The Silver Mines of Hostotipaquillo Part 6 of 10: Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás (fortress walls, bastions, and the chapel)

 

High walls and bastions with gun slits surround this silver refining hacienda. Defenders inside the blockhouse shown above could fire through its gun slits at any attackers. Their shots could cover a nearby gate and the walls stretching out on either side, as well as the approach to the hacienda from a bridge over a nearby stream. There are numerous other bastions in strategic locations around the perimeter wall. However, the tree on the left would have been cut down, rather than allowed to grow. It would have been too easy for attackers to climb.

I guided groups to visit to Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás in 2014, 2016, and 2023. Of all the sites I have found in the area, this hacienda de beneficio (silver refining operation) is the most intact, as well as the most heavily defended. Therefore, I have devoted Parts 6 through 10 of my series on the Silver Mines of Hostotipaquillo to its many fascinating aspects. Part 6 will show you the defensive features and discuss the kind of threats that necessitated them. We'll also take a look at the capilla (chapel) which still serves as one of the community churches.

Parts 7 through 10 will examine the casa grande, the administrator's house and tequila production area, the aqueduct and waterwheel, and the silver refining area. Unlike the largely ruined sites seen in previous posts in my Hostotipaquillo series, much of Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás is still in beautiful condition. Even those areas which are in ruins are still recognizable in terms of their functions.

Overview

How to reach Santo Tomás. Take the 15D cuota (toll road) west from Guadalajara and exit at Magdalena. Head west on the 15 libramiento (free road) through Magdalena. After 23.6 km (14.7 mi), turn left at the sign for the pueblo of Santo Tomás and head down the hill into the town. Follow the road all the way to the bottom of the hill, where you will find a small bridge crossing over a stream. Drive over the bridge and you will see the bastion from the first photo of this posting. Park here, or turn left and drive along the wall to the capilla and the main gate. There is second, pedestrian-only bridge which crosses the stream and leads to the main gate of the hacienda. For a Google interactive map, click here.

Google satellite photo of Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás. Note the street marked Santiago Virgen. Just below it is an arroyo with a year-round stream which parallels the street. Just to the left of the word Santiago is the bridge you can drive across. The heavily wooded stream runs under the bridge and flows to the east (right) to a small pedestrian-only bridge in the upper right corner of the photo. The white rectangular structure near where the bridge crosses the arroyo is the capilla. To its left is an "L" shaped set of buildings which form two sides of the large courtyard where part of the silver refining process took place. The other two sides of the courtyard are obscured by large trees. 

The casa grande forms the lower arm of the "L". Below the casa grande is a grassy area which is the main courtyard. In the lower left of the grassy area is a rectangular pond. Below the pond are the ruins of the mayor domo's (administrator's) house and some structures related to the production of tequila.  Just below these structures, you can see part of the wall of the hacienda, running from left to right. To the left of where the wall takes a dog-leg turn, you can see the rust-colored roof of a structure. Between this roof and the dog-leg is a long narrow structure which is perpendicular to the hacienda wall. This is part of the the aqueduct and includes the remains of the great waterwheel. 

The pedestrian-only bridge, viewed from the street along the hacienda's wall. At this time of year, the stream is probably less than waist deep. However, during the rainy season (June-October), it would be much deeper and faster. This, and the larger auto bridge to the west, are the only ways to access the hacienda. Gun-slitted bastions on the hacienda walls defend against any attackers attempting to cross the bridges.

The arroyo which contains the stream is deep and lined with cliffs. Above, a horse pauses its grazing to gaze back at me as I take its photo. Notice the caves in the cliff wall on either side of the horse. By building the hacienda on the far side of the arroyo, the clear intention was to use the terrain as the first line of defense.

Small adobe houses line a street going up the east side ot the hacienda wall. These may have once housed the peones acasillados. These were the hacienda's resident workers, who received free housing as part of their compensation. Peones acasillados typically included skilled workers such as blacksmiths, carpenters, barrel-makers, and--in the case of haciendas de beneficio--those with skills important to the silver refining process. Ordinary workers such as maids, gardeners, and field hands would have lived in a nearby pueblo.

High walls and bastions

Several members of our group inspect the walls, bastion, and gate. The blockhouse seen in the first photo is just out of sight to the right of this photo. The black steel gate above is not the main gate. That is accessed by the street where you can see several members of our party. The arroyo and its stream are to their left. The conical bastion in the center has gun slits to cover the gate, the bridge, and the wall leading to the main gate. The out-of-sight blockhouse and the bastion seen above made this one of the most heavily defended areas of the hacienda. The people in this photo provide a sense of the scale of the defenses.

In 2014 and 2016, we were unable to access to the interior of the hacienda, due to the absence of an owner to give permission. The workers we encountered were understandably unwilling to let us onto the property without this. It was not until our final visit in 2023 that we encountered a young man who turned out to be one of the current owners of the property. He graciously let us in, told us some stories about the old place, and allowed us to explore and photograph everything. I have found that the owners of these historic properties are virtually always proud to show them off, if you are lucky enough to find one on site.

Another conical bastion guards a now-blocked-up former gate. This bastion is considerably larger than the one by the black steel gate. It not only protects the blocked-up gate, but also the wall between it and the blockhouse down the hill. In addition, the bastion  guards the back wall of the hacienda, around the corner to the left.

In the top right of the photo, you can see a white fence. This marks the boundary of the 15D cuota, which passes above the hacienda and the pueblo of Santo Tomás. There is no access to either of them from 15D. If you miss the exit at Magdalena, you will have to drive a considerable distance before you find another exit where you can return.

The back wall and its bastion, viewed from the aqueduct. This bastion is shaped differently than the others, but you can clearly see the gun slits just below its roof. The wall continues to the left until it meets the bastion in the previous photo. To the right, the wall continues under the spillway of the aqueduct and for a considerable distance beyond. The aqueduct, where I was standing to take this shot, runs along the side of the hill above the wall and parallel to it. 

The structures which defended the hacienda could not have withstood artillery fire from an organized military unit. However, few bandit gangs possessed such weaponry. The adobe walls and stone bastions were sufficient to protect defenders against the rifles, pistols, and machetes with which bandits were typically armed.

In researching the need for these defenses, I concluded that most of the threats would have occurred in the period between the late 18th century through the first couple of decades of the 20th. During the last half of the 16th century, the 40-year Chichimeca War raged throughout western Mexico (or Nueva España, as it was called then). However that war with the native nomads ended in 1590. Silver was only discovered around Hostotipaquillo sixteen years later. The 17th century and the first half of the 18th seem to have been relatively peaceful in this area.

Entrance to the corner blockhouse from inside the walls. This small opening is the only access to the corner blockhouse seen in the first photo. At 5' 10", I had to squeeze through to get inside. It probably would not have seemed quite as small to an 18th century defender, whose average height would have been only a little over 5 ft. There is enough room inside for the gunslits to be manned by  2-3 defenders of such a stature 

Times became harder for the indigenous and mestizo (mixed blood) population during the last half of the 18th century. The mine owners kept their workers' wages low, even as prices steadily rose. Hacendados (hacienda owners), sought to maintain a stable workforce. To do this, they began to use their tiendas de raya (company stores) to create debt slavery. After people fell into debt, they couldn't legally leave, but sometimes fled anyway. One of the few opportunities available to such fugitives was to join a bandit gang. Even so, the threat from such gangs remained low until the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1810. 

The insurgency that followed the crushing defeat of Padre Miguel Hidalgo's army in 1811 became increasingly fragmented over the next decade. Eventually, the difference between many insurgent bands and bandit gangs became blurred. Anyone who had food, supplies, and weapons might be attacked. The haciendas de beneficio were especially favored targets. After the independence war ended in 1821, political chaos in Mexico continued. Revolts, coups, foreign invasions and wholesale banditry lasted until the dictator Porfirio Diaz began to establish order in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Inside the blockhouse, a gunslit provides a view. Each of the three gunslits is about 1 foot tall. The exterior opening is about 4 inches wide, while the interior of the gunslit is more than twice that wide. So, the opening is a like a wedge, with the thin edge on the outside and the wide edge on the inside. The reason for this is simple. The defender would be protected from fire from outside attackers, while he would be able to move his weapon from side to side, allowing him to cover a broad area. 

In the era of single-shot rifles, there would have been perhaps twice as many guns as the number of defenders. While one of them constantly reloaded, the others could keep up a steady fire. After repeating rifles were invented, fewer defenders would have been required. Who were these defenders? They would have included the hacienda's mayor domo (administrator) and his subordinates, the peones acasillados, and men from the pueblo who had sought shelter for their families behind the hacienda walls. In short, anyone who could fire a gun.

Even under Porfirio Diaz' harsh rule, bandit gangs continued because economic hardship continued and grew. People fleeing debt or imprisonment (one could lead to the other) joined the gangs. One of the most famous gangs was led by José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, also known as Pancho Villa. Recruited by the leaders of the 1910 Revolution, he became one of its great generals. He was assassinated in 1923 by agents of the hacendados whom he had plundered during the war.

The turmoil lasted even after the Revolution's formal ending in 1917. The Cristero War (1926-29) was an uprising against the revolutionary government by Catholic reactionaries and hacendados who opposed land reform. After it ended, some Cristero fighters formed bandit gangs. One of these gangs was featured in the book "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", as well as in the movie of the same title starring Humphrey Bogart.

La Capilla

The hacienda's capilla sits just outside of the main gate. The little chapel is in immaculate condition and is still used by the local population. I have often found that the only structure of a hacienda that remains intact, even when the rest of the property is in complete ruins, is the capilla. The people of rural Mexico are deeply religious and take great pride in these old churches. Sometimes, even the ruined capillas will show evidence of use, with fresh flowers left on dusty old altars.

Chuck walks out of the capilla's entrance as Jerry inspects the atrium. An atrium is an area in front of a church surrounded by a low wall. It serves as an overflow space and also for ceremonies that occur outdoors. Atriums in Mexico were originally created as places to gather large groups of indigenous people who were too numerous to fit in the church. In addition, under pagan religious practices, only priests went inside temples, while ordinary people assembled outside. After the Conquest, the evangelizing friars tried to use pagan ceremonial traditions to make conversion of the natives easier. 

One of the faithful sits in prayerful contemplation. When we visit Mexico's churches, we try to be respectful by removing our hats and not disturbing people who may be present, particularly if there are services occurring at the time. When I first started photographing inside Mexican churches I was very hesitant about it. Then I noticed how many Mexican tourists were shouldering me aside to take their own photos. When in Rome...

This completes Part 6 of my Silver Mines of Hostotipaquillo series and marks the beginning of five posts on Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás. I hope you enjoyed it and if you would like to leave a comment or a question, please do so in the Comments section below or email me directly. In my next posting, I will take you inside the walls to see the casa grande, which was the residence of the owner and the administrative center of the whole operation.

Hasta luego, Jim