Productive agricultural space and logic in the State of Hidalgo

Abstract

This paper provides elements to identify the spatial arrangement of the agricultural sector during the so-called Porfiriato, represented by the large estates and their linkage with the mining dynamics prevailing during this period developed by the Mining District (DM), the largest, oldest and most productive of the institution itself and the country: Real del Monte-Pachuca. By the logic of the type of productive articulation, satellite hinterland economies, which link these economies, integrating them closely and functionally to the dynamics of the mining centers, the functionality of Hidalguense agricultural space can be explained. The concentration of land ensured a regular supply of grain, wood and animals needed for mining production. The territorial division of production was thus cemented, as the agricultural node and miner population centers in the state were defined, both paradoxically with different scenarios of population settlement, although linked directly and indirectly by the laying of railway lines and labor. The explanation of this phenomenon has to do with the productive dependence of the Hidalgo economy on the mining shaft, which not only defined the productive relationship, the use of the basic infrastructure and its relationship with the outside world, but also the legal land grabbing and the poor labor and quality of life conditions for both the mineworker and the peasant.