The lands of don Jesús, Reform and latifundio in Choluteca (1876-1891)

Abstract

This article is a synthesis of field work carried out in 1989 in the municipality of Choluteca, Honduras. The results of which were published by the author and two other colleagues under the title "The evolution of private property in the municipality of Choluteca (1876-1891)". In this synthesis we follow in the footsteps of a particular owner, who allowed us to address the problem of land concentration in a few hands. This during a period in the history of Honduras in which the Honduran government is trying to modernize the state and incorporate it into capitalist relations of production. The central idea in this work is to demonstrate that, although the modernization measures work halfway in that municipality, they do not manage to transform the existing pre-capitalist production structures, on the contrary, these reforms "involuntarily" cause the formation of large properties such as the of one of the central characters of this article, Mr. Jesús B. Guillén and those of other historical agents that are part of the study. This situation slows down the development of a market economy that leads to the consolidation of a landed oligarchy.