Tapalpa Plateau Part 6 of 6: Hacienda Ferreria de Tula

A horseman rides past former hacienda buildings. William Faulkner once wrote "The past is never dead. It's not even past". This could well be applied to many sites I have visited in Mexico. It is  particularly applicable to the pueblos that were once haciendas, prior to the land reform that followed the Revolution. One of these places is Ferreria de Tula. 

The afternoon we visited, a ghostly silence pervaded the town. The only sound was the clip-clopping of a horse's hooves. On it, a lone rider made his way up the cobblestone street, passing old adobe structures roofed with red clay tiles along the way. Many of these buildings had been part of the hacienda complex in earlier times. Since then, they have been repurposed as homes, stores, or workshops.

The pueblo of Ferreria de Tula is about 1/2 hour drive from Tapalpa. It is located 26.7km (16.6mi) to the north, off Highway 437. The  drive takes you through the lovely, rolling country of the Tapalpa Plateau, past pine forests and meadows full of sheep, cattle and horses. Highway 437 not only leads to Ferreria de Tula but continues north, taking you back toward the Lake Chapala area. For a Google interactive map of the whole area, click here.

Structures of the former hacienda

Ruins of a hacienda building. At first, I thought this might be the remains of the casa grande (big house). However, the lack of windows, or of any of the ornamentation typical of a casa grande made me doubt my first impression. I now think this was part of the industrial complex and that the casa grande was one of the buildings facing the cobblestone street seen previously. The structure above may have been the center of the complex.

In Spanish, ferreria translates as "ironworks", making this one of the more unusual haciendas that I have visited. The vast majority of haciendas in Mexico were farms or ranches (or a combination of the two). However, some were sugar processors, while others were involved with various kinds of mining. However, I had never before encountered a hacienda devoted to the production of iron. The need for such a facility in a remote place like the Tapalpa Plateau baffled me at first.

Another old structure along the main cobblestone street. Now a private residence, this may have been a house for one of the hacienda managers or possibly an office. The plaster-covered adobe, protected by its red tile roof, seems to have held up well over the centuries.

My puzzlement about this hacienda led me to do some research on ironworks in the colonial and early Republic periods (1500s - 1800s). Why would the Tapalpa area need such a facility? There were no railroads up here that required iron tracks and few towns of any size that would have used iron for construction or for industrial machinery during this time. So why an ironworks?

This large stone building may have once been the casa grande. A hacienda's casa grande often contained much more than just the residence of the owner. It was usually an administrative center containing offices, storerooms, and sometimes a tienda de raya (company store). There, peones would collect their pay and purchase necessities. In order to keep the workforce in place, they would often be paid in script or coins produced by a hacienda that could only be spent in its tienda de raya.

Ironworking in Mexico started with the arrival of the Spanish. Pre-hispanic civilizations, particularly those in Peru and Western Mexico, had been working with metals such as copper, silver, and gold for some time. However, they had not yet made the jump from copper to bronze and iron was entirely unknown to them. At the beginning of the Conquest, the Spanish crown initially banned the exploration for iron in the New World in order to protect Spanish industry.  

Former stables and outbuildings behind the casa grande. Stables on a hacienda are nearly always found in close proximity to the casa grande, because that's where the hacendado (owner) kept his personal horses and family carriage. This was also where a blacksmith might be found. These craftsmen were highly-valued on haciendas because they could produce horseshoes, nails, hinges, latches, and other objects vital to day-to-day living. To make these items, blacksmiths required raw iron.

The Spanish Crown's prohibition on iron production was almost completely ignored. Intent on exploration and conquest, the early 16th century conquistadors needed weapons, armor, and saddlery, as well as other iron materials for construction and ship repairs. Waiting for all this to arrive from Spain was entirely impractical. Ironworks and blacksmithing operations were undertaken almost immediately. 

La Presa (The Lake)

Stone buttresses support a dam at one end of La Presa. It is probable that the water from the lake once powered the ironworks. Otherwise, why build the dam immediately across from it? Initially, a traditional waterwheel may have been used. However, by the late 19th or early 20th century, the waterwheel may have been replaced by a water-driven electric turbine.

From the 16th until the mid-18th centuries, Puebla and Oaxaca were Mexico's main ironworking centers. However, by the end of the 18th century, ironworks could be found in many areas, including Jalisco. Because of the on-going trade with the Philippines by the famous Manila Galleons, ironworking styles in Western Mexico had a strong oriental influence.

Jim B scaled one of the buttresses to take a look at the lake. Jim has been exploring haciendas with me for almost as along as I have been going on these expeditions. I noticed that the buttresses on this side of the dam look a bit deteriorated. Hopefully, this doesn't indicate any weakness. The dam's failure would devastate the portion of the town that occupies the low area below the dam.

Blast furnace technology arrived in Mexico in 1807, when it was installed in the Guadalupe foundry. Gradually, ironworks all over Mexico began to adopt the new technologies being developed in Europe and the United States. In 1879, machinery manufactured by the Siemmens Company was brought over from Germany, allowing the production of cogwheels, corrugated rods, and drawn iron.

View of the lake, from the top of a buttress. The lake stretches off into the distance for approximately 1000m (3000ft). It varies from about 150-200m (450-600ft) wide. Today, the lake provides water for livestock and the fields and orchards in the immediate area, as well as the town itself.

How the hacienda came to its end is still unclear to me. It probably didn't survive the land reform following the Revolution. However, I haven't been able to nail down exactly when this may have happened. While poring over a Google map of the town, I did discover the location of the local ejido. These are communal land-owning organizations to which hacienda lands were transferred during the period between 1915 and the 1940s.

Water rushes from the spillway on one side of the dam. Like many other places in Mexico, Ferreria de Tula has erected a multi-colored sign proclaiming the town's name to visitors.

Iglesia de Guadalupe

The Iglesia de Guadalupe stands on a hill overlooking the lake. We were unable to go inside the church because the gates were all padlocked and we didn't have time to search for someone with a key. The church is named after Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the Patron Saint of Mexico and of its poor and indigenous people. 

The church's two campanarios (bell towers) have two bells in each. While looking over the church with my telephoto lens, I discovered signs of damage to the campanarios. Also, the window on the bottom right lacks glass. This part of Mexico has quite a number of volcanos, some of them still active. Given the unstable nature of the terrain, I suspect that the damage came from earthquakes. 

An elderly man makes his way along the side of the dam. His traditional straw sombrero (hat) and leather huaraches (sandals) makes him seem like a figure out of the past. The cobblestone street lined with old adobe buildings add to the feeling. Scenes like this sometimes make me feel that I have stepped back into the 19th century.  Faulkner was right, the past is never past.

This completes Part 6 of my series on the Tapalpa Plateau and also the series itself. I hope you have enjoyed it and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions on the Comments section below, or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim