Historia agraria y organización social en la Costa Austral de Ecuador, 1950-2010estudio de caso de una cooperativa agrícola : la Unión Regional de Organizaciones Campesinas del Litoral, UROCAL

Abstract

Since 1950 radical changes in every area started in Ecuador. The country entered the international orbit after the Second World War thanks to the expansion of the cultivation of banana. Agrarian Reforms of 1964 and 1973, in the frame of "The Green Revolution" changed the scene and actors in this rural world. The modernitation of the countryside left behind the highland feudalism and the coastal share-croppings to adecuate laboral and social relatioships to the capitalism system. Rural economies resisted a model of development far away from its racionalism and soon, the country working-class, that had fought for the land, created a new rural proletarian class at the modern agrarian exploitations. Certain groups of peasants joined to create the new agrarian cooperatives, what somehow opened new possibilities for survival. The case of UROCAL (Regional Union of Coastal Agrarian Organizations) is representative of those changes that happened in the ecuadorian rural world, specially on the austral coast of the country. Key Words: UROCAL, Ecuador, Agrarian History, Social Organization.