____________________
I.
THE REALITY AND THE MEANING BEHIND SOME OF THE NAMES:
We generally try to avoid the dull descriptions of the people and places of the social catchment area of Santa Engracia in the Municipio (County) of Hidalgo, State of Tamaulipas. BUT....we find that there are numerous persons who have wanted to know more about the place. Times have been separating the area from common American and / or Texian understanding of life in such places.
There was a time, back in the 1950s through the 1980s, when scores of honeymooners elected to pass their first moments of marital bliss in the Valley of Huajuco, just to the south of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon at a quaint and very picturesque place (complete with impressive waterfall) known as Horsetail Falls. Ricardo Montalban, Esther Williams, and Sid Charise even filmed a successful movie there during the early 1950s....showboating the Hotel Cola de Caballo's huge swimming pool and the high-diving board, and the truly romantic and impressive geographical setting.
But now, even as I type, it strains my willingness to explain things.....partly because I am old an know more than other people just because of my age...and partly because it just does not interest me much anymore to explain to people about the level of difference between 58 decent people being murdered and almost 500 wounded in 12 minutes in Las Vegas, Nevada....in the middle of more security than most nations have military....and the dangers I face as a landowner and house-holder in a remote place in rural Mexico.
Each time a person asks me about such things, and it is involved with the possibility of coming down to enjoy the much better birding and general ambience, I lose a bit more interest in explaining the obvious. People have accused me of "paying off" the cartels and "paying off the corrupt officials" in order to buy a bit of peace.....although, I can say without reservation that we have never once had an involvement of any kind such as that. Ever. During the nearly 17 years of our holding this property and home, we have not have the merest of incident. The worst moments perhaps were the flooding from the Rio Corona that came up to within 15 feet of our home's south wall.
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| The Dangling Sword of Damocles |
I have had "free medical care"....in the truest sense....to diagnose a slightly fractured third left rib, due to the accidental presence of the State of Tamaulipas OB / GYN mobil clinic having been in our "ejido"(rural community) that day. They came to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre because some people had seen one of our neighbour's big male Rhodesians push me down (being too playful) on our rock walkway down in the "wilderness" part of our property. And, since I was a geezer of anglo/saxon origin, the local folk urged the mobile clinic to attend to me, although my gynocological profile was not correct.
The operators of the OB / GYN unit were a boy and a girl...perhaps in their mid-20s....who were both MDs and brother and sister. Their unit was equipped with a "stand-up" X-ray machine, and it showed the very slightest crack in my rib. The doctorette told me with a straight and serious face...."Do not laugh or sneeze for the next few days. Otherwise everything looks good." Her brother said, "Do not sleep on your left side. Take this if the pain is unbearable (sounded rather ominous)". They also declared (while writing out a note on their prescription tablet) that "with this prescription", I would be conducted into the favoured precincts of the Hospital Civil, (reserved for the rich and famous, and crazy Gringos) if need be. Thankfully, the neede knead naught.
The operators of the OB / GYN unit were a boy and a girl...perhaps in their mid-20s....who were both MDs and brother and sister. Their unit was equipped with a "stand-up" X-ray machine, and it showed the very slightest crack in my rib. The doctorette told me with a straight and serious face...."Do not laugh or sneeze for the next few days. Otherwise everything looks good." Her brother said, "Do not sleep on your left side. Take this if the pain is unbearable (sounded rather ominous)". They also declared (while writing out a note on their prescription tablet) that "with this prescription", I would be conducted into the favoured precincts of the Hospital Civil, (reserved for the rich and famous, and crazy Gringos) if need be. Thankfully, the neede knead naught.
And, of course, all OROGs know that the Mexican Red Cross fixed me up when I lost control of my below-the-knees and below-the-elbows due to electrolytic deficit. That was also "no-charge". Please be aware, however, that when the pretty girls, and the fine young men, and the Army, Naval Infrantry, and the Boy Scouts, and Protestant and Catholic (especially Opus Dei) people are out collecting and standing in main highways with their canisters, El Gringo Viejo is apt to give a larger peso-note than most (200 and 500 pesos), during the Red Cross collection days (February and March, normally). It is my responsibility.
We begin this missive with the past and we shall try to lead it quickly to the present and the future. Shortly after the technical end of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 - 1917, there was a victory by the Constitutionalists of Venustiano Carranza's revolutionary element over the Conventionalists (an aggrupation of leftists and conservative federalist - State's Rights poo-bahs, including Pancho Villa, disciples of Emiliano Zapata, etc. in Guadalajara).
This victory by a decidedly pro-Bolshevik / Marxist / Fabian socialist Conventionalist group in Queretaro - was totally controlled by "General" Venustiano Carranza who wrote the entire Mexican Constitution of 1917, personally, and some say without pausing to sleep, and that is still with us.....although heavily amended. Of course, it also facilitated the Heroic Congress of Mexico to readily ratify Venustiano Carranza as the presidente ex-tempore et permanente of the Republic of the United States of Mexico.
And, of course, this heroic, leftist figure managed to maintain himself in office for almost two whole years. He, as did Madero before him, managed to kick down the barn door, release the cows, horses, oxen, and mules and then declare himself the Saviour of Humanity and a brother in the march to establish a democratic socialist, one-class society with "certain elites" empowered to secure comfort for the common people. He was a profound admirer of Marx and Lenin.
He was driven from office and, like Francisco I. Madero (a native of Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, famous for wine, what was once the largest Levi factory in the World), before him...another atheist, elitist, super-wealthy dreamer who unseated Porfirio Diaz - Presidente de Mexico for 30 years - with nothing.....or dwaddle.....or dwibble, or incredibly....the Ouija Board to guide him (literally). Madero, upon ascending to the Throne of the Presidency, as one of his first acts, was to order a telephonic connection back to his home, the hacienda in Parras de la Fuente, so that he could talk to his father every night in order to find out what his next step should be in the serpents' den of the Mexican bi-cameral Congresso Nacional.
He found himself to be totally incompetent as a governor of such a complex Nation. The White north, and the Red South (an over-generalisaiton), the sophisticated capitals cities, and especially the city of Mexico, the industrial interests and the agricultural interests (in the days of the Porfiriato, Mexico produced about 8% of all the Earth's edible agricultural products).
He was assassinated less than two years into his legitimately elected term, even before he had a chance to board the train that was to have taken both him and his vice-president Pino-Suarez, to exile. (The girls need to know that Vice President Pino Suarez was known to be the most comely man in North America in those days...He was also one of the most studied...in industry, agriculture, education, and comparative religions).
The more we studied about Jose' Maria Pino-Suarez, the more we had to shake our heads about the validity of democratic process in the choosing of leaders. Jose' Maria Pino-Suarez was far more competent and qualified to be President than Madero , but he felt, as a younger man, he had to go and help the older man. In the Yucatan, he was revered by Maya and Caucasian and everything in between. He paid for that decision, to yield to the older man, with his life. More on such things later.
Madero, through a fair and legitimately administered election, won the Presidency of Mexico in 1912, after the forced departure and exile of Don Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori, and Madero's dithering led to his expulsion and the Decena Tragica (Tragic Ten Days).
The departure of the Old Fool Who Overstayed His Usefulness (don Porfirio) was a sad thing. The expedition of the younger fool (don Francisco I. Madero)was a horrid act of international and national murder, including as culpable agents, Col. House who was the prime aide of Woodrow Wilson, and various elements of the world. Madero and his vice-president, who had nary a dirty fingernail, much less finger in the matter was another black star on the flag of Mexico. There was no legitimate reason to have assassinated Madero or Pino-Suarez.
We arrive now at the point where we have to designate a Chapter II. All these names about the places were we are wind up being meaningless unless someone has a remote notion about which they pertain, and to which they might have significance.
II.
THE REALITY AND THE PEOPLE AND THE OWNING OF PROPERTY BY A FOREIGNER IN MEXICO AND THE GENERAL SOCIOLOGY:
This whole matter was a mistake. We dumped much of our entire fortune into the matter. Under my guidance and full control, we bought a piece of property that had been "liberated" by the Zedillo Ponce de Leon government, by authorisation of the Heroic Congress of the United Mexican States. It was about three acres in English measurement, down by a scenic river (Rio Corona), lined by huge Montezuma cypress trees and involved with a little "ejido" community to our "upper side" and a small, privately owned, hacienda to our "up-river" side.
We had to pay a permit to the Mexican Secretario de Gobierno, in the amount of the equivalent of 400 American dollars, to designate that we had agreed not to invoke the American military in order to defend the title of purchase. We bought the total property in two stages, because we decided that we did not want someone to set up a "Deposito" (Beer dispensary) between us and the Rio Corona....some 300 feet away from our nearest wall to said Rio. The payment, by law, goes to a bank...and the receipt goes to the Notario Publico (an attorney of record who is entitled to officiate over the transfer of real property or wills and testaments), and that results, after payment to the previous land-holders....in a flurry of documents with all nature of stamps, seals, and officiations.
We paid for all the land we bought in cash. The period of Seven Years has long passed. There is no legal zone for reclamation after seven years....the deal is done, down, and dead. The Boss and I pay each year the abusive sum of seven or eight dollars in ad valorem taxes. (but please remember that we are paying 16% sales tax on anything bought in Tamaulipas / Mexico and almost 4.00 dollars per gallon for automobile gasoline)' half of which is a congressionally approved tax upon the businesses and the automobile owning / driving class).
The people who owned the property had "urbanised" and were living in Cd. Victoria, in spite of the fact that they had roots in the rural areas just to the north of that nice city. When the Congress essentially privatised the lands of the ejidos, many people took advantage of the fact and sold their properties, especially if their land was not tillable. But, after approval by the Secretario de Gobierno, the Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores, and a Notario Publico and the State Congress of Tamaulipas, we had to also have the approval of the Commission of the Ejido....a group of 8 men and a "Comisario" (chairman). Everything was approved.
We began the construction "de inmediato" (immediately). The problem? The younger men (ages 20 - 50) had never constructed anything like an entirely adobe building. There were many in the area, including the Ejido de F. I. Madero and places adjacent, but they had all been built by their grandfathers and great-uncles. Almost all said,"Despues del enjarre, nadien va a saber la diferencia".....(After we seal everything with plaster, no one will know the difference.)
We persisted, and finally a 'maestro' (true master of blue collar expertise) said that he would "try" to do an adobe structure. As heavy as concrete blocks are, the adobe bricks are 42 pounds each, and our little mud hut finally wound up taking 10, 900 such "bricks" of adobe. These adobes are about 4 times the size of a concrete construction block and about 20 times the size of a standard brick.
Other "maestros" came and understood that we wanted the electrical interior wires to be exposed....not only to have greater access when repairs might be necessary, but to give the impression that our place was something of the past, but they were not thrilled with the idea. Finally they acquiesced. The same occurred with our roof. We wanted the ancient split-tile, red roofs that so define Spain, Mexico, Italy, and other such places. The men wanted to use the cheaper "sheets" of plastic "just like split tile" disgusting modernity that we were trying to avoid. We won.
Our little mud hut has piers and beams of concrete, excavated to 2 metres (6.5 feet), filled with small boulders, and saturated with concrete....until we had not only the piers and beams, but a foundation of 18 inches of concrete. We have a totally approved septic discharged system, without paying any "mordida" (little bite or bribe) to the State Environmental Defense group. We add left-over beer and other yeast bearing matter to our system every day. We have 16 years without a back-up of our home system.....toilets, showers, lavatories. There is no "peculiar black ring" around our septic tanque.
WHERE WE LIVE AND AROUND WHOM:
As a critical and judgemental, conservative sociologist it would be my judgement that there are many more females than males in the Ejido de Francisco I. Madero. The last census shows, that in residence, the ratio of men to women is for the Delegacion de Santa Engracia (an area about 200 times the size of the County of Hidalgo However, there is enough economic activity in our nook to justify the arrival of the gas delivery trucks two or three times per week. Snackies and Bread deliveries to the 10 or so tiny "7 - 11 's" as the Boss and I call them come daily with all nature of very excellent junque food and other enticements for children, especially. Some Lala milk trucks bring confections of high quality as well to the stores. The milk is of high quality and well marked in terms of "sell-by" dates, etc.
The Corona beer people come once or twice a day, and feed two or three different "depositos", depending upon who is open. There are no bars or saloons in the Ejido de Francisco I. Madero. The closest bar is at the Hacienda de Santa Engracia, and there a beer will run nearly 3 dollars in pesos. A small Corona beer bought at a "deposito" (private beer dispensary) to be taken home (ostensibly) and consumed will run about 31 American cents. In the very centre of the Delegacion at the Estacion de Santa Engracia, (which used to be the heaviest rural
boarding and de-boarding rail stop for passengers before 1996 for the Monterrey - Tampico trains) there is a homosexual bar and a regular bar. Lamentably, the homosexual bar is the only one that handles Bohemia beer
My best estimate of the adult males who are capacitated in blue collar skills, a least beyond apprentice level, would be 60 per cent (perhaps 100 adult males in this ejido). Maestros (or masters of electricity, plumbing, masonry, etc.) would be perhaps 5 per cent, by American or urban Mexican standards. Many of these, such as our own majordomo Alvaro, have certificates from recognised issuing agencies in Mexico. The semi-skilled persons normally are known as "mil-usos" (thousand uses) because they can do a better than mediocre job at orange (citrus) harvesting, pruning fruit trees, attending maestros in any discipline, guarding cattle or goats or sheep, painting, or supervised gardening. For the least capacitated male, he might make 5 to 10 dollars per day, in cash (from a trusted 'patron') paid each "quincena" or fortnight. The "dia laboral" is about 6 hours.....entering at 07:00 and leaving at 14:00 hours....which allows for a lengthy "almuerzo" (cross between breakfast and lunch) during the middle of the work session. The work-week might or might not include a Saturday depending upon the urgency of the cropping situation (irrigation, harvest, insecticide applications).
There are "vulcanizadoras" who specialise in repairing and remounting tyres. The places look like Hiroshima in early 1946. But, the competence and compliance is 100%. Simple flat tyre...well, how about 30 pesos? That would be $1.50 American to take off the tyre / wheel, rim out the tyre after finding out where the leak is in the "baptismal font - a trough with strange looking water...usually changed once a week, whether necessary or not - and then patch the place from whence the nail or whatever was extracted, then remount the tyre on the rim and then onto the wheel. A "good Gringo" will probably pay two 20 peso notes and leave with a sincere, "Gracias".
About half of the Mexican upper-middle class and aristrocracy will do the same or, lamentably, try to bargain the price down.
Allow me to quickly add that i have been there when the Gringo, also, has said..."We have a verbal contract. I paid what he charged."
The Hacienda de Santa Engracia, (left) in and of itself was once a great fountain of income for the labouring class....mainly, but not entirely, female. It is an historical hacienda without a doubt (1720), and it is also a five-star guest-lodge, and at one time had an occupancy of 45% (32 rooms first-class or de luxe), year-around. In these days, however, due to the Cartel people and the news alerts and the general hysteria that surrounds their events, there remains essentially only a residual echo of what the business was in times past.
At times there are still weddings and receptions. And, during the Summer, there are week-ends full of squealing children in the swimming pool and on the old mares who like to carry light-weight children on "long rides" of thirty minutes. It is, however, a profoundly pleasant place to have meetings, seminars, honeymoons, and such things. It is a little less than a mile from the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre (our home, your home). It also has a chapel, and for about 100 USD a Roman Catholic or Protestant minister will journey out and 'Join this couple in Holy Matrimony', especially if there is a nice reception afterwards. It is very simple, pleasant, elegant, and memorable.
There is the original old chapel where these events are held, once again very simple and elegant, on the grounds where the Catholic Church's local diocesan bishop has said that non-Catholics can use the sanctified space for any holy purpose, Catholic or Protestant or Jew....or even old Episcopalians / Orthodox, or Masonics....but not atheists or non-religious weddings.
Let us estimate, reasonably, that tourism before the Cartel problems was 10% of the entire gross delegacion product....fish farms perhaps 2%.....citrus around 50%.....shopkeeping 5%....people working legally in the United States (North and South Carolina) 10%....education 5%....housekeeping and home-based businesses. Now it would be about the same, but reducing tourism to 1%, and even that might be an over-estimate.
Racially, the people are largely of the mestizo grouping, meaning people of historical indigenous and European ancestry, mixed. This group constitutes about 60% of the local population, mainly derived from the areas near the Tropic of Cancer, and southward into Vera Cruz State of Mexico where French farmers arrived in the 1870s and Spanish settlers arrived in the 1600s....mixing with the Huasteca Nation and to a lesser extent the Totonacs further to the South and the disorganised Indian groupings to the north among the group generally styled as the "Chichimeca" (jibber-jabber people).
Housing ranges from absolute hovels (15%), peasant-hovel-upwardly mobile lower-middle class with hygiene and well-kempt home and grounds...(50%), solidly middle-class / peasant-by-choice or higher with homes and perhaps maids....(30%), and then the Hacienda de Santa Engracia people and the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre people (left) and the Hacienda de la Vega of our neighbours, another 3%.
To the left is the entrance to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre and below that is a hint about the Hacienda de la Vega, aka Huerta de la Vega, and certain other folkloric and legal names that this honoured place in the locale and the State of Tamaulipas....all respectful and all pertinent to the history at that moment. We vigorously urge, and almost require, that the reader visit this site, which is secure, to review photos and commentary about the Hacienda de la Vega, simply by clicking onto the image of our entry gate on the upper right corner of this page.
We have quite a page there, so be sure to scroll way, way down.....4 seconds or so....and see the things that you remember and that you have forgotten if you have been here before.
As professionals, we need to advise at every turn that this is the beginning of the Monarch Butterfly migration and this is the first time we have been really, really covered up with Monarchs...male and Queen....in the past five years. You can link up with our place on the above linkage, obviously. Scroll "way down" to find the article about the Hacienda de la Vega.
We shall be more than willing to discuss anything about this submission to those who email us with their observations, comments, condemnations, or adorations.
As always...we appreciate the time you have spent to read, and especially those who have communicated with us.
El Gringo Viejo
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A BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND DEFINITION OF THE EJIDO CONCEPT, and the EJIDO de FRANCISCO I. MADERO
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| Venustiano Carranza |
This victory by a decidedly pro-Bolshevik / Marxist / Fabian socialist Conventionalist group in Queretaro - was totally controlled by "General" Venustiano Carranza who wrote the entire Mexican Constitution of 1917, personally, and some say without pausing to sleep, and that is still with us.....although heavily amended. Of course, it also facilitated the Heroic Congress of Mexico to readily ratify Venustiano Carranza as the presidente ex-tempore et permanente of the Republic of the United States of Mexico.
And, of course, this heroic, leftist figure managed to maintain himself in office for almost two whole years. He, as did Madero before him, managed to kick down the barn door, release the cows, horses, oxen, and mules and then declare himself the Saviour of Humanity and a brother in the march to establish a democratic socialist, one-class society with "certain elites" empowered to secure comfort for the common people. He was a profound admirer of Marx and Lenin.
He was driven from office and, like Francisco I. Madero (a native of Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, famous for wine, what was once the largest Levi factory in the World), before him...another atheist, elitist, super-wealthy dreamer who unseated Porfirio Diaz - Presidente de Mexico for 30 years - with nothing.....or dwaddle.....or dwibble, or incredibly....the Ouija Board to guide him (literally). Madero, upon ascending to the Throne of the Presidency, as one of his first acts, was to order a telephonic connection back to his home, the hacienda in Parras de la Fuente, so that he could talk to his father every night in order to find out what his next step should be in the serpents' den of the Mexican bi-cameral Congresso Nacional.
He found himself to be totally incompetent as a governor of such a complex Nation. The White north, and the Red South (an over-generalisaiton), the sophisticated capitals cities, and especially the city of Mexico, the industrial interests and the agricultural interests (in the days of the Porfiriato, Mexico produced about 8% of all the Earth's edible agricultural products).
He was assassinated less than two years into his legitimately elected term, even before he had a chance to board the train that was to have taken both him and his vice-president Pino-Suarez, to exile. (The girls need to know that Vice President Pino Suarez was known to be the most comely man in North America in those days...He was also one of the most studied...in industry, agriculture, education, and comparative religions).
  |
| Francisco I. Madero with his Vice-President, Jose Maria Pino-Suarez, the immediate past governor of the State of Yucatan. Both of these photographs are drawn from the original and formal. |
The more we studied about Jose' Maria Pino-Suarez, the more we had to shake our heads about the validity of democratic process in the choosing of leaders. Jose' Maria Pino-Suarez was far more competent and qualified to be President than Madero , but he felt, as a younger man, he had to go and help the older man. In the Yucatan, he was revered by Maya and Caucasian and everything in between. He paid for that decision, to yield to the older man, with his life. More on such things later.
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| Some of the carnage left over from the assault against Madero and Pino-Suarez in February of 1913. This is about 20 minutes after the "encounter of confusion". The building in back of this scene is the National Presidential Palace, fronting on the famous Zocalo, aka the Plaza de la Independencia in the very centre of Mexico City. |
Madero, through a fair and legitimately administered election, won the Presidency of Mexico in 1912, after the forced departure and exile of Don Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori, and Madero's dithering led to his expulsion and the Decena Tragica (Tragic Ten Days).
The departure of the Old Fool Who Overstayed His Usefulness (don Porfirio) was a sad thing. The expedition of the younger fool (don Francisco I. Madero)was a horrid act of international and national murder, including as culpable agents, Col. House who was the prime aide of Woodrow Wilson, and various elements of the world. Madero and his vice-president, who had nary a dirty fingernail, much less finger in the matter was another black star on the flag of Mexico. There was no legitimate reason to have assassinated Madero or Pino-Suarez.
We arrive now at the point where we have to designate a Chapter II. All these names about the places were we are wind up being meaningless unless someone has a remote notion about which they pertain, and to which they might have significance.
II.
THE REALITY AND THE PEOPLE AND THE OWNING OF PROPERTY BY A FOREIGNER IN MEXICO AND THE GENERAL SOCIOLOGY:
This whole matter was a mistake. We dumped much of our entire fortune into the matter. Under my guidance and full control, we bought a piece of property that had been "liberated" by the Zedillo Ponce de Leon government, by authorisation of the Heroic Congress of the United Mexican States. It was about three acres in English measurement, down by a scenic river (Rio Corona), lined by huge Montezuma cypress trees and involved with a little "ejido" community to our "upper side" and a small, privately owned, hacienda to our "up-river" side.
We had to pay a permit to the Mexican Secretario de Gobierno, in the amount of the equivalent of 400 American dollars, to designate that we had agreed not to invoke the American military in order to defend the title of purchase. We bought the total property in two stages, because we decided that we did not want someone to set up a "Deposito" (Beer dispensary) between us and the Rio Corona....some 300 feet away from our nearest wall to said Rio. The payment, by law, goes to a bank...and the receipt goes to the Notario Publico (an attorney of record who is entitled to officiate over the transfer of real property or wills and testaments), and that results, after payment to the previous land-holders....in a flurry of documents with all nature of stamps, seals, and officiations.
We paid for all the land we bought in cash. The period of Seven Years has long passed. There is no legal zone for reclamation after seven years....the deal is done, down, and dead. The Boss and I pay each year the abusive sum of seven or eight dollars in ad valorem taxes. (but please remember that we are paying 16% sales tax on anything bought in Tamaulipas / Mexico and almost 4.00 dollars per gallon for automobile gasoline)' half of which is a congressionally approved tax upon the businesses and the automobile owning / driving class).
The people who owned the property had "urbanised" and were living in Cd. Victoria, in spite of the fact that they had roots in the rural areas just to the north of that nice city. When the Congress essentially privatised the lands of the ejidos, many people took advantage of the fact and sold their properties, especially if their land was not tillable. But, after approval by the Secretario de Gobierno, the Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores, and a Notario Publico and the State Congress of Tamaulipas, we had to also have the approval of the Commission of the Ejido....a group of 8 men and a "Comisario" (chairman). Everything was approved.
We began the construction "de inmediato" (immediately). The problem? The younger men (ages 20 - 50) had never constructed anything like an entirely adobe building. There were many in the area, including the Ejido de F. I. Madero and places adjacent, but they had all been built by their grandfathers and great-uncles. Almost all said,"Despues del enjarre, nadien va a saber la diferencia".....(After we seal everything with plaster, no one will know the difference.)
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| El Rio Corona at Flood, about 3 years ago. |
Other "maestros" came and understood that we wanted the electrical interior wires to be exposed....not only to have greater access when repairs might be necessary, but to give the impression that our place was something of the past, but they were not thrilled with the idea. Finally they acquiesced. The same occurred with our roof. We wanted the ancient split-tile, red roofs that so define Spain, Mexico, Italy, and other such places. The men wanted to use the cheaper "sheets" of plastic "just like split tile" disgusting modernity that we were trying to avoid. We won.
Our little mud hut has piers and beams of concrete, excavated to 2 metres (6.5 feet), filled with small boulders, and saturated with concrete....until we had not only the piers and beams, but a foundation of 18 inches of concrete. We have a totally approved septic discharged system, without paying any "mordida" (little bite or bribe) to the State Environmental Defense group. We add left-over beer and other yeast bearing matter to our system every day. We have 16 years without a back-up of our home system.....toilets, showers, lavatories. There is no "peculiar black ring" around our septic tanque.
WHERE WE LIVE AND AROUND WHOM:
As a critical and judgemental, conservative sociologist it would be my judgement that there are many more females than males in the Ejido de Francisco I. Madero. The last census shows, that in residence, the ratio of men to women is for the Delegacion de Santa Engracia (an area about 200 times the size of the County of Hidalgo However, there is enough economic activity in our nook to justify the arrival of the gas delivery trucks two or three times per week. Snackies and Bread deliveries to the 10 or so tiny "7 - 11 's" as the Boss and I call them come daily with all nature of very excellent junque food and other enticements for children, especially. Some Lala milk trucks bring confections of high quality as well to the stores. The milk is of high quality and well marked in terms of "sell-by" dates, etc.
The Corona beer people come once or twice a day, and feed two or three different "depositos", depending upon who is open. There are no bars or saloons in the Ejido de Francisco I. Madero. The closest bar is at the Hacienda de Santa Engracia, and there a beer will run nearly 3 dollars in pesos. A small Corona beer bought at a "deposito" (private beer dispensary) to be taken home (ostensibly) and consumed will run about 31 American cents. In the very centre of the Delegacion at the Estacion de Santa Engracia, (which used to be the heaviest rural
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| The lime plantation of the Hacienda de la Vega is considered to be a little ahead of itself in terms of growth and adaptation. This picture is about two months out of date, and there is some thought that this "huerta" might produce in the coming "Primavera" (Spring). |
My best estimate of the adult males who are capacitated in blue collar skills, a least beyond apprentice level, would be 60 per cent (perhaps 100 adult males in this ejido). Maestros (or masters of electricity, plumbing, masonry, etc.) would be perhaps 5 per cent, by American or urban Mexican standards. Many of these, such as our own majordomo Alvaro, have certificates from recognised issuing agencies in Mexico. The semi-skilled persons normally are known as "mil-usos" (thousand uses) because they can do a better than mediocre job at orange (citrus) harvesting, pruning fruit trees, attending maestros in any discipline, guarding cattle or goats or sheep, painting, or supervised gardening. For the least capacitated male, he might make 5 to 10 dollars per day, in cash (from a trusted 'patron') paid each "quincena" or fortnight. The "dia laboral" is about 6 hours.....entering at 07:00 and leaving at 14:00 hours....which allows for a lengthy "almuerzo" (cross between breakfast and lunch) during the middle of the work session. The work-week might or might not include a Saturday depending upon the urgency of the cropping situation (irrigation, harvest, insecticide applications).
There are "vulcanizadoras" who specialise in repairing and remounting tyres. The places look like Hiroshima in early 1946. But, the competence and compliance is 100%. Simple flat tyre...well, how about 30 pesos? That would be $1.50 American to take off the tyre / wheel, rim out the tyre after finding out where the leak is in the "baptismal font - a trough with strange looking water...usually changed once a week, whether necessary or not - and then patch the place from whence the nail or whatever was extracted, then remount the tyre on the rim and then onto the wheel. A "good Gringo" will probably pay two 20 peso notes and leave with a sincere, "Gracias".
About half of the Mexican upper-middle class and aristrocracy will do the same or, lamentably, try to bargain the price down.
Allow me to quickly add that i have been there when the Gringo, also, has said..."We have a verbal contract. I paid what he charged."
The Hacienda de Santa Engracia, (left) in and of itself was once a great fountain of income for the labouring class....mainly, but not entirely, female. It is an historical hacienda without a doubt (1720), and it is also a five-star guest-lodge, and at one time had an occupancy of 45% (32 rooms first-class or de luxe), year-around. In these days, however, due to the Cartel people and the news alerts and the general hysteria that surrounds their events, there remains essentially only a residual echo of what the business was in times past.
At times there are still weddings and receptions. And, during the Summer, there are week-ends full of squealing children in the swimming pool and on the old mares who like to carry light-weight children on "long rides" of thirty minutes. It is, however, a profoundly pleasant place to have meetings, seminars, honeymoons, and such things. It is a little less than a mile from the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre (our home, your home). It also has a chapel, and for about 100 USD a Roman Catholic or Protestant minister will journey out and 'Join this couple in Holy Matrimony', especially if there is a nice reception afterwards. It is very simple, pleasant, elegant, and memorable.There is the original old chapel where these events are held, once again very simple and elegant, on the grounds where the Catholic Church's local diocesan bishop has said that non-Catholics can use the sanctified space for any holy purpose, Catholic or Protestant or Jew....or even old Episcopalians / Orthodox, or Masonics....but not atheists or non-religious weddings.
Let us estimate, reasonably, that tourism before the Cartel problems was 10% of the entire gross delegacion product....fish farms perhaps 2%.....citrus around 50%.....shopkeeping 5%....people working legally in the United States (North and South Carolina) 10%....education 5%....housekeeping and home-based businesses. Now it would be about the same, but reducing tourism to 1%, and even that might be an over-estimate.
Racially, the people are largely of the mestizo grouping, meaning people of historical indigenous and European ancestry, mixed. This group constitutes about 60% of the local population, mainly derived from the areas near the Tropic of Cancer, and southward into Vera Cruz State of Mexico where French farmers arrived in the 1870s and Spanish settlers arrived in the 1600s....mixing with the Huasteca Nation and to a lesser extent the Totonacs further to the South and the disorganised Indian groupings to the north among the group generally styled as the "Chichimeca" (jibber-jabber people).
Housing ranges from absolute hovels (15%), peasant-hovel-upwardly mobile lower-middle class with hygiene and well-kempt home and grounds...(50%), solidly middle-class / peasant-by-choice or higher with homes and perhaps maids....(30%), and then the Hacienda de Santa Engracia people and the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre people (left) and the Hacienda de la Vega of our neighbours, another 3%.
To the left is the entrance to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre and below that is a hint about the Hacienda de la Vega, aka Huerta de la Vega, and certain other folkloric and legal names that this honoured place in the locale and the State of Tamaulipas....all respectful and all pertinent to the history at that moment. We vigorously urge, and almost require, that the reader visit this site, which is secure, to review photos and commentary about the Hacienda de la Vega, simply by clicking onto the image of our entry gate on the upper right corner of this page.
We have quite a page there, so be sure to scroll way, way down.....4 seconds or so....and see the things that you remember and that you have forgotten if you have been here before.
As professionals, we need to advise at every turn that this is the beginning of the Monarch Butterfly migration and this is the first time we have been really, really covered up with Monarchs...male and Queen....in the past five years. You can link up with our place on the above linkage, obviously. Scroll "way down" to find the article about the Hacienda de la Vega.
We shall be more than willing to discuss anything about this submission to those who email us with their observations, comments, condemnations, or adorations.
As always...we appreciate the time you have spent to read, and especially those who have communicated with us.
El Gringo Viejo
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