Ejidos: Mexico's Community Land System

The Ejido: Revolutionary Land Reform Made Tangible

Ejido (Spanish, from Latin exitus "way out") is Mexico's unique form of communal land tenure, born from the 1910 Revolution and enshrined in Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution.

What Is an Ejido?

• Legal entity: A community (núcleo agrario) granted usufruct rights over a defined territory.
• Land ownership: Nation (state) holds title; ejido holds indefinite, non-transferable usufruct.
• Internal structure: Three land categories:
  • Parcelas (parcels): Individual/family plots for housing & cultivation (heritable, not sellable outside ejido).
  • Tierras de uso común (common lands): Pasture, forest, water, roads — collectively managed.
  • Tierras de uso urbano: Village/town site.
• Governance: Asamblea General (all ejidatarios) elects Comisariado Ejidal (admin) and Consejo de Vigilancia (oversight).

Historical Arc

• 1917–1992: Massive redistribution — ~100M ha (50% of national territory) to ~28,000 ejidos & comunidades.
• 1992 Reform (Salinas): Article 27 amended — allowed privatization (dominio pleno) via 2/3 assembly vote. Parcels can be titled, sold, rented, mortgaged. Common lands protected (require 2/3 + federal approval).
• Post-1992: ~50% of ejidos have certified (PROCEDE) or titled (CORETT) parcels; many remain fully communal.

Ejido vs. Comunidad

• Ejido: Post-revolutionary grant; members = ejidatarios; land originally federal.
• Comunidad (indigenous community): Pre-Hispanic/colonial recognition; members = comuneros; land = ancestral title.

Current Significance

• Social: ~3M ejidatarios/comuneros; backbone of rural Mexico.
• Economic: Produce ~40% of national corn, beans; significant coffee, sugarcane, cattle.
• Environmental: Common lands = de facto conservation corridors.
• Political: PRI's rural base; now contested by Morena, PAN, independents.

Ejido = collective stewardship with evolving property rights — Mexico's distinctive answer to "who owns the land?"