Abstract
The land problem lies deeply rooted in Mexico's past. Centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the nomads arriving from the North found the arable land already occupied. This led to open warfare for the possession of the land, which has carried on down, even to the present, through struggles between neighboring tribes and villages. |This demand for land was so keen that it resulted in the development of a fairly well organized system of land-tenure among the Aztecs long before the Spaniard arrived. Land was held in common, usually by the subdivision of the pueblo, the calpolli or kinship group. In addition lands were held hereditarily(sic) by the heads of families, and public plots were cultivated for the benefit of the tribe and the Aztec overlords.