Rachel Laudan

Like many mining towns, Guanajuato has had periods of boom and bust.  Most of what you will see comes from three boom periods.

The Foundation 

In 1552 mineral veins were discovered in Guanajuato, and just a few years later the Veta Madre (mother lode).  Guanajuato was a rough frontier mining settlement. It was not constructed to the usual Spanish town plans.  With no native population except for a few nomads, indigenous groups from other parts of Mexico (mainly Otomis) and African slaves were brought in to work the mines. At the end of the 16^th century, twenty nine mine owners (Spanish) had forty two slaves and about six hundred indigenous people working in the mines.

Guanajuato in the late Eighteenth Century

This was the period when silver mining boomed. It saw the construction of magnificent churches, minerales (the mines), and haciendas de beneficio (the haciendas that carried out the first stage of extracting silver from the ore before it was taken by mules to the ports of Veracruz and Acapulco).  It also saw the foundation of the Jesuit College that was later to become the University of Guanajuato, and great civic buildings such as the Alhondiga. 

The Independence movement saw its first battle at this spot.  It is as important in Mexican history as Lexington is in US history. 

Guanajuato in the late Nineteenth Century

After a period of decline following Independence, Guanajuato mining boomed again in the late nineteenth century.  The city became one of Mexico’s leading centers of liberal thought and educational reform.  (Ask me about the Gallo Pitagorico and the Gallina Aristotelica).   The main cultural influence was French (see the many neo-classical and Art Deco buildings around town).  The main economic influence was English. 

Guanajuato in the late Twentieth Century

Another period of decline followed with the Revolution (1910-1923) and the Cristero rebellion (1926-1929).  Now although mining is not very profitable, the town survives on tourism, the state government, and the university. Tunnels and blocky government buildings are constructed, ex-haciendas restored and new suburbs opened. Many of the poor, particularly the rural poor, look for work in the US.