Development of the Laguna Region

T nHE Laguna Cotton Region is not only the oldest cotton region of Mexico but also the most important, producing 51 per cent of the Mexican cotton. A large basin in north central Mexico, the lowest part being 3,700 feet above the sea, forms the Laguna Region. It extends over 1,250,000 acres of the Bolson de Mayran which is a part of that immense region known as the Bolson de Mapimi. The municipalities of Torreon, San Pedro, Matamoros, and Viesca in the state of Coahuila and Gomez Palacio, Lerdo and Mapimi in Durango comprise the Laguna Region. The inhabitants of these municipalities numbered 263,157 in 1940. The population density thus averaged 135 per square mile. About 70 per cent of this population is in Coahuila and the remaining 30 per cent in Durango. The census figure for 1940 shows a decided increase, for in 1924, there were only 175,000 inhabitants in the entire Region. Of Mexico's total population, 25 per cent live in communities with less than 300 inhabitants. However, in Laguna, the percentage of rural population is much higher. Approximately 46 per cent of the people are rural, the remaining. 54 per cent being distributed among six cities and numerous towns. There exists in the Laguna Region an excess population in proportion to the irrigated as well as to the distributed lands. The great overpopulation which exists today is due for the most part to the fact that the agrarian distribution was made in 1936 during the months of October, November, and December, just at the time the picking was completed. The picking season, August to October, raised the population from 17,000 to 36,000 peasants. During this period, a large mass of peasants came to live in the Region. In exceptionally good years, they earned enough to take care of their needs and saved a little to take back to their place of origin but the good years were rare. This overpopulation has created one of the most serious problems of the Republic. Numerous measures are being taken towards solving this difficulty. Military measures, plagues, droughts, and famines all but completely wiped out the indigenous population of Laguna Few of the inhabitants are direct successors of the Indians who were living peaceably in the Region when the conquerors came. There is no trace, ethnographic nor linguistic, of any Indian tribe. The racial type predominating is Spanish-speaking Mestizo. When the Spanish conquistadors commenced to colonize Laguna, it was inhabited by a number of tribes whose manners and customs were gentle and peaceful and who were called generically Irritilas or Laguneros. They lived by fishing in the Nazas and the Aguanaval rivers and in the lagoons of Mayran and Viesca, by planting on the banks of the rivers, and by hunting or gathering wild products of the forests. They held their lands as communal property and worked them collectively. Little difficulty was had in protecting their lands since mountains and arid plateaus shut out the poorer tribes to the north. They were unprepared to

Economic geography · Geography · Agricultural and Food Production Studies · Latin American rural development · Plant and soil sciences