ABSTRACT
The Mexican agrarian reform is often touted by government officials as the product of a peasant revolution that brought justice to the rural masses. In contrast to this view, the critical history argues that land redistribution in Mexico was the way chosen to develop and entrench capitalism in Mexico. The diverse histories of the various regions that make up the Mexican republic reflect a heterogeneous agricultural population. The rural people of central Mexico had an important precolonial cultural heritage, while the north was significantly settled only in the last century. Several economists have defended the Mexican agrarian reform, arguing that the "social productivity" of small holdings was greater than that of large landholdings. The Mexican state made its presence felt and controlled agriculture through multiple forms until recently.
