A MEXICAN HACIENDA 



Life on one of the Baronial Estates of our Southern Neighbor 



By J. E. Kirkwood 



Professor of Botany in the University of Montana 



EXTENDING southeastward from 

 the Rio Grande, between high 

 sierras on the east and west, is the 

 Mexican plateau. About 250 miles in 

 width, this area extends from Juarez to 

 its southern extremity, about a thousand 

 rniles. Throughout an arid land, it lies 

 under a clear sky- and has few streams 

 and little rain. 



Its extensive plains are traversed at 

 intervals by more or less isolated moun- 

 tain ranges, mostly trending in parallel 

 course with the Sierra Madre, which 

 form its eastern and western walls. The 

 mountains rise from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, 

 but in the interior of the country they 

 appear much lower, owing to the eleva- 

 tion of the plain itself, which increases in 

 altitude from about 3,700 feet at Juarez 

 to over 8,000 feet near the City of Mex- 

 ico. The topography of this region is 

 very similar to much of that of Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and western Texas. 



Though seemingly desolate, the land 

 abounds in life, and the representatives 

 of its fauna and flora occupy places in 

 widely differing families of animals and 

 plants. The country supports, however, 

 a meager and scattered population, which, 

 outside the cities, is concerned chiefly 

 with mining and stock-raising. While 

 physically capable of a larger develop- 

 ment agriculturally, this has not been pos- 

 sible under the system of land tenure 

 which now obtains and has existed in 

 Mexico from the early times of the Span- 

 ish occupation. The creation of enor- 

 mous private estates, devoted to mining 

 or grazing, and the domination of large 

 sections of the country by the interests of 

 a single individual or family have greatly 

 hindered the growth of agricultural in- 

 dustry. 



FEUDAL AND ARISTOCRATIC 



The Mexican estate known as a haci- 

 enda is in some respects a remarkable 



institution. Feudal in its traditions and 

 aristocratic in its management, it reminds 

 one of the old-world baronies of the mid- 

 dle ages. Consistent with political con- 

 ditions in a country little more than nom- 

 inally democratic, it is, nevertheless, so 

 at variance with American ideals of lib- 

 erty and equality that not the least of the 

 interest in the system lies in the fact that 

 such medievalism has flourished at our 

 own doors up to the present time. 



The story of the haciendas is one of 

 romantic interest. Each, largely a law 

 unto itself, developed its own institutions, 

 had its life and activities apart from the 

 rest of the State, and to all intents and 

 purposes constituted a distinct social and 

 economic unit. 



The writer, not long ago, enjoyed the 

 opportunity of a year's sojourn upon 

 one of these haciendas. This estate, the 

 Hacienda of the Cedars, is 70 miles long 

 by 60 wide, a domain about equal in area 

 to the State of Connecticut. Although 

 much smaller than some of the other haci- 

 endas, it nevertheless constitutes a consid- 

 erable property, being 2^2 million acres 

 in extent/ From center to circumference 

 is a day's journey or more, and the pro- 

 prietor, when he visits the outlying por- 

 tions of his estate, prepares for a journey 

 of days or weeks with coach-and-six and 

 attendants and much of the air of a petty 

 ruler. 



The Hacienda de Cedros, or, in more 

 exact terms, the Hacienda de San Juan 

 Bautista de los Cedros (the Hacienda of 

 St. John the Baptist of the Cedars), lies 

 in the northwestern corner of the State 

 of Zacatecas. Mr. Charles T. Andrews, 

 writing of life on a Mexican hacienda, 

 says of this place : "There are several tra- 

 ditions in regard to the early history of 

 the Cedros hacienda. One is that the 

 original grantee obtained the land as a 

 sort of subsidy for a missionary propa- 

 ganda for 'the conversion of the Indians 



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