able to take control over indigenous, communal, and municipal lands. Today, the majority of the

homes in the center of town are owned by Ladinos, and many of the older Pinula residents (both

Ladino and Maya) recount the days when only indigenous families occupied these homes.

 Currently, only a handful of Ladino families possess most of the land in and around Pinula.

Many own as much as forty cabellarias and, though these Ladinos sometimes have title to a

portion of their lands, they may occupy as much as twenty times the amount titled to them.

While some of Pinula's indigenous people own small plots, the majority are landless and are

forced to rent or sharecrop to grow the traditional milpa agriculture for their basic subsistence.

Ladinos cultivate their lands for cattle, coffee, and milpa production, all of which is

accomplished with the labor of their Maya workers.

Revolutionary Times

 The Democratic Revolutions of presidents Arevalo (1945-1950) and Arbenz (1951-1954)

are representative of recent ethnic tensions between Maya and Ladino. In the early 1950s, many

local Pokomam organized with poor Ladinos in a peasant union against powerful Ladino

landowners. Interestingly, opposition to agrarian reform came from both sides, as Ladino

landowners, as well as the comunidad indigena (indigenous community), were concerned about

land expropriation since their own hold on communal lands was tenuous. In fact, as tensions

arose in the municipality, President Arbenz himself had to settle the case by expropriating

municipal lands and giving them to peasants and renters. During this struggle, the Ladinos

claimed that land they had purchased from the municipality should have been considered private

property, even though it was officially known as municipal. (Handy 1994). The expropriation

may have infuriated the Ladinos because while "their" lands were taken, smaller indigenous

parcels were left untouched. On the eve of the 1954 counter-revolution, Ladino-led militia

groups forced Maya and reformist sympathizers from their homes, an action that culminated in