The Quirigua Region of Guatemala

The Quirigua Region of Guatemala GLENN CUNNINGHAM University of California at Los Angeles Largost and most important of tho rivers of Guatemala is tho Rio Motagua which risos in tho western highlands and flows northonst to the Gulf of Honduras. Following tho course of the Motagua takes ono through a rapidly changing serios of climatic and vegetation zonos. In tilo highland area of Guatemala City the landscape is characterized by rugged mountain slopes with a covering of pine, the streams leaping over falls and rapids in deep gorges. As one descends tho northern edge of the plateau, tho region becomes perceptibly loss moist and tho pines are replaced by broad-leaved forest. Hero tho landscape, with its corn patches, pastures and woodlots soparatod by stono fences, resembles parts of Eastern United States except for the buildings of white stuccoifl ndobo and red tile roofs. Zaeapa, junction of tho trans-Guatemalan railway and the line from El Salvador, is in ¡1 true desert area with less than twenty inches of rainfall annually. Surrounding Zacapa are groves of dry, gray-groen palms, giant cactus , and extensive grasslands. From this region, each mile downstream brings a change .in charactor and density of vegetation . Desert palm and cactus disappear and grasslands give way to brush, woodland , and oventually the oquatorial rain forest. The towns of adobe and tile are replaced by collections of palm-thatchod huts. This lower portion of the Motagua Valley, with its wide meandering stream, is tho Banana Empire, domain of the United Fruit Company, Quirigua is but ono of many stations of the Company, headquarters of a plantation or "farm." Practically all is Company property, the hospital, hotel, offices , storo, and workers' barracks. Tho fruit cuttors employod aro mostly Englishspoaking Jamaica nogroos. The "farm" is penetratod by spur railway lines and narrow gauge tracks to facilitate the gathering of tho fruit which is cut Thursday and Friday of each week in preparation for the Saturday sailing from Puerto Barrios to New Orleans. The United Fruit Company has taken many precautions for the care of its white employees, providing good homes, hospitals, 'sanitation, a program of entertainment and social intercourse among the widely separated families . As a result there is no visible offect of tho Tropics, either on physique or morale The ruins and monuments of the ancient Mayan city of Quirigua are preserved in an 85-acre plot of uncleared fornst entirely surrounded by the banana lands. The ruins of this city, founded in the 5th century A. D., are important for the boauty of their sculptures and their perfect regularity of sequence, but they are seldom visited and are fast disintegrating . (19) ...