Perhaps no other institution has had a more significant impact on Latin American history than the large landed estate--the hacienda. In Mexico, the latifundio, an estate usually composed of two or more haciendas, dominated the social and economic structure of the country for four hundred years. A Mexican Family Empire is a careful examination of the largest latifundio ever to have existed, not only in Mexico but also in all of Latin America--the latifundio of the Sanchez Navarros.

Located in the northern state of Coahuila, the Sanchez Navarro...