Mexico has many haciendas tucked away in places that are usually not seen by anyone other that those who live in the area. There is one such hacienda in Pacho Nuevo, Veracruz. The official name is Hacienda de Nuestra Senora de los Remedios but is locally know as the Hacienda de Pacho.

Long before the Spaniards arrived the Totonac Indians settled here drawn to the site by the spring on the hillside. Even today approach the main gates you can see mounds along the side of the road which are old Totonac burial sites. The Totonac called this settlement Nexapa which means “close by the water.”

After the Spanish conquest this land was set aside as a “merced de indios”, akin to the North American Indian reservations, a place for Indians to live and work. However, since most of the Indians were killed off by disease, drought and hard work, the land was eventually sold to a Portuguese from the island of Madera named Juan de Quiroz.

The Spaniards brought the cultivation of sugar cane to Mexico from the Caribbean Islands and, in 1592, Juan de Quiroz and a Spaniard, Sebastian Diaz, began to plant this crop using African slaves to work it. They developed the sugar plantation and a mill which they called Nuestra Senora de los Remedios de Nexapa. The original waterwheel that powered the mill is still visible on the hillside below the spring. The plantation was sold in 1620 to Luis Pacho y Mexia, a Regidor from the Spanish government in Mexico City. His surname became so identified with the property that it is still known today as the Hacienda de Pacho.

In 1697 the hacienda, along with the slaves, was inherited by the Jesuits who do not remain long in the area. Thus, the hacienda was bought and sold several times during the 18th century when finally it was purchased by two Spaniards, Jose de Iriarte and Joaquin de Cendoya. Along with the property also came 54 African slaves who continued to work the sugar cane and cattle. The hacienda was surrounded by a forest which supplied the lumber for all the beams used in the construction on the property. From this period remain the ovens and sugar chimney in the back patio as well as the building that lies along the southeast side of the entrance. Iriarte owned the property for almost 39 years during which he witnessed the end of the viceroyalty of New Spain and the birth of the new and independent country. He died in 1819 having lived through rains, droughts, disease and the war for Mexican Independence from Spain.

In 1843 the property was purchased by Jose Julian Gutierrez y Fernandez and his wife, Damiana Hidalgo y Ponce who descendents run the hacienda today. Jose Julian remodeled the hacienda bringing in the latest agriculture equipment, commencing to plant coffee beans and building the current gracious hacienda home. He and his wife are buried in the lovely chapel on the grounds.

In 1910, at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, the hacienda still had 1200 hectares. The Government confiscated 800 of these to make parts of 5 ejidos and the remaining hectares were sold off by the family in order to not lose their inheritance. Today the property consists of about 25 hectares. In 1980 the property was declared a historical monument by INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History.)

The owners today are using the hacienda for weddings and other social events while they continue to renovate and maintain this historic site.
(My grateful thanks to Marisa Moolick Gutierrez who supplied the information for this article.)