Forsaken Harvest: Haciendas and Agrarian Reform in Jalisco, Mexico: 1915–1940

By Luis G. Cueva

This historical monograph examines the decline of the hacienda estates within Jalisco, Mexico, during the early decades of the twentieth century. The book also explores the impact of the land reform program of President Lázaro Cárdenas in transforming the agrarian economic structure of the region. This study contributes to an ongoing lively debate about the hacienda system and the meaning of Cárdenas’s reforms.

This is an important work because it explores the evolution of a regional socioeconomic system that promoted urban industrial growth at the expense of the rural poor. The model of regional development described is applicable to other areas of Mexico and underdeveloped Third World nations with extensive peasant populations. The research for this investigation has wider implications regarding issues of global hunger and malnutrition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796015942

Luis G. Cueva

Luis attended the University of California San Diego where he received a doctorate in Latin-American Studies in 1994. Professor Cueva has been teaching history at several colleges in San Diego over the past two decades. Currently he is teaching at United States University in Chula Vista, California. His areas of interest for research include issues related to global hunger. Beyond his academic achievement, Luis has an extensive personal history of involvement in civil rights activism on issues such as immigration reform.

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Copyright © 2020 by Luis G. Cueva.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Rev. date: 10/26/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

791851

In dedication to the loving memory of my parents,

Esperanza Ramírez Merino de Cueva

and

Benjamin Cueva Pérez

This is the story of their generation . . .

I also wish to express my appreciation to my brother, Benjamin Albert Cueva and his family, and my sister Dr. Mary Carolina Cueva

and her family, and to my son Antonio Acevedo

I would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the

following individuals for their support in making

this book possible,

Dr. Ramón Eduardo Ruiz

Dr. Eric Van Young

Dr. Peter Smith

Dr. Christine Hunefeldt

Dr. León Zamosc

Dr. Edward Reynolds

Dr. Richard Griswold del Castillo

Lic. Cecilia Ubilla

Dr. Diana Marcus

Santo Fragale

Special Thanks to

Mario Chacon

Cover Design and Interior Illustrations

CONTENTS

MAP OF JALISCO

Hacienda de Atequiza: municipality of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos

Hacienda de Santa Lucia: municipality of Zapopan

SPANISH TERMS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: The Haciendas and the Wealthy Elite Families

CHAPTER ONE: Commercial Agriculture in the

Early Twentieth Century

CHAPTER TWO: The Agrarian Reform Bureaucracy

CHAPTER THREE: The Haciendas and Land Redistribution

CHAPTER FOUR: The Use of Hydraulic Resources

CHAPTER FIVE: The Hacendados and Political Repression

CHAPTER SIX: Crisis in the Countryside and the

Global Depression of 1929

CONCLUSION: Cárdenas and the Great Land Reform

EPILOGUE: Failure of Developmentalist Strategies

in the Post-Cárdenas Era

APPENDICES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SYNOPSIS

PROFILE OF AUTHOR

SPANISH TERMS

Land tenure

casco: manor or mansion residence of the hacienda estates

ejido: lands granted to peasant villages under the agrarian reform

fundo legal: urbanized zone of ejido community

hacienda: large landed estates that dominated Mexican countryside

latifundio: large, generally unproductive and idle landed estate

manantial: natural water springs or thermal mineral springs

minifundio: small peasant family land parcel too small to survive on

Nueva Galicia: name of Jalisco during Spanish colonial era

pequeña propiedad: small property holdings

potreros: livestock pasturelands

pueblo: village community or provincial township

rancho: small, independently owned ranch property

tierras de agostadero: grazing pasture lands

terrenos baldíos: vacant uncultivated lands

tierras cerriles: rough barren mountainous lands

tierras de monte: mountainous or wooded lands

tierras ociosas: idle lands

tierras de riego: irrigated lands

tierras de temporal: rainwater-fed agricultural lands

Social groups

acaparador: monopolist of agricultural production (hacendado) or crop distribution (middleman)

agrarista: peasant who petitioned for ejido lands under agrarian reform

aparcero: a sharecropper who receives less than half of the crops harvested from estate owner

arrendatario: property renter

arriero: muleteer

ayuntamiento: town council

bandolerismo: banditry

cacique: political leader, boss

campesino: peasant, country dweller

colono: colonist or private farmer who generally produces cash crops exclusively to supply surrounding local agro-industrial complexes

comunidad agraria: agrarian community of ejido land grant recipients

Cuerpos Rurales: rural security forces

ejidatario: peasant who received ejido lands under the agrarian reform

gavilla: gang

hacendado: owner of a large hacienda estate

jornalero: temporary or seasonal wageworker

latifundista: owner of an unproductive estate composed mainly of idle lands

mediero: sharecropper

mestizo: racial mix between Spanish and indigenous populations

patrón: hacienda owner, boss

peón: day laborer

peón acasillado: permanent hacienda worker

pequeño propietario: small property owner

poblado: rural village, population center

presidencia municipal: municipal government

presidente municipal: municipal president or town mayor

ranchero: owner of a small ranch property

Tapatíos: colloquialism for people of Jalisco

vecino: resident, neighbor

Crop cultivation

agave: a cactus variety used to produce tequila liquor

aguardiente: fermented alcoholic beverage

ajonjolí: sesame

arroz: rice

camote: sweet potato

camote silvestre: wild sweet potato

caña de azúcar: sugarcane

cebada: barley

chicle: coagulated juicy milk extract from tropical tree used to make chewing gum

coquito de aceite: coconut pulp extract used in elaboration of various oils

fríjol: bean

garbanzo: chickpea

guayaba: guava

henequén: hemp

higuerilla: prickly pear cactus

hortalizas: vegetables

jícama: turniplike tuber

legumbres: vegetables

maguey: type of pita cactus used in the production of the fermented beverage pulque

maíz: corn, maize

nopal: nopal cactus

oleaginosas: oil-producing plants

piloncillo: raw sugar-cube confectionary or crude brown sugar in a loaf

pulque: beverage made from fermented cactus juice of maguey plant

raíz de zarzaparilla: zarzaparilla root

resinas: resins

salitre: saltpeter, nitrate, or the place they are found

semilla de linaza: linseed

tequila: distilled liquor made from

agave cactus

trigo: wheat

tubérculos: tubers

tunas: fruit of prickly pear cactus

verdolagas: purslane

Infrastructure and measurements

contribución: ejido property taxes

hectárea: metric land measure equal to 2.471 acres

ingenio: sugar mill

molino: mill

pignoración: a system of credit provided to ejidatarios by government banking institutions whereby the advance of a loan is based on payment from future crop harvests

presa: reservoir or dam

tienda de raya: company store on a rural estate

yunta: land measurement equal to 3.5 hectares

Civic organizations and government agencies

Almacenes Nacionales de Depósito: National Granary Deposit

Almacenes Generales de Depósito: General Granary Deposit

Asociación de Productores de Arroz del los Estados de Colima y Jalisco: Cooperative of Rice Producers from the States of Colima and Jalisco

Banco Agrícola Ejidal de Jalisco: Ejidal Agrarian Bank of Jalisco

Banco Regional de Crédito Agrícola: Regional Bank of Agrarian Credit

Caja de Préstamos para Obras de Irrigación y Agricultura, S.A: Lending Institution for Irrigation Works and Agriculture, Inc.

Cámara Agrícola Jalisciense: Chamber of Agriculture of Jalisco

Cámara Agrícola Nacional Jalisciense: National Chamber of Agriculture of Jalisco

Cámara Agrícola Nacional de Puebla: National Chamber of Agriculture of Puebla

Cámara Agrícola Nacional de la República Mexicana: National Chamber of Agriculture of the Mexican Republic

Cámara Central Agrícola de Mexico: Central Chamber of Agriculture of Mexico

Cámara Sindical de Comercio de Buenos Aires: Syndical Chamber of Commerce of Buenos Aires

Censo Estadística Nacional: National Statistical Census

Código Federal de Trabajo: Federal Labor Code

Comisariado Ejidal: Ejidal Commissary

Comisión Agraria Mixta: Mixed Agrarian Commission

Comisión Local Agraria: Local Agrarian Commission

Comisión Nacional Agraria: National Agrarian Commission

Comisión Nacional de Irrigación: National Irrigation Commission

Comité Permanente de Productores de Trigo de la República: Permanent Committee of Wheat Producers of the Republic

Comité Regulador de Mercado de las Subsistencias: Regulatory Committee of the Subsistance Staples Market

Comité Regulador del Mercado de Trigo: Regulatory Committee of the Wheat Market

Compañía Exportadora e Importadora, S.A: Exporting and Importing Company, Inc.

Compañía de Fomento de Chapala: Development Company of Chapala

Compañía del Ferrocarril Sud Pacífico: South Pacific Railroad Company

Compañía Electrica de Chapala, S.A: Electric Company of Chapala, Inc.

Compañía Irrigadora: Irrigation Company

Compañía Nacional de Subsistencias Populares, S.A: National Company of Popular Subsistance Foods, Inc.

Concurso de Mazorcas de Maíz: Concourse of Maize Stalks

Confederación Católico de Trabajo: Catholic Confederation of Labor

Confederación de Cámaras Agrícolas Nacionales: National Confederation of Chambers of Agriculture

Consejo Económico Nacional: National Economic Council

Confederación Campesina Mexicana: Mexican Peasant Confederation

Consejo Directivo de Agricultura: Directive Council of Agriculture

Convención Nacional de Transportes: National Convention of Transportation

Convención Obreros y Patrones: Convention of Workers and Employers

Departamento de Control Agrícola: Department of Agrarian Control

Departamento de Economía Agrícola: Department of Agrarian Economy

Departamento de la Estadística Nacional: Department of National Statistics

Dirección de Economía Rural: Directorate of Rural Economy

Dirección de Rentas: Directorate of Rents

Empresa de Luz y Fuerza Villanueva y Cía: Villanueva Light and Energy Company

Empresa Nacional Distribuidora, S.A: National Distribution Company, Inc.

Ferrocarriles Nacionales: National Railroad Company

Ley de Plagas: Law of Plagues

Ley de Reglamento: Regulatory Statute

Ley Federal de Tierras Ociosas: Federal Law of Idle Lands

Ley Sobre Prenda Agraria: Law of Agrarian Security

Liga de Comunidades Agrarias y Sindicatos Campesinos: League of Agrarian Communites and Peasant Syndicates

Liga de Comunidades Agraristas de Jalisco: League of Agrarista Communities of Jalisco

Oficina de Estadística e Inspección Agrícola: Office of Statistics and Agrarian Inspection

Oficina de Ingeniería Rural: Office of Rural Engineering

Partido Nacional Revolucionario: National Revolutionary Party

Procurador de Justicia: Procurer Attorney of Justice

Productos Nacionales Rey de Celaya: King National Products of Celaya

Secretaría de Agricultura y Fomento: Ministry of Agriculture and Development

Secretaría de Economía Nacional: Ministry of National Economy

Secretaría de Industria, Comercio y Trabajo: Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labor

Secretaría de Guerra y Marina: Ministry of War and Navy

Secretaría de Hacienda: Ministry of Finance

Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores: Ministry of Foreign Relations

Secretaría General de Gobierno: Office of the State Attorney General

Servicio de Estadística Agrícola: Service of Agrarian Statistics

Sindicato de Agricultores de Jalisco: Syndicate of Agriculturalists of Jalisco

Sistema Alimentario Mexicano: Mexican Nutrition System

Unión Agrícola Regional: Regional Agrarian Union

Unión de Agricultores de Jalisco: Union of Agriculturalists of Jalisco

Unión de Asociaciónes de Arroceros: Union of Rice Producer Cooperatives

PREFACE

The primary archival documentation upon which this research project is based was drawn almost exclusively from the Archivo Histórico de Jalisco. The archive is located within Guadalajara and houses historical records pertaining to the administration of the state government. This inquiry was based upon a wealth of information obtained from one main branch of the archive classified as Agricultura y Ganadería (AG). Within this branch, documents were located within the sections classified as Administración (1) and Tierras (6). The branches classified as Gobernación and Fomento were also consulted.

This historical account provides a social portrait of the prominent landowning families in Jalisco, Mexico. The setting takes place in the early decades of the twentieth century. These aristocratic elite were members of a powerful regional oligarchy. The privileged ruling class dominated the countryside surrounding the city of Guadalajara. For generations, these affluent families maintained a reserved place at the pinnacle of hierarchy within provincial society. They ruled strictly over the peón laborers who served them in the tradition of medieval feudalism. The tyrannical patriarchs controlled every aspect of their servants’ lives.

Theirs was an imperious and ruthless system of exploitation. This kept the rural masses in conditions of wretched poverty and oppression. The haciendas were reminiscent of the sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean islands. Demanding foremen oversaw downtrodden workers laboring like slaves from dawn to sunset. Although legally free, the employees and their families endured extraordinary hardships. They received such low wages that their living situation was deplorable. The laborers were essentially bound to the land in servitude. These conditions were similarly to serfdom in nineteenth century eastern Europe. Furthermore, the expansive estates gradually imposed monopoly domination over the available arable lands. This foreboding situation affected the lives of countless peasant villages. The communal lands that once belonged to the indigenous townships were forcibly being alienated. Their collective holdings were gradually stolen from them by Spanish landowners. The avaricious territorial theft was accomplished over the course of generations.

The hacienda properties emerged during the early colonial era within Nueva Galicia (Jalisco). This came in the wake of the devastating population decline following the Spanish conquest. The ferocious military campaign was led by conquistador Nuño de Guzmán in 1530. The earlier estancia common pasturelands were shared by Spanish cattle ranchers. These pervasive fields served as the foundation of the immense rustic estates. The evolution of the colossal landholdings began in the late decades of the sixteenth century. Concurrently, the indigenous population was undergoing demographic recovery by the early 1600s. In response, the landowners began to consolidate their property boundaries in the Spanish courts. These changes were taking place as private property gained momentum and land prices rose. A transitional historical process referred to by scholars as primitive accumulation was underway. The hacendados amassed enormous properties through means of violence and coercion. They dispossessed the surrounding indigenous communities of their ancestral homelands.

The gilded estates blossomed in the late eighteenth century. During those years the hacienda system of land tenure underwent fundamental transformations. There was a transition away from the traditional arrangement based primarily upon cattle-raising and livestock. This was superseded by a system founded more upon agriculture and crop cultivation. These changes were fueled by the more lucrative prices for cereals and grains. Such basic foods were necessary to feed the expanding urban population of Guadalajara. The hacienda labor system was relatively mild as workers were scarce. Laborers were able to command a semblance of bargaining power vis-à-vis the property owners.

But by the late nineteenth century the conditions had changed considerably. During the Porfiriato, the structural problems associated with the grandiose landholdings were becoming more pronounced. The situation would eventually lead to a widespread economic crisis. Demographic growth in the hinterlands produced a vast reserve pool of unemployed laborers. Greedy landlords were able to exploit them through entrenched low wages. By the late 1800s hacienda workers were living in miserable conditions of subjugation and poverty. There was a damaging shortage of capital investment among the latifundio estates. This resulted in massive unemployment and marginalization of the poor people.

Moreover, there were new trends in commercial agriculture during the late Porfiriato. These transformations were seriously disrupting the lives of the rural population. There was a growing pattern among the manorial estates away from the production of essential foodstuffs. Those were the staple grains that traditionally served as the diet for rural consumers. Instead, hacienda production shifted towards more lucrative national and international markets. This transition was based upon the intensive cultivation of cash and export crops. At the same time, other agrarian products were undergoing industrial processing. Some raw materials were being incorporated into manufactured consumer goods. As a result, the rural poor suffered from the shortages of staple foods. Many families experienced conditions of chronic hunger and malnutrition.

For the hacendados, the years of national reconstruction after 1915 were the dawn of a new era. These optimistic attitudes surfaced following the destructive civil war battles of the Mexican Revolution. The elite families envisioned new horizons and greater opportunities for commercial agriculture. Landowners incorporated greater mechanization and applied modern technology to their agricultural enterprises. The use of motorized tractors and manufactured farm machinery was becoming common practice. The construction of infrastructure linkages such as railroads, highways, shipping, and irrigation systems was increasing. This encouraged the integration of nationwide markets and expanding international trade. However, the application of modern farming methods and technology was only in its incipient stages. Thus, the landowners encountered several barriers to these endeavors. There was an unsound and growing dependence upon foreign manufactured goods and technology. Concomitantly, Mexico was undergoing further integration into the global economy on distinctly unfavorable terms.

This research investigation examines the social conditions affecting the peasantry and the rural poor. For the lower strata of society, the early decades of the twentieth century were a time of struggle and survival. The rural communities suffered despairingly from the monopoly over tillable lands. Most peasant farmers lacked enough property to produce sufficient harvests with which to feed their families. However, the agrarian reform policies adopted by the revolutionary regimes after 1915 were exceedingly limited in scope. The project proved to be entirely inadequate in meeting the pressing needs of the landless masses. The communities that received ejido parcels through the government were extremely limited. Those villages represented only a small percentage of the rural population. There were growing incidents of illegal land invasions by desperate and hungry peasant families. These were people who had been excluded from receiving ejido grants.

There were other difficulties beyond the issue of land monopoly. These were fundamental problems associated with the enormous landholdings. The haciendas dominated the expanding urban consumer market for basic foodstuffs. They supplied the growing working and middle classes in Guadalajara with cereals and grains at low prices. This affected the development of agrarian markets in the outlying rural areas. Small producers such as rancheros, small farmers, and peasant families could not compete successfully within consumer markets. The massive wholesale volumes that large-scale agriculturalists released onto the market drove down the prices. This made participation in commercial agriculture by small producers virtually impossible.

The extreme income disparities contributed to conditions of underdevelopment and widespread poverty. Hacienda workers were paid excessively low wages under the labor system known as debt peonage. Under this system, the permanent peón acasillado workers were essentially bound to the land. These conditions were reminiscent of serfdom and servitude in feudal Europe. The resulting distortions to evolving labor markets undermined the ambitions of the rural masses. Members of the lower social strata experienced formidable barriers to food sovereignty for their families. There were insurmountable obstacles to participation in market activities as either producers or consumers.

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 culminated with the overthrow of the autocratic Porfirian regime. This marked the rise of the urban middle-class to political prominence. The aspirations of the middle classes for upward social mobility were heightening. This encouraged them to embrace the ideals of modern capitalism as their ideological foundation. The middle-class sought to construct a political system that would promote the growth of the market economy, private property, and individual rights. Nevertheless, they would have to arise and challenge the powerful landowning elite. This aspiring bourgeoisie depended upon a tenuous political alliance with urban wageworkers and peasants.

But the political interests of the lower classes frequently ran counter to those of the rising middle-class. Thus, the political system that evolved was fraught with contradictions of class collaboration and political compromise. The revolutionary regimes attempted to gain the allegiance of the rural masses. To achieve this, authorities expanded government intervention within the countryside. The role of the state as social arbiter of class interests between landlord and peasant was strengthened. The federal administration offered the rural population a program of agrarian reform. This was a belated attempt to ameliorate their desires for tillable lands. But the project of land redistribution was beset with problems of bureaucracy, opportunism, and corruption.

The early moderate phase of the agrarian reform transpired between 1915-1934. During those years, the failures of government land reform policies were multifold. This exposed the limitations of attempting to implement fundamental social changes through constitutional and legalistic means. The agrarian reform administration was founded upon an exceedingly complex and bureaucratic institutional apparatus. The cumbersome administrative framework served as an obstacle to land hungry families. Delays due to bureaucracy stood as a barrier to more widespread land redistribution for the peasants. The bureaucratic administration ended up serving a distinctly reactionary function. Government agencies failed to serve as a reliable avenue for the acquisition of tillable lands among the poor.

The revolutionary regimes were determined to better monitor and control the course of land reform. Thus, the state imposed a relationship of political patronage over the peasant masses that received ejido grants. The newly established system of corporatist patronage expanded government influence over the lives of the peasantry. This made them more dependent upon institutions of the state for their welfare. The relationship of patronage gave rise to caciquismo, or political bossism. Opportunistic middle-class politicians sought to take advantage of the poor families. They achieved this through their control over land redistribution.

These were typically parasitic and authoritarian urban middle-class power brokers. Such unprincipled and jaded demagogues could be ruthless against their enemies. At times, the reactionaries delt harsh punishment to political opponents who did not submit to their authority. Repressive measures were employed to obstruct the efforts of the agraristas to petition for ejido lands. Many unethical politicians attempted to undermine democratic and fair elections. These political strongmen used graft and corruption to enhance their influence. The opportunists employed coercive methods to secure their power. They imposed their domination over state and municipal government offices. These urban bureaucrats attempted to control positions of ejido leadership as well. Under the system of corporatist patronage there was great uncertainty among the poor people. The welfare and security of vulnerable peasant families was frequently compromised. The agrarista communities were subjected to extreme repression over the issue of land redistribution. But the peasantry suffered persecution not only from landlords. The government authorities often employed terrorist methods as well.

The hacienda reached its zenith as a system of social organization by the late nineteenth century. Thereafter, the enormous properties underwent conditions of eventual atrophy and decline. As the early decades of the twentieth century progressed the situation deteriorated. The grandiose estates were imposing major barriers to further economic progress. The hegemonic position of the latifundio properties was having grave consequences. The immense landholdings were preventing the rural population from engaging within market activities. The kind of growth that did occur was based upon a political economy of extreme austerity and under-consumption among the masses. This contributed to the emergence of a highly rigid and hierarchical urban/rural regional socioeconomic structure. The evolving relationship encouraged the unbridled exploitation of human and natural resources from within the countryside. Furthermore, the forced alienation of village lands culminated during the years of the Porfiriato. The privatization of those communal properties should have fostered transformations based on capitalist economic principles.

This assigned to the hacendados several historical obligations to fulfill. The landowners were responsible for constructing a more robust and extensive agro-industrial foundation. Such infrastructural development would have promoted more widespread economic growth. These actions would have helped to absorb the growing pool of dispossessed and unemployed peasants as wage workers. This was a task at which the hacendados of Mexico failed abysmally to achieve. The historical transition from family farmers to industrial wageworkers was truncated and obstructed. Although most of the gilded estates were relatively productive, prosperity was exceedingly limited. Only a small minority of the population benefitted from the wealth produced. The inability to achieve a more vigorous stage of agro-industrial development encouraged foreign corporations to fill the vacuum. This resulted in further national dependence upon outside foreign capital and technology. Thus, the legacy of the haciendas for modern Mexico were conditions of underdevelopment, poverty, and hunger.

The mounting problems associated with the traditional land system were intensifying. This precarious situation culminated in a monumental crisis during the late 1920s. There were extraordinarily turbulent social conditions already existing in Jalisco. These converged with downward spiraling exogenous macroeconomic factors. This resulted in a deep economic collapse and drastic decline in agricultural production. The harsh conditions were exacerbated by the destructive Cristero religious civil war between 1926-1929. There was massive unemployment raging throughout Jalisco. Refugees were forced to flee the armed conflict between federal troops and Catholic rebels. Moreover, the global depression of 1929 complicated what had already become a desperate situation. The Mexican economy came to a virtual standstill. This affected especially the export/import and agrarian sectors. The decline of lands cultivated with traditional staples such as maize and fríjol led to widespread food shortages. The rural townships experienced debilitating conditions of chronic hunger and malnutrition. There were innumerable people reduced to the point of starvation.

It was under these critical circumstances that the Cárdenas administration was forced to take resolute action. The far-reaching policies enacted were designed to alleviate the suffering of poor campesino families. The federal government undertook the massive project of dismantling the latifundio estates. The expropriated properties were sub-divided and redistributed among hacienda workers and the surrounding peasant populations. In Jalisco, government authorities moved quickly to ensure the closure of the Cámara Agrícola Nacional Jalisciense. This was a civic organization representing the political interests of the ruling oligarchy. Their actions drastically reduced the influence of the hacendados within the state government. These steps effectively circumvented legal opposition to the encompassing federal Cardenista reforms.

The CANJ was shut down and replaced by the state Departamento de Control Agrícola. This agency was established to implement the comprehensive and radical Cárdenas reforms within Jalisco. The Departamento was part of a nationwide program to monitor and regulate agrarian markets. Officials proposed to establish peasant cooperatives within the different areas of Mexico. The administrative institute for the project was known as the Consejo Nacional de Agricultura. The venture functioned under the recently formed Secretaría de Economía Nacional.

Under this program the federal government sought to regulate the production, distribution, and prices for agricultural consumer goods. Agrarian authorities began enforcing officially sanctioned maximum and minimum prices. Officials organized peasants and small producers into specialized cooperatives. These co-op associations were designed to control the sales and distribution of all rural commodities. Organizers felt that only through such measures could small farmers be successfully incorporated into the capitalist system. A significant portion of their harvests were destined for sales in outside urban consumer markets. These included massive metropolitan centers such as Guadalajara and Mexico City. However, the federal policies were designed to achieve another unparalleled milestone. The comprehensive reforms fostered the increased consumption of staple foods among the rural population.

During the six-year administration of the Cárdenas presidency there were unprecedented transformations. Most of the challenging federal policy objectives were eventually accomplished. The dismantling of the manorial estates was a monumental advance in the struggle for human rights and social justice. This was the hallmark achievement in the social history of modern Latin America. The increase in food consumption among the poorest families was an innovative policy approach. The project was a bold, ambitious, and highly constructive political accomplishment. The pro-small farmer model allowed for greater volumes of wealth produced by peasant families to be retained for their own benefit. Under the obsolete hacienda regime, the grains were sold mainly in urban consumer markets. As a result, the poor population benefitted very little from this arrangement.

The termination of the Cárdenas administration came in late November 1940. This brought an untimely end to an exceptionally transformative and inspiring historical era. These events were the only attempt ever made to fundamentally transform the Mexican countryside. The Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) administrations of the post-Cárdenas period were repressive authoritarian regimes. Federal officials abandoned the project of comprehensive and radical reforms that favored small producers. After 1940, the national government turned to conservative policies that encouraged commercial agriculture among middle-class farmers and agribusiness corporations. Support for the ejidos and cooperatives of small producers was eventually terminated. Gradually credit, agricultural inputs, and price incentives were withdrawn. This was done in favor of large enterprises and the transnational corporations.

Instead, there was a return to policies that promoted a heavily stratified social structure. The pro-international banking policies adopted after 1940 were highly damaging. This meant a return to a system that encouraged urban industrial development at the expense of the rural poor. As Jalisco became more firmly integrated into the world economy the situation worsened. The rural population experienced further setbacks to their living standards. This was the result of harsh readjustments to changing global market conditions. The dilemma was indicative of Mexico’s subordinate role within the international division of labor. The rural sector became more firmly linked to the global marketing strategies of the transnational corporations.

The federal government made limited progress in advancing human rights. Authorities attempted to impose bandaged stop-gap solutions to the mounting hunger crisis. There was great reluctance among the political elite to engage in any meaningful corrective action. Officials were unwilling to address the fundamental problems existing within the countryside. There were various food agencies established to address the impending cataclysm, producing little success. Several enduring existential challenges remained unresolved. Massive unemployment, emigration, and marginalization of the poor people intensified. Chronic hunger and malnutrition continued to plague a large percentage of the rural population. At the same time, the Mexican people lost their capacity to feed themselves. Ultimately, the federal government was forced to abandon its national food security strategy. These unfavorable conditions were exacerbated in the late decades of the twentieth century. The burgeoning hunger crisis intensified under the liberalization project adopted in the 1990s. Those neoliberal international free-trade policies favored foreign agribusiness corporations, the politics of globalization, and the World Trade Organization.

This study can be described as a regional history, focusing on the rural areas surrounding the city of Guadalajara. The relationship between the urban sector and outlying hinterland areas is intimately tied to the expansion of market networks. Market activity, then, is the basis for the application of regional analysis to this investigation. The state of Jalisco has the features of the solar type of regional model. This consists of the hinterland areas surrounding a prominent urban center.

This model, according to Eric Van Young, is characterized by extensive urban/rural sectorial hierarchy; complicated internal economic and social structures; and complex differentiation between social classes. The solar model is a regional system based on complex marketing arrangements and a minimum importation of foodstuffs. At the turn of the twentieth century the region surrounding Guadalajara was dominated by hacienda production for intra-regional consumption. This contrasts with the plantation-oriented dendritic export regional model. That is a system whose agricultural production, according to Van Young, is destined for export or heavily commercialized distribution. Examples of the dendritic model are the late nineteenth century Morelos sugar zone and the henequén-producing zone of Yucatán.

INTRODUCTION

The Haciendas and the

Wealthy Elite Families

For more than three hundred years, the haciendas dominated the countryside of Jalisco. During this era, much of the cultural life in the hinterlands was focused upon the gilded estates. There was the idyllic image of the sumptuous adobe manor. This was surrounded by the daily activities of livestock and cattle raising. There were rugged vaquero cowboys wearing leather charro outfits. The great fields of maize, wheat, sugarcane and agave cactus covered the panoramic landscape. The Tapatio society cultivated a rich and vibrant cultural heritage. The homeland of tequila and mariachi music provided for an opulent and picturesque western setting.¹

The hacienda was a colonial institution that blossomed during the late eighteenth century. It proved to be a resilient and adaptive system of land tenure. The grand estates were able to meet the problems of production for a growing market economy. At the same time, they were able to utilize several traditional social structures. The landowners were able to take advantage of abundant and inexpensive resources like labor. They were able to limit the use of scarce inputs such as operating capital.³ The hacienda was far from being economically irrational as critics and reformers have charged. But for the laborers, reprehensible living conditions evolved over the course of generations. These were the harsh realities existing within a heavily oppressed colonial society. This was a social order burdened by an austere shortage of capital resources.⁴

There was a strengthening of commercial agriculture in the late decades of the nineteenth century. However, the massive landholdings remained severely undercapitalized. Hacienda production was not founded upon fully developed rational monetary structures. Moreover, the enormous properties were unable to generate a strong process of capital accumulation. The slow development of agro-industrial linkages was a formidable barrier to economic expansion. The retrograde neocolonial conditions would be felt most severely during the years of the Porfiriato.

But the problems inherent within the traditional land system proved to be insurmountable. The destiny of the manorial estates was irretrievably doomed to extinction. Nightmarish premonitions foreshadowed feelings of commiserate anguish among the wealthy proprietors. The downtrodden masses had been forced to endure unimaginable hardships and suffering. These were the damaging consequences of monopoly land domination. Over the course of generations, the peasant villages had been dispossessed of their communal lands. However, the rural population was not being fully integrated into the capitalist system as wageworkers.⁵

The massive landholdings left behind a legacy of fundamental structural failures. The traditional land system was proving to be an outdated institution. By the dawn of the twentieth century the decline of the haciendas had begun. The vestiges of feudalism and colonialism became an impediment to further economic progress. The process of capitalist expansion could no longer be expected to continue under the old order. That was a regime based upon severe underconsumption among the rural masses. The slow process of agro-industrial development contributed to marginalization among the poor people.

The impoverished neocolonial society that emerged was based upon a severely flawed regional socioeconomic structure. The evolving system depleted the countryside of capital, raw materials, and human resources. The distorted process functioned to underwrite the growth of the city of Guadalajara.⁶ The monopoly over land resources served to depress wages and prices within the agrarian sector. This encouraged a business strategy of low reinvestment of profits for modernization and improvements. But such a strategy also served as a barrier to capital accumulation and agro-industrial development.

The central argument of this investigation concerns the viability of the traditional system of land tenure. By the decade of the 1920s, the problems associated with the rustic estates was leading to a devastating crisis. The lack of investment on the latifundio properties was the root cause of the massive unemployment. The aristocratic elite exploited the vast reserve of unemployed laborers with miserably low wages. There were growing numbers of poor people who were abandoning their small hometowns. These displaced refugees went in search of jobs in urban centers such as Guadalajara or migrated to the United States.

The immense latifundio properties were composed mainly of vast fields of idle lands. Agrarian authorities considered them to be responsible for the scarcity of food supplies. This contributed to the hunger and malnutrition affecting growing numbers of the rural poor. These explosive circumstances were enflamed by the destructive Cristero rebellion. The virulent uprising swept across western Mexico between 1926-1929. Refugees by the hundreds were forced to flee in the wake of this bloody religious civil war. Finally, the global depression of 1929 sounded the death knell for the olden estates. These dramatic events were taking place as tens of thousands of poor people faced the prospect of possible starvation.

The living conditions in the Mexican countryside were wholly disheartening. Under these circumstances, agrarian reform officials under the Cárdenas administration were forced to intervene. Government authorities took decisive steps to dismantle the most massive and unproductive properties. The lands were confiscated and redistributed among the peón workers and clusters of hungry peasants. By late 1938, the federal government had effectively destroyed the hacienda system of land tenure. Only in the sierra-coastal area of Jalisco did a few isolated properties remain intact. The colossal landholdings nefariously dominated the Mexican countryside for centuries. The despicably oppressive regime that was imposed had finally been abolished. These tumultuous events represented a monumental achievement in the agrarian history of the nation.

The Cárdenas reform policies sought to eradicate outdated social and economic structures. These retrograde systems were weighing heavily upon the Mexican people. The traditional arrangement was serving as a barrier to further capitalist development.The potential for market expansion had reached its limits under oppressive feudal and colonial formations. These were founded upon monopolies over land ownership and large-scale crop cultivation. Instead, the comprehensive pro-small farmer reform measures were urgently adopted under the Cárdenas administration. These radical agrarian policies effectively dismantled the massive properties belonging to the elite families. Concurrently, these actions swept aside the oligarchy as the ruling class within the countryside. The legacy of latifundismo and domination by tyrannical landlords was finally brought to an end.

II. The Regional Oligarchy

The hacendados of Jalisco were members of a powerful regional oligarchy. These ruling elite combined large-scale agriculture and urban mercantile interests into vast family enterprises. Among these illustrious families were the Fernández del Valle clan, the López Portillos, the Cañedos, the Cuesta Gallardos, the González Gallo family, the Corcuera brothers, and the Lancaster-Jones family. Members of this privileged ruling class included the famous tequileros José Cuervo, Eladio and Cenobio Sauza, Odilón Orendain and Aurelio López. Most of these influential families had ancestral roots within the Spanish nobility.

The economic system they established was sophisticated and complex. This was based upon an interdependent relationship between the city and the countryside. The formation linked the urban metropolitan and underdeveloped agrarian sectors into a mutual interchange. Moreover, the prominent families exercised exclusive control over money lending. They maintained influential business relations for borrowing within the local credit pool. The financial domination they exerted assured them positions among the wealthy and powerful.⁷ The aristocratic families mobilized economic resources and political influence to advance their own class interests. They were able to create a social structure capable of overcoming many overwhelming challenges. These were formidable barriers inherent within an impoverished neocolonial environment. Members of the oligarchy were able to take advantage of the retrograde social conditions. They were able to exploit the inequalities and injustices existing within a traditional agrarian society.⁸

Yet it cannot be denied that these landed elite were able to accumulate substantial financial reserves. Members of the oligarchy made significant investments in various commercial and industrial enterprises. Among these were wheat mill molinos, sugarcane ingenio processing factories, the expanding tequila distilleries, urban businesses and retail stores. They undertook expenditures in the mining sector, tanneries, bakeries, and other businesses that required substantial capital installments.⁹ Several of the powerful families formed business partnerships with merchants and investors. They formed alliances with other entrepreneurs to operate wholesale commercial establishments in Guadalajara. Others became involved in the nascent manufacturing and industrial sectors. These deeply influential aristocrats were not only involved in trade and commerce. They also promoted urban growth and development within Guadalajara.¹⁰ The hacienda must therefore be understood in the context of its role within the overall business strategy of the wealthy families.

The rural estate was an investment for financial stability and security. In the strategy of the elite families, investments in urban commerce, local industries, or mining usually required heavier outlays of capital. Large-scale agricultural production required comparatively smaller amounts of operating capital. The landowners were able to exploit the cheap and increasingly abundant labor supply. The agrarian sector was of low priority to the families of the oligarchy in their strategy of financial investments. These conditions found expression in the rudimentary technology employed for crop cultivation. There was an excessive reliance upon cheap and unskilled labor.¹¹

The links between urban commerce and large-scale agriculture were of paramount importance. These sectorial ties were essential to the business strategy of the oligarchy. A reciprocal relationship existed between these two economic sectors. The mercantile sector offered financial liquidity and lucrative profits. Conversely, the agricultural sector provided security for investments and consistent returns. Land ownership provided the elite access to credit as mortgageable property for collateral. Large-scale agriculture was both a good investment and provided substantial margins of profit. This was albeit below the annual income associated with commerce and manufacturing.¹²

Some properties along the sierra-coastal area of Jalisco developed in isolation. Their production was based almost exclusively upon agricultural harvests. However, most landowners needed access to outside sources of credit. This was necessary to engage successfully in commercial crop cultivation. It was especially true for those estates most firmly integrated into the urban grain market.¹³ Without access to credit, most hacendados faced the possibility of overextending themselves financially. This situation could eventually lead to further debt and possible bankruptcy.

The families of the oligarchy directed the growth of Jalisco for generations. These families were able to tightly control the flow of available credit resources. They retained scarce financial sources within the exclusive tight-knit kinship network to which they belonged. Central to the system of family kinship was a generations-old tradition. This was the intermarriage between merchants and the daughters of the hacienda owners. The relationship was suitable for resolving the vexing problem of acquiring access to liquid capital for landowners. It provided merchants with a stable investment in real estate, access to credit through land mortgages, and reliable levels of profits from agriculture.

There were several key factors influencing the kinship network of the oligarchy. Among these were intermarriage among the elite families; the family network of business investments; and inheritance among their heirs. Through these mechanisms, great amounts of wealth were eventually amassed.¹⁴ The traditional elite families of Guadalajara dominated the credit system until the late years of the colonial era. This was when a growing class of merchants began to make inroads into the Guadalajara credit pool.

Although there had been significant changes, the oligarchy weathered the independence period intact. During those years foreign merchants, especially British, intermarried with the families of the oligarchy. Most of these merchants were absorbed into the traditional elite family credit structure. The foreclosure of the Bourbon imperial state on outstanding loans granted by the Catholic Church damaged the credit situation of the hacendados.¹⁵ Civil authorities sought to expropriate ecclesiastical wealth under the Consolidación of 1805. Yet throughout the early republican period, there was a return to dependence upon the church for credit. The Wars of the Reform were fought over this issue. Destructive military battles ensued between liberal and conservative forces. The conflict simmered