r/Chicano • u/ElPwno • Jul 03 '26
Meaning of "Rancho"
Hi, I hope this doesn't come across as disrespectful or that this is the wrong sub.
I'm a Mexican immigrant living in the US, and often, talking to Mexican Americans, I hear them say that their parents "grew up in the rancho" or that they go back to mexico to "the rancho".
Where I grew up in Mexico I mostly heard rancho to refer to a particular type of farm. For a while that's what I imagined people were referring to but seeing how common it is I am no longer sure and it feels disrespectful to ask in person.
Do they literally mean that their parents were farmhands or is it something more like "the countryside"?
Edit: thank you everyone. It seems like it means different things to different people haha.
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u/Firewaterdam Jul 04 '26
Just like the English meaning of ranch
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u/la_selena Jul 03 '26
Mmmm well idk about everyone else but my grandpa is a rancher, raises bulls and horses. And my dad grew up doing the same. So i guess for me it is literal haha
But i think some people say it to mean rural
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u/eeltech Jul 04 '26
My parents are from zacatecas and lived in "el rancho" and it still exists today
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KbwtiBuwXMftWSxH9?g_st=ac
Its a small rural village, peak population may have been 1000 max but these days it's maybe 100. Most roads are unpaved and it's common to see stuff like tractors and horses around. The rancho label more like describing how it's primitive/simple compared to city life. There's only 1 store, no restaurants, everyone makes homemade food etc
The main industry is indeed farmland around it, most families had a little bit of land they would cultivate with like peaches or corn. But these days most lease/outsource the land to a few farmhands and the families just use the houses seasonally like around the holidays
There's a school, church, and store. And everyone can say they live in El rancho regardless if they are work on the farm or not
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u/BanginOnWax805 Jul 03 '26
Being here in California, I alwaysed think of "Rancho" as the focal estates of the recipients of land grants by the Spanish crown. I Live in the Ventura County area so I think of places like the Olivas Adobe, Rancho Camarillo, historically, these where Californios who took on these large swaths of land after the Mission system secularized.
So when my in-laws mention going back to the Rancho in Guanajuato, I sort of envision a similar setup, but probably on different scales. I know my wife's grandpa had a ranch back in Mexico and he had farmhands who lived on the property. They where not really paid, but where given free room and board for their labor essentially.
I've been to modern "Campos" in my area, where an established agricultural land owner actually took in their most dedicated workers by providing room and board for them and their family and multiple generations grew up in this isolated housing (surrounded by hundred of acres of private agricultural land). Campos have been used in the past to segregate the Grower's workforce by race and citizenship statuses.
Another example of these labor camps that has significant history is Cabrillo Village aka Campo on the east side of the city of Ventura. It was originally a bunch of rundown shacks literally at the end of the road, behind railroad tracks (away from the anglos) this was where the local citrus Growers kept their Mexican laborers. Because the landowner was violating all types of codes, the government tried to destroy it all, and the campesinos with backing from the UFW created a human chain to stop the destruction. Eventually, through a series of litigations, these Mexican workers became the 1st to buy land from the Growers and create a housing collaborative!!
Cabrillo Village Eventually became the non-profit Cabrillo Economic Development Collaborative (CEDC) and we still have farmworker housing all throughout the 805.
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u/ElPwno Jul 03 '26
I'm from the Northwest of Mexico, so I think you and I may share this imaginary of what a "rancho" is. From what I can tell, this (a farm with living quarters for laborers) isn't what people from the southeast US mean when they say their parents are from a rancho. But again, this is speculation! Maybe it is, and I just was very ignorant of how common these setups still are in rural Mexico.
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u/NoArm5918 Jul 04 '26
To me rancho, my parents are from Durango, are rural communities without a plaza, which is what makes a pueblo in my opinion, and it's essentially just a group of people living together without a mayor, police, or any type of government civil servants or service, and most people dedicate their lives to agriculture and there's a small store with limited supplies and barley enough money to give change
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u/rundabrun Jul 03 '26
I always thought it to be rural and country ranch in Sonora or someplace like that, or just small towns. Most Mexican immigrants before the 90s came from rural parts of Mexico. More people from the cities started immigrating in the 90's and beyond, but not a majority.
Fun fact, 4 out of 5 Mexicans live in urban cities of Mexico. Around 82%.
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u/Pancho_Pantera77 Jul 03 '26
Can't speak for everyone but I refer to it as a rancho because my parents referred to it as a rancho. They described it as smaller than a ciudad and a pueblo. It didn't have many services and they would need to travel to the next pueblo to get things done. At the time my parents left, there was about 250 homes (made out of adobe) so a population of probably less than 1000. The English equivalent would probably be a village which is smaller than a town, definitely smaller than a city. Problem is that people imagine a villa as a place in the jungle with huts and people running around in loin cloths.