want him back,
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from military service. Yet by the manner in which this was done,the
law further promoted the increase of mozo debts, and at the same time
cane. The men eligible for exemptions were colonos who received from
post of one peso on each certificate,33 and in 192b it raised the fee
q Ji
to ten pesos. The patron generally paid the sum for the men and
■so
The law also exempted Indians, previously obligated to
serve in mandamientos, who could read and write Spanish and had aban
doned their native dress, and those who paid taxes of fifteen or
more pesos a year on immovables they owned. Ibid., pp. 190-191.
3l*Ibid. . p. b26 .
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and hold the manual laborers they needed to operate their enterprises
the landless Indian peasants. Thus this class was integrally tied to
doubtedly varied from year to year, but most likely the fluctuation
was small. The total resident labor force, however, most certainly
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tween one thousand and eleven hundred mozos colonos under contract
nent Indian residents on his land. The same year the debts of all
While this sum might seem small by United States standards, in reality
were four standard articles. The first one established the number of
days the colono was to work; the second, the wages he would receive.
the colono with either fc-i or a food source. The fourth clause,
always invariable, stated that the colono was liable for any expenses
the agreement, and that for refusal to work he could be charged a fine
37
equal to the amount he would have earned.
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The other tvo weeks the colono vas free, except during the harvest
crop vas in. The work hours, which were set by Dieseldorff, were
paying him either by the day or the Job (tarea). as he saw fit. He
failed to complete their assigned tasks. For the extra days worked
the colonos from fincas that did not produce coffee, such as Secac
Under the 1877 law it had been mandatory to provide the colono
needed to feed his family for one year, but the 189*» lav omitted this
by dictate of custom. Since the price of corn and beans in the de
For this reason Dieseldorff allotted each colono a few acres of land
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mllpa), which he could till during the tvo weeks a month that he vas
free. The land vas usually on the finca where the mozo lived, but if
on that particular plantation land vas scarce or the soil was unsuit
not without reason, because he lent the colono the use of the land
the Indians cultivated corn by the slash and burn method, the yields
needed for sustenance. If the food supply ran out before the end of
the year, Dieseldorff had to bear the cost of feeding the Indians,
dorff and other landowners tried to have the contracts of all the
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the terms of the agreement to the colonos, and If they accepted, they
selected one person from the group to represent them in Cobfin and to
sign for them. The contract vaB a single document, and in it vere
listed the names of all the colonos it covered. In this manner Diesel-
one of his employees entered into negotiations with spokesmen for the
one sort or another. Because the Indians did not like the regimented
sons in their midst who urged them not to renew, but to leave the
infiltrators to try to entice the men away with offers of higher pay,
The colonos who owed money of course could not move from the
his assistants humored, cajoled, and flattered the Indians, and some
promises his employees made, however, the labor lav was on his side,
because If these did not appear in the contract the colonos could
make no claim against him. Yet, at the same time, he knew that if
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r 32fi
their birth, were bound to the plantation. At an early age the young
boys started to work around the beneficios and the drying terraces,
had become part of the regular labor force. He was then old enough
to enter into contract and incur debts, and inevitably he did both.
girl from the plantation, and soon the couple had started a family.
the finca. Few escaped the circle. Being landless and illiterate,
stayed, and as a result the resident work force was continually re
laborers he needed.
bO
Letter: Albert Ludvig for EPD, CCobfinl, to Gerardo Barahona,
Secac, June lb, 1902, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. b5b-b56, DC;
Letters: EPD, Cobfin, to the Jefe Politico, Cobfin, January 25, 1926,
and March 10, 1927, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No.
1, pp. bO, 222-223, DC.
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laborer. The Indian population of this area vas very small, and had
always been so, because corn vas almost impossible to grow there ow
ing to the vet climate and the condition of the soil. Plantation
meseros, men who worked for him by the month without regular weeks
off as the colonos had. The meseros lived on the finca, but since
they did not have the time to cultivate a railpa, they received ali
fee, and half a pound of salt. The mesero was also given annually a
Up
one-dollar credit for the purchase of clothing at the finca store.
less formal than the ones with colonos. Usually they vere oral, and
that Dieseldorff employed fell into tvo categories. The larger group
litaciones to Indians who did not live on the finca vas of useful
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the number of men he would have at his disposal during the harvest
season and determine how many more he would need. In addition to the
enganchados, there were the voluntarios who came to work on the finca
Although extra hands were always welcome, voluntarios vere not a reli
voluntarios, from among the small Indian landowners who lived in the
the Indian villages around his plantations to offer money to the in
habitants, but very frequently the people themselves came to the finca
ChiquixJ1 and Raxahi the plantation stores, which vere the only ones
chandise on the condition that they pay him with personal service.
Also in the same area the size of the Indian-owned lots vas so small
that a man vas hard put to it to feed his family with vhat he vas
u
Letter: CMax Kringsl, Carcha/Raxpec, to EPD, Coban, July
7, 1926, DS, Raxpec Box.
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able to grow on his land. For this reason Dieseldorff vas able to
Although the rates rose and fell with fluctuations in the value of
the peso, in absolute figures the value or buying power remained rela
pesos) per day on all new contracts.^ it is easy to imagine the fu
ror that this must have caused among landowners, because within a month
the order vas amended to exclude all mozos who vere colonos and those
mozos were free to make new contracts on terms and at salary rates
to six pesos, in 1923 to eight pesos, and in 1936 it set the rate in
^Ibarra, p. 2Ul,
^ I b i d . . p. 2k2.
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r 3251
the Alta Verapaz at Q 0.08, but none of these lavs clarified whether
hfl
all laborers vere covered or only the seasonal hands.
worker. Since the meseros received full rations, they were the low
est on the scale. In 1935* for example, Dieseldorff paid them Q 0.18
a week. The same year the daily salaries of other laborers vere
rations, Q 0.10 for those who did not, Q 0.10 for muleteers, Q 0.25
for carriers, and Q 0.13 for the caporales who headed the work
set by other planters, not only in the Alta Verapaz but elsewhere in
Guatemala. Yet whatever the wage vas, the Indian seldom received
portion from the amount to repay previous monetary advances and debts
the laborers he needed, and then provided him the legal means to con
trol them. The patron was obligated to maintain order on his proper
ties. To assist him in this respect the lav extended to him certain
ing these powers. In fact, the lav allowed the patron considerable
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local custom." Except for cases that involved fugitive debtor mozos
help.
they vere children." Then he added, "The patr6n must be decisive and
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r 327~1
plantations where there vere ten or more Indian families, the alcalde
five men submitted by the patron. If the plantation had a very large
property.^2
ert i e s,^ and he used them in many ways. In selecting a man for the
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511
control his fellow Indians and counanded their obedience. The
the finca. Often they vere also the general overseers of the labor
gangs, and in this capacity their duty was to make certain that all
hands appeared for work vhen they were supposed to come and to report
all who did not. When a man illegally ran away from the plantation,
the auxiliares vere to pursue him and bring him back. In addition
tion and to settle arguments among the Indians. If one of the mozos
committed a criminal act, the auxiliares vere to seize him and in
trolling the Indians on his land, and he believed they helped him
maintain his authority intact. The system enabled him to keep from
way he vas able to keep his distance and maintain an image of impar
fincas, however, but the law provided him and other landowners the
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with which problems of this nature would occur and allotted to them
the laborer's point of view, and the Indian's motives for running
ices , but in the usual sense he was not free at all. Perhaps he acted
infringed; perhaps it was for all these reasons and many more.
dorff and other finqueros vas with colonos and enganchados vho left
them, and force them to return to the finca. When his agents vere
officials and the Jefe Politico, who were required by law to co
or advances from another patron until they had settled accounts. The
landowners vere ordered not to hire any Indian vho did not have a
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The runaway Indians were often men who had incurred debts so
large that they would have to work for monthB or years to repay the
men had fled from El Salto, each of whom owed about 200 pesos
capturing five mozos from Coyoctl. One of the fugitives owed the
niggling, but for the colono who earned Q 0.05 a day the debt was an
unconscionable onus.
"set a bad precedent for the other mozos who will start to think that
58
they can leave the finca whenever they wish."5 Corporal punishment,
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r 33fl
ways to handle the problem. The law permitted him to confiscate all
pality or to the Jefe Politico, who put him to work on the public
roads for a few weeks.59 Since the Indians disliked road work, the
such as Chiquixjl, where discipline under the previous owner had been
lax, but the difficulty wps not limited to new properties. Diesel
dorff, with the assent of the Jefe Politico, ordered the alcaldes
them to go to work, but often the men had hidden themselves and were
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with him or to leave, he expelled them with the help of the local
different nature. The finca Secac, for instance, vas remote and ac
dent in spirit and had a long history of resisting vith force the in
lands. During the late 1890's, after Dieseldorff had acquired the
in the past, open defiance and seizure of the land for themselves.
Twice during this period it was necessary for Dieseldorff to seek the
^Letter:
EPD> CCob£n3, Rafael Mollinedo, Secac, August 25,
1898, Letterbook, "Varias Cartas," No. 1, p. 187, DC} Letters: EPD,
CobSn, to the Juez de Paz, C archS., September 13 and 16, 1926, Letter
book, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, pp. 1U 5-IU6 , DC.
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333
his control.
fused to obey orders and to castigate him by assigning him tasks that
got intoxicated along the way and lost a sack of mail, he suggested
that the instigators be Jailed and the others severely punished, ex
cept for one man who he believed was basically a good, docile Indian.
fidelity and respect of the Indians. The law imposed few obligations
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his plantations vere like serfs, for they vere totally dependent on
him. In their position and under the lav they vere open to cynical
that there vere limits to vhat he could demand of the Indians, and if
seized colonos from the fincas. Every Indian vas required by lav to
have on his person at all times tvo documents— a receipt for payment
provided these papers to his colonos, but occasionally the men forgot
to carry them.
Officials vho vere looking for laborers to fill the road vork
vho had the proper documents in his possession under the pretext that
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finca, led the mosoa to "refuse to aacept the tickete, saying that
refused the tickets, they would not have the proper documents on their
person, and this would give the officials a legal excuse to seise
or tvo men a week in exchange for an agreement that they desist from
68
bothering the people on his land.
66
Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the Jefe Politico y Comandante de
Armas, Guatemala, July 13, 1926, Letterbook, "Asuntoa ante laa
autoridades," No. 1, p. 110, DC; Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the Alcalde
1° Municipal, Santa Cruz V., February 7» 1930, Letterbook, "Asuntoa
ante las autoridades," No. 1, p. 931, DC; Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the
Jefe Politico, Cobfin, August 20, 1931, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las
autoridades," No. 2, p. 502, DC.
6T
Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the Jefe Politico, Cobfin, June 22,
1926, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, p. 99, DC.
68
Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the Alcalde lc Municipal, Carcha,
October 26, 1926, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1,
p. 157, DC; Letter: EPD, Cobfin, to the Jefe Politico, Cobfin, April
k, 1929, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, p. 726,
DC.
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or no money end required the man's presence for tvo veeks a month.
had issued on order that prohibited town governments from using com-
69
1rack colonos for municipal services, 7 local officials continued
this practice. One of the reasons for the Minister's ruling was that
colonos, vho vere already obligated to work for tvo weeks a month for
the patr 6n, would "suffer hardship" if forced to work in the town
for his protest, and also mentioned that if the colono did not tend
70
his milpa during his weeks off, he would run short of food supplies.
the matter. For example, from time to time the police arrested one
69 >
•^Letter: EPD, Coban, to the Ministro de Agriculture, Guate
mala, February 26, 1926, Letterbook, "Varios Asuntos," Mo. 6 , pp. 1*1-
1*3, DC; Letter: Salvador Herrera, Oficina de la Secretaria de
Estado en el Despacno de Agriculture, Guatemala, to EPD, Cobfin, March
12, 1926, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, p. 60,
DC.
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did not protest the fine or punishment if he believed the charge vas
71
valid and the sentence justified. Nevertheless, if the Indian was
kept in Jail after he had served his term, Dieseldorff insisted upon
cials, Dieseldorff had frequent disputes vith other finqueros vho ad
vanced money to Indians vho vere under contract to him. Although the
lav strictly prohibited anyone other than the man's patron to grant
planters vere villing to use any means to secure laborers, and the
Indians, vho perhaps vere not alvays entirely innocent, accepted the
If he vas convinced that the mozo had taken the money knoving that
this vas against the lav and thus had consciously attempted to defraud
him, he turned the man over to the tovn magistrates for punishment.
In some instances the person vho made the advance, taking advantage
of the ignorance of the Indian, had duped him into accepting the money
71
Letter: EPD, Coban, to the Juez de Paz, Coban, December
26, 1927, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, p.
361, DC.
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and making a work commitment. At other times, however, the man did
not check carefully to make certain that the mozo had no outstanding
Generally he did not pursue the matter any further, unless he thought
that the habilitaci6n had been a deliberate attempt to lure away con
tract mozos from his fincas. Then he demanded that government offi-
75
cials punish the advancer.
bedding poles vertically into the ground and tying them together to
form the walls. The tiny structures had thatched roofs and dirt
the poles with adobe in order to keep out the rain and cold. To im
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the site. For the purpose of work, it would have been more efficient
to have all the huts located together in a single compound, but there
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attention to the mozos on his fincas. When someone fell sick, he usu
ally treated the patient himself, or called one of the local medicine
men. If the illness was serious, he sent the person to the hospital
that they discovered, and to turn over to the police any persons found
Qp
making or selling liquor.
8llbarra, p. 3 M .
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health budget for the Alta Verapaz, which vas less than $ 700. in
84
1928, vas hardly adequate to cover the cost of immunizing the entire
population.
area north of Coban and Carcha, and many persons, such as Dieseldorff,
feared that the disease would spread and reach epidemic proportions.
could treat and quarantine the unvaccinated from the region who con-
86
tracted the infection. He assisted the local authorities in patrols
ling the roads and footpaths north of Coban to the finca Dolores,
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the Indian children on the fincas. Plantation owners who had ten or
free school at their own expense for children betveen the ages of six
and fourteen; however, the results of the law in raising the literacy
rate of the Indian peasants were nil. For many years the law was a
ment .
Guatemala made the education law difficult to put into effect. For
fee a year, and the profits from such a crop were small.
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r 343^1
throughout the Alta Verapaz. In 1905, for example, there vere thirty
At the same time, attendance at the schools that, vere established vas
extremely poor, because under the lav it vas not the responsibility
the matter vas left up to the Indian parents, vho vere not culturally
of it.92
garchy. They vere opposed to the education of the Indian out of the
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efforts to enforce the rural school lav, and it began to impose fines
pressly for use on finca schools. The plan reflected the interests
of the landed class, for although the children vere to be taught the
cultural vorkers. The course of study for the boys included such
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r 34in
the lessons to the classroom but to take the boys into the fields and
show them the proper techniques for using and repairing farm tools,
for planting food staples, and for the cultivation and maintenance of
coffee trees. The girls vere to learn domestic skills, such as sev-
96
ing, cooking, and keeping house,7
Chadcar, Secol, Raxaha, Rio Frio, and El Salto, a total of five. The
ChaJcar school served the children from that finca as veil aB those
from Santa Cecilia and Sechaib. The one at Raxaha vas for the
and Sachamach attended the public school in Cobin, and those from
plantations.^
96
7 Guatemala. Plan de estudios . . . escuelas rurales. pp. 7-
kk.
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The schools vere very small, and the teaching materials and
school supplies vere hut the barest essentials. In 1931, for example,
there vere sixteen boys enrolled at Chajcar, yet at the same time
there vere more than 150 children of school age at Chajcar and Santa
and four primers; at Raxaha, one blackboard, nine hand slates, eleven
hand slates, five primers, and one reader; at Rio Frio, one blackboard,
fifteen hand slates, and one arithmetic book; at El Salto, one black
board and tvelve hand slates.^9 The textbooks and readers vere
schools.
schools vere sin tltulo. that is, vithout a bachiller degree, and in
98
Letter: Friedrich Ferchland for EPD, Coban, to the Inspec
tor Tlcnico de Educacion Pdblica, Coban, June 1, 1931, Letterbook,
"Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 2, p. 378, DC; Agricultural and
statistical data on EPD's fincas (1931), Letterbook, "Asuntos ante
las autoridades," No. 2, pp. 553, 58U, DC.
99
Inventories of Chajcar, Santa Cecilia, Raxaha, Secol, Rio
Frfo, and El Salto (1930), DC.
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Chajcar only one pupil vas able to read, vrite, and speak Spanish;
the lav and the lav itBelf delimited the amount, quality, and type
status quo and to assure the plantation gentry of having the manual
tion, and one that invited deceit, abuse, corruption, and exploita
benefited from the fruits of the labor of the Indians, vho vere an
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they performed their assigned tasks and followed orders, he left them
dorff had almost unlimited powers over the Indians on his land. He
exercised his powers with firmness and consistency, but tempered with
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CHAPTER IX
fice and on the fincas about a dozen staff employees,1 but as he ac
of the staff. At the time of his retirement he had nearly forty per-
p
sons working for him. This number included an office manager, an
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r 35FI
work for him, but like the other Germans in the Alta Verapaz, he pre
ferred to employ his countrymen. This vas not because he vas preju
vas based on fact. The ladinos vhom he could hire generally lacked
larly on those positions in the central office that carried the most
from Europe and the United States for the store in Cob&n. Thus, to
German vas of greater value to members of the office staff than vas
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kept a separate account for each employee, each finca, and each phase
ing, determining profit margins and retail prices, and keeping in
ventory. The mechanical engineer, vho worked out of the central of
keep the machinery on all the plantations and the motor vehicles in
building and repair work on the fincas and vith overseeing construc
tion of water basins, fermenting vats, and drying terraces around the
beneficios.
tage, for the German immigrants had had the opportunity to attend
ladinos from the Btart. Scarcely any had the training that the of-
k
fice jobs required, and there vas little chance of their getting it.
h
The present-day Dieseldorff firm is still hard-pressed to
find sufficient, adequately trained office personnel in the depart
ment although educational facilities have improved since Ervin
Dieseldorff's time.
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about coffee, they vere able to adapt the principles of modern arbori
culture, vhich they had been taught, to the cultivation of that crop,
but they still had to learn from the beginning the correct method of
desirable, vas not absolutely necessary, for he did not misprize the
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other falls into three periods.*’ Prior to 1905 he had a few Germans
working for him in the office, but the majority of his employees were
ladinos. From 1905 to about 1920, Germans were by far the larger
group, but after the latter date the Guatemalans once more became pre
number of these men had settled in the Alta Verapaz several years
prior to their coming to work for him, but the majority came from
expenses for these men and offered them other inducements to secure
to Guatemala was relatively high, and during the early part of his
the first few years he employed only four or five Germans for those
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plantation managers.
this baBis. The annual figure fluctuated from one in 1906 and three
ministrators vith Germans and increased the size of the staff as veil.
him, and Germans served as managers of all the major plantations, ex
In 1919 and 1920 most of the Germans vho had vorked for
Dieseldorff during the var left his employ. Some resigned volun
their conduct during the years that he vas absent from Guatemala and
a severe financial bind and could not afford to bring contract vorkers
from Germany to fill all the vacated posts. In 1920 he brought over
in vhich they vere absolutely essential and Guatemalans for all others.
Aside from the economic reasons, this vas no doubt a deliberate move
on his part. He had learned a lesson from the World War I interven
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promulgated in 1923 and 1927 decreed that, excluding all manual labor
was begun by the first German settlers in the department, the Sarg
later, so that the German population of the area grew steadily. Many
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I
tract basis for economic reasons: the salaries they commanded vere
Most of the Germans vho had been in the CobSn area for a number of
wages, because they vere much more experienced than the newcomers.
Adrian Rosch, for example , vho had settled in the Alta Verapaz in the
Q
1890's and had worked on fincas as veil as in plantation offices,
son, in 1923 two other second-year office employees, Max Quirin and
Rudolf Hesse, vho had come from Germany as contract vorkers, vere re
by other German planters and merchants from the Alta Verapaz. Diesel
O
Deutschtum in der Alta Verapaz. Table I, p. 80.
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11
stead. He sought young men, unmarried and prefershly between the
ized skills.
North Germany, however. The majority had migrated there from all
laxed situation such as over lunch. After he had narrowed down the
choices to those he believed were best fitted for the job, he entered
into negotiations with each man over the terms of the contract. In
his demands. When both parties were finally in accord, they signed a
12
formal agreement.
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r 3ia
set period of time. No matter how carefully he had studied the new
the other hand, should he decide to dismiss the man, he vould have to
compensate him for the remainder of the contractual period. For this
but all contained several common clauses.^ The agreement vas for
three years and vas to commence on the day the man reached Coban.
During the period it vas in effect, the employee was to work only for
from anyone else in the department. The document set the salary the
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If the man quit work without a good reason before the contract had
inconvenience that his leaving caused. The amount of this fine was to
arise, and his decision in the matter was final. Last of all, the
year, and after this time the man, if he chose to continue working
mitment .
travel expenses, but this did not mean that the man vas receiving
free passage. Some, such as Johann Pape, Arend Buss, and Walter Moll,
were to repay the sum, one third at a time during the three years they
Dieseldorff twice the balance owed for travel money if he quit work
before the end of the contractual period. Others, such as Ernst Hesse
and Karl Dammann, vere not obligated to reimburse Dieseldorff for any
passage, received a travel allowance of 375 MarkB, one half the dif
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r 360l
lli
Dieseldorff had not met, on the other hand was assured free passage
order to protect his interests. Arend Buss, who vas to have charge
himself in the same type of business in either the Alta or the Baja
Verapaz for a period of two years after the expiration of his con-
quired to pay Dieseldorff one -half of the salary he had received dur
ing the previous three years. The renewal contract that he made in
15
1933 contained the same two-year proscription. Karl Dammann, vho
ness of his own in either of the Verapaces for one year after leaving
Dieseldorff's employ, as was Walter Moll, who was hired to manage the
Coban store and to handle the import and sale of merchandise. Neither
of the contracts signed by these two men, however, set any penalty for
they vere lesB of a threat to Dieseldorff than was the coffee buyer
Bu88 .
to work immediately. The first few months vere spent in training him
lUDieseldorff
contracted Walter Moll through the letter's
brother Rudolf Moll, vho worked for Dieseldorff.
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for hla Job, and during this time he vorked closely under Diesel-
‘ observing the office routine and becoming familiar with the duties of
of the different activities that went on and comprehend his own func
tion within the whole. After the end of the indoctrination period
the newcomer began to learn his own particular Job. A new engineer
spent his first few weeks familiarizing himself with the operation
fincas.
ferent from that for the office workers. The new man spent the ini
with older employees in the coffee groves and the alm&cigo stands in
man to one of the fincas to apprentice under one of his seasoned ad
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The salary a German employee received depended upon his ex
perience and training, and upon the position he held and the number
of years he had been vith the firm. As a general rule, the men on
the plantations earned less than those vho vorked in the central of
one of the fincas betveen 700 and 800 Marks the first year, and the
amount increased only slightly for the next tvo years. The fourth,
him.
ries Dieseldorff paid his plantation managers the first four years.
(1907/1908), 800 Marks, 800 Marks, and 1,200 Marks the first six
800 Marks (1908/1909), 1,000 Marks, 1,000 Marks, and 2,000 Marks .19
After the fourth year the vage rate leveled off. For instance,
Sauter in 191**, after nearly nine years' service, vas earning an an-
PO
nual salary of 2,000 Marks. During the 1920's and 1930's the vages
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Dieseldorff paid his administrators were $ 360* the first year, $ 1*80.
to work in 1901 for 3,000 Marks a year. By 1911* his annual salary was
earned $ 2,160. a year.2 ^ The store manager was nextin line, and
such men as Hermann BQttgen and Otto Zoller, vho heldthe position
pli
before the war, earned 3,000 Marks a year; during the 1920's the
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to 1911* the starting wage for these positions vas usually 1,200
Marks .28 Following the war it ranged from about $ 600. to $ 900 .29
Some, for example Friedrich Ferchland, vho Joined the staff in 1925,
made even less. Dieseldorff by contract set his salary at $ 360. for
the first year, $ 1*80. for the second, and $ 600. for the third .30
the end of the first year.3'1' Similarly, Rudolf Hesse, who started to
work in 1922 for $ 900., was raised the second year first to $ 1 ,200.
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mance during the preceding twelve months, and it varied for the indi
it was 100 %.3^ Johann Pape, for example, in 192b received a $ 50.
QC
aguinaldo, or 83 %, but two years later the bonus was $ 20 ., 25 %.
provided their food and lodging, their personal expenses were minimal,
especially for those men who lived on the fincas where there was lit
get by for an entire year on one or two months' wages, and under the
the money. For this reason Dieseldorff permitted the men to leave
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their salaries on deposit vith him, and he paid them 6 % annual inter-
37
est on the sum.
dorff was able in this way to keep up his cash reserves and maintain
have been able to do. By the same token, his employees were assured
amount. Furthermore, they knew that when they left the firm, they
would receive a tidy sum that would help them to establish a business
the office employees were fortunate, because for them the transition
for the German staff members at Santa Margarita, and the newcomers
from the beginning had the company of their more seasoned countrymen.
The entire staff ate vith the family in the Dieseldorff dining room,
and the meals, which included as many familiar German dishes as un
37
For example, in June, 1913, Dieseldorff credited 221.91
Marks interest to Halter Bockhorn's account, 21*6.57 Marks to Georg
Jahnig's, and 3**3.23 Marks to Josef Sauter’s, each sum being the
amount due for the fiscal year July, 1912, to June, 1913. Ibid..
1911-1916, pp. 112-113, 13U-135, 235, 2M», DC.
qQ
Interview with dona Matilde Dieseldorff de Quirin.
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German population, whose social life revolved around the German Club
the German colony gathered at the Club daily for drinks, a game of
sation. The new men were quickly made to feel at home, and were able
to meet other Germans, male and female, their own age. Thus the
situation in Cob&n made the country seem less alien and strange, and
the Germans who were sent to work on the fincas faced an adrupt change
from their old way of life. The plantations were distant and almost
who resided on the property. The existence was desolate and often
there were few diversions, and even less time to enjoy them.
The men quickly found that life on the plantations was ardu
ous. The manager, despite his position, had to keep the same hours
as the mozos, and he labored with them from dawn to dusk. Even at
overseer he was not only in charge of the Indian mozos, but he had to
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r 363
ties were great, and at the same time he personally had to answer to
tor made the problem of adjustment even harder. The dwellings con
sisted of two or three small rooms, and since the buildings were con
structed of stone and mortar, they were cold and damp. The furnish
ings were the barest essentials— a narrow bed or cot, a table, and a
few chairs. At night kerosene lamps or candles were the only available
lighting.
to eating, as the Indians did, the staples that were plentiful in the
food was prepared by an Indian cook over an open fire, and the meals
the stay in Cob&n, Dieseldorff impressed this fact upon the man and
and a diet ion say. Once on the finca the nan had little opportunity
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and those who spent most of their time on one of the plantations
39
sion to use or hear.
The few who were married did not take their wives with them to the
where life was easier. Since the men lived alone, it was not uncommon
for them to take an Indian mistress from among the women on the plan
tion. The relationships were often of long duration, and some of the
Regardless of what the men did, there was little censure from the
ladinos or the Indians, for in the Verapaz illegitimacy does not carry
kO
the social stigma that it does in some other parts of the world.
parentage.
39
Interview with don Manuel Burmester.
1*0
Melvin M. Tumin, Caste in a Peasant Society. A Case Study
of the Dynamics of Caste (Princeton. 1952), pp. 32-33, 158-159.
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about one third failed, for one reason or another, to complete their
term of obligation. Some of the men simply could not become accli
from the agreement in order that they might return to their homeland.
Among this group was Josef Gutman, who lasted but three months at the
1*1
pestiferous San Diego-Yalpemech. When this occurred, Dieseldorff
and really could not endure the situation, he did not impose a fine,
but asked only that the man return the passage fare. Other employees,
person, Friedrich Klemm, who was at Chajcar, died while working for
1*1*
Dieseldorff.
ever, not only remained with him for the required three-year period,
but approximately one half worked for him for more than five years.
1*1
Ledger, "Libro Mayor," 1916-1922, p. 25**, DC.
1*2
Ibid.. 1911-1916, pp. 268-269, DC; ibid.. 1916-1922, pp. 77-
78 , 85 , 26ST"387-388, 1*92-1*93, DC; ibid.. 1922-1925, pp. 97-99, 200,
DC.
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k5 li6
than ten yearB. They vere Walter Bockhorn, Christian Kress, Max
ployees stayed in their Jobs for many years, the turnover in person
nel was slow. There were seldom more than two or three resignations
a year (except during the 1919/1920 period), and the number of new
staff members was about the same. Also important was the fact that
the group that worked for five or more years included staff employees,
business, for the experienced men, upon whom he could depend, out
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length of their tenure, eventually left the firm. What they did
Hermann Buttgen, who was Dieseldorff 'b store manager, had come to
they either found employment with someone else or went into business
for themselves. Otto Prinz, after working for several years in the
^Ssi Norte (Coban, AV, Guatemala), Ano XXX, No. IU96 , July
1, 1939.
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37
near San Pedro Carcha. In time he sold out to Max Krings, and
59
moved to Guatemala City where he purchased a small hotel. Krings
a few years later found himself in financial straits and had to sell
as a plantation overseer.
61
the 1930's these men were among the prominent finqueros in the de-
62
partment. Heinrich MSschler achieved success in several areas. He
owner of the Dieseldorff & Cia. store, Moschler and his brother Oskar
rfl
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of the marriages occurred while the men were still working for
earning enough money to support a wife. Others did not wed until
worked for him— Matilde, Max Quirin, and Gertrude, Hans Quinckhardt.
into the ladino families of the department. .Among these men were
65Ibid., Ano XXVIII, Nos. 1387 and 1389, June 19, and July 3,
1937; ibid., A2o XXX, No. lU83, March 25, 1939.
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German girls reinforced and renewed the ties with their native country,
and the men who had German-born wives tended to remain unintegrated
and apart.
especially true if the man was not wealthy and could not make frequent
trips back to Germany. In such cases the ties with Europe gradually
loosened, and roots were set down in Guatemala. The children of the
Germans still live in the Alta Verapaz, but now the second and third
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vorked in the central office, and even more important that the Guate
at any time.
but after that date they were supplanted one-by-one by Germans. This
post, and some remained for many years. In 1928, for example, he re
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that had Quatemalan overseers vara Secoc-Ulpin, Hlo Frio, and Paiji,
vhlch vara used for breeding draft animals or forage, and Cantoloc
the mosos.
kept German administrators at the other two fincas, liio reasons were
bility. The man in this Job handled or drafted most of the Spanish-
70
Letter: EPD, Coban, to the Director Nacional del Trabajo,
Guatemala, February 21, 1929, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las
autoridades," No. 1, pp. 690-692, DC.
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not have a lav degree, he had legal experience, and helped Dieseldorff
men occupied the post. From the 1890's to about 1913 the assistant
was Manuel R. P£rez; from 1913 to the late 1920's, Javier N. Ju&rez;
and from the 1930's down to the present time, Arturo Morales de la
that required skilled labor. Generally he had one or two men with
staff, worked more or less regularly for him. They were charged with
71
fincas.
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working for him .'11 Those whom he hired as coffee buying agents were
were about on par with those of the Germans, sometimes a little more,
between these amounts and those the Germans received, because the
value of the peso was undergoing rapid fluctuations at the time. The
however.
from time to time, all the men who held a particular post made about
the first year, $ 660. the second, and $ 720. the third and the
74
fourth. Ismael Delgado, whom Dieseldorff employed for the same job
in 192b, was paid $ 300. the first year and $ 420. the second. His
starting salary the third year was $ 600., but Dieseldorff raised it
75
to $ 720. after six months, and then to $ 840. five months later.
Marks, which was the same amount that Dieseldorff paid most first-
year German clerks. More than ten years later Juarez's yearly wage
76
was $ 960., but at the same time the office managers, first Adrian
77
Rosch and later Rudolf Hesse, were making about $ 2,000. The salary
Juarez received was equal to that which Max Quirin earned his second
78
year as an office clerk,' and slightly more than some of the other
79
German office workers were paid .1 The Guatemalan clerical assistants
7 I1
' ibid.. 1916-1922, pp. 208-210, 215-217, 227, DC.
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made less than Juarez did. The skilled workmen engaged by contract
provided free housing and food, but since most of the Guatemalan over
seers were married and had families, often large, living with them,
he made them pay household and kitchen expenses out of their own pock-
AO
ets. The men in the office, on the other hand, because they lived
in Coban, received neither housing nor food. Unlike the Germans, the
native residents of the area, they had families and relatives to sup
port and needed cash in order to live. They could not afford to
the change was not as drastic as it appeared to be. The laws strictly
and write Spanish and that were receiving a regular salary. Manual
on
Letter: EPD, Coban, to Caralampio LSpez, Secac, April 17
and 23, 1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 31-32, DC,
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even if they were literate and were being paid a regular wage, and
lems. Because they came at a time when he had more Guatemalans than
Germans working for him, he was spared having to make radical changes
in his staff. His main difficulty was with the local officials who
enforced the laws and who, according to him, were bent on harassing
ing for him. Dieseldorff was in Europe at the time and Max Quirin
were Guatemalans, and seven were Germans, but one of the Germans,
The committee not only insisted that Kielhorn be counted, but it sum
marily deleted six of the Guatemalans on the grounds that they were
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increased to 25.9 %. The Jefe Politico informed Quirin that the firm
the fight. To him it was not the money, but what the fine represented.
because if he did not, the unrefuted charge might easily cause him
more serious problems in the future. He argued his case before the
82
Letters: Max Quirin for EPD, Coban, to the Jefe Politico,
Coban, August U and 17, 1928, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las
autoridades," Ho. 1, pp. 511, 52U-527, DC.
QO
Letter: Max Quirin for EPD, Coban, to the Jefe Politico,
Coban, CAugust 20, 19283, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades,"
No. 1, p. 529, DC.
8kQuirin
in his letters to various officials charged that the
committee's investigation had been superficial, and that its report
to the Jefe Politico was based on prejudice, not on fact. To sub
stantiate these accusations he cited a number of blatant misstate
ments and omissions in the report. He added that the inclusion of
Kielhorn was patently illegal, and that his name had been added to
the list for the sole purpose of raising the percentage of foreigners
above the legal limit. Letter: Max Quirin for EPD, Cob&n, to the
Ministerio de Fomento, Guatemala, August 20, 1928, Letterbook,
"Asuntos ante las autoridades," Ho. 1, pp. 530-532, DC. There is
other correspondence on this matter in the same letterbook, pp. 5^ 8 ,
553, 555, 557- 558, 561- 562, 566.
Qr
^Dieseldorff pointed out to each of the officials why none
of the German employees on the original list, except one, could be
replaced by a Guatemalan. The one who could had fortuitously
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r 3841
was a stern and demanding employer, but the long tenure of many of the
relationship with them so long as they followed orders and did not
similar situation as the Indian laborers, except that they were paid
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CHAPTER X
planter, hut coffee was not his sole concern. He was a man of many
his activities, first into other forms of agriculture, and later into
not all produce the profits he had hoped for, they are important
Most commonly he had to cope with the periodic rise and fall of the
business, but in some instances the only thing for him to do was to
385
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the Polochic River. The upper boundary ran along the river from La
the mountain areas were extremely remote, the level section in the
land was suitable for the cultivation of coffee, sugar cane, cotton,
exploit were pestiferous and malarial fevers were endemic. The re
gion was sparsely populated, and the few inhabitants found there were
scarcely able to work, for they were weak and sickly from chronic
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Labor was a constant problem since workmen were all but Impossible
ground. The site was located more than one hour's walk from the
work area, but it was the only place he could find that was relatively
wanted to cultivate one or two quick cash crops, which would yield
immediate revenues. Since sugar cane grew wild in the area, the
that he was losing money, because the cost of shipping the sugar to
Cob£n was greater than the price it brought, and in Livingston and
p
Letter: EPD, [Cob6n], to J. Francisco Paredes, Las Amazonas,
October 31, 1901, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 21U-215, DC;
Letters: EPD, Coban, to Antonio Cordero, Las Amazonas, February 20,
and March 7, 1902, Letterbook, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 311-311*, 326-327,
DC.
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production costs were too high for him to realize a profit. In later
considered planting coffee and cacao, but rejected the Idea, because
there were not enough laborers on the plantation to carry out the
project.^
out the Jungles of Las Amazonas, few were worth tapping. Most were
of the gutta-percha variety, and there was little market demand for
the inferior grade of rubber obtained from the sap of these trees,
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r 3891
0
matured, he tapped the wild trees selectively and on a limited scale.
the next.10 From 1907 to 1911 he shipped about three and a half tons
or August Sanders & Co.11 Thus the amount of rubber that Dieseldorff
had to market never reached the figure he had hoped for in the be
ginning .
in the Far East was causing a drastic fall in the world market price.
Q
Letter: EPD, (Coban], to J. Francisco Paredes, Las Amazonas,
August 23, 1901, Letterbook, ’’Fincas," No. 1, pp. 163-167, DC; Letter:
EPD, Cobfin, to Antonio Cordero, Las Amazonas, February 20, 1902, Letter
book, "Fincas," No. 1, pp. 311-31^, DC.
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r 390l
saw was there, but he lacked the experience, knowledge, and financial
vation of rubber, and neither did anyone else in the Alta Verapaz. The
highlands who could not, he might have been able to achieve more than
before he had sold the place, he had already started in 1903 investing
more than 38,500 acres in this region. Although this was a great deal
of land, his total investment was relatively small, because the cost
lL
in Guatemalan currency averaged about fifty centavos an acre.
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r 39H
on horseback, and the Journey took four or five days of hard riding
during the dry season. The region had virgin stands of mahogany and
other hardvoods, but it was situated too far upstream to float the
many chicle trees, and the fertile soil was suitablo for the establish
a profit existed. The first two decades of the century were the heyday
of firms, such as the American and Guatemalan Mahogany Co., had re
region, and they had many hundreds of men working there. The labor
included clothing, nails and tacks, spices, dried fruit, tobacco, and
liquorall items that were much in demand but that were light, com
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also built small boats to ply the waters of the Cancuen and La Pasl 6n
temporary hands as well. They cleared the land and started culti-
17
vatlons of corn and black beans, which Dieseldorff sold at the store
yield was about 1+00,000 pounds of corn and 1+0,000 pounds of beans. The
American and Guatemalan Mahogany Co. by contract bought the corn, un-
20
husked, at $ 2.00 per hundred pounds and the beans at $ 8.00. During
the latter part of 1920, after Dieseldorff had Just recovered his
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received from the sale of food and supplies helped to save Dieseldorff
from financial disaster until the 1920/1921 coffee crop was harvested
and sold.2^-
gangs, the demand for food and supplies dropped sharply. Most of the
Indians returned to the highlands, and by the end of the decade corn
production was down to less than 1*0,000 pounds, one tenth the amount
22
it had been before. In an effort to revive the area economically
held on to the property, as have his heirs, in the hope that someday
2^E1 Norte (CobUn, AV, Guatemala), Afio XIV, No. 698, December
6, 1921*; Letters and enclosures: EPD, Coban, to the Jefe Politico,
Cob£n, June 7, and July 23, 1929, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autori
dades," No. 1, pp. 769, 790-791, DC.
Ok
Letters: EPD, Coban, to the Director General de Agricultura,
Guatemala, March 31, and April 5, 1932, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las
autoridades," No. 2, pp. 783, 785 , DC.
25
Letter: EPD, Cob£n, to the Administrador de Rentas, Coban,
February 26, 1931, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 2,
pp. l6l-l62, DC.
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turbine, but for six or seven, months out of the year, between harvests,
the engine was idle. Dieseldorff conceived of a plan that would en
able him to utilize the available water power all year around and at
the same time to create an outlet for cotton grown at Las Amazonas.
heavy tariff. Those that were not were hand-woven by the Indians.
dyes from Europe, but soon he discovered that the amount of cotton
grown at Las Amazonas was not sufficient to produce all the thread he
After the sale of the property, he imported all the materials he used
for weaving.
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r m
The first few years the little factory was moderately prof
itable, but after the sale of Las Amazonas, it began to lose money.
Between 1911 and 1913, the business lost about $ 2,000. each year.
Then the war so raised the cost of thread and dyes that from 19ll* to
28
1916 annual losses increased to $ 1*,000. or $ 5*000. In 1918,
. 29
however, the plant showed a profit of $ 900.
31
this up for sale in order to recoup some of his losses. He became
on a much larger scale than he had before. He did not want to invest
any more money into the project, and therefore he never reopened the
mill .32
About the same time that Dieseldorff started the textile mill,
he opened a small shop at Santa Margarita where he sold the cloth that
side bought goods wholesale, but the retail customers were mainly
9ft
Ledger, "Libro Mayor," 1905-1911* P- 1*57» DC; ibid., 1911-1916*
pp. 61, 209-211, 258, 282, DC.
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store, they were potential "buyers for other articles he might carry.
With this in mind, about 1908 he began to expand his stock to cater
33
to the Indian trade. From Great Britain, Germany, and the United
knives, tin cups, straw hats, cigars, hand mirrors, cheap jewelry,
and other trinkets. He also sold salt that his ox-carts transported
pered, Dieseldorff saw that the Santa Margarita shop was out of the
way and the quarters were too cramped. He believed that he could
where ladinos and Indians alike shopped. At the new store he began to
clothing.
33
Information for the history of the Dieseldorff store came from
the following sources: Interviews with dona Matilde Dieseldorff de
Quirin and don Arturo Morales de la Cruz; Dieseldorff Collection, Letter
book series "Tienda," four volumes (1908-1923), which contain purchase
orders, correspondence, and related items; and, also in the Dieseldorff
Collection, ledgers containing records of daily sales and transactions.
Op
El Norte, Ago VIII, Nos. 3^5> 353, and 369, June 9> August
11, and December 8, 1917*
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September, 192k, Dieseldorff moved to a much larger building, which
35
was around the corner, just off the central square, next to the church.
36
Dieseldorff had purchased the property in 1920 for about $ 65.00.
The place had originally been a convent, and for this reason Willi
many articles that had hitherto been unavailable in any of the other
shops in the Alta Verapaz. One of the specialties was hardware, and
cement, wire, pipes, screws, and nails. Dieseldorff was also the Cob£n
37
agent for International-Harvester Co. The store had a wide assort
was never stocked— liquor. Merchandise for the most part was imported
from the United States. Some came from Great Britain, but only a few
items were German-made. By the time Willi took over the business,
37E1 Norte, Afio XIX, No. 937, May 26, 1928; ibid., Afio XXV,
Nos. 1269 and 1272, January 12, and February 2, 1935•
38Ibid., Afio XXVII, Nos. 136k and 1367, January 1 and 23, 1937;
ibid., Afio XXVIII, No. 1386, June 12, 1937.
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the store was not only the largest, but the only one of its kind in
Coban. It still holds the same position today. Its nearest competitor,
While Dieseldorff was emphasizing less and less the stock for
Indians at the Cob&n store, he was at the same time making efforts
outside of San Pedro C a r cha,^ and he probably also had little stores
The stores made money, but the type of stock he carried and
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loss, for his purposes they had other more important functions than
to the Indians for coffee, or (up until 1934 when the government
x44
abolished debt peonage) for personal service.
because at the time his brother Arthur was studying geology and miner-
46
alogy at the University of Freiburg, one of the most famous mining
Helmrich. Arthur was to remain in Germany and analyze the soil and
mineral samples sent to him. The other three were to undertake the
actual exploration and excavation. They were, however, not only in
experienced beginners who knew almost nothing about this type of work,
but they were not certain what they were looking for, or what they
1*1*
Leyes de Gua&gmala, Vol. LIII, pp. 69-70; Memoria . . . Agri-
cultura (1937)» PP* 17» 40.
in Cobin, and at Bernal and Saquilhi in the southern part of the de
they found a low-grade lignite, but the coal was too wet to burn.
facture bricks and tiles, but the material after firing was too dry
abandoned, because water flooded the shaft. Results at the other two
the men found, quickly played out, and that which they did mine had
such a low mineral content that commercial processing was out of the
1+7
question. After a few months the men abandoned the work.
1903 he denounced the mineral rights at Secac for the purpose of ex-
1+8
tracting lead ore. Since the terrain of the area was extremely
rugged and the finca was very difficult to reach, it was impossible to
1+7
Letters: EPD, [Coban], to Arthur [Dieseldorff], [Freiburg],
June 16 and 23, July 7, 12, and 15, 1898, Letterbook, "Varias Cartas,”
No. 1, pp. 2-5, 19-20, 53, 66-69, 92, DC; Letter: EPD, [Cobin], to
Juan de Le 6n, Purulha, July 6 , 1898, Letterbook, ”Varias Cartas,” No. 1,
pp. 1+3—1+1+9 DC.
J .Q
Petition presented by EPD to the Jefe Politico of the Alta
Verapaz (November 9, 1903), DS, Santa Cecilia-Secac Box.
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1*0
Periodically, he sent samples to Germany for analysis, hut the
bringing with him more than 3,000 pounds of equipment for his experi-
52
ments. He took soil samples from Dieseldorff's properties, and
liQ
Bill of lading for shipment of soil samples, Letterbook,
"Perrocarril Verapaz,” No. 3, p. 355> DC.
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the age of fifty-seven, he had lost the youthful enthusiasm for the
untried that had marked his personality before World War I. There
that had been profitable in the past. At the same time he renewed
enough of the staple to meet the demand. No doubt one reason for this
was that the fertile, arable lands in the mountains were of much more
value planted to coffee. Another was the consistently low yield per
who practiced the slash and burn method and used only rude hand tools.
abroad.
not always sufficient to fill the need, especially in years when crops
were bad. If the mozos ran put of food supplies, Dieseldorff was
to his staff employees, the total amount of maize the business needed
was large. Some of the supply came from flnca landB that were culti
vated for this purpose, but each year Dieseldorff had to buy large
a month, which cost him, when purchased from local commerciaj. pro
Q 5-00.58
^Letter: Max Quirin for EPD, Cob£n, to Manuel Castro P., San
Juan Chamelco, February 11, 1926, Letterbook, "Varios Asuntos,” No. 8,
p. 7, DC.
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Cubilgiiitzi situated one day's Journey from Cobfin, was the logical
place to do this. The plantation had fertile Boil and large areas
of level land, and the hot climate produced two crops a year, in May
then Dieseldorff had used ox-drawn plows to till the soil, but that
Including two sowing machines, two drill plows, one disc plow, and
there were more than 100 acres planted to corn, which yielded 70,000
pounds, nearly 800 pounds per acre. These figures did not include
Dieseldorff was able to grow a much larger percentage of the corn con
continues to be, down to the present time, the main supplier of maize
with hand plows, however, because the broken terrain of the area and
the small size of the individual fields, then as today, made the use
were 270 acres planted to corn at Chajcar, 216 at Santa Cecilia, 162
at RaxahaC', and 151 at Secol, and total production was l»70,000 pounds
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r 463
on the fincas where it was consumed was another savings for Dieseldorff,
the outcome of each venture, there was also one common determinant to
ness. The enlarging of the finca shops also achieved this purpose.
The Cobin store, like the coffee business, started as a modest opera
then by gauging the market demand for import articles and by utilizing
pand the store until it was the largest in the Alta Verapaz.
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r 407 !
only as long as there was a demand for supplies and food provisions.
of money was required, first for the initial investment, and then
a great degree, the same held true for the textile mill and the
mining ventures.
any one of these projects would have been too costly for a single
within the same decade, so that his financial resources were thinly
in any new undertaking. When a project was faring badly and losses
were more than what he thought he could safely afford, he pulled out.
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r 4081
He was dealing in futures, for each year he made sale agreements and
of the size of the crop and on the anticipated market price of coffee.
Some years the crop was not large enough for him to meet his obli
favor. The market demand for de luxe coffees like his was consis
tently great, and at the same time these expensive grades were always
situation caused by the First World War and its aftermath was altogether
different, and it very nearly ruined him. The crisis came at the
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differentiated his early activities from the later ones. Some of the
continue his experiments with the medicinal plant mesbe. His leaving
almost every year between harvests. This time, however, he did not
return in the fall as he had in the past. During his stay he had
drug. His involvement in the project kept him there throughout 1933
and into 191^, and when war broke out he was still in Berlin. Possibly
in the early days of the war he could have managed to escape back to
Guatemala alone, but he refused to abandon his wife and children (his
son Willi was then less than one year old). Certainly at this time
since 1901> was manging the business during his absence. The war put
and from then on all decisions he made were his own. There was no
service to ports on the North Sea, Mittelstadt had to find new outlets
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r 413
1915 and 1916 he sold about one third of the crop through Hard &
through New Orleans on vessels of the United Fruit Company and the
Morgan Lines . ^
term credit sources in Germany and Great Britain, upon which the
business had always relied before, were cut off just as the harvest
was about to begin. This was the season when the house most needed
cash for its operations. At the same time, funds deposited in German
reduced.
66
Bills of lading for coffee shipments, Letterbook, "Ferrocarril
Verapaz," No. 4, pp. 325-398, DC.
67
Letter:[Paul 0. MittelstSdt, Cob£n], to the Hamburg-America
Line, New York, November 28, 1914, Letterbook, "Varias Cartas," No. 23,
p. 804, DC.
68
Bills of lading for coffee shipments, Letterbook, "Ferro
carril Verapaz," No. 6 , pp. 3-100 (1915/1918 harvest), 113-186 (1916/
1917 harvest), DC; Letters: Paul 0. Mittelstadt, Coban, to the Ferro
carril Verapaz office, Livingston, April 8 and 20, 1917» Letterbook,
"Ferrocarril Verapaz," No. 6 , pp. 136, l40-l4l, DC.
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who had left their salaries on deposit demanded their money in order
the situation was critical, for if the men withdrew their savings,
allowed the money to remain, after the end of the war Dieseldorff
dorff’s name, but in December, 1917, the War Trade Board’s publication
of the ’’Black List” of alien enemy firms in Latin America made this
71
impossible, for Dieseldorff was among those listed. So as to pro
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r 4121
for included was a clause which stipulated that if for any reason
the firm failed to deliver the coffee, the planter could demand there-
rrg
for the sum of 3 5,000.
from keeping its part of the agreement. On February 12, 1919> three
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r 413I
77
who were residing in Germany. Two days later it created the Inten-
censured Mittelstfidt for the statement that he had made to the Inten
80tv.„
Ibid.
ftl
General inventory of E PD’s properties made by the IGdG,
March 31> 1919» US, "Varios” Box.
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r 414I
300,000 pounds of coffee from the 1918/1919 harvest and sold it for
84
the Dieseldorff firm.
the Dieseldorff house had was from coffee the Intendencia sold, and
as a result the business was very low on cash. This forced Mittel-
Gc
stadt to suspend coffee buying in 1919 and 1920, which not only
82
Letter: Paul 0. Mittelstfidt, [Cobfin], to D. B. Hodgsdon,
Guatemala, May 29, 1919* Letterbook, "IGdG," p. 92, DC, WW I Int. Pap.
go
Letter: D. B. Hodgsdon, Guatemala, to [Paul 0. Mittelstfidt,
Coban], October 9» 1919s DC, WW I Int. Pap., Correspondence; Report:
Paul 0. Mittelstadt, Cobfin, to the Departamento de Contabilidad, [IGdG],
Guatemala, February 16 , 1920, Letterbook, "IGdG,” p. 284, DC, WW I
Int. Pap.
84
Letter: Paul 0. Mittelstfidt, [Coban], to D. B. Hodgsdon,
Guatemala, September 11, 1919s Letterbook, "IGdG," p. 157, DC, WW I
Int. Pap.
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r 415!
where the Dieseldorff crop was being sold,had never been the best
outlet for the grade produced on his fincas. In Guatemala the monetary
86
situation appeared bleak, as the value of the peso continued to fall.
morale of the staff was badly shaken. There were incidents of theft
87
and minor disorders on the fincas. The future existence of the
house seemed dubious, for months had elapsed since peace had been
even been heard from. Skeptics conjectured that he would never return.
At the same time rumors abounded that the government did not plan to
give the intervened properties back to the owners, but was going to
far as to stake out the fincas they intended to take over when the
sale occurred.®^
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to Cobin in late August, 1919* His coming had been delayed by ill-
health and by the political and economic upheavals that took place in
had wiped out his accounts in Germany, and all his funds in Guatemala
some of his men were already dividing up his properties among them
selves.
law, because his being in Germany at the time of the war was accidental
fighting had forced him to remain. During his stay he had taken no
and had been since 1889, Cobfin. Dieseldorff also presented a number
89
of documents to prove his point.
On
Summary of petition in letter: Francisco Cuellar A., Secre
tary, IGdG, Guatemala, to [Paul 0. Mittelstadt, Coban], June 17, 1920,
DC, WW I Int. Pap., Correspondence.
90
The only items found were the letter cited in the footnote
above, another from Cuellar to MittelstSdt dated February 5, 1920, and
a receipt dated April 21, 1921. Any others that may have existed were
destroyed by Dieseldorff, according to don Arturo Morales de la Cruz.
The author was unable to gain access to the files in the Archivo
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n
91
together from interviews with participants and eyewitnesses.
that she in turn gave them back to her father, but in a letter to
93
properties and monies held in custody be returned to him. Thus,
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June, 1920, his troubles were only beginning. Most of his office
about this time, or were dismissed by him for their alleged traitorous
possessed several large and valuable estates, this money was the only
hard eash he had on hand. Yet, he owed more than $ 1,000. in fees
96
to the lawyer who had represented him before the Intendencia, and
agreed to market the 1918/1919 crop was pressing for immediate payment
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although It was the intervention that had prevented its doing so.
have $ 30 ,000., but in mid -1920 such a sum was hard to come by. In
Germany the brokerage houses with which he had done business before
him any credit. German firmB in Guatemala were too short of dollar-
there was a depression, and money was scarce and credit expensive.
opened his account by depositing the funds he had received from the
cover the money he borrowed with consignments of coffee from the un
sold portion of the 1919/1920 harvest and with bank drafts received
from the American and Guatemalan Mahogany Co. He was also required
98
Letter: H. P. Opfermann, W. R. Grace & Co., Guatemala, to
EPD, Cobin, October 7» 1920, DC, Financial Correspondence; Letter:
Nottebohm Hnos., Guatemala, to EPD, Cobin, October 1 6 , 1920, DC,
Financial Correspondence.
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r «5a
to sell the entire 1920/1921 coffee crop through the Grace firm and to
Between June and October he drew $ 69* 839*62 against his account and
of their slow crediting procedures, which cost him several days' in
him that the coffee he had shipped was of inferior quality to the
10l+
advance samples he had submitted. Moreover, as the economic
situation in the United States worsened, the company felt the pinch
99
Letters: [EPD, Coban), to W. R. Grace & Co., Guatemala,
October 17, 1920, and March 15, 1921, DC, Financial Correspondence.
103Ibid.
in ii
Letter: [EPD, Cobfin], to H. P. Opfermann, W. R. Grace &
Co., Guatemala, October 20, 1920, DC, Financial Correspondence.
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r aB
without the credit that he had counted on having and that he absolutely
advance from the Nottebohm firm, he was not certain that he could
their figures for the outstanding balance of his account were nearly
$ 20,000. too high since they had not yet posted the Intendencia
107
check. He even offered a mortgage on Chajcar as security. The
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r 422I
Sapper & Co. of Guatemala City to give him credit. He had done business
with the firm before the war and knew several of the officers. The
$ 15 ,000., with the understanding that he not draw more than $ 5 ,000 .
a month. The money was to be repaid no later than June 30, 1921.
that date he made several large coffee shipments to the firm, and
113
finally closed his account in January, 1922.
affiliate firms in London and Hamburg. His dealings with this company
were far more cordial than those with the Grace, perhaps because the
Schlubach firm was headed by Germans. Also Schlubach was more lenient
about credit restrictions. Several times during the next two years
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r 4231
assert his control over the business. During that time several changes
self from Guatemala for a few months. In March, 1922, he and his
of the Reich Mark as the new official currency in Germany, and of the
nearly 800,000 pounds a year, and market prices were good. For several
years the future never seemed brighter, but the boom was short-lived.
The economic depression of 1929 knocked the bottom out of the market
for coffee and prices for all grades dwindled to a fraction of the
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raising corn production, and later by increasing the tarea, the daily
have the steamship lines cut their freight rates. He also suggested
that the government reduce the established daily wage rate for road
work. This measure, Dieseldorff believed, would not only cut government
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r 425I
losing them."1"1^
was essential for the recovery of the industry. Many of the nation's
coffee union, because, they argued, it was the cheap grades that
an international union.
needed, for the price drop of cheap coffee affected the other grades
experience of the tea planters in the Dutch and British East Indies,
all of whom had suffered great losses, because the negative attitude
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r 4261
the coffee industry, and communicated his ideas on the matter to the
government.
fourths of his coffee in Germany, but after about 1935 the economic
These Marks could only be spent for the purchase of German goods, which
120
Letters: EPD, Cob£n, to the Confederacion de las Asociaciones
Agrfcolas de la Republica, Guatemala, March 19 and 28, 1930, Letterbook,
"Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, pp. 970, 978-979> DC; Letter: EPD,
CobSn, to President Lazaro Chac6n, Guatemala, February 28, 1930, Letter
book, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 1, p. 9^7, DC; Letter: EPD,
CobSn, to the Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Guatemala, June 2,
1920, Letterbook, "Asuntos ante las autoridades," No. 2, pp. 2U-26, DC.
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r 427 I
there was nothing they could do to secure payment in Reich Marks for
121
his coffee.
Germany and instead began to look for new outlets. He consigned only
122
one half of the 1935/1936 harvest to Germany, and less than one
third of the 1936/1937 one .123 By 1937/1938 the firm's coffee exports
12
to Germany had dropped to 1*7,400 pounds, less than k % of the total.
over the business to his son Willi, Germany had ceased to be an im
121
Letters: EPD, Cob£n, to Fredk Moller Sohne, Bremen, March
25, June 3, October 20, November 9 and 18, and December 16 , 1936, January
25, March 22, April 16, and August 10, 1937, Letterbook, "Fredk Moller
Sohne,” pp. 152, 188, 282, 295, 299, 311, 340, 391, 4l8, 501, DC.
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a commission merchant in Kansas City, who was the coffee buying agent
for Folger's and for the Griffin Grocery Co.^2^ Gordon sold 5** % of
he took in Guatemala, served him well during the war years. Both he
and his father were opposed to the Nazi government, but the elder
prisals against relatives who were still living in Ger ~iany. Willi
was more vocal. He had studied in London and had lived in England
128Ibid., No. 1, pp. 105-116, 118-119, No. 2, pp. 125, 130, DC.
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for nearly seven years, and he was a strong adherent of the democratic
fate would befall him if another war broke out and the United States
Joined the hostilities, for there were strong pro-Nazi enclaves in the
Alta Verapaz, particularly among the younger men who had recently come
129
from Germany.
and the men in power, and he dismissed from his employ all persons
130
who supported the German government. At the same time, he openly
his great-grandfather, had been born Salomon Lazarus Levy, but assumed
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was denounced In Germany for all these actions, and as a result the
government revoked his passport and stripped him of his German citizen
ship.
Thus, when the United States entered the war in 19^1. Willi
of the other Germans in the Alta Verapaz, he was not among those
in the Alta Verapaz, because very few of the plantations have ever
owing to his anti-German stand before the war and the trade license he
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the business in very much the same personalistlc way as his father
had. The changes he made were minor. For example he sold PalJ&,
Panzal, and El Salto, which had been used as warehouses and grazing
lands in the days when coffee was shipped via the Ferrocarrll Verapaz,
Sachamach, which had always been used by the family for mllpa-land,
was turned over to the government under the agricultural reform law
*1 o z T
of 1952, and the land was parcelled out to the Indian living on it.
Red Cross drive to raise funds in the Alta Verapaz. Many of the
residents of the department remember him well for his kindness and
generosity.
age of forty-six. Tragically, less than two years later his wife
1^6
Interview with don Arturo Morales de la Cruz.
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Long Island, New York, was named executrix of the estate in her sister's
will. She brought her three nieces to the United States to live with
her. Then she and her sister, Mrs. Billie Cox of Shreveport, employed
about two years the two ladies reached the conclusion that the business
they decided that in order to protect the girls' interests, Mrs. Cox
should move to Cobfin and take over the management of the firm until
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CHAPTER XI
countries had inherited from the Spanish colonial regime and which
Rufino Barrios in the 1870's and the oarly l 88o fs. These men enacted
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ciency, and indeed in the highland areas an old monoculture had been
foreigners who had developed it. Yet well into the twentieth century
ing for immigrants and offering many of the same inducements as be
the United Fruit Company. Many observed that the number of German-
and that coffee exports and business in general had increased, but
perity. They failed, however, to recognize who were the chief bene
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its citizens had become convinced that the Germans were exploiting
the resources of the country and that as long as control of the cof
economic benefit from the fruits of its own soil. Consequently when
World War II began, the Nazi sentiments of some of the Germans led
the government to believe that the group posed a threat to the nation
were imprisoned or expelled, and thus German power was broken. Po
to apologia after the fact, by charging that the Germans had been
obdurate despoilers of the nation's patrimony, who had taken much and
given little, and that they had achieved their position by clandes
old charges against the Germans were repeated to justify once more
the government's action when Guatemala in the decree that ended the
former owners,^-
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says something about the process by vhich German economic pover de
change in the economic life of the department. When the Germans be
gan to trickle into the department, it vas an isolated area vith only
nascent industry into a major one. Coffee became the most important
the coffee industry vere vigor and industry, technical skills, market
ovn resources, the settlers vere able to purchase the best coffee
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chemistry enabled them to increase the yield per tree and to improve
effectively clean and dry the beans and maximize their value. Com
mercial and family ties with German and other European marketing firms
for the coffee they exported. The Germans also took it upon them
undertaking to open roads and mule tracks from Coban into the remote
Alta Verapaz, and through their hard work, talent, frugality, inge
nuity, and capital resources were able to develop the legal and
acquisition of land from Indians, from ladinos, and from the govern
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The changes that the Germans brought about in the Alta Verapaz
The growth of the coffee industry affected the lives of the native
residents of the area. The Indians of the department vere dravn into
to realize profits from the lands they ovned. Emulating the example
route vas the only feasible vay in or out of the department. Once
vith the El Rancho railroad station vould have been prohibitive for a
ever, kept the Alta Verapaz isolated from the rest of the country
ties vere vith Europe, not vith Guatemala. This peculiar situation
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separateness and German national ties, for vhich the Germans in the
the l890's there vere muttered complaints about the growing German
the short-lived Sociedad Agrlcola del Norte for the express purpose
By the 1930's, criticism against the Germans had become more vocal in
that vere used to explain the rise of German dominance in the country,
o
Letter: EPD, CCobanl, to Vicente Polanco, San Crist8bal,
July 18, 1898, Letterbook, "Varias Cartas," No. 1, pp. 9^-95* DC.
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Cohan, and visits there by Nazi officials gave credence to this be
men from the community, such as Franz Sarg, Hans von Turkheim, and
k
Richard Sapper, who were conspicuous for their political inactivity.
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eager to reap large profits from foreign investments and new export
there. This was not entirely true. German firms and brokers extended
Verapaz, for instance, but London banking houses, and to a lesser ex
factured articles that merchants and finqueros imported into the Alta
Verapaz came from the United States or from Great Britain, rather
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Germany was greater than the value of goods It Imported from that
country.
The privileged position of the Germans has been to some extent over
rated. The 1887 trade treaty, which remained in effect until 1915,
out such matters as exemption from military duty and public office,
tions in Guatemala. The treaty did establish bases for regular com
mercial relations between the two countries, and this may have been
were relatively minor and included a ten-year immunity from most fis
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Hermans who settled in Guatemala the labor and land lavs of the coun
try, which created a favorable situation for persons with capital and
that Germans obtained at low interest rates loans from banking houses
in Hamburg and Bremen and then re-lent the money at usurious rates to
fincas passed into German hands when the owners were unable to meet
ers in the department did not secure credit exclusively from German
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sources. Dieseldorff borrowed money In Guatemala from the banco Comer-
RBeing Bros., and in Hamburg from Haller, SBhle & Co. On several oc
ladino creditors. Nor were the Guatemalans the only ones vho for
several Germans, such as Hans von Ttirkheim, also lost their land j.n
this manner.
During the period that the Germans were active in the Alta
of these laws was to give Indians legal titles to the technically un
claimed land that they had occupied for centuries. The practice of
Q
Miguel Angel Asturias, Viento fuerte. 3rd ed. (Buenos Aires,
1962). One of the major themes that Asturias explores in this novel
is the force exerted by the United States-owned banana companies
operating on the north coast of Guatemala to deprive Indians and
other small landholders of their properties and to coerce them into
the economic sphere of the company.
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apply for title, and outaidera subsequently denounced and purchased
auction. Such was the case with the residents of Chiochal, whose
land Dieaeldorff bought. The land lavs also served to tie the
other persons. Most likely there were cases of coercion, but to the
Indian, whose economic life was on the barter basis, money was a
great, and often irresistible, temptation. For this reason the prac
high-quality coffee, and both Guatemalans and Germans, rich and poor
The charge that the Germans in the Alta Verapaz acquired land
larger than the law allowed, through Indian mozos or other persons
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community, such as Pocolfc, to relinquish sections of its land, be
cause the occupants, perhaps unwittingly, had sold their pro indivjso
currence .
vent almost without notice, but not because there was a deliberate
payment of a sales tax by the new owner. Yet neither the government
that they did not consider them out of the ordinary. They were, in
effort to conclude that what Dieseldorff and others did was made pos
tions of the letter or the spirit of the law, and by the connivance
other Germans in the department, and Guatemalans all obtained the pre
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large part of the profits from the Verapaz coffee industry accrued
mala would indicate that their aim was not solely exploitation.
Verapaz a myth has persisted about the extent of their wealth with
whole, were enormously rich. In reality, there were at the most half
a dozen Germans in the department whose land holdings and coffee pro
of them, like the majority of the ladinc finqueros, owned not more
than one or two fincas, and these were often of relatively small size.
For example, a survey taken by the Jefe Politico of the Alta Verapaz
during the 1930's revealed that there were 157 coffee plantations in
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number, 120 (76 .1+% ) produced less than 50,000 pounds of coffee a
year. Only nineteen fincas produced more than 100,000 pounds a year,
9
and at least seven of these belonged to Erwin Dieseldorff.
most people supposed them to be. Unlike other tropical areas of the
Verapaz, even by men such as Dieseldorff who had the personal quali
ties and virtually all the financial advantages one could ask for.
worth slightly more than $ 150 ,000. , ^ and were assessed for tax
gross income from coffee sales averaged about $ 250 ,000. during years
13
when crops were good and market prices were high, but during the
llj
depression revenues dropped to about $ 100,000.
9 *
Juan Antonio Alvarado, Tratado de caficulture practica. 2
vols. (Guatemala, 1935-1936), Vol. II, p. 571.
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were such that they cut deeply into the gross amount. He made money,
certainly, but the amount was small in proportion to the time and the
effort he invested. Coffee in the Alta Verapaz was not a cheap com
modity to produce, and this may explain the limited wealth of both
developed societies.
Hand sorting the beans several times and the use of special waterproof
tures. But the heaviest expenses resulted from the high cost of
and of supporting the labor system that existed in the Alta Verapaz.
received were a pittance, for the plantation owner the labor system
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in the long run was expensive. The finquero was obligated to provide
fincas such as Chajcar, where more than one hundred colonos lived,
fee. In areas where land was scarce, such as Chiquixjl and Raxaha,
the finquero had no choice but provide the Indians with all necessary
breeding, like land for labor, was essential in order to operate with
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cost, not only for land, but for laborers, drivers, trainers, forage,
and equipment.
a commodity that was both bulky and heavy was a painfully slow and
Q 1.50 per one hundred pounds between Coban and Pancajche— but it im
out of the department. The opening of a truck route between Cob&n and
tion between the two towns, but down to the present day between Coban
and the fincas in the interior there exists a bottleneck through which
only a restricted amount of traffic can flow. This bott] r.jeck has
so, but the government's inaction, whatever the reasons for it may
To the Germans and the other planters of the department this activity
equipment, and pay a cart tax and a wharfage tax to finance a road
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roads and mule tracks to connect fincas with Cob&n, or with the
Coban-PancaJch£ trunk line, had to bear the entire cost of the work.
the other Germans had to reinvest in the economy, and under the cir
they did.
been successful, might have provided the basis for the first stage of
Chichochoc and the Herring shoe factory in San Cristobal, were ham
a plantation whose nearly 17,000 acres were eminently suited for com
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was costing him each year. This may in part explain his reluctance
they paid was foreign monopoly. The Guatemalan leaders had also
lace. This immigration failed to do, but the foreign settlers, such
to the German problem was confiscation, but this act scarcely altered
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land out of the hands of foreigners and into those of political ap
pointees. Prosperity did not filter down to the Indians, and for
them life remained the same as it had been under the Germans.
the very laws that were aimed to encourage and facilitate development,
not all the citizens of the nation would enjoy the fruits of develop
ment. The former German plantations still remain, many now in decay,
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I. PRIMARY SOURCES
A. MANUSCRIPTS
Guatemala, Coban.
W. E. Dieseldorff, Sues. Private papers stored in strong
boxes in a safe in the central office of the firm and in
the library of the family residence.
1. Government publications
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2. Corporate publications
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.
und Kolonialwirtschait. Ill (1901-190277"pp. 225-238, 269-
287
Frobel, Julius. Seven Years1 Travel in Central America.
Northern Mexico, and the Far WeBt of the United States.
London, 1$59•
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Roach, Adrian. Allerlcl aua der Alta Verapaz. Bilder aua dem
deutaehen Leben in~Guatemala« 156?-1930. Stuttgart,
TsW .
D. NEWSPAPERS
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E. DIESELDORFF PUBLICATIONS
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Dieaeldorff, Ervin P. "Neuo Auagrabungen do a ilrrt• Dioucldorff
in Chajcar, Guatemala," Verhandlung der Perilnor anthro-
poloKiachon Oeaellnchaft (April 27,1095), pp. 320-322.
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Ward, Barbara. The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations. New
York, 1962.
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NaSez Falcon, Guillermo. *The Activities of the German
Ministers Plenipotentiary in Guatemala, 1876-1911*."
Unpublished seminar paper, Tulane University, New
Orleans, 1962.
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BIOGRAPHY
Antonio, Texas, and was graduated from high school in 1953. He did
elor of Arts degree from the latter schoo... He entered the Graduate
466
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