Hotel Balam nah Center, Playa del Carmen Q. Roo México

The hacendado (or owner) might buy neighboring ranches; often he would simply appropriate Indian land. As the haciendas grew, they became feudal estates supplying all the needs of the surrounding community, including food, clothing and medical aid. 

Haciendas played host to a variety of activities from baptisms, weddings, and celebrations of saints' days to fiestas, charro (cowboy) parties and contests, bullfights, and harvest festivals. Travelers who stopped for the night, whether invited or not, were treated to displays of hospitality, particularly in the more remote regions.

The charro played a similar role in the life and folklore of the hacienda as did the cowboy on the American ranch. His horsemanship skills, his elaborate and elegant clothing and accoutrements, his music, and his pride and personal style were every bit the equal of those of his cousins across the border. The tradition of the charreada (rodeo) is still kept alive in the haciendas of today, and the charro has become a symbol of nostalgia for the traditional rural life of Mexico. 

For the Indian population whose lands had been appropriated by the hacendados, hacienda life was often less romantic and rosy than diaries describing social visits to the haciendas might suggest. Deprived of their own land, the Indians were forced to work on the haciendas as peons, and had little choice but to buy everything they needed form the hacienda store, further increasing their dependency. 

The relentless growth of the haciendas was not due to a need for, or even interest in, increased production but was usually motivated simply by the prestige that went with substantial land ownership. Only about 10 percent of hacienda land was ever cultivated. Once acquired, most of this land which had once been carefully cultivated by the Indians was left as derelict pasture. 

Haciendas usually concentrated on one particular agricultural product, depending on the region: mescal in Zacatecas, sugar in Morelos, sisal in Yucatan, pulque (the alcoholic beverage produced from the agave plant which, when further distilled, becomes mescal) in hidalgo, and cattle in Querétaro. Around the haciendas, and administered by them, were smaller ranches which supplied grain and other seasonal crops. 

By the eighteenth century a typical hacienda was an elaborate institution. In addition to the main house and its guest quarters there were stables, a general store, a chapel, a school, equipment stores, servants' quarters, granaries, corrals and a forge. Clothing was produced at the hacienda from cloth woven on the premises.

The haciendas grew in size during the centuries of colonial rule. In 1821 Mexico became an independent nation, but lapsed into a period of decline and economic upheaval. From 1864 to 1867 the French occupied Mexico with Maximillian and his wife Carlota installed as Emperor and empress. This intervention was brief, but it began a period of French influence in architecture and culture which lasted will into the twentieth century. 

At the start of the 20th century, the Haciendas Yucatecas, the majority of which were henequen plantations, showed their best styles through their construction. 

Through this short narration, the history of the Mexican henequen plantations, colonist estates, corn and livestock operations await you. The Haciendas Yucatecas are paradises full of enchantment and natural beauty that have entered the 21st century as part of the future's first industry, the tourism industry. 

Fragments From the book "CASA MEXICANA" ©1989 Tim Street-Porter,