A Estancia or Estância is a Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese term describing private landholdings. In some areas these were large rural with similarities to the American term ranch.They are large farms which are spread over extensive areas often 10,000 hectares. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the pampas, have historically been a livestock (cattle or sheep) estate. In the early Caribbean and Mexico, holders of encomiendas acquired land in the area where they had access to Indian labor, and often the need for on-site Hispanic supervisors or labor bosses called estancieros. In Mexico, multiple estancias owned by the same individual could be termed an hacienda. The term estancia is used in various ways in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Chile and southern Brazil. The equivalent in other Spanish American countries would be hacienda.
During the first centuries of Spanish colonial rule, cattle introduced by the Spanish in the peripheral areas of northern Mexico and the southern part of South America roamed free and there were periodic raids to catch and slaughter them. In the 19th century stationary ranching ventures started to form in the pampas, with permanent buildings and marked livestock with clearly defined ownership. They were called estancias, the term indicating the stationary, permanent character.
The estancia’s ranch worker on horseback in Argentina, the gaucho, is of similar importance to national folklore and identity to the cowboy in North America. In recent decades agriculture has intensified and often shifted from livestock to crop farming in the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, due to the region’s high soil fertility.
A small number of estancias, particularly those with historic architecture have been converted into guest ranches, paradores, in Argentina and Uruguay as well as in Paraguay or Chile. Many California missions had separate farms and ranchos associated with them. These were known as California mission estancias which were different than the California Ranchos which were land grants to individuals.
