Exploring Colonial Mexico©Exploring Colonial Mexico©
In 1842, the celebrated American explorer John Lloyd Stephens, accompanied by the artist Frederick Catherwood, journeyed across Yucatan in search of lost Maya cities. Since there were then no hotels or inns, travelers of substance like Stephens, arranged to stay at the rural haciendas of the Mérida elite. Although some were more palatial than others, most haciendas at that time, before the advent of the henequen boom in the late 1800s, were working agricultural or cattle raising estates that in most cases dated back to the colonial era.
Hacienda Xcanchakán was one of several large estates that belonged to the Peón family, leading members of the interrelated Yucatan landowning class and ruling elite. Located near the town of Tecoh, it was originally founded as an encomienda and was one of the most southerly of the great colonial estates. Formerly confined to the raising of corn and cattle, it prospered as a sugar plantation during the boom of the early 1800s. It was during this time that Stephens made his visit. Later, it was converted into a henequen estate, the epitome of industrialized agriculture, another boom that flourished briefly from the late 1800s into the early 1900s.
Architecturally, the hacienda buildings reflect its changing fortunes over the centuries. The earliest structures were built using cut stone, supposedly brought from the ruins at nearby Mayapan. The original main house, or casa principal, is an impressive three story building, unique among hacienda buildings in Yucatan, with lobed arcades on the two upper levels. An arcaded breezeway, also with moorish style arcades and a raised belfry, or espadaña, links the main residence to the adjacent noria, or well house. The other side of the casa is faced along its entire length by another attractive arcade.
A range of later industrial structures, including the engine house and vast machinery shed, leads off at right angles. These buildings, now abandoned along with much of their rusting machinery, are extremely plain, with simple arcades and metal roofs.
Only the chapel, across
the courtyard from the main house, reflects the neoclassical taste
of the era in which it was erected, as evidence its blocky espadaña
and bulls-eye window.
Hacienda Xcanchakán in 1842, after Frederick
Catherwood* Here we reproduce John Lloyd Stephens' account of his visit to the hacienda in 1842:
"It was nearly dark when we reached the stately hacienda of Xcanchakan, one of the three finest in Yucatan, and containing nearly seven hundred souls. The house is perhaps one of the best in the country, and being within one day's ride of the capital, and accessible by calesa [carriage], it is a favourite residence of its venerable proprietor. The whole condition of the hacienda showed that it was often subject to the master's eye, and the character of that master may be judged of from the fact that his major-domo, the same who was attendant upon us, had been with him twenty-six years.
I have given the reader some idea of a hacienda in Yucatan, with its cattle-yard, its great tanks of water and other accessories. All these were upon a large and substantial scale, equal to any we had seen; and there was one little refinement in their arrangement, which, though not perhaps intended for that purpose, could not fail to strike the eye of a stranger. The passage to the well was across the corridor, and, sitting quietly in the shade, the proprietor could see every day, passing and repassing, all the women and girls belonging to the estate.
Our friend the cura of Tekoh was still with us, and the Indians of the hacienda were within his curacy. Again immediately upon our arrival the bell of the church was tolled to announce his arrival to the sick, those who wished to confess, marry, or be baptized. This over, it struck the solemn note of the oracion, or vesper prayers. All rose, and, with uncovered heads stood silent till the last note died away, all, according to the beautiful injunction of the Catholic Church, breathing an inward prayer.
Then they bade each other a buenas noches, each kissed the cura's hand, and then, with his petata, or straw hat, in his hand, came to us, bowing respectfully, and wishing each of us also the good night."
from
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol.1 (1842)
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