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Figure 3.3 Cantón Los Arenales,
1980. Courtesy of the authors.
The cantón Los Arenales, which lies north of Santa Elena in the volcanic
highlands is typical of the Las Marías area, one of the most contested
areas of the civil war. The largest coffee farm in the vicinity was the Finca
Leonor, a small but well-capitalized farm of 38.5 hectares (55 manzanas), which
may be seen in the map’s center, just inside the upper-lefthand curve as
it bends to the right. (An area the size of a hectare, if square, measures 100
meters on each side. A manzana is approximately 70 percent of a hectare.) The
Finca Leonor had a well-developed infrastructure of water tanks, store-houses
and patios for drying coffee, as I was able to confirm when I visited the now-dilapidated
property in 1992. Other properties high above the main road (indicated by arrows
along what would be the center line if it were paved), were also planted in coffee,
as indicated on the map by the branch with fairly straight leaves and red berries
close to the branch. In the lower altitudes other crops were cultivated, including
oranges and maguey. Each plot is listed along with the owner down the lower left-hand
margin.
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