thanks for the URL,
can someone add this to the links page?
thanks,
joseph
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
South Zacatecas |
| Date: |
Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:18:39 -0700 |
| From: |
Edward Serros <ed@...> |
| To: |
Joseph Puentes <makas@...> |
South Zacatecas
Joseph,
I found an interesting link describing some cities in south Zacatecas.
Members of our group may have family there or may wish to travel there.
See http://www.mexicofile.com/southofzacatecas.htm
Ed
South of Zacatecas
a fascinating archaeological site,
a colonial gem, and a
scenic route to Guadalajara
by Tony Burton
Tony Burton, an author, educator and travel consultant, moved to Canada
in 1997 after working 18 years in Mexico. He returns several times a
year to revisit his favorite places and lead specialized tours to such
destinations as the Monarch butterflies, Paricutin volcano and the
Copper Canyon. His book, Western Mexico — A Traveler’s Treasury,
is reviewed in this issue. He wrote an article on Zacatecas which
appeared in the April 1998 issue of
The Mexico File. To see more of his work, check out his internet
web site at www.mexconnect.com
Two sites within an hour’s drive south of Zacatecas make it well
worthwhile to linger at least an extra day when visiting this splendid
colonial city. The two sites in question are La Quemada (The Burnt) and
Jerez (Sherry).
HOW TO GET THERE
Even though Zacatecas is a major city and a frequently-chosen overnight
stopping place on many driving routes south, from the U.S. and Canada
to western and central Mexico, it is not easy to get to by air. For
most people, Mexico’s second city of Guadalajara, with its wide range
of international air routes, is the easiest air gateway to Zacatecas,
though the industrial city of León is also well served by several carriers.
>From Guadalajara or León, first class bus service to Zacatecas is
frequent, but unfortunately does not allow for easy access to either La
Quemada or Jerez. Hiring a car is a preferable alternative, especially
if you want to explore at your own pace. It also allows you to drive a
completely different route home.
A good road map will suggest various possibilities for the round trip.
For example, the 4-lane toll highway 80D is the fastest route from
Guadalajara northwards. Shortly after San Juan de los Lagos, it links
to highway 45, the León to Zacatecas road (partly toll, partly free)
which goes via Aguascalientes. Highway 45 enters Zacatecas from the
east. Alternative routes for the way back include the much traveled
highway 54, with its very winding and sometimes slow section through
the canyons north of Guadalajara and the much less well known (but
equally scenic) highway 23, which runs parallel to the 54 and slightly
further west.
La Quemada and Jerez, the two sites described here, can easily be
included in your return drive via highway 23, provided you make an
early start from Zacatecas. Alternatively, take more time and enjoy
them at a slower pace, by making them your choice for a daytrip out of
Zacatecas, returning to the city and its creature comforts, for another
night before continuing on your travels.
While it makes little difference which order you see these sites in,
let's assume that you've decided to have a real adventure and visit
them before returning towards Guadalajara by highway 23. In this case,
you first visit La Quemada (some maps use "Chicomostoc"), about 60
kilometers south of Zacatecas, then double back part-way, as far as the
highway intersection for Jerez. The route from Jerez back to
Guadalajara is briefly described in the last section.
LA QUEMADA
La Quemada grew into the largest pre-Columbian settlement known in
southern Zacatecas. Its original name is unknown; it was christened La
Quemada by the early Spaniards who found evidence of a great conflagration.
Like centuries ago, it remains an impressive sight. In 1535, Spanish
explorers described a "large depopulated city of sumptuous edifices
built of stone and lime. The streets were wide, well laid out and of
imposing appearance.... In the centre was a cué (tower) of great
height, and fronting it was a fountain pouring forth a stream of limpid
water pretty to behold (quoted in Terry's Guide to
Mexico)." Today, the "streets" and ruins are graced by a modern site
museum, opened in 1995, whose scale model shows more than fifty
terraces and about one square kilometer of constructions. First
occupied between about 200 and 300 AD, La Quemada's population peaked
after 500 AD, before the site was abandoned about 1000 AD, 1000 years ago.
Most structures originally had a layer of barro (earthenware)
and vegetable fibre "plaster." and were finished with a wash of
cal (lime). Both plaster and lime have now been all but eroded away,
together with the mud mortar that served to bind the rocks. The site
served as an unofficial building supply store for a thousand years,
losing perhaps fifteen percent of the original constructions.
Some eighteenth century historians conjectured that this might have
been the legendary Chicomostoc, one of the places the Mexica originally
settled on their peregrination from Aztlán to found Tenochtitlan, site
of present day Mexico City. But the constructions are clearly too
extensive, and the quality of architecture too high, for La Quemada to
have been only a temporary settlement. Twentieth century radiocarbon
dating suggests that La Quemada is contemporaneous to Teotihuacan, but
prior to the Toltec settlement of Tula.
Because of its diversity of constructions, La Quemada has been
variously interpreted in the past hundred years, not only as
Chicomostoc, but also as an enclave of Teotihuacan culture, a Toltec
market site, a Tarascan fort, a Caxcán center, an independent
development, and the capital of indigenous groups based on the north
bank of the Santiago river. Perhaps the real answer is some combination of the above!
La Quemada was built at different times, successive stages covering
parts of previous constructions. Delimiting the northern part of the
site is a great wall, 900 meters long, 3.80 meters high and 3.60 meters
wide. The wall suggests a defensive role for La Quemada but the
buildings have civic-religious functions. La Quemada is perhaps best
described, therefore, as a fortified ceremonial site, situated in the
frontier zone between Mesoamerica (with its great cultures and
wide variety of resources including all kinds of foods) to the south
and Aridoamerica (mainly desert and semi-desert areas where
foodstuffs are scarce) to the north. Presumably, it would have been a
natural location for the exchange of provisions and raw materials. A
network of "roads," built of stone slabs and clay, extends from La
Quemada to some 200 minor sites on the Malpaso valley
floor.
Who were the first settlers here? Little is known about their origins.
They may have been migrants or perhaps they were "home-grown." For a
center of this size, they needed a resource base including ample food
supplies. Evidence from the valley floor indicates the cultivation of
maize, beans, squash and maguey, supplemented by the use of amaranth
seeds, tomato, nopal leaves and fruit as well as other wild
plants.
Trade links must have been very important. Between 500 and 700 A.D., it
seems likely that La Quemada had close ties to other key sites,
including Chalchihuites to the northwest, then with mining activities
never previously equaled anywhere in Mesoamerica. La Quemada apparently
became a trade centre for the collection and redistribution of raw
materials like salt, minerals and shells. Such relationships were in a
state of constant flux and readjustment, owing to competition from
other large sites which led to conflicts and skirmishes. Meanwhile,
after about 650 A.D., turquoise from New Mexico (Cerillos) was entering
the zone from the northwest, demonstrating that interconnected routes
extended more than 1000 km further north.
Among advanced construction projects undertaken between 650 and 850
A.D. was the Chamber of Columns (41 x 30 meters, 5.60 meters high, and
with 11 supporting columns), one of the largest roofed structures yet
found anywhere in Mesoamerica. Only the columns remain today. The great
fire cooked the mud mortar and pressed the collapsed roof beams into the
ground.
After 850 A.D., La Quemada went into decline. Some residential areas
were abandoned and some stairways partially blocked off to prevent too
many people from being able to ascend them at the same time. The "Great
Wall" was built, presumably for defense and the site was abandoned
completely shortly after 900 A.D.
Why the decline and abandonment? Did climatic change cause the valley
to dry out? Were trade or military conflicts the reason? Perhaps the
people who left La Quemada founded the Toltec site of Tula in around
900 A.D.? Whatever the reason, and wherever they went, they left us an
enigmatic statement of their prowess as architects, tradespeople and builders.
JEREZ
Much easier to interpret than La Quemada is the undiscovered colonial
gem of Jerez, about 50 kilometers away by road. Incredibly, most
guidebooks give it no more than a passing mention, if it is even
included at all!
Jerez, at an altitude of 2000 meters (6500 feet), was founded in the
mid-sixteenth century to help protect the silver trading routes
connecting the silver mines of Zacatecas with cities like Guadalajara,
from attacks by the wild "Chichimeca" Indians. In time, the city became
known as "The Athens of Zacatecas,", and today is a National Historic
Monument where the stones still tell their stories...
Starting from the central plaza, the self-guided walking tour which
follows includes many of the major sites. The central plaza is more
correctly called the Jardín Rafael Páez. Its wooden, moorish-looking
nineteenth century kiosk has the half-moon of Islam, Star of David and
some Roman bells decorating it, presumably symbolizing the union of
civilizations.
West of the Garden is the Palacio Municipal (Town Hall). An earlier
version was destroyed by fire in 1913 with the loss of valuable
archives. The arcade north of the Garden is the Portal Inguanzo, which
includes the facade of the house of the wealthy Inguanzo family, owners
of El Tesoro Hacienda, and an ice-cream store, "El Paraíso," where a
selection of old photos of Jerez are on display. Off the north-east
corner of the Garden is the sandstone "La Nacional" building. The south
arcade is the Portal Humboldt.
A few steps from the Garden is the nineteenth century Santuario de la
Soledad sandstone church with twin towers and a lovely main doorway. A
stylish wrought iron fence surrounds its atrium. The main altar is home
to the most revered statuette in Jerez. The annual fiesta in her honor
is in the first half of September, ending just in time to begin
Mexico's Independence Day celebrations. As you might imagine,
therefore, September is not a very good month for getting business
done in Jerez!
The elaborate "De La Torre" building across the street from the church
has wonderful cedar doors, carved by Severo Revilla, an Indian child
abandoned in Jerez after an abortive attack by the "natives." Revilla
was raised and named by the local priest. The building is the work of
master stonemason Dámaso Muñetón. Originally a school for girls, it is now the
Cultural Institute.
The five arches on the north side of the "Small Garden" or Jardín
Hidalgo belong to the Teatro Hinojosa, also built by Muñetón, and
architecturally one of Mexico's finest theaters. Its restoration was
completed in 1987. Its lovely three-tiered interior features a huge
central chandelier that had to be regularly lowered to fill its many
lanterns with petroleum. A mirror at the back of the theater reflected
the chandelier light back onto the stage as a spotlight. If the
interior of the building looks familiar, perhaps it is — because it is
supposed to be an exact replica of the Ford Theater in
Washington D.C.
Walking back past the Edificio De La Torre, you pass several stores
selling crafts and collectibles, including more antique flatirons than
you're ever likely to see elsewhere. A few steps more and you arrive at
Plaza Tacuba. On one side is the "doves doorway," named for two stone
doves beak to beak. Legend tells how a century ago two powerful
hacienda owners organized an arranged marriage between their respective
offspring. Mortified, the children did marry but agreed a joint suicide
pact which they carried out right here.
Beyond Plaza Tacuba are the eighteenth century parish church of the
Immaculate Conception and, hidden behind a newer construction, the
museum honoring Ramón López Velarde, born here in 1888, who became one of Mexico's
best known poets.
If you are lucky enough to visit Jerez during Easter week, then don't
miss the town’s Judas competition, in which competition entries of
stuffed effigies are hung aloft and then set on fire by horseback
riders who charge in, carrying flaming lances.
The many sights of La Quemada and Jerez will soon make you realize that
even if most guide books say there's nothing worth seeing south of
Zacatecas, that probably only proves that their writers have never been
here! But there's more to come! Remember we promised you an
alternative, less traveled route towards
Guadalajara? Well, here it is.
HOW TO GET BACK
This leisurely and scenic route starts from Jerez. Heading south from
Jerez, highway 23, a two lane paved road, gently winds through small
picturesque villages and cuts across mountain ranges. Geographically,
the road crosses back and forth between the states of Jalisco and
Zacatecas and it is often almost impossible to know which state you’re
in. The small villages along the way have their own stories to tell,
even if you don’t have time to stop and explore, and don’t be put off
by the plethora of similar-sounding village names — this route
is very easy to follow.
One of the first villages you drive through is Tepetongo (in
Zacatecas), which has a nineteenth neogothic church and a
well-preserved ex-hacienda, Víboras, very close-by. Then comes Huejúcar
(in Jalisco), on the River Huejúcar, a tributary of the Bolaños river
which drains rugged mountainous mining country, home of the Huichol
Indian people, to the River Santiago and thence to the Pacific.
The pueblo of Santa Maria de los Angeles has a pretty little plaza
nestling close to the cliff walls. Next is Colotlán, on a river which
is also a tributary of the Bolaños. Momax, the next village, is back in
Zacatecas. East of Momax is the Los Pilares canyon with interesting
rock pillars and northwest is the San Miguel Mesa, an unexplored
archaeological zone. Tlaltenango, has an old church and is on
fertile land next to a river.
After Tepechitlán, the road rises into Mexican oak forest with
panoramic views over the mountain ranges and majestic gorges of the
Huichol Indian Sierra. Then comes Teúl de González Ortega, "house of
the gods," with nearby archaeological vestiges of a fortress (El Teúl)
and ceremonial site, still intact when the Spanish first arrived.
García de la Cadena, is named in honor of nineteenth century
governor of Zacatecas.
Finally, the road sweeps downward to the bottom of the canyon systems
at the little town of San Cristobal de la Barranca in Jalisco, where it
crosses the great Santiago river, now meandering its way from Lake
Chapala to the Pacific. The spectacular next section of the road rises
out of the barrancas (canyons) through wild mountain scenery and,
suddenly, though it may be hard to believe, you're only a few minutes
from the edge of Guadalajara. This is a wonderfully scenic route but
has relatively few services, so gas up early,
pack a picnic lunch and enjoy!
© Copyright 1998 by
Tony Burton. All rights reserved.
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