The Silver Mines of Hostotipaquillo Part 8 of 10: Ex-Hacienda Santo Tomás (administrator's house, courtyard, and fabrica)

The administrator's house is mostly in ruins but still photogenic. The two story house stands on the southern edge of the courtyard, facing the casa grande (see Part 7). Immediately in front of the ruined house is a large rectangular pond, which once may have been a swimming pool. The mayor domo (administrator) was an important figure on any rural estate, but particularly so on a hacienda de beneficio. His knowledge needed to extend not only to the general administration of a hacienda but also to the particulars of the silver refining process.

In this posting, we'll look at the mayor domo's residence and I'll discuss his role on the hacienda. In addition, I'll show you a bit more of the courtyard and its central focus, the reloj de sol (sundial). Finally, we'll examine the remains of the fabrica de tequila (tequila factory) that stands to the west of the mayor domo's house. I'll talk about the tequila production process and its evolution as a source of profit when the silver industry declined. For directions to Hacienda Santo Tomás, please refer to Part 6 of this series.

One of the corner pillars of the mayor domo's residence. My friend Jim B can be seen walking through the ruins in the background. Brilliant bougainvillea grows up one of the arched portales along the front of the arcade. The remains of additional arches can be seen at the top and on the side of the pillar. In the distance is a wall with a line of rafter holes and a door. This is the great waterwheel, which we'll examine in the next posting.

Sizable haciendas and those in remote locations were run by mayor domos and only occasionally visited by the hacendados (owners). Sometimes the purposes of these visits were to examine the books, to inspect the property, and to consult with the mayor domo on various problems. At other times, the hacendado and his family simply wanted a break from city life and to enjoy a short rural adventure. On these latter occasions, they might hunt game or fish the river or socialize with folks from neighboring haciendas. If the visit coincided with a fiesta, they might go into the local pueblo to enjoy the spectacle.

View through one of the portales toward the pond, courtyard, and the casa grande. Beyond the casa grande, the pueblo of Santo Tomás rises up the hillside. The mayor domo's house must have been impressive in its own right, with arcades lined with portales on two levels. Unlike the tile floors of the casa grande, this one is made of flagstones. Much of the the house was made from bricks, probably dating it to the 19th century, when brick became an affordable building material.

Unlike most of the people working under him, a mayor domo would have been literate and familiar with basic accounting practices. He needed to write reports and letters to the hacendado and various officials and to keep the books for the operation. He was a professional and needed to comprehend every aspect of the operation so that he could act in the hacendado's absence. The position of mayor domo made him part of the managerial class of Nueva España and the early Republic. 

Coutyard and sundial

The courtyard and its sundial, with the mayor domo's house in the background. Given the size of the mayor domo's residence, it may have needed a staff of its own, possibly including a maid and a cook. The courtyard is expansive, with a rolling green lawn and a number of shady trees. The centerpiece of the courtyard is a reloj de sol (sundial). I found this interesting because hacienda courtyards are usually centered on a fountain. Of course, such courtyards usually don't have large ponds like the one in front of the mayor domo's house. 

An effective mayor domo also needed to be a good manager of people, particularly in a large operation like Santo Tomás. He would have had several subordinates to directly supervise the various crews working in the refining operation and the tequila distillery. The casa grande also needed supervision, as well as the tienda de raya (company store). Depending upon their actual jobs, some subordinates might have been literate. If a hacendado owned several haciendas, as was often the case in the Real Hostotipaquillo (the mining district), a mayor domo might run them all, with a subordinate at each to handle day-to-day operations.

The reloj de sol sits on a pedestal, not far from the casa grande. Haciendas such as Santo Tomás also had clocks, of course, and the hacendado and his mayor domo would have possessed pocket watches. However, most workers were unlikely to own something as valuable as a watch, much less be able to tell time with it. In addition, clocks would have been kept inside the casa grande and mayor domo's house. Only people who worked in those structures and those who had business there would be allowed inside. However, anyone could check the sundial simply by walking through the courtyard.

The sundial is shaped like a half-moon. Roman numerals line the curved edge. At the center of the top, barely visible, is a thin metal rod that extends forward. The shadow of this rod indicates the time as it touches the various numerals. The clock has numerals for 6am to 6pm, which are generally the hours of daylight. There would, of course, be no way to read the reloj de sol at night. I saw a very similar sundial in the plaza of the pueblo of Jamay, on the northeastern end of Lake Chapala. Indigenous workers had crafted it in the 18th century for the Franciscan church there. It is possible that this piece has a similar pedigree.

Fabrica de tequila

View of the mayor domo's house, the casa grande, and the courtyard from above. The structures along the south side of the courtyard are placed on a series of ledges that rise as steps up a steep hill. I took this shot from the ledge that would have been at the level of the 2nd story of the mayor domo's house. In the center of the photo, just below the pillar and portales, is machinery that was part of the fabrica de tequila (tequila factory). 

From the point of view of the Spanish Crown, the colonies were established to benefit the home country and its ruler, the King. One of the ways these benefits were to be accrued was through Crown monopolies such as the one on mercury, a vital part of the silver refining process. Another monopoly was on alcoholic beverages, such as rum and brandy.  This not only financially benefitted the Crown but also protected the markets of alcohol producers and merchants back in Spain.

Fields of agave azul, north of Hostotipaquillo. The high desert succulent known as agave azul (blue agave) is a derivative of the original wild maguey. Pre-hispanic people used the maguey for a variety of purposes, The fibre from the spikey leaves was used for thread, rope, and sandals. Women sewed using the needle-like spike at the tip of the leaves. It was also used for blood-letting in self-sacrifice rituals. The piña (pineapple) that is left when the leaves are chopped off looks like a Hawaiian pineapple, only several times larger. The sap from the piña was used by natives to make pulque, a mildly alcoholic drink that is still popular.

The Spanish had little interest in the maguey until the Crown monopoly made imported liquor expensive. In response, Spaniards in Nueva España started distilling the sap to make mezcal, a hard liquor. At first, this was confined to outlying haciendas for local consumption. However, mescal became very popular and hacendados in maguey country gradually recognized its commercial potential. In the 18th century, near the pueblo of Tequila, a man named José Cuervo planted huge numbers of magueys at his hacienda. Agave azul evolved from these wild plants and the liquor they produced became known as tequila.

Pit where agave piñas were roasted. After the spikey leaves were cut off by a man called a jimador (named for the tool he used, called a coa de jima), the piñas were brought to this pit where they were heaped up and roasted. You can still see the carbon soot on the sides of the roasting pit. 

José Cuervo quickly became the 18th century's leading producer of tequila. Other hacendados soon followed, including members of the Sauza and Orendain families. All these names may be familiar to tequila fans because the companies established by them still dominate the tequila industry, almost 300 years later. Under Mexian law, only liquor made with 100% agave azul and distilled in the state of Jalisco (and a handful of municipalities in Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas) may be called tequila. 

Daniel studies a large grindstone set in a mysterious stone circle. Daniel was one of our group of Hacienda Hunters on this trip. I have often found old grindstones on the various hacienda sites I have visited and I thought this arrangement was a bit odd. Why was the stone standing on its edge and what was that circle about? There was no sign giving any explanation, so I took a quick shot and moved on.  Later, when I was preparing this posting, a distant memory of a visit to Oaxaca tugged at me and I went back and looked through those old photos.

The grindstone in operation. Back in 2010, Carole and I took a day trip into the country outside the city of Oaxaca. We visited a fabrica which still makes mezcal in the old-fashioned way, much like tequila was once made at Hacienda Santo Tomás. The Fabrica de Mescal Artesanal contains a small museum and this was one of its displays. The same sort of grindstone, rolling on its edge and pulled by a horse, grinds piñas laid out inside of a stone circle. Mystery solved! This grinding process is the second step in making mezcal. 

The ground up piñas were further processed here. The mash was placed in the circular drum, which was then heated by fire, fed through the opening in the small brick structure seen above. The drum was turned on its axis using the wheel, either by hand or possibly by a belt arrangement. Water, cane or corn sugar, and various yeasts would be added to the mash to encourage the beginning of the fermentation process.

Next, the partially fermented mash would be placed in this large vat. The mash would be further heated through the oven below it. The fermentation process lasted anywhere from four to thirty days. After the fermentation, distillation was accomplished in two steps, with the piña fibers removed for the second distillation. The low grade alcohol produced in the first distillation would be added back during the second. Blanco (white) tequila is clear when distilled. That which has aged in barrels from 60 days to a year has a slight amber tint and is called reposado (rested). Anything aged longer has a dark color and is called añejo (mature).

Añejo is considered to be the highest quality tequila and is always the most expensive. While blanco is often used in mixed drinks like margaritas, añejo is supposed to be sipped straight. Blanco is supposed to be harsher than the other grades, while reposado is less so, and añejo is smooth. However, I have consumed all three and have often found blanco to be perfectly smooth and enjoyable, at least to my north-of-the-border palette. I think that the most important aspect is the particular brand, and there are hundreds to choose from.

The smoke resulting from the process would have been channelled through these brick chimneys. The machinery from the last couple of photos is near the base of these chimneys, but is obscured by the foliage. I took this shot from one of the ledges along the south side of the casco. The bricks used to construct the chimneys indicate that they were probably installed during the 19th century. However, tequila manufacturing probably got started at Hacienda Santo Tomás in the 18th century, using more primitive facilities. 

The tequila production area is well within the high casco walls, with their protective corner bastions (see Part 6 of this series). Raids to steal the barrels of liquor would not have been an uncommon experience at tequila producing haciendas. In addition to being a lucrative target, hard liquor has always been popular with bandits and rogue soldiers, who were often in need of a brief escape from their hard lives. So, the fortifications originally constructed to defend newly cast silver ingots would later have helped protect another valuable product of the hacienda.

A tree has grown up in this storage room since the last time it was used. The purpose of the room was not clear, but barrels of tequila may have been stored here. This is likely since the room is quite near the distillation structures. Tequila production would have gradually increased here in the late 18th century and this was probably coincident with the decline of the silver industry during same period and into the 19th century. I don't know when or why tequila production ended here, but it must have been profitable while it lasted. 

This completes Part 8 of my series on the Silver Mines of Hostotipaquillo. I hope you have enjoyed it. Please leave any comments or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. In Part 9, we'll take a look at the aqueduct and water wheel. These helped power the silver ore grinders and provided water to the hacienda. 

Hasta luego, Jim