Chapter XXV: Zacatecas

Zacatecas is celebrated for its enormous output of silver. It is an inland State south of Durango and surrounded by Coahuila and San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes and Jalisco. The hilly country of the middle and west is interspersed with wide valleys and deep gorges and ravines, furnishing a variety of wild and beautiful scenery. It has long ranked first in importance among the mining regions of Mexico. The State is poorly watered, there being no large streams. Mining is the chief industry, although agriculture is extensively and profitably carried on.

Zacatecas is a picturesque city lying in a deep gorge of the mountains about three hundred miles northeast of the capital. It is called the Jerusalem of Mexico. It has many churches, hospitals, a mint and good schools and a literary institute founded in 1868. The first mine was discovered in September, 1546. On July 1, 1818, it was estimated that the total output of the mines since their discovery aggregated the sum of seven hundred million dollars. These silver mines are steadily producing an increased quantity of ore.

The city is reached by a steep slope from the railway station and the narrow streets are wonderfully clean. Everywhere the little courtyards are seen through open doorways. There are many market-places and the central one has a great stone fountain around which at almost every hour of the day may be seen women and children with great red earthen jars and little gourd-shaped cups which they use to fill the jars.

To see Zacatecas one must go down a steep side street to the beautiful old church with its great façade of curved freestone and three unique spires and the arcade covered with its double row of arches. Everything glows with color--the sky, the frescoes, the flowers, the trees, the gaily dressed people and the broad stone seats. The inner court of the government patio is finished with a dado and frieze of blue and yellow; the slender pillars in double columns between the arches of the first and second floors are brilliant with stencilled wreaths of flowers; the broad stone steps curving away to the upper galleries are ornamented with pots of tropical plants. From a corner of one of these galleries one sees a beautiful picture. The red sandstone towers of the cathedral, with their artistic carving, are barbaric in splendor and still harmonious. Against the sapphire sky their outlines are wonderful and there is no end of novelty.

The low-topped houses and domed churches remind one of Palestine. Far up on the mountain called “La Bufa” is the shrine which the Mexican devotees visit to obtain remission of their sins, many of them scaling the steep sides of the mountain upon their hands and knees as an exceptional self-imposed penance. The people wear their peculiarly picturesque garb and should it be Sunday and the band playing in the plaza the moving throngs form a veritable kaleidoscopic scene, wonderfully pleasing to the eye.

Water is comparatively scarce in Zacatecas. The fountains in the plaza are always thronged with people and as early as four o’clock each morning men and women of the poorer classes are at the fountain filling their jars with water, which they sell to later arrivals at a centavo for four gallons, the quantity a jar holds.

There are schools, hospitals and markets, the latter with their many varieties of fruit unknown in other countries. Many of the vendors spread shawls on the pavement and divide their articles into sundry little piles, each of which is sold for one cent. These sometimes consist of cooked articles, and many a passer-by gets a meal for that sum. One market-place is devoted entirely to potteries.

The principal interest of the people of Zacatecas is mining. Among the public buildings is the Aduana, built of red sandstone with handsome carving around the entrance and the yard. Then there is the new public market, a fine theatre with pretty decorations and all modern improvements. Close to the market is the Cathedral, built of red stone, with a wonderful front on three sides magnificently carved. The interior is equally rich. Toward the back of the theatre is the old church and convent of Santo Domingo. This formerly was very large, and the centre of the Inquisition, as were all the convents of the Dominican Order almost everywhere. The portion forming the convent is now the city prison; the old church and the chapter assembly-room still belong to the order of Santo Domingo.

This church was the first one built in the State of Zacatecas and was erected between 1560 and 1570. All that remains to show that it belonged to the Inquisition under the Dominican Order is the assembly-room or “Sala de Actas.” The decoration of the church is very fine. The next place of interest is the church and convent of San Francisco. The church is small and very poor; the front is of carved stone, and the interior decoration appears to have been very rich in former years. The convent now is almost in ruins, a small part being used as a _meson_, another as a dwelling place for the poorer class, a small piece as a brickyard, but by far the greater portion has become dilapidated with age and neglect. The old convent of San Augustin has been almost entirely turned into dwelling houses, but the church, a very fine building, has been left entire, and belongs to the Presbyterian missions.

Huge stone walls and mountain sides are everywhere, with patches of green here and there, making up a picturesque combination.

There are several silver mines in the vicinity of Zacatecas, some of them exceedingly valuable. The principal mining districts in the State, besides Zacatecas, are Fresnillo, Sombrerete, Chalchihuites, Nieves, Piños, Mazapil, Ojo, Caliente and Mezquital del Oro. These furnish, in addition to large quantities of gold and silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, cobalt, antimony, cinnebar, arsenic, sulphur, and alum. The products of these mines average yearly from five to six million dollars, the mint coining five hundred thousand dollars per month.

This place is renowned for health, and no case of consumption was ever known there.

Guadalupe, a suburb of nine thousand people some six miles distant, can be reached by tramway. The cars, operated by the gravitation system, start slowly but are soon whirling down the steep hills, passing by the queer adobe houses, the track now crossing over a bridge beneath which are seen droves of burros carrying the ore from the mines. Again, through a gulch around some huge boulders or past the yawning mouth of some mine, the magnificent views and the varied objects creating a thousand vivid impressions.

The Cathedral of Guadalupe with its tiled dome and its beautiful surroundings, presents a delightful appearance as one approaches through the plaza planted thickly with roses and countless varieties of flowers. Upon the altar are life-sized figures representing the crucifixion, and in the background is a painting of the hill of Calvary with the attending Roman soldiers and the Jews grouped around. Attached to the cathedral is an art gallery containing many magnificent paintings, the subjects drawn from the Holy Scriptures and in their treatment showing the work of some master hand. The new chapel on the north of the cathedral, the gift of a lady of great wealth, is considered one of the finest in the world. The steps leading to the altar are of onyx, only the rarest kind being used. The rail of the altar is of solid silver, and the altar itself in parts is constructed of solid silver and gold.

The remains of an old convent is occupied by a school. In this institution there are over two hundred boys from the poorer classes of Guadalupe and Zacatecas, who are being taught the trades of wool-working and weaving, printing, bookbinding, carpentry, carriage and car-building, blacksmithing, and shoemaking. The blankets made here are equal in manufacture to any that might be bought either in the States or in Europe. This school was awarded medals at the Paris Exposition of 1887, and at the Exposition at Chicago, 1893, for woollen and silk goods made on the premises. Music and the English language are also important branches taught here. The establishment is self-supporting and certainly is well worth visiting. This is the pet institution of Governor Zarate, who manifests the deepest interest in the progress of the pupils. He is an able executive and shows great wisdom in the direction of the affairs of the State.

There is a new theatre, a magnificent hospital of rose-colored stone, fitted with all the requirements of modern science; an elaborate system of lighting; a school for girls, with ample grounds and all the latest appliances known to educators; a science institute; a normal school for boys and other public schools and improvements of importance to the capital city. This policy has not been confined to the seat of local government, however, as many useful improvements have been made throughout the State, including new schools, city halls, public gardens and markets. A word should be added in praise of the fine system of education in Zacatecas. The State spends nearly three million dollars in primary and higher public institutions. There are about twenty-five thousand students with two thousand more in private schools maintained by other individuals.