Mexican History, Mennonites, and Mountains

Our tour guide, Raul, lives in Chihuahua, and we had an opportunity to meet his wife and son the previous evening during our happy hour.  His wife was there to bid us farewell this morning, as we loaded up around 0800.  The man who had been Raul's mentor once he decided to become a tour guide is now retired, but he agreed to come along with us this morning, to provide us with a tour of the city.

Some of us had theorized that the part of the city where we spent the night must be an anomaly, as it looked like a prosperous U.S. suburb.  We were all proven wrong as we drove into the heart of the old city, which was exceedingly clean and impressive.  I remain somewhat embarrassed that I had such a stereotypical image of a large Mexican city in my head.  Also startling was a huge statue on the way downtown of Anthony Quinn as Zorba the Greek.  I had no idea, but he was Mexican, and grew up in Chihuahua.  His real name was Antonio Sonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca.

We started at the city town hall, which also serves as the capital for the state of Chihuahua, which was a very impressive 19th building built in the French style, during the French occupation of the area.  Here, too, my lack of knowledge of Mexican history was startling.  I had absolutely no idea that the French had occupied Mexico, let alone that they had a major war of independence against them.  Also interesting to note is that Cinqo de Mayo celebrates Mexican independence from France, NOT Spain.  The building featured a huge open courtyard -- which had been covered by canopies -- and the outer walls were covered with a continuous mural, tracing the history of Mexico from the arrival of original indigenous people across the land bridge from Russia, through the early 20th century.  Our guide spent a good amount of time walking us around the entire, immense panorama, and I personally found it fascinating, as I knew next to none of the history.

Capital Building of Chihuahua

Interior of the Capital

Part of Mural Showing Entirety of Mexican History

Don Miguel -- Persecuted Priest, Seen as Father of the Mexican Revoluation

We had heard of the famous (infamous) Pancho Villa the day previous, when we drove through the town of Columbus, New Mexico, which he famously raided in 1916.  I knew him primarily as a character in Looney Tune cartoons, when in fact he was a major figure in the Mexican independence movement.  His villa (no pun on his name) is located in Chihuahua, and it is now a museum run by the Mexican military.  Believe it or not, his widow lived until 1981, and lived in the building until her death.  The exact number of women he married is still in dispute, and he is rumored to have fathered well over 100 children.  While his last widow was alive, evidently members of the VERY extended family took to selling off trinkets, furniture, books, etc., unscrupulously to make money off of his name.  In the final years, she was a loss to stop them, let alone really know what was going on, so as soon as she passed away, the military swooped in, took control, and has run the place as a museum ever since.  One quite interesting display was the 1915 Dodge car in which Pancho Villa was assassinated in 1923.  It was still ridden with bullet holes.  As an example of how early members of his family tried to make money off of his name is how one of his sons agreed to send the car to the United States, where the Dodge corporation used it as a promotional item across the country.  After two years, they were to return it and make a sizable "donation" to the Villa family.  Well, Dodge simply refused to send the car back or pay anything.  The family fought the case in the courts for more than 10 years, during which the car was left sitting out in the sun in El Paso, Texas.  The family ultimate prevailed and the car was returned, but it had to be completely refurbished.  Dodge was also ordered to pay legal fees and a substantial penalty, neither of which they ever did.

Pancho Villa's Home -- Now a Military Museum

Interior of Villa

Dodge In Which Villa was Assassinated -- Note the Bullet Holes

Mural Glamorizing Villa's Raid on Columbus, New Mexico

In Chihuahua -- Another Relic of the French Occupation

We bade farewell to our temporary tour guide on the way out of town, and headed southward.  We were headed up, literally, toward the top of Copper Canyon.  We left Chihuahua at ~4,500 feet, and would go up to nearly 8,500 feet, when we finished for the day on the rim of the canyon.  The first few hours of the drive were very gradual, and we progressed through endless miles of very active agriculture.  It was the first time I had seen cotton growing, too.  It looked very much like Iowa or Nebraska, but with a few more rolling hills.  We also began to see miles and miles of apple trees, and I was surprised to learn that North America's largest apple orchards are in Chihuahua.  They are also the largest producer of pecans in the world, and there were simply miles and miles of trees.

For lunch we were headed to a Mennonite farm, so Raul took time to explain to us exactly why in the world there are so many Mennonites in Mexico -- over 100,000.  Turns out that there was, and even still is, a large Mennonite community in Canada, primarily in Manitoba.  Following World War I, the Canadian Government changed the laws which had allowed them to claim conscientious objection; they would not longer permit it.  Rather than be forced to serve in the military, which is against their religious beliefs, tens of thousands of Mennonites agreed to relocate to Mexico, where they were welcomed with open arms.  While Mexico did not fight in World War I, at the same time they were fighting their own civil war, which lasted for nearly a decade, from 1910-1920.  During that time, agricultural production plummeted, and that was exacerbated by a massive land redistribution program after the war.  The Mexicans saw the Mennonites as "ready labor," who were willing to work the land.  The government actively worked with leaders of the community to identify a suitable area in which it settle.  The first few proposed sites were outright rejected by the Mennonites, primarily because of climate, but when they saw the high Chihuahuan plains, many thought it even looked like Manitoba, so they moved.  Over a roughly four-year period, thousands of them resettled from Canada to Mexico.  Part of the agreement, too, was that they would not need to pay taxes for 50 years, they did not need to serve in the military, and they could run their own schools.

The farm where we had lunch also had a museum of Mennonite living, which I found very interesting.  I also didn't know that they still speak "low German" as their mother tongue, which is primarily a combination of Dutch and German.  The meal was all made by family members on site, and was -- not surprisingly -- served family style, and it was all very good.  A nice break, too, from Mexican food.  Plus, who doesn't love a good whoopee pie!

Mennonite Farm Where We Had Lunch and Toured Museum

At the Family-Style Lunch

After lunch, and another hour or so of apple and pecan orchards, we hit the Sierra Madre mountains and started to climb.  The roads became very narrow, with countless hairpin turns.  As with all of our Gate 1 trips, you rotate seats every day, and this day, we were at the front.  This is where we wanted to be, as we knew it would be scenic, but after a dozen or so slow, hairpin turns, when the front of the bus seems to overhang the edge, I think we had had enough.

Apple Orchards -- They Get a Lot of Hail, so They Have Nets They Can Extend To Protect Them

Starting the Climb into the Sierra Madre Mountains

During the drive, Raul told us the history of the Tarahumara Indians, who inhabit the area.  They are, needless to say, indigenous people, and they used to live on the plains.  During the era of Spanish missions, rather than be forcibly converted to Christianity, they fled into the mountains, and eventually settled in the huge Copper Canyon area, where they were left alone and remain to this day.  They maintain their own language, religion, and distinct culture.  Aside from the color dresses which their women still wear, which were originally designed by Spanish Conquistadors, they live much as they did 500 years ago.  Unlike the Cherokee Indians, including the famous capture of Sitting Bull in Chihuahua, the Tarahumara were pretty much left alone, as they were not competing with anyone for the land, which barely provides enough for subsistence living.  The previous day we had heard how bounty hunters in the 1800's were paid $100 for the scalp of an adult Cherokee male, $50 for a woman, and $25 for a child under 12.  The money was paid by Mexican owners of large haciendas (which were broken up after the civil war) to bounty hunters, primarily from the United States.


Along the way, too, we learned that our driver -- Arturo -- would be leaving us the following morning.  He would drive the bus all the way through the mountains and down to El Fuerte, where we were to disembark the Copper Canyon train the day after next.  It was going to be a 14-hour trip for him, all alone, in the bus.  We also learned that he would be swapping out our bus once he got there, as he needed one which had a new U.S. Department of Transportation decal of some sort, needed for expedited re-entry into the United States.




When we finally reached our hotel, it was a sight to behold.  I was not sure our bus would make it up the very steep and precarious drive, but as Arturo rounded one last sharp curve, the hotel appeared, perched -- literally -- on the edge of the canyon.  It was built right into the mountain side, and the views were spectacular.  Our rooms all had balconies overlooking the canyon, and we wasted no time in grabbing our complimentary margaritas and headed there to snap pictures.  We subsidized those welcome drinks with some more, offered up by our neighbors -- the couple from Denver -- who had brought all the fixings for Moscow Mules.  We were to be at this hotel for two nights, and all of our meals for those two days were held in the hotel's dining room, which also offered floor to ceiling canyon views.

Our Hotel at Copper Canyon

A Welcome Margarita With a View

Our Room

It had REALLY cooled off when the sun set.  It was probably in the high 50's, low 60's when we arrived, but it was clearly near freezing when we walked back to our room following supper.  We had to walk outside to reach our rooms.  We loaded all the extra blankets we could muster onto the bed, and turned on the heat, though I don't think it was fully working. Still, we were snug fairly soon.  As it was election night back home, I had been waiting all day to watch the returns.  All we had, however, was CNN in Spanish.  I tried to hang with that for about 10 minutes, but finally decided I could wait to find out what happened.  We were both secretly glad to have an excuse to turn off the TV and just go to sleep.