Ejido is a term of Latin origin that serves to describe a portion of land that is uncultivated and whose use is public. In the history of Mexico, the ejidos played a fundamental role, being basic in its agrarian reform.
Background of the ejido in Mexico
If there is a reason that ultimately serves to explain the Mexican revolution, it is undoubtedly the poverty of agricultural areas. The peasant population suffered from the exploitation of the landowners, placing them almost in a position of social marginalization . This fact was very present in the drafting of the Constitution of 1917, which mentioned in Article 27 that the lands included within the national territory were property of the State and the latter could transfer its domain to individuals. Ejido
This transmission of land was protected through various guarantees which highlighted that land ownership should always be in favor of social stability, leaving private property limited to the collective interest.
This was the origin of an agrarian policy seeking the fraction of landowners and the protection of the small owner, developing a modality of public expropriation for the sake of the general interest.
As a result of the application of these norms, the agricultural structure of Mexico was made up of three fundamental elements: small property, public property and social property (ejidal and communal). Ejido
Why does the ejido appear?
Ejidal property is the response that the Mexican Revolution gave to the existing dichotomy between the large landowners and the landless and rightsless peasants.
Fundamentally the ejido pursued the following objectives
– Return land to population centers that were evicted by large landowners;
– Give land free of charge to the needy population; Ejido
– Create a new land tenure system , allowing agricultural growth for all Mexicans and not just the few landowners.
In addition, there was also a special respect for the traditional indigenous populations , who were allowed to enjoy the common lands, waters and forest that belonged to them.
In this way, originally, the term ejido refers to those communal lands that were on the way out of the peoples and that enjoyed usufructuary form throughout the collective, being commonly used as grazing areas for cattle or to collect wood. Ejido
