The Agrarian Reform in Cosamaloapan, Veracruz (México), 1915-1945

Abstract

The land reform in Mexico, resulting from the 1910 revolution, played a central role in the economic development of the country during the first half of the twentieth century. The involvement of large properties to create “ejidos” and provide small farmers with land for cultivation, exhibited various facets of social tension and political conflict, making these characteristics very distinctive in each region and Mexican federation entity. Murder of land farmers was the characteristic of some regions while other showed low signs of social tension and minimum violence. This paper explains how Land Reform occurred in the town of Cosamaloapan, Veracruz. In this municipality, the agrarian tension increased from the deterioration in regional economic conditions that, until the twenties, had kept the balance between farmers and agricultural companies. Two moments are distinctive in our study: first, the stage related to the restitution of land to the people of Cosamaloapan between 1915 and 1920, characterized by low social tension; the second moment is the implementation of Land Reform affecting landowners and the “ejidal” endowment to farmers accompanied by conflict between landowners and farmers from 1920 to 1945.