Haciendas and peones

The hacienda was a large rural estate of the colonial era devoted to farming, ranching or supplying the mines. Its owner, the hacendado, employed workers called peones.

Peones were the wage laborers who worked on the haciendas. They were often tied to the estate by debt, a system called peonage that worsened in the 19th century and was one of the causes of the Mexican Revolution.