Cheering peons, in their dirty overalls, folded serapes over their
shoulders, sailed their huge white sombreros into the air last week in
Merida as President Lazaro Crdenas, taking another step in the
Agrarian reforms under his Six-Year Plan, announced he would break up
Yucatn's great henequen* estates, giving the land to the peasants. Few days later, Cabino Vsquez, head of the Agrarian Department, arrived
in the Yucatan peninsula with brigades of surveyors, engineers and
technical assistants, ready to split the expropriated estates into
small farms and ejidos, communal allotments. * Sisal hemp, or henequen, is a fibrous plant used for twine,
cordage, etc., second only to manila hemp in strength. Last year
Yucatan's 250,000 acre henequen plantations produced one-third of the
world's needs.
