The Native Aristocracy and the Evolution of the Latifundio in the Teotihuacán Valley, 1521-1917

Latifundismo, representing a variety of jural types, has characterized land tenure in the Teotihuacán Valley since Aztec, very probably pre-Aztec, times. Throughout the colonia and until the inception of the Republic, the largest single landholder in the valley remained the cacique of Teotihuacán. While much extant literature contrasts the hacienda as a type with the estates of the native aristocracy, we suggest a functional similarity based on comparability of market articulation (including commodities produced and the land itself as commodity), of export work, of control of labor.