Guanajuato Revisited Part 8 of 17: The Convento Mercedario, its Templo de la Merced de Mellado, and the Bustos y Moya family who built them both.

 

Atrium and entrance of the Templo de la Merced de Mellado. This church was built in the middle of the 18th century as part of a convento for friars of the Royal, Celestial, and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of Captives. The Order's nickname, Mercedarios derives from merced (Spanish for "mercy"). For brevity's sake, I will use that name throughout this post. Mellado is the name of a silver mine that once operated nearby. 

This will be a two-part posting. In this segment (Part 8 of this series), I will show you the exterior of the church and the ruins of the convento that are attached to one side. I'll also recount some of the history of the Bustos y Moya family, who owned the Mellado and other mines and haciendas and who provided the land and financing to build both the whole complex. 

Overview

Google map showing the Templo's location near the Rayas Mine. The church stands on a bluff overlooking the Mina de San Juan de Rayas and the Panoramica (see Part 7). The Templo can be reached by climbing an access ramp that can be seen in the map above stretching from the Panoramica up to a street called De Leona. It is also possible to drive up a side street and park near the church. However, we chose to hike up the relatively short distance and leave our car at the Rayas mine. For a Google interactive map, click here.

View of the Templo from the Panoramica. The stone building on the left side of the photo is the roofless structure at the Rayas that once housed the pumps used to pull flood water out of the mine. The access ramp begins on the right. From the bluff where the convento complex stands, you have a spectacular view of Guanajuato and the surrounding mountains. The barrio (neighborhood) of Mellado  is one of the oldest in the city. 

Pedro Nolasco is visited by Nuestra Señora de Merced. These are the two key figures in the Orden de Mercedarios' legend. Pedro    Nolcasco (1189-1256) founded the Order after the Virgin of Mercy appeared to him. Over the previous 15 years Nolasco had been leading an informal secular organization devoted to the ransom of Christian slaves held by the Muslims. 

During her appearance on August 1, 1218, she told him his organization should become a religious Order. The Mercedarios' founding is thus considered to be on that date. In Part 9, I will describe the Mercedarios origin, their arrival in the New World, and their activities in Nueva España and Guanajuato. Along with that history, I'll show you the Templo's interior and its collection of sculpture and paintings. 

 

Exterior features of the Templo

Entrance to the atrium. Once at the top of the ramp, you come to a broad, tree-shaded area in front of the church surrounded by a low wall. This space is called an atrium. It is used for big, open-air gatherings that allow many more participants than could normally fit in a church's nave. In the early days of evangelization, large numbers of indigenous people would be herded within an atrium for mass conversions.

The Bustos y Moya family was one of the handful who owned or controlled the richest and most productive mines in Guanajuato as well as haciendas engaged in the refining of silver and raising food and livestock. They were on a level with the Alcocer family, owners of Mina de Valenciana, and the Sardanetas who owned Mina de San Juan de Rayas (see Part 7). These families, along with a few others, also held most of the important public offices in Guanajuato. 

The facade of the Templo has been damaged by weather and vandalism. The overall style is Baroque, but there are some Neo-Classic elements, such as the columns. Both the statues on the lower level are missing their heads, possibly from vandalism during the Cristero War (1926-29). People sought refuge here at that time and there are reports of bullet marks on some walls, although I didn't see any. 

A sign at the church says that the Bustos y Moya family had built a capilla (chapel) here at the end of the 17th century, about 60 years before the Mercedarios first requested a site for their Order. That original construction is now called the Capilla de San Gonzalo de Amarante. It is the oldest and, unfortunately, the most deteriorated section of the current Templo. We will take a look at the Capilla in Part 9.

 

I traced the Bustos family back to Hernando Busto (1526-?), a minor cabellero (knight) from León, in Spain's mountainous north. His son, Don Pedro Busto Contreras (1556-1607), emigrated to Guanajuato sometime in the late 16th century. There, he and his wife Leonor had a son they named Alonso de Bustos Díez de Noriega (1586-1645). Alonso grew up in Guanajuato and later married Ana de Jerez. Their son, Francisco Bustos Jerez (1619-?) was the man who first made the family rich. 

The floral carvings on the old wooden door are another Baroque element. On the stone arch over the door is the Spanish phrase Amar a Dios sobre todas cosas ("Love God above all things"). The capstone of the arch contains three small figures. The ones on either side face inward toward a bodiless head. This is yet another example of Baroque.

It is unclear how the Bustos clan first supported themselves after they emigrated to Guanajuato. Most likely, they became merchants who supplied the mines and mine workers with everything they needed to get things up and running. Most of those who get rich in a mining boom are not the ones who discover or dig the ore, but those that sell them the shovels. With the profits from this, Francisco Bustos Jerez could make the necessary investments to launch his family's fortune. 

Francisco became the first of his family to engage directly in mining when he acquired a 25% interest in the rich Mellado mine and began upgrading it. The included measures to stop mine flooding and to initiate the use of mercury amalgamation at the haciendas de beneficio he acquired for refining silver. Francisco also purchased agricultural and ranching haciendas to keep his operations supplied with food, leather, and mules to operate machinery and transport ore. 

Ruins of the Convento de los Mercedarios

The convento was built along the east side of the Templo. The open walkway with the arches is called the "cloister garth" and serves as a transitional area between the church and the monastic spaces. At the far end of the cloister garth is the chapter room where the friars met periodically for discussion of problems and group prayers. Other features typical of any convento would have included a refectory (dining room), a dormitory, offices, and storage rooms.

Francisco Bustos Jerez' married Francisca Moya y Monroy, who bore him 7 children. It was one of these, Francisco Matías de Bustos y Moya (1684-1747), who took the family to the very peak of its wealth and power. Most notable among Francisco Bustos Jerez' daughters was Josefa Teresa Bustos y Moya (1682-1742). She was a strong and talented woman with considerable business acumen and a commitment to higher education. I will detail her life later in this posting. 

Francisco Matías and his family had acquired much of their initial wealth through their part-ownership of the Mellado mine. However, when he and his sister Josefa became co-owners of the Cata mine, the silver it produced elevated the Bustos y Moya family to the highest levels of the city's elite. That mine alone gave them profits of more than 400,000 pesos between 1724 and 1735. At the time, a peso was worth 8 reales and a skilled mine worker could earn about 12 reales a day.

In the middle of the convento complex is a baffling structure. It is a rectangular enclosure with a stone floor and this wall at one end is obviously the focal point. At first I thought this might be the remains of a small chapel, but I have never seen one like it. The curving walls on either side would have made the ceiling very low. At the top center is a blank, oval-shaped plaque of cantera stone. On either side near the bottom of the wall are tiny stairs leading to doors too small for anything but elves. Thoughts, anyone? 

To make sure that they stayed at the top, the Bustos y Moya family and those at their level controlled most of Guanajuato's important political offices. For example, Francisco Matías served as perpetual alderman (1718-32), deputy mayor (1714-15, 1724, 1726), general attorney (1725-26), ordinary mayor (1729), and provincial mayor of the Holy Brotherhood. His success in mining led to his appointment as Guanajuato's  mining deputy and quicksilver (mercury) refiner. 

Given the Crown monopoly on mercury, which was so vital to the silver refining process, to be the official quicksilver refiner would have been a powerful and lucrative position. In 1730, King Felipe V of Spain recognized Francisco Matías' contribution to the mining industry and made him the the 1st Marqués de San Clemente. He was also the first of Guanajuato's mining elite to achieve a noble rank. In 1738, he became a member of the Orden de Calatrava, one of Spain's 4 military orders.

The view from the mystery structure is stunning. While prayers and religious discussion were certainly part of life in this convento,  the core function of the Mercedarios was to raise funds to purchase the freedom of Christian captives. It is not surprising that they eagerly accepted an offer of a permanent base in a place like Guanajuato. When someone once asked 20th century bank robber Willy Sutton why he robbed banks, he simply replied "because that's where they keep the money."

When Francisco Matías de Bustos y Moya died in 1747, thirteen of his children survived him. One of them, Francisco Cristóbal Bustos Marmolego (1726-1779) inherited his noble title, becoming the 2nd Marqués de San Clemente. The other sons also came to hold prominent positions in Guanajuato's government and society and his daughters married powerful local men. 

Five years after Francisco Matías' death, the family, contacted the Mercedarios in Vallodolid (now Morelia) to suggest setting up a convento in Guanajuato. In September of 1752, a Mercedario friar named Ignacio de la Iglesia made a written request to the cabildo (city council) to do so and he received a favorable reply the next month. The Bustos y Moya family quickly donated the land, the existing chapel, and other structures, all of which were accepted by Fra. Antonio de Artelejo.

View toward the south from the convento complex. Although active warfare between the Muslim Ottomans and the European powers had long since subsided, considerable numbers of Muslim pirates infested the Mediterranean's North African coast. They sold captured Christians as slaves in the port markets of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. It was to ransom these people that the Mercedarios were raising money in the mid-to-late 18th century.

In September 1756, almost exactly four years after their initial request, Fra. Manuel de Frias finally took possession of the convento and its Templo on behalf of the Mercedarios. In fact, construction was still on-going, but the friars wanted to get their operation up and running. It's probable that Francisco Cristóbal and his family were happy that the turnover would finally allow the Mellado mine to remove from its payroll the three chaplains who had served the old chapel. 

And now a word about Doña Josefa Teresa de Bustos y Moya, daughter of Francisco Bustos Perez, sister of Francisco Matías, and aunt of Francisco Cristóbal. She was born in Guanajuato in 1682, but spent of her childhood and youth in Queretaro. In 1701, she married Don Manuel de Aranda y Saavedra, from Extremadura, Spain, by whom she had 11 children. Until he died in 1729,  Josefa actively partnered with her husband in running their family businesses. 

Another view of the convento and its various rooms and open spaces. This would have been a busy place, with friars departing or returning from visits to collect donations from workers at the mines scattered through the surrounding mountains. Those returning would have dropped the funds off with other friars who would note down the amounts before locking the proceeds into iron-bound boxes for safe-keeping. The funds would then be transported through Mexico City to Europe and ultimately paid as ransoms.

Josefa's business partnership with her husband was somewhat unusual for a woman of that period, particularly one who was raising 11 children. It is even more unusual for her to have fully taken over the family businesses after Don Manuel died. Josefa was clearly formidable in her intellect and personality. In addition to her involvement in her own businesses and co-ownership of the Cata mine, she was also deeply committed to higher education. 

In 1732, Josefa made a formal request to King Felipe V to start a Jesuit college in Guanajuato and backed it up with a donation of 7500 pesos of her own money. She also persuaded a number of the other silver magnates to contribute to the project, including her brother, the 1st Marqués de San Clemente (1250 pesos), and another mine owner, Don Juan de Herbas (625 pesos). 

Unfortunately, the college required the King's approval and this was not granted until 1744, two years after Josefa's death at age 60. While Josefa never got to see the result of her efforts, she is acclaimed today, 291 years later, as the founder of the University of Guanajuato. As to the Mellado mine, the ore finally played out in the early 19th century, and its workforce dispersed. That led to the decline of the Mercedarios convento and its eventual abandonment in 1860.

This completes Part 8 of my Guanajuato Revisited series. I hope you have enjoyed it and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments, please remember to also leave your email address so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim