Jamay Part 3 of 5: Hacienda San Agustin

Hacienda San Agustin is a 19th century estate that is in relatively good repair. Above, you can see some of the arcade and portales (arched openings) that line the front of San Agustin's single story casa grande (big house). Only about 1/3 of the length of the casa grande's arcade is visible in the photo. Attached to the east end of the arcade is the blue and white capilla (chapel) called the Templo del Rosario. 

Hacienda San Agustin is one of three in the Municipio (county) of Jamay to which I organized group trips in 2013 and 2016. Hacienda San Miguel de la Paz and Hacienda de Bella Cristina will be covered in my next two postings. All three are located in small pueblos that grew up when the haciendas were dismantled and their lands distributed to the campesinos (farmworkers) following the Revolution of 1910.

Overview

The pueblo of San Agustin is located 1/2 way between Jamay and La Barca. After driving about 8km (5mi) west from Jamay on Highway 35, you will encounter a small green sign on your right with an arrow pointing south toward San Agustin. After turning right and traveling about 500m (0.3mi) on Calle Hidalgo, you will reach the pueblo. 

Continue on Hidalgo until you come to an intersection where you will see the old bastion of the hacienda's main gate. It is a cylindrical brick structure with a domed top. The bastion stands about 5m (16ft) high and its diameter is about 2.5m (8ft) across. Turn right at the intersection and you will see the arched portales of the casa grande about 100m (328ft) in the distance. For a Google map of the Jamay area, click here.

La Bastión de la Puerta (Gate Bastion) is the old entrance of the hacienda. The brick structure attached on its right once supported a massive wooden gate. If you look closely, you will see three sets of vertical slits near the bottom, middle, and top of the bastion. These were gun slits and they were not just for show. 

Throughout the history of haciendas in Mexico, they were targeted by hostile tribes, bandits, and rogue military units. The raiders sought loot in the form of money, silverware, horses, food, weapons, and important individuals to ransom. Women were often kidnapped as sex slaves.

The gate was part of a defensive wall (now dismantled) that surrounded the area of the hacienda called the casco, which means "helmet" in Spanish. The wall defended the hacienda's nerve center, like a ballplayer's helmet protects his brain. Typical structures contained within that nerve center would be the casa grande, capilla, the stables, and main storerooms. The person responsible for the gate was called a zahuanero.

La Casa Grande

The casa grande arcade, looking west. At the far end, the building is joined to the bodega (storerooms) at a 90 degree angle toward the south. The arcade forms the front wall of a square structure with a large courtyard in the middle. The courtyard is surrounded by the main office, dining room, kitchen, and rooms for the hacendado's (owner's) family and guests. 

A casa grande was much more than a residence. In addition to the hacendado's office, the large dining room doubled as a meeting space. Many a revolt was plotted in the great dining rooms of Mexican haciendas. 

Also included was the tienda de raya (company store) where workers were paid in hacienda-minted tokens that they immediately spent on daily necessities. A tienda de raya was both a profit center and a mechanism for extending credit to workers. Hacendados used it to ensure a stable labor force through debt slavery.

For a bird's-eye view of the casa grande, bodega, and capilla, click here. This arrangement of structures and rooms follows a classic pattern set during the early colonial period.

 

Inside the casa grande's arcade, looking west. Except for the ferns, most of what you see here is original. Although we were not able to gain entrance to the casa grande during either of our visits, San Agustin's structure follows that of scores of other haciendas I have visited. The pattern is so consistent that I look for it when using Google's satellite view to search the countryside for haciendas.

One common misconception about a hacienda is that the word refers to a house. The Spanish word actually means a place where something is done or made, referring to the whole economic operation. Another misconception is that they were all ranches. Some were, but others were large agricultural operations growing a wide variety of crops. Still others were semi-industrial, such as large sugar cane mills. Finally, some functioned as refineries for gold or silver mines.
 

La Capilla

The main door of Templo del Rosario is at the arcade's east end. The walls of the casa grande were made of large adobe blocks, with timber rafters overhead. The vast majority of haciendas I have visited have contained a capilla, usually attached, or in close proximity, to the casa grande. Some capillas are very simple, while others are quite grand. This one falls somewhere in between. 

Most of the residents of Mexican haciendas were deeply religious, from the hacendado down to the humblest peon. Those who actually lived on the hacienda, rather than in an outlying village, would have worshipped here. The larger, wealthier haciendas, and particularly those in remote areas, often had a priest in residence. Since Hacienda San Agustin is so close to Jamay and La Barca, it is likely that the priests who conducted services would have traveled here from one of those towns.

Templo del Rosario has a single nave. It is nicely-decorated in a simple Neo-Classic style, with seating for about 30 people. When we visited, a wedding was under way, as you can see from the women's formal dresses. Like many capillas attached to former haciendas, this one follows a interesting historical pattern. 

After the Revolution, Hacienda San Agustin and others like it were broken up and the lands re-distributed to the campesinos. Although the owners might retain possession of the various structures within the casco, they could no longer afford to maintain them. As small pueblos grew up in the ruins of the ex-haciendas, the residents took over many of the structures that the hacendados had abandoned. 

Some buildings were re-purposed as public offices, schools, libraries, etc. Others were cannibalized for materials to build private homes or stores. The one exception to re-use or cannibalization was usually the capilla. Like Templo del Rosario, such capillas have continued to be lovingly maintained as the community's church.

La Bodega

The bodega's front is rather attractive for a utilitarian building. The arcade forms the public-facing side of a large square structure. Hacienda bodegas usually have a rather forbidding, fortress-like appearance. Apparently the hacendado who built this one had a sense of style. From the satellite view previously referenced, you can see a row of stables behind the west end of the structure. These would have been occupied by fine carriage and riding horses maintained for the hacendado's use.

Hacienda San Agustin was founded sometime during the last half of the 19th century by Martin Garnica and Clementina Llanos. The operation grew to employ about 400 people. The ones living on the hacienda's property would have included clerical workers, maids, and cooks, as well as skilled tradesmen like blacksmiths, carpenters, and horse wranglers. However, most of the employees would have been seasonal workers hired for planting and harvesting and would have lived in Jamay or elsewhere. 

The bodega's arcade, looking north toward the casa grande. A row of evenly spaced doors along the left of the arcade lead into the bodega. Inside, produce of various kinds would have been stored, along with farm machinery. In its day, the bodega would have been a hive of activity, with tradesmen plying their crafts, field hands receiving their work instructions, and wagon drivers maneuvering their vehicles for loading or unloading.

Apparently, the founders of San Agustin and their successors were well-liked by those who worked here. Elderly people recall the pride workers felt in the success of the hacienda, even though they themselves were landless. When the hacendados began to produce electricity for their operations, they also provided it to the people of the growing community. In addition, they built a school in 1929, with an enrollment of 20 students. However, the school occasionally lacked teachers.

Land re-distribution began in 1917 in Mexico, but came late to Hacienda San Agustin. It was not until the 1940s that local campesinos formed an ejido and applied for the distribution of some of the Hacienda's land. The ejido concept dates back at least to Aztec times. Land is owned communally by an ejido's members, but the crops grown by individuals belong to them. An ejido member who fails to use his/her assigned land productively may find it given to someone else.

 

El Cohetero

A cohetero prepares to launch. Coheteros are men who make and set off the incredibly noisy cohetes (rockets) that are so popular in Mexico. While our group was picnicking in front of the casa grande, our conversations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous BANG! We immediately recognized the tell-tale sounds of exploding cohetes. High above, we could see small puffs of smoke. Apparently some sort of fiesta was happening, although we hadn't a clue about which one.

A cohete smokes as it begins to rise from its launch point. I walked over to the source of the commotion and found the coherto busy setting up. Coheteros are generally friendly guys, and he proudly showed me how it all worked.  Cohetes are basically cigar-sized firecrackers attached to long thin sticks. They can be launched by hand, but a rack like the one above is safer. When set off as a whole barrage, the effect can approach the Battle of Stalingrad. 

The most notable date in the Hacienda's history was April 18, 1891, when the son of its mayordomo (foreman) was born. Although no one could have guessed it at the time, José Guadalupe Zuno Hernandez would one day grow up to be Governor of Jalisco and one of the most illustrious men in state's history. (See Part 1 of this series for his story). 

This completes Part 3 of my Jamay series. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below, or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments section, please leave your email address so that I may respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim