| Summary: | From colonial times well into the twentieth century (and, unfortunately, even beyond)
the man/land relationship in Latin America has been markedly unjust. Small numbers of
families have owned large tracts of the best land, while large numbers of poor families
have struggled with tiny plots of marginal land or labored on the estates of the rich. Chile
was no exception to this pattern. Thus, its experiment with land reform in the 1960s and
1970s, the setback of reform under the military in the 1970s and 1980s, and the resumption
of reform under democrats in the 1990s, may provide lessons for the rest of Latin
America. Is a preferential option for the rural poor still possible in a neoliberal economic
system? In Chile, the answer is a qualified yes
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