January 22 - Chihuahua

The bus picked us up at 8:00 a.m. Our first stop was at the Aqueduct built in 1757 by the colonial fathers of Chihuahua. Eduardo, our tour guide, informed us that there are 31 states, plus Mexico City in Mexico. 23 million people live in Mexico City. Chihuahua is the largest territory, 96,000 square miles and Capital of the State of Chihuahua. Chihuahua is an Indian word and means dry and sandy state. Industry is mainly from foreign companies and they have the lowest crime rate of all of Latin America. They have an unemployment rate of 3%. Chihuahua is the number one producer of gold and the third in silver in Mexico. Farmers grow corn, beans, potatoes, onions, apples and jalapenos. The Mennonite population is approximately 80,000 and the Indians are about 60,000. Our bus took us to the Revolution Museum (run by the Mexican Army) which was Poncho Villa’s personal home. The house was built in 1914 and had 25 to 30 rooms. Poncho’s father died when he was 16 years old. One day when he returned to the ranch he found his mother and sister in tears. The boss/owner of the ranch had raped his sister. He went to his cousin’s house and borrowed a gun and went to the owner's house. He shot the boss and then left to go stay in the hills because he was now a wanted man. While living in the hills, he met other outlaws and eventually joined up with them. He became very well known has a smart fighter and an excellent sharp shooter. When Mexico was being governed by a dictator, Poncho Villa was called up to organize a group to overthrow the government army. He won his first battle and many others. When the dictator and his army were overthrown, Mexico went into Civil War. Poncho’s army then split up and some of them became enemies. Poncho lost one battle to one of his army members who had now become his enemy, Obregon. U.S. President Wilson liked what he saw and heard about Poncho Villa and thought it was a good thing to back him and maybe he would become President of Mexico. But the people seem to favor Obregon and so President Wilson switched his backing from Poncho Villa to this more popular person. Poncho Villa became furious and took his army up to Juarez and into the U.S. and attacked U.S. villages and burned them to the ground. He returned to his home and married. Poncho Villa married 25 times. President Wilson formed an army to go into Mexico and look for Poncho but he eluded them for over a year. Later, the new President pardoned Poncho. Poncho then decided to run for Governor of his state, Durango. The person who had defeated him during the Civil War now gave an order to assassinate him.

Poncho was driving his 1922 Dodge with his body guards in the car and standing on the running board. As he drove down the street, a street vendor took off his hat and waved it with his left hand to indicate to the snipers that Poncho was in the car and on the left side of the car. They fired 250 bullets into the car of which Poncho took 12 bullets into his body. He was dead on the scene.

We left the museum and went across the street to an artisan store. We saw a demonstration of Paquine pottery. The well known artist creates the pottery and his wife does all the hand painting on the outside of the pottery. They use the same Paquine method of making the pottery that the Mayans did many years ago. They may make four pots and only have one turn out after all the baking. The painting on the pottery is done by hand with a brush made of baby’s hair. It is very detailed and requires a steady hand. We bought a vase made by another famous artist, Patty Ortiz.

Our next destination was the Governor’s Palace/State Capitol building. The building was built in 1881. It was three stories tall with a large courtyard in the middle. The walls surrounding the courtyard were covered with 35 hand painted murals depicting various stages of the history of Chihuahua.

After lunch we went to another artisan shop where we bought a basket made by Tarahumara Indians. They had furniture and other expensive pottery for sale.

Our last stop was The Chihuahua Cathedral which was built in 1725. The new altar was built in 1921 and it took 101 years to complete the cathedral. We were able to go into the cathedral and take pictures.

At 6:00 p.m. we got on a bus and went to downtown Chihuahua to the Stain Glass Restaurant. It was beautiful. The floors were all marble and the windows were all stain glass. We sat down and received our welcome margarita. Our tour guide introduced the dancers (college students) who would perform various folkloric dances. He explained each dance prior to them performing them. The costumes were beautiful. One of the dances was titled the dance of the Iguana. After the couples danced for a while the male partner would fall to the floor and pretend that he was an Iguana crawling on the floor. We had a wonderful meal and the dancers were a lot of fun.