This book studies the changing social relations in a region of Costa Rica that does not conform to the country's image as an "agrarian democracy" and investigates why latifundios (large unproductive or under-utilized estates) still dominate much of Latin America.

Introduction: the Latin American hacienda, Agrarian capitalism, and political process; Part I. The Period Before 1950: 1. Formation and consolidation of the haciendas; 2. technology, transport, and markets; 3. Relations of production and domination; 4. Agrarian conflict and the external peasantry; 5. The transition to the beef export economy; Part II. The Period After 1950: 6. The beef export economy; 7. Changes on the ground: the large properties; 8. The rural poor: resistance, resignation, and retreat; 9. Limits of the transformation from hacienda to plantation; 10. The politics of water and landlord resistance; Conclusion: economic crisis and the persistence of latifundismo; Appendixes; Notes; Index.