Puebla

“ Puebla is one of the few cities founded by the Spanish colonists, instead of being built upon the ruins of former greatness. It was founded in the sixteenth century, on the plains of Acajete, in a site occupied only by a few huts belonging to the Cholula Indians. It is surrounded by productive corn estates, and the landscape, when the light visited our eyes, was fertile though flat. The two finest views of Puebla may be seen from the towers of the cathedral, and from an azotea in the street of San Agustin. The landscape is extremely varied and very extensive. ”

“ PUEBLA, CHOLULA, TLAXCALA.
I.
You turn off from the junction of Apizaco, on the Vera Cruz railway, to go to the large, fine city of Puebla. It is the capital of the state of the same name, and has a population of about seventy-seven thousand. Many prosperous fábricas (factories) are seen along the fertile valley of approach; then the forts, attacked and defended on the great Cinco de Mayo, appear on the hills, looking down, like Mont Valerien and Charenton above Paris.
Certainly everything out of Mexico is not Cuatitlan. Puebla is very clean, well paved, and well drained. ”

“ Under the liberal educational crusade of President Diaz, the people are becoming too enlightened to ever revert to the old regime.
Puebla is a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants and ranks as the fourth city in importance. It is the market for the beautiful onyx which is mined near the city. It is in a fertile valley, and for miles and miles to the rim of the mesa lies one of the most beautiful scenes within the Republic. Three volcanoes and three other snow-capped peaks overlook the city. ”

“ Puebla has a population of one hundred thousand, and is one of the handsomest and best-built cities on the American continent, being constructed of gray granite. It is the City of Churches—perhaps more emphatically so than many others that have received the name. The schools, colleges, and public library are upon a grand scale. Public benefactions of the highest order are numerous—hospitals for children, the deaf, dumb, and blind, for men and for women. ”

“ Our guide showed us the ruins of the covered way to the Inquisition; for Puebla, no less than the city of Mexico, had a branch of this institution of the Church. Puebla has always been noted as a religious city; it was founded as an antidote to heathen Cholula, which is only a few miles away, and its full name is Puebla de los [Pg 378] Angeles—'Town of the Angels.' Before the Laws of the Reform went into force four-fifths of the valuation of real estate and other property in Puebla belonged to the Church, and one-fifth to private individuals. ”

“ Even now it is stronger and more formidable than most fortresses. There is much more of interest, historical and otherwise, to be seen in and around Puebla, and one could spend months of sight-seeing every day, and still have something worth looking at. If a gentleman or lady resident of Puebla is asked where their home is they will quickly answer, "I live in Puebla, but am not a Pueblaen." The latter word translated into Spanish means false and treacherous, hence the carefulness of the people always to add it. ”

“ If monks were immaculate, Puebla might deserve the sanctified appellation it has received—the City of the Angels. As it is, the City of the Devils would be a more appropriate title for it!
“The nearer the church, the farther from God.”
The adage is strikingly illustrated in Puebla, where the Church is not only present—in all its outward symbols—but paramount. It governs the place. It owns it. Almost every house in the city, as almost every acre of land in the vast plain that surrounds it, is the property of the Church, in fee simple, or by mortgage deed! ”

“ The hated “alcabala,” was abolished at the city gates, and the Indians and rancheros of Chohula, San Pablo, and San Martin, flocked to the grand Piazza of Puebla.
It was a rare sight in the bright mornings of June, this Piazza of Puebla. Hundreds of Indian girls seated in groups under their awnings of “petates,” gayly chatting with one another, or laughing with a clear ringing laugh at the bad Spanish of the American soldier. Who says that the Indians of Mexico are a dejected race? No such thing. We have seen more bright happy faces in the markets of Puebla than any where else. ”

“ Outside the city limits are a number of factories, Guadalajara being the chief centre for wool and cotton industries. Puebla, nestled among the cloud-capped summits overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, ranks next to the capital in size and importance. From this situation, seven thousand feet above the sea, is a magnificent outlook. The climate is unsurpassed even in this land of perpetual spring. Puebla is connected by a branch road with the railway from Vera Cruz to the capital. ”

“ Excepting the capital of the republic, Puebla is the city which has most railroad stations, there being at present six, ample and well built—namely, the Mexican; that of the line of Izucorde Matamoros ”

“ Puebla is one of the most important of the Mexican states—both in natural resources and in its general flourishing condition. It occupies the region south of the great tableland, extending beyond this, however, both to the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds, its central part forming the divortia aquarum of the continent in this portion, its rivers on the west running to the Pacific Ocean and those on the east to the Gulf of Mexico through the State of Vera Cruz. ”

“ The material is red brick and white stone in alternate layers, and the spacious interior is exquisitely neat and orderly. Every possible comfort and convenience that could be afforded in any like institution anywhere, is here liberally dispensed.
Puebla enjoys, and justly so, the reputation of being the most cleanly of all Mexican cities. The streets, like those of Mexico, run at right angles—north and south, east and west—and are swept every morning; the sidewalks are well paved, and all have their individual sub-sewers. ”

“ I could but gaze at the house—trace the frescoes on its façade—feast my eyes upon inanimate objects; or, if animate, only nest-building birds, or domestics of the mansion.
You are thinking of Park-lane—not Puebla, where the angels rise early. In Park-lane they sleep till a late hour, having “retired” at a late hour. In Puebla they are up with the sun, having gone to bed with the same.
The explanation is easy. Puebla is Catholic—a city of orisons. Park-lane is Protestant, and more given to midnight revels! ”

“ Two or three miles from Puebla a commission met General Worth to treat for terms. A halt of a few hours was made, when the march was resumed, and the American forces without opposition marched into the Grand Plaza between the palace of the Governor and the cathedral.
A Mexican historian thus describes the first appearance and occupation of Puebla by the American troops: "The singular appearance of some of the soldiers, their trains, their artillery, their large horses, all attracted the curiosity of the multitude, and at the corners and squares an immense crowd surrounded the new conquerors. ”

“ When at last Puebla is reached, the mind is fully prepared to take in all things new and strange. A fluent English-speaking German—interpreter for the hotel—assured us that the "Casa de las Diligencias" was the best house, and we soon found ourselves in a grand old convent, with corridors lined with gorgeously blooming plants, while the cleanly spread tables reminded us that we had left Mexico without breakfast. ”

“ This city was taken and sacked by the English on the 17th of May, 1683, since which the works for its defense [present Castle of San Juan de Ulúa] have been made so very strong as almost to bid defiance to an attack from the sea.
6. The administration de la Puebla [IV'-8] lies between 20° and 723 16° N. lat., and 100° and 102° W. long., and is bounded south by the South sea, east by Oxaca and Vera Cruz, north and west by Mexico; it is near 300 miles in its greatest length from north to south, and 120 in its greatest width from east to west. Its population may be estimated at 800,000 souls. ”

“ The elevation above sea level is more than seven thousand feet, but the climate is mild, and being free from dampness, is far more desirable than at Mexico.
Like every other Mexican city, Puebla has a large share of historical associations. ”

“ Puebla (79) , on an elevated plateau 7000 ft. above the sea, 68 m. due SE. of Mexico, is the third city of the republic, and a beautiful town, with Doric cathedral, theological, medical, and other schools, a museum, and two libraries; cotton goods, iron, paper, and glass are manufactured; it is a commercial city, and carries on a brisk trade. Is the name also of a Colorado town (24) on the Arkansas River; it is in a rich mineral district, and is engaged in the manufacture of steel and iron wares.
Puerto de Santa Maria (22) , a seaport in Spain, on the Bay of Cadiz, 9 m. ”

“ The whole of Puebla is under the torrid zone; the western part is a mere desert, and the east, from the above named volcano to the borders of Vera Cruz, where there are beautiful plains filled with fields of maize, corn, sugar, cotton, fruit, &c., is the most populous, containing 813,300 souls. It is on this ridge or plain, that the most ancient monuments of the former state of the Mexicans exist, of which the greatest and most astonishing, is the pyramid or temple of Cholula, 177 feet high, with a base of 1420 feet in breadth. ”

“ The native tributaries numbered more than two hundred thousand, not counting Tlascala, whose people paid but a nominal tax. Of the Spanish towns Puebla had about five hundred settlers, and Vera Cruz three hundred, while a considerable number were scattered throughout the country, and in such towns as Carrion, founded in Atlixco Valley by royal permit of 1579. [89] Puebla had fast assumed the second rank as a city in Mexico, and justly so with its respectable population, its cathedral, [90] and its many convents, representing nearly all the orders in New Spain. ”

“ In Mexico City every vista of every street is terminated by a hill or mountain, blue and hazy in the distance, perhaps, but still there, to remind one of the works of nature while contemplating the works of man; in Puebla every vista is cut short by a church, or chapel, or some religious edifice. You are confronted at every turn by men begging for the Church, beggars with flaunting rags and tin cash-boxes, which they display before your eyes, and, what is worse, under your noses. Priests, wrapped in great black cloaks, form a goodly proportion of the pedestrians ”

“ Successful in preventing the main line of railroad from passing through or near their city, the bishop and priests have, from the beginning, kept Puebla as a place set apart from the active life of the world. Rich men give of their substance freely; poor men—and they constitute the great majority—go clothed in rags that the Church may be benefited thereby. ”

“ Puebla de los Angelos, is at present the capital of Tlascala, and one of the few cities entirely built by Spaniards in America; it is situated in 19° 15ʹ north latitude, and 102° 43ʹ west longitude, east-south-east of Mexico, on a small river which runs through the town; the number of good houses is very great. It has a fine cathedral, several churches and monasteries, which are all well built and beautifully decorated. ”

“ The city of Puebla is getting to be quite a lively place of business again. It begins to look old-fashioned; that is as it looked before the main army left for the city of Mexico. New faces are daily to be seen, and places that were almost deserted a few months ago have now become resorted to by the better class of citizens; where then, no one, neither a Mexican soldier or American dared to go, except the numerous Mexican soldiery. In places that were largely intermixed with guerillas and bad men of all descriptions, we can now see smiling and apparently contented faces. ”

“ The top of the cathedral commands the entire Puebla valley, with its broad green fields and swelling hills; domes and towers rise everywhere, and glisten from every hill-top, many of them being covered with glazed tiles that reflect the sun. Arid plains alternate with verdant fields. Outside the city walls there are not many houses visible, except they are collected in pueblos or villages, and the haciendas are few, the farm buildings being concentrated in one spot, and surrounded by high walls. ”

“ Puebla has wide streets—for Mexico—and many beautiful plazas with flowers and fountains. It is also noted for its bull-fights and has two bull-rings. These are in use nearly every Sunday and frequently for the benefit of or in honour of some church feast or departed saint. The public buildings are very creditable and the city contains good schools and hospitals. A goodly number of foreigners live here, especially Germans. I have noticed that the Germans affiliate with the Mexicans [39] much better than Americans generally do. ”

“ The dark señoritas of Jalapa in particular, and still more their celestial cousins of the golden hair and blue eyes, loved to dance, chat and intrigue, and now their wit and their fans had the opportunity of a lifetime; at Puebla, the full name of which meant The City of Angels, “bewitching glances” often made our officers feel “aguish,” said one of them; and the capital stood first in this as in all other respects. Romance never had a more brilliant or a deadlier course. ”

“ At Fort Guadalupe, near the city, there are several hot sulphur springs, which are used for medicinal baths. Puebla is one of the busiest manufacturing cities in Mexico, and among its products are cotton and woollen textiles, soap, glass, straw hats, pottery and leather goods. ”