Abstract

PADILLA CALDERON, Esther. Sharecropping in Villages of the Bavispe River, Sonora (1917-1937). The Pre-existing Situation to Agrarian Distribution. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2020, vol.41, n.162, pp.104-131.  Epub Mar 02, 2021. ISSN 2448-7554.  https://doi.org/10.24901/rehs.v41i162.744.

Sharecropping, perceived as a form of work organization and, therefore, a relationship mediated by socioeconomic context, was reproduced in towns along the Bavispe River in Sonora, Mexico, as a key element of agricultural and social development. This productive relationship was practiced mainly on lands owned by merchants, hacendados, cattle traders and “large-scale cattle ranchers”. Although arable land was not abundant in the study area, sharecropping contracts were common. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how and why this particular form of work was reproduced in villages of the Bavispe River before the implementation of post-revolutionary agrarian redistribution policies. By analyzing qualitative and quantitative information from a critical theoretical perspective for the understanding of relations of domination, the essay sustains that sharecropping emerges as a function of preexisting conditions of inequality since, in this case, it was instituted in a context marked by an intensification of the unequal appropriation of natural resources.

Keywords : Agrarian reform; northern Mexico; property; sharecropping; Bavispe River.

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