Chapter XIX: Oaxaca

The road to Oaxaca leads through a great amphitheatre of lofty and mighty mountains with rushing water at the base and flecks of green fields and beautiful foliage sweeping out into the distance. This State is known as the cradle of the patriots. The influence of the native land of the president has been felt throughout the republic, for no State has furnished such brilliant men, such valiant soldiers, financiers and able statesmen. The echoes of history resound with the brave deeds of Benito Juarez, Porfirio Diaz, Romera and Mariscal.

Oaxaca, one of the largest of the Mexican States, has an area of over sixty thousand square miles. It lies between the States of Puebla and Vera Cruz on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the south. The lower or eastern end of the State is part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Here, as in most other Mexican States, there are three distinct zones of vegetation. In the mountains, of which there are several ranges, and on the higher plains, the crops and timber are similar to those of the northern United States. Below the foothills, corn, cotton, sugar and tobacco are the principal crops and in the very deep valleys and toward the coast the vegetation is purely tropical.

More than one-third of the population, estimated at about one million, are pure blooded Indians, mostly belonging to tribes of the Zapotec nation. These people are great fighters and delight in war; notwithstanding, during the administration of President Diaz, they realized the benefit of peace and order and the charm of industry.

Great herds of cattle are the main support in the central parts of the State. It has long been the custom to drive the exportable surplus of these cattle to Mexico and Puebla, the trip consuming three months, but since the railways are finished the profits of the ranchmen have increased by the easier transportation.

Two main lines now serve parts of the State. One, the Mexican Southern, runs from Puebla to Oaxaca, and the other, the Tehuantepec, crosses the foot of the State.

The hospitality of Oaxacans is well known. It is sufficient to knock at any door in that charming State to have it opened with offers of shelter, food, and friendliness, without money and without price. Until within a few years, inns and hotels were unknown, the hospitality among the private houses doing away with the need of such accommodations. The friendship and affection of the Oaxacans for one another are proverbial. Social reunions are constantly held, and there is much gaiety and light-heartedness in consequence.

From its geographical position, geological formation, fuel and water, means of communication and climate, the State of Oaxaca is a veritable paradise for the prospector and capitalist seeking investment in mining properties. Two vast mountain ranges traverse the State from north to south, whose peaks in many cases rise to an altitude of from ten to twelve thousand feet.

These mountain ranges, which are the culminations of the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Sierra Madre of Southern Mexico, are highly mineralized throughout their length and breadth.

The principal metals found in these hills are gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron, either free or in various combinations and with one another. The veins carrying free gold are those most extensively worked and although comparatively few mines have been opened up, those which have been are producing large quantities of exceedingly rich mineral.

The whole State is practically an unexplored field, only a few districts have been superficially prospected.

Oaxaca is a maritime State and extends farther south than any other in Mexico. The great chain of the Mexican Andes crosses the State giving it some of the most magnificent scenery in the entire republic. Chains and ridges make a surprisingly picturesque and beautiful variety to the country. The most remarkable summit is that of Zempoaltepec, in the district of Villata, which rises to an elevation of eleven thousand five hundred and forty-two feet, and from the top of which may be had magnificent views of the country, with glimpses of both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. The climate of Oaxaca is in general very salubrious, for, although it is nearer the equator than other states, its high mountainous altitudes give it healthful breezes. Besides its vast mining resources the agricultural possibilities of Oaxaca are practically limitless. All the products of the temperate zone are raised in great abundance, while the more profitable ones of the torrid zone abound. The cacao raised here is the best in the world, while the annual yield of cochineal is about five hundred thousand pounds. The cultivation of fruit is one of the most profitable enterprises. There are various fibrous plants such as maguey, ramie, and the sisal hemp. These plants require no care, some of them being used as hedges to divide fields or estates. The government encourages foreign enterprise and favors colonists in every way, including exemption from taxation for a period of ten years; freedom from import duties on all goods, machinery, building material or cattle coming into the country for their use, and exemption from military service.

Waterpowers are countless. The many in use driving large factories or producing electric light and power for the cities and mines.

Before the Spanish rule, Oaxaca was the source of much mineral wealth, the native records indicating this region as the principal source of the precious metals.

Many of these old workings have been reopened in the last few years, a smelter has been erected in Oaxaca City and many reduction works have been built in the mining country. The ores contain gold and silver, copper and silver, and copper.

Although Oaxaca is practically an agricultural state, there are a great many manufactures.

The State and especially the Valley of Oaxaca and its tributaries are rich in subjects for research and have never had the attention their importance demands.

The city is two hundred and eighty-eight miles south of the capital of the republic and a mile above sea level. It was founded in 1486, under the name of Huaxyacac and fell under the Spanish rule in 1528. It has a rapidly increasing population of forty thousand. The streets are regularly laid out, wide and spacious, and the houses are handsome and substantial. The principal buildings are the Cathedral, the Santuario de la Soledad, and other churches and convents gorgeously decorated.

There are also the Cabildo, or city hall, the Episcopal Palace, the government buildings, and several handsome plazas, embellished with flowers, trees, and fountains.

The surrounding country is remarkably picturesque, being literally covered with flower gardens and cochineal groves. The hospital in Oaxaca is one of the best in Mexico. The city is extremely pleasant. Its houses are white and on the balconies every day may be seen groups of young people well-dressed and cheerful, giving a festive air to the whole city. The government palace is magnificent, recalling the splendor of the edifices of the time of the viceroys.

In the Plaza de Armas is a monument to the patriot Juarez, one of the most elegant in Mexico. The park of Guadalupe is very delightful, large and stately with flowers and groves of trees.

There are a great many schools in Oaxaca, including the Scientific Institute, Seminary, Historical Museum, Public Library and many private institutions. There are Official Schools for primary instruction for boys and girls, and more than five hundred schools supported by the government.

As always in Mexico, the churches present many points of interest. The Cathedral, begun in 1553, and completed two centuries later, was one of the grandest erected by the Spaniards and ranked with those of Mexico City and Puebla. But it has suffered so many bombardments and been looted so frequently that little of its former glory remains. Only the façade, beautifully decorated with sculptures by unrecorded artists, attests the original splendor. All the valuable paintings, statuary and ornaments that once made gorgeous the interior have disappeared.

The church of Santo Domingo, with monastery attached, tells a similar tale. Built at a cost of thirteen million dollars on a most massive scale, the strength of its walls made of it a fortress whose strategic importance is well attested by the scars made by shot and shell. The interior, however, has not been altogether despoiled. An authority on ecclesiastical art, writing of this church, says, “The interior is one of the most splendid in Mexico, the most superb example of baroque decoration in the country. The walls and the great barrel-arched ceiling are covered in every part with heavily-gilded ornaments and polychrome sculpture in high relief. The effect is one of indescribable splendor. The scheme of decoration in the domed vaulting of the organ-loft ceiling may be compared to an enormous tree, extending in all directions its branches and its innumerable leaves of gold, between which appear the busts of saints diminishing in size as the height increases until at the apex only the faces are shown.”

Several times when churches were being looted it was proposed by parties in possession to scrape the wonderful decorations from this ceiling to recover the gold used therein, but somehow the work was never attempted, the pillagers contenting themselves with the pictures, statuary, altar ornaments, which could be more readily seized. The monastery itself was reduced to bare walls and is now used as a barracks.

Other buildings worthy of inspection are the State House, Federal Building, and the Public Library containing fourteen thousand volumes, in which are found many old manuscripts relating to the period of the Conquest.

These buildings and the residences of Oaxaca impress one as being more distinctively of Moorish design than those in other cities. It would seem as if the note struck by the early builders had been held by all their successors. Having this impression, the modernity of the trolley cars and electric lights brings a curious feeling of anachronism which may easily be enhanced by a visit to the ruins of Mitla.

Not far from the City is the big tree of Tule. It is one hundred and fifty-four and a half feet around, six feet from the ground. It takes forty men to reach around it. It is of the cypress family and must have been there long before Columbus touched the western shores. On the tree is a tablet placed there by Humboldt.

Through three centuries of its history Oaxaca has grown as an interior town, in the full sense of the term. It lies in one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys of Mexico, or rather at the meeting point of three valleys. It is shut off from the ocean on the south by a solid range of mountains; it is separated from the cities of Central Mexico on the north by a range of rough and broken country.

Next in importance to the capital among the cities of the State is Tehuantepec, with its twelve thousand inhabitants. It is inland about twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean and is most noteworthy sociologically. Here was the home, the chief fastness, of the Zapotec people and here live to-day the purest-blooded descendants of that race. The women show a strong and noble people and they are distinguished for beauty of face and symmetry of form. Tehuantepec was the base of supplies for General Diaz when he was opposing the French invasion and his fort is still one of the sights of the town. There are some splendid hot springs of efficacy for the cure of rheumatism, and also many interesting sights of local color.

The Isthmus is that narrow neck of land in tropical Mexico which lies between parallels eighteen degrees and sixteen degrees N., dividing the Atlantic and Pacific waters. The shortest transcontinental railroad on this hemisphere is built there and its trains run across in about six hours. It is not only a magnificent and beautiful country, but has also the most delightful tropical climate. Twice the United States government spent a great deal of time and money making a survey across that neck of land with a view of cutting a canal; once in 1852, and again in 1871, when Captain Shufeldt, of the United States Navy, was sent with a large expedition to make surveys. Again, Captain Eads spent a great deal of time there on his plan to build a ship railway. Now that the Isthmus is opened up by a railway and steamship communication, that portion of Mexico, more than any other, will participate in the wonderful progress Mexico is now making.

The distance from Oaxaca to Tehuantepec is considerably less than from Puebla to Oaxaca. The railway connection has made this southern half of Mexico an outlet to the Pacific. Down the cañon of Tomellin the builders have pushed their way, solving some of the most difficult problems ever encountered in railway construction. They not only tunnelled to get a passage for the trains, but they bored the spurs of the mountains in three places to give the river new channels. The bare gray and brown and red cliffs tower two thousand feet above the track. Tourists journey across the United States for brief half hours in cañon scenery; on the Mexican Southern Railway the traveller rides half a day through awe-inspiring gorges. The train reels down and then staggers up grades which are only a fraction below the legal limit of four per cent. The route is through masses of rock; in some places the boulders are so poised that it seems that a slight jarring would dislodge them. The traveller, when the train starts down these curves can look ahead and see the route and the stations an hour in advance of the schedule time.

The completion of the Tehuantepec Railway and its opening to traffic have attracted much attention. The construction of the railway was a matter of national importance. It was carried out by the Mexican government at its own cost by the advice of President Diaz, who recognized its strategic value.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec can boast of advantages unequalled in the commercial world. It is connected by the Tehuantepec Railroad with the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean steamship facilities, making connection with every large market in the world. The Mexican government has expended over eighty millions upon the construction and equipment of the Atlantic port, Coatzacoalcos, now Puerto Mexico, and the Pacific port of Salina Cruz. Steamers, drawing over thirty feet of water, enter both ports and discharge their tremendous cargoes in an incredibly short time by means of great modern electric cranes and the best docking facilities, which the government has installed.

Travel throughout the state is remarkably free from danger, the officials are uniformly kind and considerate in their treatment of strangers, gladly welcoming the investor, who they know, in seeking to better his own condition, cannot fail to improve those with whom he is thrown in contact.

The State of Oaxaca is notable for having been the stronghold of the Mixtecas, a race of Indians who emigrated many centuries ago from the north, and displacing the Chochones, occupied the state, together with Puebla and Guerrero. They were an intelligent and progressive race and were governed by independent chiefs. The Aztecs afterward subdued some of the Mixtecas but those of Oaxaca remained independent, and many of them still are found in parts of the State. Remains of their former cities, temples and fortresses show that they had considerable intelligence. They believed in a heaven called Sosola, and had sacred caves in the mountains. Probably they had something to do with the original Mitla. They had a distinct language with several dialects. A Mixtecan grammar was published in 1593 and there are still existing religious treatises printed in Mixtecan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Mixtecans of to-day are well-bred and quiet citizens.

After the Conquest, Oaxaca, on the arrival of the first Viceroy, was elevated to the category of an intendency which character it retained until 1821.

On the 31st of January, 1824, it was raised to the rank of a federal entity, and since then it has formed an integral part of the Mexican Confederation.

It now forms one of the twenty-seven states that compose the Mexican Republic; free and sovereign in so far as refers to its interior management, but in union with the other parts of the republic in accordance with the Political Constitution of the republic of the 5th of February, 1857, together with all the additions and amendments thereto.

The governor of Oaxaca, who may be considered the advance agent of its prosperity, has done much to attract to it the attention of foreign investors. Señor Don Emilio Pimentel is a native of Oaxaca and was educated in its public schools, its state institute and its college of law. Sent to Congress for several terms he became a leader, and for a number of years afterward practised law in Mexico City, of which he was finally elected Mayor. His broad intelligence and grasp of the problems confronting the nation early attracted the notice of President Diaz, whose confidence he has since enjoyed. He has been sent to Europe on government missions and represented Mexico in the Latin-American Congress at Montevideo. At one time he was offered a portfolio by President Diaz, but at that time his health had been broken by overwork and he was obliged to decline. In his law practice he represented several of the most important financial interests in the republic. Thus, was he fitted peculiarly to be of service to his native State when elected as its governor in 1902. Now serving his third term in that office he bends every effort to the promotion of the State’s welfare. Practically, all the foreign capital now employed in Oaxaca was invested there at his solicitation.

He has endeavored to give impulse to everything that means progress and prosperity by granting advantageous concessions to men of enterprise. To him is also due the development of railways in the State, the increasing network of tramways in the city, and the railway company to San Felipe. The capital city is also indebted to him for many improvements. All branches of public administration receive his special attention. He has organized new schools and charities and has appointed a commission to study the laws of primary and normal instruction. The public treasury has, under his able and correct administration, paid all the expenses and the State is out of debt. Governor Pimentel has organized the rural police force and has attended to all sanitary affairs in the capital. He has a clean political career which promises him a brilliant future. Oaxaca will place his name on the golden page of its great benefactors.