Real del Monte, Hidalgo

Real del Monte (officially "Mineral del Monte") is a small town and municipality in the state of Hidalgo in central Mexico, lying at an altitude of 2700 metres (8,800 ft).

History

The municipality was once the richest in the state when gold and silver were discovered before the Spanish Conquest. The Spanish began mining in the late 1500s. The mines were later abandoned but reopened in the late 1730s under Pedro Romero de Terreros.

The town's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings, some dating back to colonial times. The houses with high sloping roofs and chimneys indicate a Cornish influence, the legacy left by 350 Cornishmen employed by the Cornish firm that ran the mines between 1824 and 1848. The Cornish role in the development of Mexican silver mining is remembered fondly in Real del Monte-Pachuca, as it was the Cornish who introduced the industrial revolution to the shores of Latin America in the 1820s, reviving Mexican silver mining. More particularly the majority of migrants to this region of Mexico came from what we now term the Cornish Central Mining District: Camborne-Redruth-Gwennap. One of the leading personalities in nineteenth century Mexico was Camborne man, Francis Rule. His opinion was regarded as a barometer for the rise and fall of mining shares and he became a multi-millionaire with numerous mining interests in and around Pachuca, including the famous Santa Gertrudis which by 1898 was one of the most powerful mines in the State of Hidalgo. The Management was all Cornish, with Thomas Lakeside Phillips becoming Director. In 1903 alone, profits to stockholders had exceeded a million dollars. Known as El Rey de la Plata (The Silver King), Rule left an indelible mark on the Pachucan cityscape and showed great generosity to the peoples of his adopted homeland.

Today, typical Cornish pasties (a local speciality known as pastes) are baked in both settlements and are unknown outside the State of Hidalgo. Four extant Cornish engine houses and a cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of Cornish bear witness to the Cornish involvement in Mexican silver mining for over a century. It was the Cornish who first introduced soccer/football to Mexico (Pachuca). The Mexican national game of football was first played in Mexico by Cornish miners at Pachuca in 1900, a fact that is celebrated each year. The first soccer club in the country, the Pachuca Athletic Club, was also founded in that year; a little known and scarcely believed fact in a country so devoted to 'futbol', the national sport. The first team consisted of Charles Dawe, John Dawe, James Bennetts, John Bennetts, William Blamey, Richard Sobey, William Bragg, William Thomas, Percy Bunt, Lionel Bunt, Albert Pangelly and William Pengelly. A decidedly 'Cornish' team. The Pachuca club encouraged the formation of teams in Mexico City and Orizaba, the first championship was played in 1902 and 'El Pachuca' won the 1904-05 tournament. The District of Pachuca - Real del Monte contains a rich heritage of which the period of Cornish influence is only part. The mines of the District are conservatively estimated to have produced 1.2 billion Troy ounces of silver and 6.2 million ounces of gold. 6 percent of the silver mined throughout the world during the last five centuries and continues in production today. But also Rugby union, Cricket, Tennis, Polo, Chess among other sports, and Mexican remittances helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth, Cornwall in the 1820s. Methodism was also introduced by the Cornish upon their arrival, most of the descendants of the Cornish in Real del Monte and Pachuca are of Methodist faith, they even extended the religion into other major Mexican cities like Mexico City, Puebla, Guadalajara, Morelia, Monterrey, Veracruz, among others.

Tourism

The twin silver mining settlements of Pachuca and Real del Monte (Mineral del Monte) in the State of Hidalgo are being marketed as 'Mexico's Little Cornwall' by the Mexican Embassy in London in 2007 and represent the first attempt by the Spanish speaking part of the Cornish diaspora to establish formal links with Cornwall. Camborne Town Council voted on 19th July 2007 to twin with Pachuca and on 16th August 2007 a public meeting confirmed the earlier decision of Redruth Town Council to twin with Real del Monte. It is intended that formal twinning will take place in Mexico during the visit of the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society in July 2008.

Real del Monte was named a "Pueblo Mágico" in 2004.

Photo gallery

External links

* es icon http://www.cornish-mexico.org/
* [http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/cornishlatin/abouthiswebsite.htm The Cornish in Latin America]
* http://www.el-real.com