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This article presents several books related to sociology. "Hacia una sociologia del surco: Resultados del Sexto Congreso Nacional de Sociologia de Morelia," by Roberto Agramonte. In this small volume the distinguished professor of sociology and director of the Department of Cultural Interchange at the University of Havana summarizes succinctly the program of Mexico's Sixth National Sociological Congress and appraises with keen insight most of the major papers presented at it. "El hombre y Ia tierra en Boyacd: Bases socio-históricas para una ref orma agraria," by Orlando Fals Borda. This volume contains an intensive study of the institutionalized relations between man and the land in the Department of Boyacá, Colombia. The study was done with the aid of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the English version was presented as a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Florida. "Migraciones internas en Costa Rica," by Wilburg Jimenez Castro. Based largely upon materials gathered in the 1950 census of population, this volume contains the results of one of the most thorough going studies of rural-urban and interregional migration ever done in Latin America.

This article offers empirical evidence of the existence of informal credit in rural areas of Latin America as of January 1971 and examines its implications for government attempts to grant institutional credit to farmers who have traditionally relied on informal credit. The article specifically cites examples of informal moneylending from Colombia. In the case of Latin America, a survey of studies reveals the scarcity of empirical evidence on informal credit transactions (that is, credit supplied by village store owners, itinerant traders, moneylenders, neighbors, relatives, landlords and friends), despite the importance of this type of credit in countries with poorly developed money markets. During a sample field survey of Colombian farm operators, nearly 60 percent of the 459 farmers interviewed claimed to have borrowed funds from informal credit suppliers, that is, landlords, itinerant traders, friends, neighbors, relatives, village store owners and moneylenders, from 1968 to 1971. Farmers were asked whether they preferred to utilize credits of private or state banks. Of the 458 farmers responding, 12.4 percent of the farmers preferred the private bank; 44.9 percent, the state bank; 3.5 percent preferred both and nearly 40 percent claimed they preferred neither one.

Methods used for correcting the problems of small farm units (minifundia) in Europe have proven inadequate in Latin America. Attempts to remedy these problems have been frustrated partially because of the heterogeneity of the small farm units found in Latin America; The term minifundia covers a number of distinct types of units whose characteristics, problems and possibilities for solution are very different. Moreover, many of the minifundia in Latin America differ substantially from those found in Europe. On the basis of several functional characteristics, this article suggests a typology for classifying minifundia in Latin America so that remedial alternatives can be more easily identified. From this classification one type has been selected, the dependent, for further discussion. By the use of a Colombian example, the article describes the socio-economic characteristics of several prominent forms of dependent minifundia and relate these characteristics to some of the remedial alternatives.

Compares the unemployment problems in Latin America, examining the case of Colombia and Cuba. Emergence of the shortage of employment after the colonialists had freed themselves politically from Madrid and Lisbon; Impact of population explosion on the employment structure; Adoption by the government of President Fidel Castro of a traditional model in which two lines of approach were used to determine economic policy.