Steam powered machinery used on the haciendas
The introduction of steam-powered engines and machinery for stripping the sinuous leaves of the henequén allowed the hacienda owners to multiply their production many times over. They accumulated great wealth that propitiated enormous growth in the agro industry and economic prosperity in the state of Yucatán. The owners had plantation-style homes and gardens at the haciendas and stately city residences in Merida.
A Hacienda livingroom
They enjoyed every luxury available, traveled extensively, and brought back precious items from Europe, the U.S.A., and the Caribbean. They hired Italian and French artisans to build their palatial residences. Their sons studied in the United States, Cuba and Europe.
Four hundred families owned the approximately 1,000 haciendas. However, only twenty or thirty of the most prominent “hacendados” held the majority of the holdings. These families were known as “la casta divina” – the exalted class. La Casta Divina controlled almost 90% of the commerce in Yucatan.
Jumping on the henequén to pack it tighter
The extraordinary production was largely the result of super-human effort on the part of the laborers. The “Acasillado”, an indentured laborer system, included nearly 90% of the available work force at the time; at its peak in 1900, there were some 80,000 acasillados. These men and women worked long and hard. As well, they were at the beck and call of the hacienda owners, day and night.
Once a family had fallen into debt, there was virtually no way to pay it back. It kept compounding and actually the hacendados counted the outstanding amounts as part of their wealth.
Henequén drying in the sun
The owners of the haciendas did not consider that their treatment of the workers should be called abuse. They made themselves believe that the system ideally suited the poor. “After all,” they would tell one another, “their basic needs taken care of and they don’t need to worry about making difficult decisions.” The rich considered their minions as too daft to make their own choices. They actually fancied themselves as “benefactors.” From time to time a young woman would catch the hacienda owner’s eye and he would feel that he had done her a favor by signaling her out as fit for his bed.
The owners closed their eyes and ears the resentment that brewed among their laborers. Nonetheless the acasillado system came to an abrupt halt with the arrival of the revolutionary general Salvador Alvarado in Yucatan on March 19, 1915. Many hacendados couldn’t understand what had hit them. To them, the natural order had been broken.
I have just finished reading several books dealing with the American Civil War. The southern plantation owners made many of the same arguments to defend slavery.
Yes that’s been pointed out before. There are many parallels, aren’t there? It defies logic that some people truly believe they are born with the right to have more than others. Unfortunately they didn’t live only during the Civil War or during the Hacienda’s heydays… they are still among us.
Your readers (and maybe you, Joanna, if you haven’t seen it already) might enjoy the 1977 film, “La Casta Divina”. Those gracious homes don’t look so gracious after you consider how awful the families that built them were.
I saw the film years ago… I should try to get a copy and see it again. Thanks Richard.
One of the most important features of the hacienda system is the fees that the workers were charged for everything. It wasn’t only buying things in the company stores. There was a cost to practically every event in life and the church figured prominently:
Want to get married? Pay a fee to the hacienda and another one to the church.
Oh and don’t forget that both the bride and groom must first have permission (often denied) of the haciendado.
Have a baby and want to have him/her christened? There’s a fee to the church.
Want to leave the hacienda for school? Practically impossible. A few might be selected by the haciendado, but this indentured their parents further, requiring the return of the child once educated to help pay the parents’ debt.
Want to leave the hacienda to visit other family near-by? Only with permission, only on Sunday, and often only after paying a fee.
And of course, don’t forget your weekly tithing to the church, which were frequently compulsory and collected in the hacienda chapel.
So, besides having to buy all their meager food and clothing in the company store, there was a system of constant costs and fees. It was an arduous life and nearly impossible to escape.
Mexico has had a number of revolutions and there were always understandable causes behind them.
Your added details are correct and there was more still. But similar darkness is part of every country’s past. One would hope we could move beyond the hatred that causes us to behave in these ways. Regretably it seems this has not happened quite yet.