Jamay Part 5 of 5: La Maltaraña and its beautiful Villa Cristina

The Villa Cristina is dilapidated but still impressive. Approaching it, wearing the hat, is my friend Alfredo. Ahead of him are our two guides, Tony and Rosy, from the Oficina de Turismo in Jamay. Isla La Maltaraña, where the old mansion stands, has become famous (or infamous) because of legends about its association with Porfirio Diaz, who ruled Mexico with an iron fist for 35 years. 

In this final part of my Jamay series, we'll take a look at the casa grande named Villa Cristina, which is now commonly called Bella Cristina. For the purposes of this posting, I'll call it by its original name. I'll also show you the fortified bodega that stands nearby. Along the way, I'll recount some of the property's fascinating history. 

After I originally published this posting, I heard from Tony Burton an historian of the local area who has written several books about the history of Lake Chapala. These include Western Mexico: A Traveler's Treasury, Lake Chapala Through the Ages and his new book If Walls Could Talk. He very kindly filled in some of the blanks in the story and offered some useful corrections which I have now included. 

Finding La Maltaraña. The casa grande is at the northern edge of the pueblo called La Palmita on Isla Maltaraña, near where Rio Lerma empties into Lake Chapala. Heading east through Jamay on Highway 35 you will come to a calle (street) called Prof. Eusebio Garcia Briseño. Look for a grocery store called Super Mercado on the corner and turn right there. Drive three long blocks to the "T" intersection with Calle Morelos. 

Turn left and then turn immediately right onto Carretera Gallardo, which branches off Calle Morelos at an angle toward the southwest.

Follow Gallardo for approximately 7.5km (4.7mi) until you reach the bridge over Rio Lerma. Once across the bridge, you will see a small green sign on your right that says Maltaraña. Continue past the sign until you reach the first paved street on your left, called Benito Juarez. Turn left there.

Drive one block and then turn left for two blocks to a "T" intersection. On your left, about 50m away, you will see the bodega. It is a large, brick building with a tall hexagonal bastion on its right end, topped by a turret. Park and walk toward the bodega. From there, off to your right across a field, you will see the Villa Cristina. On this Google map Villa Cristina is shown as "Hacienda Bella Cristina." 

Villa Cristina

The casa grande was built in the French style. In his efforts to modernize Mexico, Porfirio Diaz brought in experts from Britain and the United States to build his railroads. For the arts, however, Diaz looked to France. Clothing fashions in the French style quickly became popular among Mexico's wealthy elite and French art and architecture blossomed in the cities. 

However, aside from Villa Cristina, there have been few examples of French architecture at haciendas I have visited. One other is the casa grande called La Florida at Hacienda Atequiza. Both casa grandes were built during the Porfiriato, as the period of Diaz' rule was known. The owner of Hacienda Atequiza was a wealthy man named Manuel Cuesta Gallardo.

Manuel Cuesta Gallardo (1873-1920). He was born into a wealthy and politically influential family able to trace its ancestry back to the Spanish Conquest. An indication of Cuesta Gallardo's status is that the godfather of his children was none other than Porfirio Diaz. In 1903 Manuel acquired the Hacienda de Atequiza, a vast estate founded in 1556. There are stories that Presidente Diaz visited La Florida during his Semana Santa (Easter Week) vacations at Lake Chapala. However, according to Tony Burton, this has not been confirmed in the available records.

Manuel Cuesta Gallardo was an avid proponent of all the late 19th century's technological advances, including telephones, internal combustion engines, and electrification. He invested heavily in hydroelectric projects around Lake Chapala, using his brother, Joaquin Cuesta Gallardo, as the chief engineer. In 1890s, Diaz passed laws giving the federal government (effectively himself) control of the water and shoreline of the lake. 

Manuel Cuesta Gallardo seized this opportunity and persuaded Diaz to authorize a dike running from Isla Maltaraña to Hacienda La Palma on Lake Chapala's southern shore. His brother Joaquin directed the 1906-1909 project, which drained Cienega Chapala, a wetland that once made up the eastern third of the lake. Manuel later sold off the land at a huge profit. 

A two-level hexagonal tower stands over the main entrance. At the top is a railing surrounding a mirador (lookout) which provides expansive views in every direction. Unlike the bastion tower attached to the bodega, which was designed for defense, this one was probably intended for aesthetic purposes. Villa Cristina has 365 doors and windows, one for each day of the year. Clearly, it would have been a very difficult structure from which to fend off attackers.

La Maltaraña was originally part of Hacienda Cumuato, owned by José Castellanos. He hired the architect Guillermo de Alba to build the mansion in 1903-04. Castellanos named Villa Cristina after his wife. In approximately 1905, Joaquin Cuesta Gallardo acquired Isla La Maltaraña and its lovely casa grande. According to Tony the acquisition occurred under "dubious circumstances". However, its location would have been ideal for the headquarters of the dike project.

Villa Cristina, from the rear. Alfredo, Jim B, and Gary examine the back side of the casa grande. Our guides cautioned us against entering the house because of its instability and the support poles provided convincing evidence. Numerous sources refer to the casa grande's 365 doors and windows. Although I didn't count them, there are certainly plenty and Villa Cristina must have been airy and full of light. 

To the left, the earth rises up to form another of Cuesta Gallardo's dikes. This one runs along Rio Lerma, keeping it within its banks during the rainy season. All the dikes, land drainage, and hydroelectric projects created great economic benefits. However, these flowed primarily to the Cuesta Gallardo family and secondarily to the hacendados who purchased the former marshland from them. 

The indigenous communities who had supported themselves from Cienega Chapala's fish and other wildlife were impoverished when it was drained. Small farmers who wanted to grow corn could not compete with the rich hacendados who rushed to buy up the new lands for cash crops like sugar cane and sorghum. Public resentment against the Cuesta Gallardo family began to grow.

El Presidente Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915), in all his glory. His full name was José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori and he ruled Mexico from 1876 to 1911. He was born in Oaxaca into a poor family, and his father died when he was only three. However, Diaz managed to acquire an education and attended a seminary in preparation for the priesthood. The 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico changed all that. Diaz volunteered, abandoning religious life for a long military career. 

His exploits during the Reform War (1857-60) and the French Occupation (1861-67) won him a national reputation. In particular, Diaz' victory against the French in the May 5, 1862 Battle of Puebla is still celebrated every year as Cinco de Mayo. In addition to these formal wars, Diaz participated in numerous revolts against one Mexican regime or another. Although he started out as a radical Liberal, supporting Benito Juarez against the Conservatives, Diaz also had personal political ambitions. 

Following the expulsion of the French in 1867, Juarez was seated as President of Mexico. Diaz then led several revolts against Juarez and his successor, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. He finally managed to overthrow Tejada in 1876 and installed a crony as temporary President. The following year, Diaz won the first of a total of seven terms. That 1877 election was probably his only legitimate election. The Porfiriato was finally ended by the Mexican Revolution. Diaz left for exile in Paris in 1911 and died in 1915. 

Chuck adjusts his camera as he emerges from the cellar. (Photo by Jim Boles) Our guides told us that this cellar may have been used by Diaz as a torture chamber for his political enemies. According to them, chains and manacles had been found dangling from the stone walls. However, the stairs down into the cellar were blocked, so we were unable to confirm any of this. Legends of all kinds abound in Mexico and I've learned to be skeptical. 

Whether torture happened here or not, Porfirio Diaz was definitely an autocrat. He coined expressions like cinco dados o cinco balas ("five fingers or five bullets", meaning a handshake or death). Another favorite was "pan o palo" (bread or the stick). For 35 years, Mexicans put up with this. Diaz' rule had brought stability after more than six decades of revolts, foreign invasions and chaos, starting with the Independence War of 1810. 

In addition to stability, the Porfiriato was about modernization. Had the benefits of it been spread widely among Mexicans, Diaz would be remembered fondly and the Revolution avoided. However, the wealth created flowed primarily to Diaz and his inner circle, even as the lives of ordinary Mexicans deteriorated. Strikes by workers protesting poor wages and working conditions were crushed. Campesino protests against hacendado land seizures were ignored or repressed. A vast explosion became inevitable.

La  Bodega

Cattle graze peacefully beside the old bodega. Like the one at Hacienda San Miguel de la Paz, this bodega was built as a fortress to protect the valuable products of the hacienda and to function as a refuge in case of an attack. The high brick walls are supported by buttresses. The row of holes just above the tops of the buttresses may have been gun slits. The only door is protected by a hexagonal bastion on one corner of the building. 

On November 20, 1910, the Revolution broke out. A little more than two months later, on March 1, 1911, Manuel Cuesta Gallardo took office as Governor of the State of Jalisco. He had been warmly supported by Porfirio Diaz. However, the Cienega Chapala project had drawn considerable public ire. This was further fueled by anti-Diaz sentiment and revolutionary fervor.

The final straw came when several people were killed by police gunfire at a demonstration against the new Governor. The public outcry forced Manuel Cuesta Gallardo to step down on March 28, after less than a month in office.

The bastion has gun slits on each of its hexagonal sides. The crenelated top would have provided a good view of any attacking force.The railing running along the top of the wall would have provided cover for riflemen. Both Manuel and Joaquin were involved in producing grain alcohol, a commodity that would have required close security, along with all the rest of the estate's valuable goods.

In 1912, Manuel was again humiliated when he ran for election to the Federal Senate. One of the key issues in the election was land reform, which his opponent supported and Cuesta Gallardo denounced. Manuel got more votes than his opponent but fraud was charged after it was discovered that more votes were cast than there were registered voters. The election was then invalidated by the federal Chamber of Deputies and Cuesta Gallardo never took office. 

Antique farm equipment stands near the bodega. (Photo by Jim Boles) After the drainage of Cienega Chapala, the rapidly expanding haciendas quickly began to plant sugar cane, sorghum and other cash crops. Soon, they dominated most of the arable land in the area. Corn, the staple food of ordinary people, had been the main crop of the small farmers and indigenous communities. In the stampede for profits, the corn producers were squeezed out. Many lost their lands to the haciendas through legal maneuvers and even by illegal expropriations. 

Manuel Cuesta Gallardo married Victoria Gómez Rubio, another member of the elite stratum of society. The wedding took place in 1917, only three years before his death in 1920. In 1900, his brother Joaquin had married Antonia Moreno Cocuera. Upon his death in 1915, Antonia inherited La Maltaraña. She didn't occupy the property for long, however.

The Revolution was reaching its height about that time and violent struggles over land were breaking out everywhere. In 1917, land reform was enshrined in the new Mexican Constitution. After two of Antonia's sons were killed in a dispute over La Maltaraña's land, she departed. With that, the Cuesta Gallardo family's connection with the property ended and it passed into the hands of Luis Aviña and Mauricio Orozco.

Alfredo and Rosy clown for the camera. Our group learned a lot while having a great time. Our guides, Rosy and Tony worked hard and went out of their way to show us the best of Jamay, including La Maltaraña and the historic Villa Cristina. They even took us to a great local restaurant where we were serenaded by mariachis. We reciprocated by treating them to lunch and giving them a very good tip before we parted. 

In spite of the provisions of the new Constitution, Luis Aviña and Mauricio Orozco fiercely resisted the distribution of any the land at La Maltaraña. This continued even after the local people formed an ejido (communal land organization) and tried to use the new legal procedures. The two hacendados employed every means, legal and otherwise, to obstruct and delay the process. In 1934 Presidente Lázaro Cárdenas was elected and threw his support behind land reform, but still Aviña and Orozco fought against it. 

Both sides committed acts of violence in this struggle. It was not until 1960 that the campesinos finally took possession of the lands they had been legally entitled to for so long. Today, Villa Cristina stands as a symbol of the opulence and greed of Mexico's great landowners and the desperate struggle that it took to break their grip on the country.

This concludes Part 5 and ends my Jamay series. I hope you have enjoyed this one, as well as the other parts. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you use the Comments section to leave a question, please be sure to include your email so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim