Campesino

Campesino, the Spanish word for "peasant." In modern times the term has taken on a broader meaning in Spanish America. Now campesino is used to refer to all members of the Latin American rural working class. This includes agricultural wage laborers (jornaleros) and small landholders (minifundistas). The term also still refers to peasants (mozos colonos) who perform labor for the right to farm a small plot of land or in exchange for agricultural produce. Campesino is a very general term which encompasses all rural people of the lower economic strata, including men, women, and children. In some countries such as Peru, the term campesino sometimes refers to peoples of indigenous heritage when they are from the working class.

See alsoColono .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Additional Bibliography

Boyer, Christopher R. Becoming Campesinos: Politics, Identity, and Agrarian Struggle in Postrevolutionary Michoacán, 1920–1935. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003.

Katz, Friedrich. Riot, Rebellion, and Revolution: Rural Social Conflict in Mexico. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Salvatore, Ricardo Donato. Wandering Paysanos: State Order and Subaltern Experience in Buenos Aires during the Rosas Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.

Zamosc, León, Manuel Chiriboga Vega, and Estela Martínez. Estructuras agrarias y movimientos campesinos en América Latina [1950–1990]. Madrid: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, 1997.

                                        Rachel A. May