Haciendas

The word “Hacienda” means estate, or large cattle ranching plantation. Some haciendas were even mines or factories for businesses. Haciendas were a display of wealth and luxury, because you were able to afford large amounts of land. Haciendas tended to be family owned, and have a lot of history behind them. Haciendas started out as land grants given to the conquistadors, or the Spanish conquers. Once they became owners, they were referred to hacendados or patrons. Campesino, or workhand, was the workers of the Haciendas. Haciendas didn’t produce large-scale items though; it was large plantations producing small-scale items. Only the best of the best land was used, there were no exceptions to the land usage. While the production was low, the prices were high because if there were more productions going on, they would have had to lower the prices. People didn’t necessarily have Haciendas to be economically helpful; they did for their own status. Haciendas produced items from meat, to produce, and other items able to be exported for income. The campesino was in debt to the Patron for their whole lives, and if they had children, the children took on the parent’s debt. They would live on the Patron’s land, but labor was their pay off. When the campesino’s needed to borrow money from the Patron’s for things such as weddings, funerals and gatherings, they would fall into debt and typically stay in debt. Because the campesino literally owns absolutely nothing, to them the Patrons were incredibly wealthy, even though in reality they weren’t extremely wealthy. Patrons just had incredible status. Patrons also never encourage that there is any better or different, so campesino’s never really know any different. Any money that is made is immediately put into saving for fiestas, or given to the Patrons. The campesino knows no different though, and believes