Hacienda Don Miguel de Berrio
Date: 8/7/01 8:56:05 AM Central Daylight Time
Hacienda Don Miguel de Berrio
After seeing the boy get killed in Villa de Reyes I only went a few miles
before camping in a field. The next morning as I was eating some nopal
fruit that I had picked from the cacti around me I noticed the domes of a
building about 2 miles away. None of my maps showed a town in this
location. For no reason other than curiosity I decided to see what was
there. After a couple wrong turns and some back tracking I got on the road
toward the domes. I came to the dusty town of Miguel de Berrio (21deg 37' N
100deg 58' W). Not many people there anymore, but obviously at one time
this place was the hub of a phenomenally wealthy farming empire. The
Hacienda of Don Miguel de Berrio dominated the huge plaza that covered
almost 10 acres. At the top of the hacienda stood a statue of Don Miguel
himself with the year 1890 etched beneath him. One side of the plaza faced
the barns, granaries, and cut stone threshing floor of the hacienda. The
other two sides of the plaza held churches. I looked over the dusty scene
and couldn't believe the size of everything. The hacienda and barns were
enormous and unused.
I peeked through the colossal front door/gate of the hacienda. Inside I
could see a courtyard that covered an acre with palm trees growing in it.
The gate was locked so I gave myself the self-guided tour of the barns
first. After looking at the barns I went over to a couple men who were not
all that energetically shoveling dirt off the road. (Don't ask me its
Mexico) I found out from them who had the key to the hacienda. It cost me
to cokes to get the information. I found the person with the key and she
agreed to let me have a look at the hacienda.
The description of the hacienda is difficult. It would be more accurate to
call it a palace, a palace of Old World dimensions. I walked through it
for two hours and I only saw the rooms of the upper floor of the main
section. All the lower rooms of the main section were locked, and there was
a south wing as big as the main section that I didn't get into at all. What
I did see were rooms with beautiful murals on the walls and ceilings, ornate
ceiling decorations, hardwood floors in the ballroom, and more. The Don
used skylights in a couple rooms to illuminate murals. A wooden spiral
staircase that ascended into a glass paneled octagonal booth on the second
floor. Once upon a time this was the place of fairy tales. Indeed Don
Miguel had gone to the trouble to make the beauty of the inside match the
grandeur of the outside. Everywhere I turned was a passage leading to
somewhere new. After I had run out of film (2 rolls) I realized I had been
there for two hours. Two hours and I had only seen the second floor. I
didn't want to keep the lady waiting any longer so I left. Certainly the
place needed a litany of repairs, but wow what a place it would be. What a
place it must have been. As I drove away from Miguel de Berrio Don Miguel
remained standing in stone atop his grand hacienda forever looking over his
once proud farming empire.
This stop would prove to be fortunate. I was heading to the Bajio to
search for haciendas like this. The Bajio with its excellent farm ground
would be excellent hunting for old haciendas. However, the laws of physics
and my own negligence would team up to send me hunting for something much
more elusive than old haciendas.
