Množina: haciendas

ETYM Spanish, from Old Span. facienda employment, estate, from Latin facienda, pl. of faciendum what is to be done, from facere to do. Related to Fact.
(Spanish) Farm; estate.
1. A large estate in Spanish-speaking countries.
2. The main house on a ranch or large estate.
Large estate typical of most of Spanish colonial and post-colonial Latin America. Typically inherited, haciendas were often built up by the purchase of crown or private lands, or lands traditionally worked by the Indian community. They used cheap, seasonal labor to farm produce, fairly inefficiently, for domestic and export markets. Socially, the hacienda served as a means of control by the ruling oligarchy.