Reviews

The End of Agrarian Reform
in Mexico
by Billie DeWalt and Martha Rees,
with Arthur Murphy, Center for U.S.-
Mexican Studies, University of Califor-
nia, San Diego, 76 pp., $10 (paper).
In 1990 and 1991, the Mexican
government passed a series of mea-
sures effectively ending the agrari-
an reform whose origins lay in
Emiliano Zapata’s famous dictum:
“The land belongs to those who
work it.” The principal mechanism
of the abolition of land redistribu-
tion was the reform of Article 27 of
the Mexican Constitution which
had been the legal basis of the old
system. The Salinas reforms end
peasant entitlement to land and
essentially privatize the ejido.
The Ejido Reform Research Pro-
ject of the Center for U.S.-Mexican
Studies was established to trace the
consequences of the momentous
changes in the Mexican country-
side flowing from this reform. The
End of Agrarian Reform in Mexico
is the third in the series Transfor-
mation of Rural Mexico, published
by the Project. DeWalt and Rees
discuss the nature of the ejido, the
decision-making structures, ambi-
guities of land titles, and conflict-
resolution structures. They detail
all the negatives of the old system:
the ubiquity of boundary disputes,
the nature of intra-ejido conflicts,
the general exclusion of women
from the decision-making process,
and the frequent domination of eji-
dos by local political bosses, or
powerful individuals within the
ejido structure. They also discuss
the land market which, despite the
regulations and laws which prohib-
ited it, flourished in an informal
manner. They emphasize the gen-
eral lack of support given to ejidos
by governmental financial struc-
tures, and the bind ejidatarios
found themselves in when they
faced well-heeled, capital-intensive
competition from the private sec-
tor. DeWalt and Rees pretty much
accept the Salinas reforms as a fait
accompli, and end each section of
their monograph with a small list
of recommendations to Mexican
policymakers, the gist of which is
“not so fast.” Despite its minimally
critical perspective, there is a
wealth of accessible information
here for non-specialists with an
interest in the current turbulence in
rural Mexico.
Rebellion in Chiapas
by Neil Harvey, with additional essays
by Luis Herndndez Navarro and Jef-
frey W. Rubin, Center for U.S.-Mexi-
can Studies, University of California,
San Diego, 62 pp., $7 (paper).
This fifth brief volume in the
Transformation of Rural Mexico
series is an analysis of the most
dramatic of the political explosions
occasioned-most immediately–
by the ongoing political-economic
changes in the countryside. Harvey
locates the Zapatista rebellion in
the multiple context of current
global restructuring, the rural
changes catalogued by earlier
monographs in this series, and the
long tradition of Mexican peasant
uprisings. He offers a lucid critical
discussion of agrarian moderniza-
tion and its accompanying political
reforms, the dramatic modifications
in rural land-tenure systems, and
the recent process of peasant politi-
cal organizing. Free-market
reforms, says Harvey, have exclud-
ed Chiapas peasants from many
markets, and brought about a feel-
ing of abandonment by the state.
The rebellion therefore signals a
crisis of legitimation both for the
process of economic liberalization,
and for the state and its targeted
social programs.
This volume also includes two
shorter essays, one by Luis Hemrnn-
dez-a frequent NACLA contribu-
tor-which provides additional
background analysis, much of it
culled from first-hand experience
with the coffee growers of the Chi-
apas region. In a comparison with
the COCEI movement of Juchitin,
Jeffrey Rubin assesses the likeli-
hood that the Zapatistas might
become powerful enough on a
regional level to become pro-peas-
ant mediators in disputes with the
federal government.
The California-Mexico
Connection
edited by Abraham F. Lowenthal and
Katrina Burgess, Stanford University
Press, 1993, 364 pp., $45 (cloth),
$16.95 (paper).
Political science tends to use the
nation-state as its building block of
analysis. Modern capitalist devel-
opment has meant, however, that
national borders are becoming ever
more permeable, and economic and
social relations are taking on a dis-
tinctly transnational cast. Lowen-
thal and Burgess’ collection of inci-
sive case studies of the relationship
between California and Mexico
explores this fertile theoretical
ground.
California’s Mexico connection
has intensified over the past 20
years. One Californian in five today
is of Mexican heritage. Immigra-
tion from Mexico–of a more per-
manent character than in earlier
decades-continues unabated. Cali-
fornia is Mexico’s second-largest
trading partner (after Texas), and
the two region’s economies are
increasingly linked through the
transnational production networks
of U.S.-based firms.
This proximity is, of course,
fraught with tensions. As the Cali-
fomian economy has taken a nose-
dive, anti-immigrant sentiment in
the state has blossomed. This has
potentially disastrous conse-
quences. As Jorge Castafieda
argues in one of the volume’s best
essays, California is becoming
“dedemocratized,” as a small, privi-
leged Anglo minority determines
the fate of a largely poor, disen-
franchised Latino population. The
authors in this volume try to untan-
gle the myths that fuel the anti-
immigrant backlash, and, from a
variety of perspectives, show how
the Mexico-California connection
can benefit both regions.