CW60 INSPIRE p36 - Mexico:Layout 1 29/9/08 14:28 Page 36
mexico and cornwall
AMEXICAN
Wave from Cornwall
Notes from the Cornish Mexican Society visit to Mexico by Richard Williams
A tribute to Cornish mining, the Real del Monte Miners Statue. Pictures by Ainsley Cocks.
FOR THE SECOND time in 200 years Real del Monte, one of the Real del Monte is 90 miles north east of Mexico City. The miners,
highest settlements in Mexico, witnessed a wave of Cornish visitors. many of them from the Camborne, Redruth, Gwennap and Lanner
However, the second wave this summer of 30 members from the areas, set sail from Falmouth and arrived at the port of Veracruz, which,
Cornish Mexican Cultural Society was tiny in comparison with the 350 when they arrived, was still under the control of the Spanish. So they
Cornish miners who made the trek to the mineral rich area in the 1820s. had to unload all 1,500 tons of heavy machinery onto open beaches
The catalyst for this recent visit was the twinning of Redruth with Real close to the port; no mean feat. With the help of Mexican porters and
del Monte and an opportunity to commemorate and retrace the route of mules they then set out to climb first over the Sierra Madre through a
the Great Trek of 1825-26, when a group of Cornish miners transported pass at 7,500 feet, then across the plateau and up to Real del Monte
1,500 tons of machinery from the open beaches of Mocambo, Veracruz at 9,500 feet they journeyed a distance of over 200 miles making their
on the Gulf of Mexico to mines of Real del Monte at 10,000 feet own road as they went. Along the way, the party was struck by yellow
heralding the arrival of the industrial revolution in Mexico. fever and accidents that cost the lives of almost half the group.
36 hwetek warn ugens
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