Insufficient land: the fortunes of the Tlatepuzcan Chinantecs of San Juan Palantla 1928-2005

This study traces the history of a small community of Chinantec speakers in Mexico over a period of eighty-five years, from 1920 to 2005. The group, known as the Tlatepuzcan Chinantec, is a subgroup of the larger Chinantec population in northeast Oaxaca. The author and his family lived and worked among them from 1955 to 1966, with many return visits following. Using official documents as well oral histories and other materials from anthropological research done during some fifty years of association with the group, Merrifield pieces together their journey from their historic homeland, San Juan Tlatepuxco, to their present town of Palantla. He focuses especially on the recurrent theme in their stories, a theme which he takes for his title, that there is "never enough room" on the land for the needs of the people and their families.