Mexico Revisited: Some Hidden Facts About Mexican History and Mexican Society--Part 2

In his 2010 book "Mexico: Why A Few Are Rich and The People Poor," University of California-San Diego Professor Emeritus of History Ramon Eduardo Ruiz revealed the following additional hidden facts about Mexican history and Mexican society:

11. "...Mexico inherited from Spain a society split by class and by caste...By the 1840s, Mexico's society had approximately 8 million inhabitants, over half of them persons of dark skin, largely owing to Indian ancestors, the large majority of them woefully poor..." (page 63)

12. "The [Mexican] army ate up 80 percent of the Republic's budget money for 90,000 men by 1850..." (page 66)

13. "The church was the biggest property owner and the [Mexican] Republic's chief banker..." (page 67)

14. "...As Mexico became fully integrated into the world market, the engine driving it was the flow of capital from United States..." (page 93)

15. "So attractive did Yankees find Mexico that they had invested nearly $2 billion dollars by 1911, monopolizing over 80 percent of all foreign investments." (page 93)

16. "[In 1911] U.S. corporations controlled over 80 percent of mining, owned over 100 million acres of land, and provided nearly 60 percent of imports [in Mexico]..." (page 93)

17. "...By 1900...foreigners owned 150 million acres , a majority of them in American hands, roughly one-third of the land of Mexico. Only 4 percent of rural families possessed any land..." (page 101)

18. "...By 1900, some 82 percent of the country's campesinos were landless; just 1 percent of the population owned 97 percent of the fertile land..." (part 102)

19. "Between 1810 and 1910, wages paid to the peon remained nearly stationary [in Mexico]..." (page 102)

20. "...In the census of 1930, just 1.5 percent of the landlords owned 97 percent of the rural property..." (page 126)