Chapter XXIII: Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes

The kingdom of Nuevo León was once the name of the State of Nuevo León. It is inland, bordering on Tamaulipas, Coahuila and San Luis Potosí. Its surface is irregular, as several branches of the Sierra Madre Range come into it and one-fourth of the State forms a part of the great central tableland of Mexico.

Mineral productions abound in the mountains. The climate is perfect. The atmosphere is seldom chilled with frost but sometimes it steals in at long intervals like a thief in the night to disappear in the darkness ere the sun has risen. Snow is unknown in the Valley of Monterey and is seen rarely on the peaks of the mountains which surround the city.

The Topo Chico hot springs are in the suburbs. This is a famous health resort. The thermometer never descends to freezing point and the condition of the atmosphere permits the weakest and most delicate invalid to promenade in the plazas.

Monterey is fifteen hundred feet above sea level; it is one of the oldest cities but has been made over and has now all sorts of modern improvements. Nature is vested in gladness expressed by beauty and wealth of color, over which flows the mellow radiance of a semi-tropical sunshine. It is surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world. The houses are well-built and tasteful both in architecture and interior decorations. The Casino is the principal club.

Honorable Philip C. Hanna, the American consul general, has endeared himself to the people of Monterey. He was appointed the special representative of the American Red Cross and did a notable work during the flood which came near destroying Monterey in 1909. At the Consulate he protected hundreds of the unfortunate, giving food and clothing to the desolate in the flooded district.

Monterey is only a few hours ride from Laredo, in Texas. It is a very American city, with splendid churches, schools and manufacturing establishments.

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ

No country is more beautiful in its picturesque vegetation and useful products than San Luis Potosí. There the highest trees give support to a multitude of creeping vines and to a swarm of vegetable parasites which create an agreeable confusion and form obscure thickets where the foot of man has never yet penetrated. The multitude of color, the green leaves and the divers hues of the flowers, with a half-light produced in many places by the shade of the trees, allowing an occasional vista of purest blue sky; the silence of the bosks at certain hours of the day; the harmonious songs of the birds at the rising and the setting of the sun, are all poetical, and invite to meditation and the adoration of the Author and source of so many marvels. The entire State is a gem of varied beauty.

In the towns to the southeast and east of the capital there are lands well adapted for agriculture. The enterprise directed to this class of work will find there every kind of products which temperate and torrid climates know, not only in cereals and fibre-bearing plants, but also in fruits and hard woods. In all portions of the State Indian corn is cultivated as well as wheat and beans, all most useful as food for the inhabitants; but the branches of agriculture which have been most developed are the cultivation of coffee and tobacco. The coffee plants number about four million, with a mean yield of forty thousand quintals.

San Luis Potosí may justly lay claim to a first rank among cities of the Mexican Republic, whether considered from a historical, political, or commercial point of view. Founded in the days of the Spanish Conquest, the geographical position, some six thousand feet above the level of the sea, secured pre-eminence from the earliest times. The history of the city may to a great extent be read in its outward appearance. Grand old Spanish churches, such as that of San Francisco, dating from the sixteenth century, El Carmen with its two-hundred-year-old carvings, and the Guadalupe, with its charming sacred associations. The imposing French-built government palace and the Mexican cathedral, the old Spanish Plaza with its American tram-lines and electric lights, the old fortified mint, telling of revolutionary times, the college hospital, the library, and the splendid theatre, with many new and elegant buildings, speak for the prosperity and advancement of the present day.

It has always been a very busy and flourishing place, holding the same relation to eastern Mexico that Guadalajara holds to western Mexico. The surrounding country is a very fertile district and San Luis furnishes a ready market for its produce. There are many fine buildings in the capital. The government palace is attractive in appearance; the cathedral shows some fine stone-work on its towers. There is a characteristic painting of high quality in the church of El Carmen. The old church has a clock which was given by the King of Spain in return for the largest piece of silver ore ever taken from a mine. On the entrance to this beautiful sanctuary are these comforting and inspiring words:

Aqui el que pide recibe,
El que busca halla,
El que toca se le abre.

(“Here he who asks receives, he who seeks finds, to him who knocks it is opened.”)

The two tall towers of this church form the most striking feature of the city to the traveler approaching from the south.

The Theatre in San Luis Potosí, one of the handsomest in Mexico, is a monument to the progressive spirit of the late General Carlos Diez Gutierrez, the former governor of the State. The building is of stone, massive and large. Immense columns of stone and iron adorn the front. The entrance is very much like that of the Grand Opera in Paris. It is elegant yet massive in design. There is a grand and beautiful lobby which is approached by wide marble steps and covered by a dome of heavy stained glass. Seen from below, this last has a magnificent appearance with a huge balcony winding around in the interior, with a heavy iron railing. This is entered above by beautiful glass doors, opening from an immense hall, large enough for a ball-room, with marble-tiled floors. The stage has all the latest improvements, and the whole theatre is a noble example of what taste can do when backed by immense wealth. The governor’s private box, facing the stage, is magnificently fitted up, with the coat-of-arms of the State in silver and bronze.

The law requires that all houses shall be kept freshly painted, so that the city is bright in every quarter. The markets are particularly interesting, with picturesque water-carriers, many fountains and novel scenes. The statue of Hidalgo formerly occupied the Plaza de Armas, but has been removed to a more important place and a kiosk erected in its place. When the evenings are warm, as most of them are in San Luis, the Plaza presents a most attractive appearance with families promenading to the gay music under the silvery light of the moon or the more brilliant radiance of the electric light. This historic city has the record that here was made the first discovery of silver in Mexico, which went so far as to found the country’s greatness. The tradition is that early in the sixteenth century an Indian was climbing the San Luis hills, when his foot slipped and to save himself he clutched at a neighboring bush, which giving way beneath his weight, was uprooted and exposed to view the native silver beneath.

San Luis is far advanced in education. There are many magnificent schools. In the School of Arts and Trades for Girls are taught English and French. There are civil and military schools, and hospitals, all of which are supported by the government.

The governor of this State is José Maria Espinosa y Cuevas. The success of the opening of the port at Tampico gave San Luis Potosí commercial advantages equal if not superior to those of any other city in the Republic of Mexico.

In the northern part of the State is the mining town of Catorce, “The Silver City.” These mines were discovered by a group of fourteen bandits and are the most celebrated in Mexico.

AGUASCALIENTES

Aguascalientes though one of the smallest is one of the most interesting States in Mexico. The eastern district consists of tablelands six thousand feet above sea-level and the western portion includes the Sierras of Laurel and Pinal, spurs of the Sierra Madre. The tablelands produce abundant crops of cereals. The capital is Aguascalientes, which means hot waters. It is an attractive city, noted for its hot springs, well-appointed bath houses and healthful climate.

One of the most celebrated and well-attended fairs of the republic, the Feast of San Marcos, is held at Aguascalientes in April of each year and thousands of people from all parts of the country throng the streets and plazas of this quaint old city. There are many special attractions notably the beautiful needle-drawn work which is made by the Indians and excels in beauty the celebrated Fayal work which is so much better known.

The city takes its name from the warm mineral springs in its neighborhood. The baths are reached by long avenues of superb cottonwood trees. They are built of soft red stone and are much frequented. On one side through a canal flows the surplus water from the springs, which is used for bathing by those who are unable to pay the small charge for the baths.

There is a handsome alameda. The country around is fertile and highly cultivated. In the tropical altitudes of Mexico and in the hot spring sections there is a sort of Egyptian disregard of the conventionalities in attire and the disposition to take a daily fashion hint from the Garden of Eden, the children disregarding even the fig leaf.

The water-carrier of Cairo is much like his brother of Mexico. The groups about the fountains all over the republic have long earthen jars of pottery borne by the women and balanced on the shoulders of the men and look very oriental.

The climate is healthful and is noted for its constant sunshine. Many invalids go there from the north. It is half way between the City of Mexico and the northern border.