A LANDSCAPE ON THE HACIENDA DE CEDKOS 



Photo by J. E. Kirkwood 



The palma from which fiber is obtained. "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 haciendas, it nevertheless constitutes a considerable 

 property, being 2Y 2 million acres in extent. From center to circumference is a day's journey 

 or more, and the proprietor, when he visits the outlying portions 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" (see text, page 563). 



out upon the little plaza, witness of its 

 people's life, at work or play. Rugged in 

 its strength and severe in its architec- 

 tural simplicity, it stands a refuge, spir- 

 itual and temporal. 



The arched and cemented roof, walled 

 round by a crumbling parapet, the loop- 

 holes of which still show, is reached by a 

 flight of steep and narrow steps leading 

 up on the outside. The walls of stone, 4 

 feet in thickness, are pierced by deep em- 

 brasured windows, which, being few and 

 small, light but dimly the appropriately 

 decorated interior. Guarding the en- 

 trance to this sanctuary are ponderous 

 doors, whose mortised timbers are stud- 

 ded with huge wrought nails having heads 

 the size of one's palm. 



Through the center of the yard a walk 



of flat stones leads up to the door, where 

 the hollow-worn threshold speaks of the 

 generations of devout people who have 

 come and gone these 200 years. Within 

 a large mural painting depicts the life and 

 death of the martyred priest who long- 

 ago ministered to the charcoal-burners at 

 Mazapil. Protesting against the oppres- 

 sion of these poor people, who then were 

 slaves at the hands of their Spanish task- 

 masters, he aroused the anger of those 

 whose greed he sought to check and lost 

 his life at the hands of hired assassins. 



THE MANOR HOUSE 



Across the open plaza stands the casa 

 grande. This relic of manorial preten- 

 sions of more prosperous days, with the 

 buildings adjoining and appertaining to 



567 



