Agricultral reform in Tequila (Jalisco, Mexico) 1915-1980

Abstract

Three are the main objectives of this research: recapture the historiography on the agricultural reform of Jalisco, the discussion of the use of the concept peasant in this process, and recount how and when this reform took place in the town of Tequila, based in original documentation for the period between
1915 and 1980, all of which is deposited in the Archive of Agrarian Matters of the State of Jalisco and is very little known or scarcely studied. The main hypothesis here is that this reform is part of the same process that affected other areas of the State of Jalisco. However, in the particular case of Tequila, the
land to be divided was –and still is- dedicated to the production of agave tequilana weber, which is the raw material to produce the liquor known as tequila, industrialized since the Porfirian era. This argument served the land owners to reject the division of the land because this industry was very prosperous and
otherwise the region would have been seriously affected, something that reality demonstrated that they were right. But this is not the only explanation for the deterioration and decay of this industry at that time and the decades that followed, something I shall try to prove in this work. To illustrate the effects of the agricultural reform in Tequila, a map will be presented, in the final part of the study, with the division of the communal land (ejido) during the 30s of last century.