Tehuantepec

“ Indirectly the capital has a Pacific coast connexion by way of Cordoba and the F.C. Vera Cruz al Pacifico to a junction with the Tehuantepec line. One of the most important railways in Mexico is the F.C. Nacional Interoceánico de Tehuantepec, also called the Tehuantepec National, and the Mexican Isthmus railway, which is 192 m. long and was formally opened in 1907. This line crosses the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from Coatzacoalcos (officially Puerto Mexico) on the Gulf coast to Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast, and has been under construction many years. ”

“ Men were mere appendages in Tehuantepec—a somewhat desirable comfort in a tropical climate—but not at all necessary. The soldiers stationed here looked peculiarly contented, and the older women all wore strings of twenty-dollar gold pieces as mementos of the day when the gold-rush to California led across this Isthmus, yet to the casual observer, these Indian maidens were the least flirtatious to be seen in Mexico. If they could find a man—a fairly permanent, dependable man, who could be counted on to remain at home and keep house—well and good. ”

“ He gives the width of the isthmus at 118 miles. The connections of the Tehuantepec Railroad with the Mexican Southern Railroad are mentioned in Section VII.
Captain J. B. Eads has recently visited England, to procure capital to build the Tehuantepec Ship-Railway.
The advantages to commerce of a means of communication across the isthmus (either by land or water) can hardly be overestimated. This route lies between latitude 16° and 18°, and, unlike the malarious climate of Panama, the region is comparatively healthy all the year round. ”

“ Though most of the inhabitants of Tehuantepec live on earth floors in reed and grass houses, there is scarcely a sign of suffering poverty. Little Spanish is heard among them, although even the children seem quite able to speak it. Their native Indian tongue differs from the Castilian even in cadence, so that it was easy to tell which idiom was being spoken even before the words were heard. It is the chief medium of the swarming market in and about the black shadows of a roof on legs. Here the frank and self-possessed women, in their brief and simple dress, were legion. ”

“ Tehuantepec and Soconusco yielded some years after to the conquering Axayacatl, and Zapotecapan still later to his successor Ahuitzotl; but in the closing years of the fifteenth century the Zapotecs recovered their country with Tehuantepec, leaving Socunusco, however, permanently in Aztec possession. The history of the two nations takes us no farther back than the fourteenth century, when they first came into contact with the peoples of Anáhuac; it gives a record of their rulers and their deeds of valor in wars waged against each other, against the neighboring tribes, and against the Mexicans. ”

“ Tehuantepec, indeed, is the land of "woman's rights." The men having been largely killed off during the days of Diaz, the feminine stock is to-day the sturdier, more intelligent, and industrious, and arrogates to itself a far greater freedom than the average Mexican woman. Many of those in the car spoke the local Indian dialect, Zapoteca, but all seemed possessed of fluent Spanish. ”

“ Oajaca and Guerrero were the homes of these peoples, where they developed their own civilization and styles of art in channels distinct from those of their neighbors. The isthmus of Tehuantepec presents some interesting remains, chief among 360which we may cite two stone pyramids situated three leagues west of the city of Tehuantepec. One of these measures fifty-five by one hundred and twenty feet at the base and thirty by sixty-six feet on the summit. A grand stairway composed of forty steps and thirty feet in width leads up the western slope. ”

“ The fifth King of Mexico, successor to Montezuma, was Axajacatl, a valiant general of the army. Having received news of his election he marched into the south upon the terrible mission of securing prisoners to grace by their sacrifice his coronation. In this expedition his troops penetrated as far south as Tehuantepec, many miles from the capital. Tehuantepec is the narrowest portion of Mexican territory, only about a hundred miles here intervening between the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and those of the Pacific. ”

“ The name Tehuantepec means the mountain of man-eaters. These man-eaters were not men, but tigers, or ocelots. The story runs that long ago this mountain was infested with wild beasts who destroyed the people of the neighboring villages. Fearing extermination, the people of the town decided to consult the Juaves, who were famous for their naguales, or witches. ”

“ It is divided naturally into two portions, a northern and western, and a southern and eastern, by the depression which cuts across the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The natural division corresponds very conveniently with the archæological; to the north and west lies the seat of Mexican culture, to the south and east, of the Mayan; but it must be remembered that the Maya-speaking people extended at the conquest practically throughout Vera Cruz, though they had by that time fallen under Aztec influence. ”

“ It is not the work of the dainty fingers of educated women but of very humble and ignorant peon women in floorless cabins of adobe and of hands accustomed to drudgery.
The women of Tehuantepec are remarkable for their beauty of face and form. They are easily the finest looking Indian women in [180] America and in beauty of figure will compare with any race in the world. ”

“ Great improvements were also made, particularly in the market buildings of Tlatelulco, which had now become the commercial headquarters of the whole country north of Tehuantepec. The commercial interests of the empire had been most jealously promoted by the reigning monarchs, and the Aztec merchants had contributed no less than the Aztec armies to the glory and prosperity of their nation. ”

“ The data obtained from our explorations and surveys prove that a shipcanal is practicable on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, because the difficulties to be encountered in its construction are of the ordinary type, or such as are inherent to works of a similar nature, with the difference that they will be met on a larger scale. ”

“ The character of the inhabitants of the Tehuantepec isthmus and Yucatan is at the present day one of docility and mildness. With a few exceptions they are kind-hearted, confiding, and generous, and some few of them evince a high degree of intelligence, although the majority are ignorant, superstitious, of loose morality as we esteem it, yet apparently unconscious of wrong. Cayetano Moro says they are far superior to the average American Indian. ”

“ Approaching the nearest of them, the regidor politely asked her to step up and be measured. We were not, however, dealing with Triquis. The women of Tehuantepec are certainly the heads of their houses; the men occupy but an inferior position. Possibly, they are really larger than their husbands, but, whether that be true or not, they give that impression to the spectator. The lady indicated lost no time in assuring the regidor that she had no intention of being measured, and he returned crest-fallen to report results. ”

“ None of the merchants have bothered to advertise on their shops the nature of their business, for travelers seldom come there, and the natives all know one another and one another’s occupation, which is usually that of selling cocoanuts to one another.
There is a plaza, but it is a very inferior plaza, fronted by a ramshackle church. In towns where there is an element of Spanish blood, this would be the center of all activity. But Tehuantepec is of almost pure Indian population, and its interests are in the native market. ”

“ These Tehuana women might not be so beautiful as writers had pictured them, but they undoubtedly were the reigning queens of the Tropics.
VIII
Romance was not altogether lacking in Tehuantepec, even for the casual traveler. As I was about to depart, the little hotel proprietor stopped me.
“You really should stay longer, señor. In time, I believe you could win Guadalupe, my little servant. Young men are scarce here, and she has taken quite a fancy to you. These girls do not throw themselves away upon one who flits from flower to flower, as does the tourist. ”

“ From the hotel, in the heart of Tehuantepec, to the town-house of San Blas, is a walk of only twenty minutes. Here for three days we did our work, returning to our hotel for meals and lodging. The work went easily, the men presenting little or no objection to our operations; measurements, busts, portraits—all were taken. On the whole, the Tehuantepecanos do not present a simple, pure indian type. The women seemed to be purer than the men. The secretario at San Blas has been to school. He is one of the few indians of the district who has taken an interest in the study of his native tongue. ”

“ Between 1551 and 1580 affairs assumed a new aspect, and much religious progress was made; and what was no less important to the apostolic laborers, a large extent of country was secured for the aggrandizement of the order which in 1555 already had a good supply of priests, and in Antequera a vicar-general of the provincial for the government of the Zapotec, Miztec, and Mije regions. The convent of Tehuantepec was in 1551 attached to the province of Guatemala, as being nearer thereto, and one hundred and thirty leagues from that of Mexico ”

“ The Tehuantepec Railway is 1,200 miles north of the Panama Coast, and may be expected to take a good deal of the United States and international transoceanic traffic, as it is nearest to the "axial line" of the world's commerce of any American isthmusian route. The railway is owned by the Mexican Government, but is worked by the British contractors in conjunction therewith under a partnership agreement. At Salina Cruz, the Pacific terminus, a fine harbour has been constructed at considerable cost ”

“ Our road beyond lay over a fertile plain to Tlacolula, a fine town with many good buildings, in a region of aboriginal mounds. In the outskirts, the houses were surrounded by hedges of cactus, with gates made of canes, enclosing fields of corn. The main road to Tehuantepec branches off here, and we left it and bore more to the east, through a lateral valley, where the soil was poorer, though bearing thin crops of cane and corn. ”

“ Hiring a carretero at San Blas, we loaded our materials and instruments into the cart, and started it upon its way. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, we rode from Tehuantepec, taking a roundabout road in order to see the hill which gives name to the town. It was Sunday, and many women and girls had been visiting the cemetery, carrying bowls filled with flowers to put upon the graves of friends. We saw numbers of young fellows sitting by the roadside, and learned that they were the lovers of the young women, awaiting their return from the cemetery. ”

“ The principal ruler was the chief of Teozapotlan, but his resources could not have been great, since he asked a Mixtec king for troops to defend his city while he was absent upon a campaign against the Mixe in Tehuantepec. The same author relates that after being successful in his operations the chief rashly laid claim to certain Mixtec territory, a demand which resulted in the seizure by the Mixtec of a large slice of the Oaxaca region, and the founding of the Mixtec town of Xoxocotlan. ”

“ Sarabia.—Lat. 17° 04'; long. 95° 02'; elev. 100 m. A village 25 kilometers north of Matías Romero on the Trans-isthmian Highway; rainforest [32] . Collections were made in the vicinity of the village and in the rainforest along the Río Sarabia, 5 kilometers north of the village at an elevation of 80 meters.
Tapanatepec.—Lat. 16° 32'; long. 94° 12'; elev. 90 m. A town on the Pan-American Highway on the lower slopes of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas; dense scrub forest [58] .
Tehuantepec.—Lat. 16° 20'; long. 95° 14'; elev. 35 m. A large town on the Plains of Tehuantepec; scrub forest [61] . ”

“ The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the narrowest neck of land in Mexico between the two great oceans and, with the exception of the Isthmus of Panama, is the narrowest point on the continent. The soil is extremely rich and the natural products and resources of the Isthmus are numerous and varied. All products indigenous to the tropics grow here. Different sections, according to elevation, are especially adapted to the cultivation of corn, cacao, tobacco, rice and sugar cane. Medicinal plants, spices, all tropical fruits, vanilla, indigo and cotton also will grow profitably in this climate. ”

“ Diaz, who had remained comparatively inactive, owing to a panic which had seized his men on account of the prestige and strength of the French troops, found that this fear had led to wholesale desertion, and would render effective resistance vain. To save useless bloodshed, he accordingly listened to the final summons and surrendered unconditionally. [6] Most of the men were set free or incorporated with the imperial troops, the rest being sent with Diaz and other officers to Puebla. [7] On his return, Bazaine learned that Tehuantepec had also been added to the empire. ”

“ At present they occupy the four villages of San Mateo, Santa Maria, San Dionisio, and San Francisco.' Barnard's Tehuantepec, p. 227. 'San Francisco Istaltepec is the last village, inhabited by the descendants of a tribe called Huaves.' Hermesdorf, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxxii., p. 546. 'Habitent les villages du bord de la mer au sud de Guichicovi.' Fossey, Mexique, p. 467. Shufeldt's Explor. Tehuantepec, p. 126; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., pt. i., p. 141. 'Se extienden en Tehuantepec, desde las playas del Pacífico hasta la cordillera interior.' Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. ”