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Figure 1. Mulauco: Study site


The Ecuadorian Institute for Agrarian Reform and Colonization8 divided this hacienda in

the mid 60s as part of its program of land redistribution. Hacienda Mulauco was a big

estate dedicated to cattle ranching and some products like potatoes, corn, and onions,

which were sold in Quito and other towns at the weekly fairs. Due to the socialpressure,9

the agrarian reforms process1 promoted by the Ecuadorian government in 1964 affected


and owners eventually sold their land to high intensive capital agriculture or converted them into tourist
resorts and other economic activities linked with new economic paradigms.
8 Institute Ecuatoriano de Reforma Agraria y Colonizaci6n, IERAC. This organization was changed by the
current Instituto de Desarrollo Agrario (INDA).
9 Social pressure was one of the conditions of the Agrarian Reform Law to affect rural lands. It consist in
the existence of high number of people without land around poorly used estates.
10 This process was aimed to redistribute lands among peasants, the ban of non-capitalist work relations in
rural areas, and to promote the economic use of agriculture lands. Under the agrarian reform law, when a