Peasant Mobilization in Ecuado

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76-4689
UGGEN, John Forrest, 1943-
PEASANT MOBILIZATION IN ECUADOR: A CASE
t STUDY OF GUAYAS PROVINCE.
University of Miami, Ph.D., 1975
History, modern
Xerox University Microfilms tAnn Arbor, Michigan 48106
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© 1975
JOHN FORREST UGGEN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
R e p ro d u c e d w ith p erm is sio n o f th e c o p yrig h t o w n er. F u rth e r re p ro d u ctio n pro hib ited w ith o u t p erm is sio n .
THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

STUDY OF GUAYAS PROVINCE
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BY
John Forrest Uggen

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A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty

of the University of Miami
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
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the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Coral Gables, Florida
June, 1975
T H E U N IV E R S IT Y O F M IA M I
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
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STUDY OF GUAYAS PROVINCE
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John Forrest Uggen

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Approved:
ihn P. Harrison
Professor of History Graduate School
Chairman of Dissertation
Committee
Ramon H. Myersv David Cartano

Professor of Economics Associate Professor of
Sociology
Jaime Suchlicki Donald Morris

Associate Professor of Assistant Professor of
History Political Science
R e p ro d u c e d w ith p erm is sio n o f th e co p yrig h t o w n e r. F u rth e r re p ro d u ctio n pro hib ited w ith o u t p erm is sio n .
UGGEN, JOHN FORREST (Ph.D., Inter-American Studies)
Peasant Mobilization in Ecuador: A Case Study of Guayas

Province! (June, 19 75)
Abstract of a doctoral dissertation at the University of

Miami.
Dissertation Supervised by Professor John P. Harrison.
In the early 1960s peasant organizations began
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pressuring for agrarian reform on Ecuador's littoral. The
organizations first appeared in Milagro and Yaguachi counties

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of Guayas province, where the spread of commercialization
was driving the peasants from the land. Peasant mobiliza

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tion was the result of a series of inter-related factors--
commercialization, urbanization, and social mobilization.
Peasant organizations were most successful on the remnants

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of the old cacao plantations. The cacao crisis of the
1920s ruined the planter elite, who declined in influence
with the expansion of corporate agriculture. When demand
for cacao rose after 1948, the peasants challenged the
planters for control of the land. Urban political groups
became actively engaged in peasant mobilization with the
decline of the economy after 1955. Although an agrarian
reform law was passed in 1964, powerful agrarian interests
limited its effectiveness, causing the alienation of the
peasantry and continued rural discontent.
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study applies functionalist theory in an
attempt to explain peasant political mobilization on
Ecuador’s littoral during the 1960s. Specifically, the

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focus is on the formation of the "Fifth of June" agri
cultural cooperative in Milagro and Yaguachi counties
in Guayas province. An effort is made to test empiri
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cally, in so far as possible, several hypotheses
stemming from the growing literature on peasant mobili
zation in Latin America.

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In the Introduction the theoretical basis for
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this study is outlined and several hypotheses presented.
Chapter I , places the Milagro-Yaguachi area within the
context of the broader social, economic and political

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dynamics of Ecuador. The next eleven chapters are
devoted to an analysis of the causal factors of peasant
mobilization. Particular emphasis is given to the roles
of the commercialization of agriculture, modernization,
urbanization, social mobilization, and political allies
from outside the peasantry.
Chapters Three and Four, trace the rise and fall
of the "cacao" planter elite from the 1880s to the 1930s.
Chapter Five, focuses on the effects of the cacao crisis
of the 1920s on the traditional patronage relationships

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between landlords and tenants. Chapters Six and Seven
discuss the role o£ commercial agriculture, urbanization,
social mobilization, and other modernizing influences in
the process of peasant mobilization. Chapters Eight-Ten
trace the formation of an alliance between the peasants
and political elements from the towns. Chapter Eleven
analyzes the role of the 1963-1966 military junta in
agrarian reform and peasant mobilization. Chapter Twelve
covers the overthrow of the military government by elements
opposed to agrarian reform, and the subsequent alienation
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of the peasant movement. The final chapter summarizes the
results of this case study in terms of the hypotheses

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presented in the Introduction.
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A Note on Methodology and Sources
The choice of the Milagro-Yaguachi peasant move
ment as a dissertation topic was influenced by a tour of

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duty as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1965-1967, during which
time I, was assigned to the "Fifth of June" cooperative as
an extension worker. The field research for this study
was carried out during the summer of 1973.
JThe primary sources of information for this study
were the Yaguachi County Land Office (Registro de la
Propiedad) and the Fifth of June archive from 1961-1968.
Additional sources were the National Office of Cadastral
Assessments (ONAC) survey of 255 rural properties in
Yaguachi county and the city of Yaguachi rural tax rolls

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for 1964 and 1968. The Fifth of June records were
supplemented with interviews of cooperative leaders
and members during the period of field research.
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the
officers and members of the Fifth of June cooperative,
who willingly submitted to interviews and permitted access
to the records and correspondence of the cooperative. I
am especially grateful to Albino Mosquera Ibarra and
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Alberto Pilalot Vera, the president and general manager
respectively of the Fifth of June cooperative. IE A debt
of gratitude must also be acknowledged to the Registrar
of the Yaguachi County Public Records Office, who kindly

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permitted my complete access to county land tenure and
tax records. A detailed description of the Yaguachi county
records, the ONAC survey, and the Fifth of June materials

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is presented in the bibliography and appendix.
I would also like to express my gratitude to:
Dr. Jose Quinchuela Inga, my "tlo politico" who generously
supported me during my period of field research; Dr.
Ignacio Palacios and Ing. Eugenio Cruz, of the Agricultural
Extension Service in Milagro; Bolivar Garcia, administrator
of the properties of the Junta de Asistencia Social
(Board of Social Welfare), who gave me valuable insights
into the workings of the 1964 agrarian reform law; and
Julio Viteri Gamboa, Milagro historian and archeologist,

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• vi
whose understanding of the workings of local Milagro
politics was especially helpful.
Finally, I wish to thank the University of Miami
Graduate School for fellowship support during my career
as a graduate student, and to my wife Martha, who provided
the moral support without which this study could never
have been completed.
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VI1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
List o£ Tables _xi
List of Tables in the Appendix xii
List of Illustrations xiii
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INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter IE
I. THE SETTING 28
Milagro-Yaguachi 39
Population Centers 41
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Communications 42
The Regional Economy: Agricultural
Production 45
The Sugar Ingenios 46
II. THE MILAGRO-YAGUACHI PEASANT MOVEMENT:

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AN INTRODUCTION 51
ILL. THE RISE OF THE PLANTER ELITE 62
The Origins of the Land Tenure System in

Milagro-Yaguachi 62
Survival of Colonial Latifundios 67
Appropriation of Indian Communal Lands: The
League of the Indians of Nauza 69
Settlement of Unclaimed Lands 71
Land Consolidation: Railroad Construction
and the Cacao Boom 75
The Cacao Planter Elite ^ 77
The Banco Comercial y Agrfcola 78
The Milagro-Yaguachi Cacao Planter Elite 84
The Cacao Crisis: 1917-1933 89
IV. THE DECLINE OF THE PLANTER ELITE 91
VI xx
Chapter Page
The Cacao Crisis: 1917-1933 91
Dismemberment of the Cacao Plantations 96
Expansion of the Banana Companies 107
The Legacy of the Banco Comercial y
Agricola: The Expansion of the
San Carlos Sugar Mill 110
Conclusion 112
V. THE CRISIS OF PATERNAL AUTHORITY: 1930-1948 113
Labor on the Cacao Plantations 113

Landlord-Peas ant Relations on the
Plantations 116
The Cacao Crisis and Landlord-Peasant
Relations 120
The Expansion of Rice Production 122
Migration 124
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The Crisis of Paternal Authority 125
VI. COMMERCIALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE: RURAL

CONFLICT 1948-1955 128
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Bananas and Cacao 128
Government Development Policy: 1948-1955 130
The Revolutionary Effect of a Road
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Building Program 132
Confrontation on the Cacao Plantations:
The Formation of the Syndicate of
Tenants of the Maruja and Eugenia
Haciendas, 1948-1955 138
Formation of the Tenants Syndicate 140
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VII. URBANIZATION AND SOCIAL MOBILIZATION 143
VIII. WORKERS AND PEASANTS: THE BUILDING OF A

RURAL-URBAN COALITION PART I: 1928-1955 150
Organized Labor in Ecuador 152
IX. THE FORGING OF A RURAL-URBAN COALITION:

PART II: 1955-1961 161
The Syndicate of Tenants of the Maruja

and Eugenia 161
The 1960 Campaign and Peasant Mobilization 168
The Dissolution of the Companfa Agrfcola
del Guayas 175
X. THE AROSEMENA MONROY ADMINISTRATION

1961-1963 182
ix
Chapter Page
Prelude to the Military Coup 188
XI. THE MILITARY AND PEASANT MOBILIZATION 193
The Autonomous Agencies 194

The First Tariff War 196
The Agrarian Reform 199
The 1964 Agrarian Reform Law 204
The First Year Agrarian Reform 1964-1965 207
The Military and the Peasant Movement 209
The Peasant Movement in Milagro 211
The National Federation of Peasant
Organizations 221
XII. THE ALIENATION OF THE PEASANT MOVEMENT 224
The Dismantling of Reform 224
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The Dismantling of Agrarian Reform 227
ONAC: The Re-Assessment of RuralProperty 229
Alienation of the Peasant Movement
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CONCLUSION 243
APPENDIX 259
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 269
GLOSSARY 289
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Landowners Milagro-Yaguachi, 1960 48
2 Peasant Organizations in Milagro-Yaguachi,

1960 53
3 Expropriations Yaguachi County, 1965-1973 57
4 Erabargos Yaguachi County, 1966-1973 58
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5 Consolidation of Landholding Milagro-
Yaguachi 73
6 Cacao Planters Milagro-Yaguachi Circa 1912 85

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7 Cacao Production on Haciendas Balao Region,
1918-1925 93
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8 Workers Dismissals in Balao, 1922-1925 94
9 Plantations Sold, 1917-1934 95
10 Dismemberment of Chagualu, 1920-1967 96

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11 Dismemberment of Antonio Madinya’s Holdings 97
12 Dismemberment of the Doraliza, 1954-1960 98
13 Descendants of Jorge M. Ycaza and Rosaura

Manzo 101
14 Probate of Jorge M. Ycaza’s Will, 1916 102
15 Partition of the Angelica, 1917 103
16 Testament of Rosaura Manzo 104
17 Testament of Maria Luisa Ycaza 105
18 Partition of the Rosaura, Lot Marquez de

la Plata 106
19 Partition of the Carmelina, Lot Amador Ycaza 106

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'id1
Table Page
20 Purchases of Compania Frutera Sudamericana 109
21 Expansion of the Sociedad Agricola e

Industrial 111
22 Debt Peonage on the Angelica, 1920 116
23 Land Use of Five Plantations, Circa 1920 121
24 Urbanization, 1950-1962 145
25 Indicators of Social Mobilization, 1950-1968 145
26 Key Economic Indicators 146
27 Dismemberment of Taura-Vainillo, 1954-1961 177
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28 Index of Rural Violence 1960-1963 179
29 Land Reform, 1964-1971 IE 229
30 ONAC Assessments in Yaguachi County, 1971 232
LIST OF TABLES IN THE APPENDIX

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31 Principal Agricultural Crops 260
32 Composition of the Value of Production of

Ecuadorean Agriculture, 1963 261
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33 Agricultural Production Guayas Province,

1968 261
34 Composition of Ecuadorean Exports, Major

Commodities, 1940-1964 262
35 Land Tenure in Ecuador, 1954 262
36 Land Tenure on the Coast, 1954 263
37 Land Tenure in Guayas Province, 1954 263
38 ONAC Survey Yaguachi County, 1971 264
39 Cacao Production, 1885-1960 265
40 Average Price of Cacao, Coffee, and Rice,

1945-1963 266
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1 A Functionalist Model of Change 5
2 Ecuador 29
3 Counties of Guayas Province 31
4 Communication Routes 40
5 Location of Latifundios 49
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6 Fifth of June Cooperative 54
7 Banana Zones 135

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xiii
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INTRODUCTION
Functionalism and Political Mobilization:

A Definition of Terms
What factors influence the decision of peasants in
Latin America to demand agrarian reform and political
participation? Since the end of World War II and the
rise of Castroism in Cuba, the preoccupation of Latin
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American countries (and the U.S.) with economic growth
and modernization has resulted in a vital concern for the

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role of the peasantry in the development process. This
concern is reflected in the growing number of scholarly

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studies of peasant political mobilization from both sides
of the ideological spectrum.
Spokesmen for the left stress the necessity of a

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political transformation as a precondition for economic
development. Latin American countries are ruled by a
*See especially John Duncan Powell, Political

Mobilization of the Venezuelan Peasant, (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1971.) and Henry A. Landsberger,
ed. Latin American Peasant Movements, (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1970.)
2The marxist view is presented concisely by

Jacques Chonchol, El Desarrollo de America Latina y La
Reforma Agraria, (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico, 1965.)
Other marxist interpretations are Ernest Feder, The Rape of
the Peasantry: Latin America's Landholding System, (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1971.) Rodolfo Staven-
hagen, "Seven Erroneous Theses About Latin America," Latin
American Radicalism, eds. Irving L. Horowitz, Josue de Castro,
2
dominant elite which opposes any reforms which will deprive
them of their wealth or status. Because entrenched agrar
ian and business elites will resist attempts at reform,
the only solution is a radical political revolution which
will eliminate the oligarchy and make way for a more just
and equitable society in which development will be possible.
The traditional pluralist view expounded by U.S.
social scientists3 rejects the notion of a ruling class or
oligarchy. Some interest groups may indeed comprise
economic or political elites, which may be notably stronger
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or more influential than others, but which do not monopo
lize political power. Because no one group has an absolute

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monopoly of power, all groups must compete within a fluid
context of continually shifting alliances and coalitions.^

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In the process of coalition building some groups may be
deliberately mobilized in return for support for specific
policies, thus widening the base of political participation.

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and John Gerassi, (New York: Random House, 1969.) 102-117.,

James Petras and Hugo Zemelman Merino, Peasants in Revolt:
A Chilean Case Study, 1965-1971, (Austin! University of
Texas Press, 1972.)
3An excellent summary of the tenets and assumptions

of pluralism is given by William E. Connolly, MThe Challenge
to Pluralist Theory," The Bias of Pluralism, ed. William E.
Connolly (New York: The Atherton Press, 1969.): 3-34.
^See Albert 0. Hirschman, Journeys Toward Progress

(New York: Doubleday and Co., 1965.), especially Ch. Five,
"The Contriving of Reform," pp. 327-384.
The notion that peasant movements need the support of allies
from outside the peasantry therefore has a firm basis in
pluralist theory. Political change occurs as a gradual
evolutionary process in which new groups enter the political
system as a result of power shifts and socio-economic
changes which endow them with previously lacking power
capabilities.5
Thus opposing conceptions of political power lie
at the center of the continuing debate over "gradualist”
versus "revolutionary" change which has polarized scholar
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ship on Latin America. The central focus of modern
political analysis is how change actually occurs within

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a system "as it is, in spite of what it is, and because
of what it is,"7 This emphasis on discovering "how

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systems work" eschews normative prescriptions of how
systems should work. Because of this apparent "ethical
neutrality," advocates of functionalist or pluralist

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theories have been accused of "conservative bias," of
^The definition of the term "power capabilities"

used in this context is taken from Charles W. Anderson,
Politics and Economic Change in Latin America, (New York:
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1967.) See in particular
Ch. Four, "The Latin American Political System," pp. 87-114.
^Two exceptional recent works which contrast

these opposing theories are William E. Connolly, Ed.,
The Bias of Pluralism and David Ricci, Community Power
and Democratic Theory: The Logic of Political Analysis
(New York: Random House, 19717)
7Hirschman, Ibid, p. 23.
4
defending the status quo by advocating gradual rather than
revolutionary change.®
This criticism is largely unjustified and arises
from a disagreement over how political change actually
occurs. To quote Hirschman, "the traditional dichotomy
of reform vs. revolution does very poorly at ca'tThring
the reality of social and economic change."® The efforts
of Hirschman, Charles Lindblom, Charles W. Anderson, and
a generation of U.S. political economists have been
directed at understanding the "reality of change."10
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This effort would seem to be justified by the mass of
historical evidence that revolutions are rather excep

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tional disturbances in the on-going processes of society
and that for the vast majority of people, gradual change

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offers the only realistic possibility of a meaningful
improvement in their lives.
This study follows in the tradition of pluralist

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and functionalist theories developed by Parsons, Easton,
Almond, Hirschman, Anderson and others.*1 Before applying
8Ibid, pp. 327-334. 9Ibid.

10
See Hirschman, op. cit., Charles W. Anderson,
"Reform mongering and the Uses of Political Power," Inter
American Economic Affairs 19 (Autumn 1965.) and Charles
Lindblom7 ’*The Science of Muddling Through," Public
Administration Review 14 (1959): 79-88. For an application
of this approach to agrarian reform see Robert R. Kaufman,
The Politics of Land Reform in Chile, 1950-1970, (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1972.)
11
Easton's views are presented in David Easton,
A Systems Analysis of Political Life, (New York: John Wiley,
0
these theories to the analysis of peasant mobilization in
Ecuador, it is necessary to spell out the assumptions and
operational definitions on which they are based.
The Functionalist Model
Functionalist theory emphasizes the interdependence
among the social, economic, and political factors which
govern change. This inter-dependence can be represented
sch&jmticallly as three circles which intersect each other
at points A, B, and C in Figure One. Economic change X
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intersects the social system at A and the political system
at B. But changes may be introduced at any point on the
circumference of the three circles.

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acts with the other two and changes in one will eventually
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cause changes in the other two systems as well.
SOCI ET Y
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ECONOMY $ P O L I T Y
Figure 1. A Functionalist Model of Change

Source: Elaborated by the Author.
Sons, 1965.) For Gabriel Almond see Gabriel Almond and G.

Bingham Powell, Jr., Comparative Politics: A Developmental
Approach, (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1966.) and Almond
and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes
and Democracy in Five Nations, (Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1965 )>
6
The inter-relationships between economic, social
and political change is expressed in the concepts o£
"modernization," "social mobilization," and "political
mobilization." In The Passing of Traditional Society,
Daniel Lerner traced the origin of social change in the
Middle East to such "forces of modernization" as the
diffusion of Western technology, mass communications,
industrialization, and urbanization.12
By altering the social structure, modernization
creates new groups of "socially mobilized" people with
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modern values radically different from those of traditional
society. "Social mobilization" has been defined by

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Karl Deutsch as the "process in which major clusters of
old social, economic and psychological committments are

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eroded or broken and people become available for new

13
patterns of socialization and behavior." In applying
Lerner1s thesis, Deutsch discovered that modernization and

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social mobilization correlated with "an expansion of the
politically relevant strata of the population."1* Thus in
functionalist theory political mobilization is the result
12Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society,

(New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1958.}
13Karl W. Deutsch, "Social Mobilization and Political

Development," Harry Eckstein and David E. Apter, eds.,
Comparative Politics: A Reader, (New York: Free Press of
Glencoe, 1963.): 583.
14Ibid, p. 584.
7
of prior social and economic changes.
The work of Lerner, Deutsch and Parsons, had a
major influence on Easton's "Systems analysis" approach
and the "developmental" theories of Almond, Powell, Pye,1^
Verba and others. In these approaches politics is conceived
of as a "system" in interaction with its environment. The
environment consists of the social and economic systems,
which are treatdd as exogenous variables or parameters.
The impulse for political change occurs as an
"endogenous response" of the system to environmental
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changes.1*’ For example, when social or economic changes
cross the boundary into the political system at points B

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and C of the diagram (Fig. 1), they may generate demands
for political change. In proposing an endogenous theory

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of change, Parsons originally argued that "there is no
inherent reason why the "motive force" of social change
in general has to be sought in any one section of the

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social system or its culture ... but in an analysis of the
modes of interdependence of different parts of the social

17
system."A
•^Lucian W. Pye, Aspects of Political Development,

(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1966.)
1f\
For a critique of the "endogenous theory of change"
and of the whole functionalist approach in general see
Anthony A. Smith, The Concept of Social Change: A Critique
of the Functionalist Theory of Social Changed (London-feoston:
ftoutledge and Klegan Paul, 1973 .)
17
Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils, eds., Toward
a General Theory of Action, Harper Torchbooks, 1951, p. 232.
R e p ro d u c e d w ith p erm is sio n o f th e c o p yrig h t o w n e r. F u rth e r re p ro d u ctio n pro hib ited w ith o u t p erm is sio n .
8
The Model in (Fig. 1) illustrates Parson's thesis
that social, economic, and political systems are inter
related. The notion of "systemic interdependence" also
eliminates the need to isolate a "primum mobile" of social
change as Hagen attempted to do,-18 and stresses instead
particular sequences of change and their inter-relationships.
Endogenism is thus the key concept in the function
alist theory of societal change. The mode which endogenous
change assumes, whether in the social, economic, or political

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systems, is "structural differentiation." By analogy with
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biological organisms, the least developed political system
has a limited number of specialized structures. As the

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system develops, it evolved specialized structures to perform
system functions. Therefore, the more develpped political

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systems are those in which "structural differentiation" has
proceeded the farthest.
In the model of political development outlined by

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Almond and Powell, all political systems must perform six
basic functions in order to maintain themselves as systems;
interest articulation, interest aggregation, rule making,
rule application, rule adjudication, and communication.20
18Hagen's search for the "primum mobile" of social

change led him to his theory of the "withdrawal of status
respect" on certain social classes or groups (the psycholo
gical effect of) Everet E. Hagen, On The Theory of Social
Change (Homewood, Illinois: Dorsey Press, 1962)^
19
For a more complete statement of structural
differentiation as the mode of political change see Almond
and Powell, op. cit. pp. 22-23.
20Ibid, pp. 10-12.
9
The level of political development also depends
pm tlje degree pf "cultural secularization" of a particular
system. In The Civic Culture, Almond and Verba list three
basic types of political culture: parochial, subject, and
participant, depending on the mode of orientation toward
political objects. Cultural orientation is divided into
three modes: cognitive, affective and evaluative.
The parochial has no cognitive, affective, or
evaluative orientations; in effect, he has no political
role. The subject is oriented to the output side of the
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system but not toward the input side. The participant
cognizes both output and input sides of the system. If

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he has positive feelings, he will be allegiant to the
system; if his orientations are negative, he will be

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alienated from the system.21
Political mobilization occurs when new groups are
articulating demands for increased participation. Interest

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articulation assumes three modes also, depending on the
degree of structural differentiation.22 Where political
structures are inadequate or unrepresentative, the only
outlet for interest articulation is anomic violence, street
demonstrations, riots, strikes, or in the case of peasants
land invasions and similar manifestations of rural'discontent.
21
For a definition of "political culture" see
Ibid, pp. 20-23, and pp. 50-73.
22
For a definition of interest articulation and
aggregation structures see Ibid, pp. 73-85.

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The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand

right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is

5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as

Xerox University Microfilms

Xerox University Microfilms tAnn Arbor, Michigan 48106

JOHN FORREST UGGEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PEASANT MOBILIZATION IN ECUADOR: A CASE

John Forrest Uggen

Submitted to the Faculty

the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Coral Gables, Florida

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of

John Forrest Uggen

Ramon H. Myersv David Cartano

Jaime Suchlicki Donald Morris

Peasant Mobilization in Ecuador: A Case Study of Guayas

Abstract of a doctoral dissertation at the University of

Dissertation Supervised by Professor John P. Harrison.

In the early 1960s peasant organizations began

organizations first appeared in Milagro and Yaguachi counties

was driving the peasants from the land. Peasant mobiliza­

tion was the result of a series of inter-related factors--

commercialization, urbanization, and social mobilization.

Peasant organizations were most successful on the remnants

of the old cacao plantations. The cacao crisis of the

1920s ruined the planter elite, who declined in influence

with the expansion of corporate agriculture. When demand

for cacao rose after 1948, the peasants challenged the

planters for control of the land. Urban political groups

became actively engaged in peasant mobilization with the

decline of the economy after 1955. Although an agrarian

reform law was passed in 1964, powerful agrarian interests

limited its effectiveness, causing the alienation of the

peasantry and continued rural discontent.

This study applies functionalist theory in an

attempt to explain peasant political mobilization on

Ecuador’s littoral during the 1960s. Specifically, the

cultural cooperative in Milagro and Yaguachi counties

in Guayas province. An effort is made to test empiri­

stemming from the growing literature on peasant mobili­

zation in Latin America.

this study is outlined and several hypotheses presented.

Chapter I , places the Milagro-Yaguachi area within the

context of the broader social, economic and political

dynamics of Ecuador. The next eleven chapters are

devoted to an analysis of the causal factors of peasant

mobilization. Particular emphasis is given to the roles

of the commercialization of agriculture, modernization,

urbanization, social mobilization, and political allies

from outside the peasantry.

Chapters Three and Four, trace the rise and fall

of the "cacao" planter elite from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Chapter Five, focuses on the effects of the cacao crisis

of the 1920s on the traditional patronage relationships

discuss the role o£ commercial agriculture, urbanization,

social mobilization, and other modernizing influences in

the process of peasant mobilization. Chapters Eight-Ten

trace the formation of an alliance between the peasants

and political elements from the towns. Chapter Eleven

analyzes the role of the 1963-1966 military junta in

agrarian reform and peasant mobilization. Chapter Twelve

was driving the peasants from the land. Peasant mobiliza

in Guayas province. An effort is made to test empiri

stemming from the growing literature on peasant mobili

The choice of the Milagro-Yaguachi peasant move