Ejido

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the town and municipality of Spain, see El Ejido.

For the Venezuelan city, see Ejido, Mérida.

The ejido system is a process whereby the government promotes the use of communal land shared by the people of the community. This use of community land was a common practice during the time of Aztec rule in Mexico.

It was not until the colonization of Mexico by the Spanish and other European settlers that this practice seemed to disappear and be replaced by the encomienda system. The encomienda system was abolished by the Constitution of 1917, with the promise of restoring the ejido system. This, however, did not happen until Lázaro Cárdenas became president in 1934. The purpose of restoring the ejido system was to give land back to the people and provide more food for the community. Under the ejido system, the land is owned by the government and is supported by a national bank.

According to the 1960 census, 23% of Mexico's cultivated land belonged to ejidos.

[edit] External links

• Rural Development Institute: Ejidos and Communidades in Oaxaca, Mexico (pdf)
• Centro de Investigacion y Documentacion de la Casa and Sociedad Hipotecaria: Current Housing Situation in Mexico 2005 (pdf)
• University of Manchester, Department of Social Anthropology: Fantasy and Reality in Restructuring Mexico’s Land Reform (pdf)