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Living Standards in Rural Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Zacatecas 1820–80

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Harry E. Cross
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Extract

There is much in the literature which laments the condition of the common man in nineteenth-century Mexico. Most of the evidence for this sad interpretation, however, is circumstantial and qualitative in substance and leaves one groping at times for more convincing arguments. This pessimistic view seems inappropriate for the North where historical interpretation in these matters is deeply influenced by generalizations arising from studies of the South and Center. Careful examination demonstrates that for at least one region of the North a distinct and varied natural and human environment produced a different set of living conditions. This study assesses the living standards in low-income hacienda laborers in the State of Zacatecas during the period 1820–80. The results suggest a reconsideration of the notion that all nineteenth-century Mexican peones were oppressed and malnourished step-children of the latifundia system.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , May 1978 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 See for example, Bazant, Jan, ‘Peones, arrendatarios y aparceros en México, 1851–1853”, Historia Mexicana, 23, 2 (1973), 330–57Google Scholar, who bases many of his conclusions upon the single year 1852; Harris, Charles H., A Mexican Family Empire: The Latifundio of the Sánchez Navarros, 1765–1867 (Austin, 1975),Google Scholar offers only limited data on indebtedness; and Bazant, , Cinco Haciendas Mexicanas. Tres siglos de vida rural en San Luis Potosí (Mexico, 1975).Google Scholar See also Powell's, T. G. review of Bazant's book in The Americas, 33, 1 (07 1976), 178–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Archivo Gordoa-Hacienda del Maguey (hereafter AGHM), Inventario de esta Hacienda de Señor San José del Maguey en el año de 1826, for the estate's size, and AGHM, all laborer and general account books.Google Scholar

3 Katz, Friedrich, ‘Labor Conditions on Haciendas in Porfirian Mexico: Some Trends and Tendencies’, HAHR, 56, 1 (02 1974), 1–47.Google Scholar

4 Cross, Harry E., ‘The Mining Economy of Zacatecas, Mexico in the Nineteenth Century’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1976, pp. 309–16.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., Chap. 8, and p. 363.

6 AGHM, Padrón estadístico de la población de la Hacienda del Maguey formado en 29 de Julio de 1841; Padrón de la Hacienda del Maguey en el año de 1846, 30 Aug. 1846.Google Scholar

7 Cook, Sherburne F. and Borah, Woodrow, ‘Indian Food Production in Central Mexico before and after the Conquest (1500–1650)’, Mss, University of California, Berkeley, 1976, to appear as Chap. 3 of Essays in Population History, Vol. 3, forthcoming from the University of California Press.Google Scholar

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9 Ibid., p. 891.

10 Cook, Sherburne F. and Borah, Woodrow, ‘Continuity and Change in Indian Agriculture and Diet in Central Mexico, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, Ms, University of California, Berkeley, 1974, p. 9.Google Scholar

11 Recommended Dietary Allowances, p. 16;Google Scholar It should also be noted that we have calculated every day as a workday. Taking into account Sundays and Holidays, which are periods of less physical activity, would significantly reduce average caloric requirements. In addition, caloric requirements decline as one ages, so that those over 50 need about 10 per cent fewer calories than they did at age 20.

12 Scrimshaw, Nevin S. and Young, Vernon R., ‘The Requirements of Human Nutrition’, Scientific American, 235, 3 (09, 1976), 50–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

13 Leaf, Alexander, MD, Harvard University, in National Geographic, 143, 1 (01, 1973), 102.Google Scholar

14 AGHM, Padrón de la Hacienda del Maguey en el año de 1840, 19 April 1840.Google Scholar

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17 Arenas, Pascual, ‘Memoria sobre la fortificación de las Minas del Fresnillo’, Anales de la Minería Mexicana, ó sea, Revista de Minas, 1 (1861), 217;Google Scholar see also the discussion in Cross, ‘The Mining Economy of Zacatecas’, p. 370, note 75.Google Scholar

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19 Watt, Bernice K. and Merrill, Annabel L., Composition of Foods (Consumer and Food Economics Research Division. Agricultural Handbook No. 8. Washington, DC, 1963), see item 843.Google Scholar

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21 Cross, ‘The Mining Economy of Zacatecas’, Table IV–C, p. 168.Google Scholar

22 Calculated from, Archivo del Estado de Zacatecas (hereafter AEZ), legajo suelto, Shelf row 45, shelf 6, Fondo Municipal (1840), Alimentos para las carceles, Zacatecas, 1, 24, 28, 29 Feb. 1840, 2, 14, 32 July 2840, and 1, 14, 38 Oct. 1840; Watt and Merrill, Composition of Foods, items 162, 380, 843, 1241, and 1543;Google ScholarRecommended Dietary Allowances, Table 3, p. 29;Google Scholar see also, Cross, ‘The Mining Economy of Zacatecas’, pp. 373–5.Google Scholar

23 Watt and Merrill, Composition of Foods, items 162 and 380.Google Scholar

24 AGHM, various account books for the decade.Google Scholar

25 Memoria presentada por el C. Francisco García, Gobernador del Estado de Zacatecas, al Congreso del mismo, sobre los actos de su administración en los años de 1833 y 1834 (Zacatecas, 1874), p. 36.Google Scholar

26 Van Bath, B. H. Slicher, The Agrarian History of Western Europe, 500–1850 (London, 1966), p. 334.Google Scholar

27 Mutton was consumed in large quantities at Maguey. Two randomly selected laborers, each earning 4 pesos per month in 1860 and 1883 respectively, bought 7 and 12 dressed sheep (or at least 175 and 300 pounds of meat) during the year. See, AGHM, Libro de sirvientes, 1860, account of Catarino Montoya, and Libro de sirvientes, 1882–4, account of Hilario Decena.Google Scholar

28 Bazant, ‘Peones, arrendatarios, 1851–1853’, pp. 339–40.Google Scholar

29 Anderson, et al., ‘A Study of the Nutritional Food Habits’, p. 886.Google Scholar People in the state of Zacatecas also occasionally ate the hearts of different cacti, mesquite berries, and the heads of Maguey plants. See Amador, Elías, Bosquejo histórico de Zacatecas (2 vols. Zacatecas, 1892–1912), 11, 507.Google Scholar

30 Whetten, Rural Mexico, p. 312.Google Scholar

31 Scrimshaw and Young ‘The Requirements of Human Nutrition’, pp. 58–9;Google ScholarCross, ‘The Mining Economy of Zacatecas’, p. 375.Google Scholar

32 Anderson, et al., ‘A Study of the Nutritional Food Habits’, p. 888;Google ScholarWhetten, Rural Mexico, pp. 304–26.Google Scholar For additional and pertinent discussion see, Cook and Borab, ‘Continuity and Change’, passim.Google Scholar

33 Leaf, Alexander in National Geographic, p. 102.Google Scholar

34 AGHM, General de cuentas de esta Hacienda del Maguey, año de 1840; Padrón de la Hacienda del Maguey en el año de 1840.Google Scholar

35 Calculated from AGHM, Cuentas de dependientes y sirvientes de esta Hacienda del Maguey, año de 1840.Google Scholar

36 AGHM, Padrón de la Hacienda del Maguey en el año de 1846.Google Scholar

37 There were at least 100 renters at Maguey for any given year, and we can be sure that some of the temporary labor was drawn from this source. It is not possible to assess the standard of living of the renting group; however, it is likely that just as at the Hacienda de Bocas in San Luis Potosí, the renters maintained a lower if not more precarious living standard than the employees. Bazant, ‘Peones, arrendatarios, 1851–1853’, p. 357.Google Scholar If a renter at Maguey worked six or eight months for the hacienda, though, we have seen that he could have supplied sufficient food for his family. But renters were simply not as financially stable as permanent laborers since they were more vulnerable to market fluctuations.

38 Algier, Keith Wayne, ‘Feudalism on New Spain's Northern Frontier: Valle de San Bartolomé, A Case Study’, (Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1965), p. 115;Google ScholarBazant, ‘Peones, arrendatarios, 1851–1853’, p. 345;Google ScholarKatz ‘Labor Conditions on Haciendas’, p. 9.Google Scholar

39 Memoria presentada por el C. Francisco García, Gobernador del Estado de Zacatecas, al Congreso del mismo, sobre los actos de su administración en los años de 1829 y 1830 (Zacatecas, 1874), passim;Google ScholarMemoria presentada por el C. Francisco García, Gobernador del Estado de Zacatecas, al Congreso del mismo, sobre los actos de su administración en los años de 1831 y 1832 (Zacatecas, 1874), passim.Google Scholar

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