TO THE south lies Mexico, a nation molded by foreign domination. This major factor has been responsible for the form and shape her history and culture have taken. One cannot view the frustrations and aspirations of these peoples without taking cognizance of the far-reaching effects of Hernan Cortes' incursion during the early part of the fifteen hundreds. Three centuries of Spanish rule subsequently left an indelible mark on the economy, class structure and domination of governmental affairs.

Prior to the Mexican revolution in 1911, but after the decline of Spanish sovereignty during the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mexico had evolved a social structure intertwined with land ownership. If social strata can be compared to a pyramid, the pinnacle represents the Creoles and the gachupin, and the base represents the Indians and Negroes, with the mestizos some place in between. The Creoles were those aristocrats born in Mexico but of Spanish ancestry, whereas the gachupin were of Spanish birth. There was constant rivalry between both groups but on one subject agreement prevailed - the importance of control of the land.

The center of economic activity was the hacienda - a large land area enveloping thousands of acres. As in the case of the manorial system in medieval Europe, it was self sufficient, capable of supplying the inhabitants with the necessities of life-food, church and government. The hacendado or owner of the estate was usually an absentee landlord of foreign birth. Over and over during pre-revolutionary days, the peones, who were the Indians, and the mestizos (Indians and Spanish who intermarried) resented the domination of the foreign element. Although the peones were legally free to leave the hacienda, their constant state of debt, encouraged by the owners, prevented any such exodus.

Under Diaz, the last pre-revolutionary leader, Mexican society had many of the characteristics of a modern totalitarian state. The power of this regime was fully behind the hacendados and encouraged the growth of foreign land concentration. During this era, eight foreigners controlled 55 million acres along the United States border, and 64 hacendados owned approximately one-half of all the private land. This indicates the extent of land concentration. In many states it was found that well over 90 percent of the heads of families owned no individual property. In one such state, Oaxaca, the number of families without land was 99.8 percent.

It is little wonder, then, that the first major split occurred over the land question. Madero, the revolution's first hero, failed to recognize the importance that land reform had for millions of Mexicans, thus Zapato was able to appeal to the landless from rural areas. He advocated immediate seizure of lands which had been taken from the villages, the expropriation of one-third of the land held by hacendados who did not obstruct the revolution course, and complete expropriation from those who directly or indirectly opposed. Subsequent leaders have struggled against vast odds to change a tenure system which had all but eliminated the average Mexican from owning land.