How Land Monopoly Arose in Mexico.

The article discusses how land monopoly arose in Mexico. The author also talks about his visit to Mexico. Going up the Uspanapa River from Puerto Mexico to the oil camp, there were thatch-roofed huts surrounded by small clearings hacked out of the dense tropical rain-forest. On these clearings the local Indian population used to raise for their own use crops of corn, beans, and squash. They also raised oranges and papayas which they brought by dugout canoe to the small farmers' market at the oil camp and which they sold at what seemed like ridiculously low prices. A half century later, in the same area, subsistence farmers have reappeared along the new highways that have been built in the region. They now build their huts and plant their crops of corn, beans, squash and plantains on the highway's right of way, using the strip of land available between the pavement and the barbed wire fence That meager strip was the only land on which the landless squatters could grow food crops. Beyond the fence, the land is owned by large landholders who use it to grow bananas or plantains or for pasture on which beef cattle graze. All these crops are for export to distant market. The concentration of land ownership began after the Revolution that was fought for "land and liberty."