354 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
land is divided into thousands of very small plots, often smaller than five acres, which
are owned by the vast majority of the rural population. These small subsistence plots,
where people usually grow some corn, beans, and squash, are not sufficient to pro-
vide a family with all their food needs for the year. Families often must purchase
basic products. This situation results from a combination of factors, including land
expropriations, population increase, and native inheritance laws.
Land dispossession on a major scale began at the moment of the European in-
vasion and has continued until the present. Some expropriation was carried out
through national legislation, whereas other expropriations took the form of land
purchases from peasants who needed cash and had no other recourse. In Guatemala,
the lands were used for the production of indigo (blue dye), cacao, sugarcane,
cochineal (a source of red dye), and coffee during the nineteenth century; this trend
was followed by cotton, bananas, and other products throughout the twentieth cen-
tury. Early in the nineteenth century, Guatemalan legislation was passed permitting
people to rent communal lands and forcing communities to rent “unused” lands.
Even when peasants were offered money for their lands, they resisted what they
thought would be a major loss of resources. Expropriations continued, and currently
some landless peasants are attempting land takeovers at the risk of their lives. In
Mexico, peasants were allowed to keep some land, at least until the beginning of the
nineteenth century (see the discussion of land problems in Chapter 7). However, by
1910, most rural families (96 percent of them) owned no land, with the haciendas
controlling most of the land. Before the revolution, communal Indian holdings were
located primarily in the south of Mexico. These holdings became the model for the
contemporary ejido program, instituted by the Constitution of 1917, which expro-
priated land from the haciendas and allocated it to agrarian communities. This ef-
fort was accomplished in two formats. The first was individual, in which a small plot
was given to one family to work; the family could pass it on to their children but
could not sell it; and pasture and woodlands were community-owned and shared.
The second format was collective, in which the community worked the land as a unit.
Most ejido lands were given individually (see the discussion on land reform in
Chapter 8).
In 1992, an amendment to the Mexican Constitution was passed that allowed
for the privatization of community-held ejido land. The amendment permitted the
rental of ejido land, a practice that was already in effect, and thus formally termi-
nated land redistribution by the government. The new regulations have many im-
plications. There are questions about the possibility of inequalities resulting from
the changes: Who is going to sell their lands? Where will new investments flow? Will
this encourage further migration and land concentration? In spite of the fact that half
of the cultivated land is now part of ejidos, large landholdings continue in Mexico;
and through leases and rental agreements, land concentration continues to be a
problem for rural families.
In both Guatemala and Mexico, the existence of minifundiosand landless peasants
continue to be a major problem. Together, they constitute half the total rural pop-
ulation. Contributing to the minifundio system are local inheritance rules, which