Another Mexico: cattle and cheese

This week’s bulletin is a portrait of another Mexico than the urban bustle of Zamora, and still less of Guadalajara. The Colegio de Michoacán was founded by a famous Mexican historian, Luis González y González. Don Luis is particularly famous for a history of his home town, San José de Gracia, Michoacán. His son, Martín and his wife Nora, took us to visit San José and the family home.

The drive to San José rises gently from the valley floor of Zamora, eventually reaching 1,900 metres above sea level. Here there are no “berries” cultivated under plastic covers, but a rolling plain of pasture land for cows – lots of cows. San José (population just under 10,000) was once part of the state of Jalisco, but the cattle farmers of the town disliked being ruled from nearby Mazamitla. After a long political tussle, in 1888 they established their own municipality and had the state boundaries moved so that the new town would be in Michoacán. The plan of the new settlement was traced by ox-drawn ploughs.

The González home in San José

Modern Mexican homes are flat-roofed structures of concrete and reinforcing steel bars. Many homes in contemporary San José are of this type, but this was not the architecture of traditional Mexican homes, as the González household demonstrates. The construction materials were simple and local: walls of adobe (mud brick), beams and columns of local and abundant timber, and a roof (with a large overhang to protect the adobe walls from rain) of ceramic tiles. No nails were used: sheer weight holds the timbers in place.

The current house retains three sides of the quadrangle (the fourth was sold at some stage to a neighbour). In the centre is a partly paved garden of plants (some for herbs) and trees (some for fruit) and a well for water. At the rear was once a garden or orchard and room for animals: a cow perhaps, and horses. The family cattle ranch was a short horse ride from town.

The González hom in San José

The González who built the family home had studied for the priesthood, but changed his mind and married, intending to have a large family. However, the only child was Luis, the future historian.

The González home in San José

Luis was only a year old when the Cristero revolt (1926-1929) broke out in western Mexico. When the Catholic church closed its doors in protest against the federal government’s policies, fervent Catholics in towns like San José took up arms. The González family did not join the guerrilla bands, but remained loyal to the Catholic church. In secret, they converted a room in their home into a chapel, complete with its retablo (altarpiece) and altar. It also had an escape hatch for the priest in case the federal troops surprised the family in worship. Eventually, the federal army advanced across the plains around San Luis. The population fled and the government troops set up their headquarters in the González’s home. Since the soldiers were good Catholics they left the chapel untouched.

Over time some innovations were introduced into the González home: one room was used to install a baño inglés (English bathroom), complete with a bathtub. In some rooms the original wooden beams were concealed by a large painted canvas called a tapacielos (literally sky cover).

An uncle, a local priest, took the education of Luis in hand and sent him to school in Guadalajara. From there the young González undertook his university studies and, after graduating, was sent to Paris to study for a PhD. War interrupted his studies and Luis returned to Mexico where he served briefly in the Mexican army. This was not a terribly dangerous occupation: Mexico joined the Allied forces but sent only a token number of soldiers and one air squadron.

Statue of Luis González

Luis longed to return to San Luis, but his career took him to the Colegio de México, the most prestigious social sciences centre in Mexico and home to many great Mexican historians. González was very well connected in Mexican academia and politics (in Mexico these two worlds are not at all separate). He used his influence to create in Michoacán an equivalent of the Colegio de México. The brand new Colegio de Michoacán opened its doors in 1979, initially, in a small house in the centre of Zamora, sufficiently close to San José for Luis to settle into the family home at last.

Behind the house, where once stood the odd cow, the horses, no longer needed in the age of the motor car, and the orchard, don Luis built a library to house his rather more than 20,000 books. Jan, ever the librarian, asked if the library was catalogued. Martín replied that the books are not exactly catalogued, but that they are organized according to his father’s interests. To wander the library is to walk through the long and dramatic history of Mexico and the many ways in which it has been interpreted.

Mexicans learn through their school textbooks and public celebrations a standard narrative of their history. The story begins with pride in the great indigenous civilizations and the Aztec’s heroic fight to the death against the Spanish conquerors. For the next three hundred years of colonial rule no heroes are identified but the struggle for Independence created some of the most revered heroes: such as the priests Hidalgo and  Morelos. Resistance to foreign invasions during the 19^th century raised more to the status of national hero. The Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 made more worthy of statues in public spaces across the republic: notably the peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, or the rampaging general Pancho Villa, notable for being the only Mexican to invade the United States (actually just the small town of Columbus, New Mexico and for only a few hours).

Statue of Apolinar Partida

From the perspective of a small town of cattle ranchers like San José de Gracia, the history of the nation looks quite different. Revolutionary bands were usually bad news – there were no landless peasants here, nor greedy big landowners. The anti-clerical revolutionary governments of the 1920s were still worse. In May 1918 the forces of the ferocious Inés Chávez García, more bandit than revolutionary attacked San José. Apolinar Partida  led the defence and died defending his town along with all but one of his fighters, but not before gunning down between 70 and 100 of their enemies. A statue in the square commemorates his bravery. Another statue records the career of another Partida, Anatolio, "the valiant general who led the San José Division in the Cristero movement 1927-1929. One of his colonels was a certain Honorato González. Anatolio died in 1978 when the Cristero revolt was a distant memory in the nation's capital, but no in San José.

Statue of Anatolio Partida

Most Mexican towns have an obligatory statue of a national hero celebrated in the textbooks. Not so in San José de Gracia. Here, many are considered malign outside influences. San José honours those who have defended, or done important things for, the town. Two bronze statues are devoted to men who defended San José in battle, complete with rifle and belt of bullets. Two González ancestors flank the church. One is the grandfather of don Luis who met President Porfirio Díaz to persuade him to separate the town from Mazamitla’s control. The other is the uncle and priest who sent young Luis to school in Guadalajara. Luis himself stands opposite the church.