Moneylending in Myth and Practice in Twentieth-Century Mexico

This article demonstrates that ejidatarios sometimes actively sought loans from moneylenders alongside other lenders, such as the Banco Ejidal, as one strategy for managing the uncertainties that shaped their lives. It asserts that moneylenders proved to be very important financial intermediaries for rural borrowers. By explicating how and why they continued existing alongside formal financial intermediaries such as the Banco Ejidal, this article offers a more nuanced way of understanding financial intermediation.