Charles Binns - Landscape Photography, Nature Photography, Travel Photography

Hacienda Cortes

All images (c) Charles Binns - Landscape Photography, Nature Photography, Travel Photography.

Built in the 16th Century by Hernan Cortes, The Hacienda of San Antonio Atlacomulco, now called the Ex-Hacienda de Cortes, was one of the most important sugar mills of the Colonial era. 

The structure was neglected during the  Mexican Revolution and changed hands through many different owners over the subsequent years. The property was acquired by Dr. Mario Gonzalez Ulloa in 1973, who then began the long process of restoration.

The Hacienda was converted into a Hotel in 1981. It is located at Plaza Kennedy 90, Col. Atlacomulco,  Jiutepec, a community adjacent to Cuernavaca.

The grounds and gardens are full of tropical flowering plants and many of the stone walls have a tangle of Amate roots growing out of them in convoluted patterns. Some of the salones hold pieces of colonial furniture and artifacts and the vaulted ceilings and thick stone arches of the restaurant/bar area are reminiscent of a Spanish wine cellar, cool and shadowy.

Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate, usually, but not always, a vast ranch. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even factories. Haciendas originated in land grants, mostly made to minor nobles, as the grandees of Spain were not motivated to leave, and the bourgeoisie had little access to royal dispensation. It is in Mexico that the hacienda system can be considered to have its origin in 1529, when the Spanish crown granted to Hernán Cortés the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, which entailed a tract of land that included all of the present state of Morelos. Significantly, the grant included all the Indians then living on the land and power of life and death over every soul on his domains.

In Mexico, the owner of a hacienda was called the hacendado or patrón. Aside from the small circle at the top of the hacienda society, the remainder were peones (serfs), campesinos (peasants), or mounted ranch hands variously called vaqueros, gauchos, etc. The peones worked land that belonged to the patrón. The campesinos worked small holdings, and owed a portion to the patrón. The economy of the eighteenth century was largely a barter system, with little specie circulated on the hacienda.

In Mexico the haciendas were abolished by law in 1917 during the revolution, but remnants of the system affect Mexico today.

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