Transformaciones agrarias y organización social en la Costa austral / Agrarian transformations and social organization in the austral Coas

Abstract

Since the second half of the 20th century, a series of quick transformations took place in Ecuador. Agrarian reform laws in 1964 and 1973, framed by the Green Revolution, changed the scenery and actors in the rural world. Modernization in the rural areas left gamonalismo (authoritative wealthy landownership) in the highlands and sharecropping in the coast, largely behind, in order to adapt labor and social relations to the capitalist system. Peasant economies resisted to a model of development that was alien to their rationality, and soon, the peasantry that had struggled for their land created a new rural proletariat within the modern agricultural farming backdrop. Some peasant groups united to form agricultural cooperatives that, in some way or another, would open their possibilities for survival. The study case of the peasant organization UROCAL (Regional Union of Coastal Peasant Organizations) is representative of the alleged changes put forward in the rural world, particularly in the southern coast of Ecuador.