We’ve found a fantastic portal to Hacienda Petac’s past in a previously forgotten collection of magic lantern slides from the late 19th century. Magic lantern slides, the predecessor of the slide projector, have been around since the 1600s, long before the advent of photography. A relatively simple premise, magic lanterns use small glass slides with images hand painted on them. Illuminated originally by candle – then kerosene lamp and, later, electricity – they are projected onto a wall so that the image appears much larger than it actually is. Once all hand drawn and used primarily as a means for entertainment, magic lantern slide images of the late 19th century grew serious and became reliable historical tools with the technological advances of modern photography. Although by the 20th century they had lost favor after the invention of the more practical slide and overhead projectors, magic lanterns still offer us a charm-filled glimpse into our area’s history.

Frederick Catherwood’s 1844 drawing of Uxmal

Our own collection includes photograph slides from the Yucatán before restorations were made to Maya ruins as well as images of henequen haciendas from their heyday. While some of the glass slides were hand painted and colored, others are in black and white, but they are all 3.5” x 4”, a size common of the late 19th, early 20th centuries. This first set – some of our favorite images – show the ancient Maya city of Uxmal, now a UNESCO historical site, about an hour south of Petac.

Magic Lantern photographic slide of Uxmal

Magic Lantern photographic slide of The Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal

Magic Lantern photographic slide of The Governor’s Palace at Uxmal

One stroll through Mérida’s downtown is all it takes to be enchanted by the city’s gumption and glamour. The Yucatecan capital, which burgeoned throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries during the boom of the henequen industry, still maintains much of the architectural charm from its golden years. Just as successful henequen plantation owners built haciendas such as Petac in the countryside, political figures, foreign investors and wealthy socialites constructed lavish palaces in the city proper.

Palacio Cantón

Within Mérida, many of these grand mansions were built along on the Paseo de Montejo, the main artery of the city. Following a surge in the popularity of French culture, this beautiful tree-lined street was refashioned during the prosperity of the henequen years after Paris’ Champs Elysées. Even now, 150 years later, the boulevard offers visitors a visual primer on the then trendy beaux-arts architectural style. At the time there was a distinct rejection of Hispanic culture, and even cultural affiliation with Mexico City, from independent and affluent Yucatecans. A French aesthetic grew in its place and, as many visitors to the city note, Mérida maintains many resemblances to the streets and homes of old New Orleans.

 

Known for its sculptural decoration and eclectic opulence, the beaux-arts style of the late 19^th century is the aesthetic culmination of the previous two and a half centuries of French architectural ideals. Named for the distinguished École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the style had expanded to the New World by the late 19^th century and dominated growing cities and newly independent governments who sought to impress the international community with urban development. The oversized detail, bold sculpture and generously decorated, utility-driven spaces that define the beaux-arts style are very much what make downtown Mérida’s architecture so impressive. The Palacio de Gobierno, for example, which was built in 1892, is defined by large rooms known during the period as “noble spaces,” and features massive historical murals painted directly on walls of its similarly large courtyard.

 

Such an embrace of the beaux-arts style is reflected perhaps most notably, though, in the building that now holds the city’s museum of anthropology. Palacio Cantòn, built between 1904 and 1911, was once the private home of a wealthy Yucatecan governor, made the official gubernatorial residence in 1948, and reopened as a museum in 1966. The palace’s flat roof, conservative lines and strict devotion to symmetry – all while embracing ostentatious arched windows, luxury materials imported from Europe and large sculpture – are classic trappings of the beaux-arts style.

 

Now home to the region’s largest collection of pre-Hispanic Mayan ceramics and sculptures, the Palacio Cantòn is the city’s jewel. Whether you walk down the Paseo de Montejo, ride a bike down the street on a Sunday morning when the street is closed off to traffic, hop on a calesa (a horse drawn carriage) or take an open bus tour of the city, the museum, tucked amongst a street of mansions, will catch your breath with its elegance. 

Mayan artifacts meet a beaux arts interior where crystal chandeliers hang above centuries-old artifacts.

Although the Maya are well known for creating a multitude of art—sketches, wood carvings, stone works—they are perhaps best known for their pottery. Driven both by function and aesthetics, pottery became a ceramic canvas for the Maya to tell stories, venerate the gods, commemorate the deceased and much more. Here’s a quick tour of four pieces from four distinct periods of the Maya civilization. All are from the Mayan Art of the Americas permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Next time you’re in New York, we highly recommend that you take a look at these. They’re all the more stunning in person.

 

The very early Maya used hollowed-out gourds as containers for liquids and food. With utility still in mind—they were light, portable, and sturdy— these gourds inspired the shape and size of the Maya’s first pottery creations. Clay was easily collected in riverbeds of the highland valleys and was strengthened with ash, sand or bits of rocks. The Maya created pots by winding long coils of clay into the desired shape and then smoothing the edges. The pieces were then fired in kilns built expressly for the setting of pottery.

 

Late Preclassic Period (250 BC – 250 AD)

 

During the Late Preclassic period, the design movement of adding appendages to these pots (also known as ceramic vessels) was developed. Pottery from this period featured increasingly intricate human and animal forms. This bowl, where utility and imagination merge, is an excellent example of the sophistication that had developed by the end of the Late Preclassic Period.

“A characteristic ceramic bowl was one made in the shape of a tropical bird, perhaps a cormorant, in the act of catching a fish in its beak. The bird’s forehead is marked with a disk, probably depicting a mirror. Details of the bird are rendered on the lid, where its head forms the knob and its wings spread out onto the expanse of the lid. The fish is rendered three-dimensionally, carefully held in the wide bird beak.”  Image and Description via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York

 

Early Classic Period (250 AD – 550 AD)

 

Attention to detail flourished in the Early Classic period, which lasted from about 250 AD to 550 AD, and ushered great creative expansion throughout the entire Yucatan and the Mayan world. The Temple of Inscriptions at Pelanque, in Chiapas, was built during this time, as well as the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal. Scenic mosaics of battles, rituals and ball games were emphasized in ceramics and incorporated into rituals and sacrificial ceremonies.

“This magnificent high-gloss blackware bowl is decorated with carved and incised feathered serpents. Profile human figures are seated in front of their bearded jaws. The bodies of the serpents undulate with regularity around the circumference of the vessel. The figures are perhaps emerging from the underworld as the bearded, feathered serpent is thought to be a personification of that fearsome place. A bowl carved with serpents and human forms; likely a scene of the underworld”  Inscribed with dots signifying  539 AD.  Image & description via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York

 

By the fourth century, a number of unique pigments had been refined and were being incorporated during the firing process to add color and depth. The classic Maya blue, for example, was used frequently during the Mayan Classic period around 550 AD. Remnants of the color pigments can be seen in the “Censer with Seated Figure” below, which is estimated to be 5th- 6th Century.

“The smoke from burning incense, accompanied every major ceremony in the Maya realm. Depicted on the censer illustrated here is a seated figure, perhaps a ruler, surrounded by aspects of mythological creatures that are stacked about his head and symmetrically flank his sides. The central figure is in higher relief, sitting cross-legged with arms carefully positioned in front of his chest. The position of the hands, held inward and touching, is known from sculpted stone monuments, where it carries connotations of rulership.”  Censer with Seated Figure.  Image and description via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York

 

Late Classic Period (700 AD – 850 AD)

 

By the Late Classic period (700 AD to 850 AD) and the Terminal Classic period (after 850 AD) salt plumbate was used regularly in plates and bowls the bright orange and deep red hued pottery now associated with the Yucatan had become the default colors used by the Maya as seen in the funerary vessel below, likely from the 8th century, depicting a young lord.

Maya polychrome ceramic vessel. “A palace court scene is depicted on the exterior of this cylindrical vessel. An elegant young lord, seated on a throne, wears a grand feathered headdress and a large collar of beads and pendants. Two seated male figures of lesser rank face him, and between them is a vessel shaped much like the one on which they are depicted. It is filled with a foaming liquid probably made of honey or cacao. The depiction of the luxurious life of a wealthy and powerful young man is overlaid with references to death. The vessel is undoubtedly a mortuary offering.” Image and description via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

 

Today, the tradition of Maya pottery still thrives. Many pieces have lasted the test of time and can still be viewed and studied. Mérida’s Yucatan Museum of Anthropology maintains a charming collection of ceramics. In Ticul, about an hour from Petac, pottery remains at the financial and cultural heart of the town. Once known for the production of clay water storage tanks, the pottery industry of Ticul has adapted to be one much more about artistry. From clay masks of Mayan gods and mosaics depicting Xibalaba, the underworld, to commemorative altars and elegant pots and plates, local artisans are thriving and continue to by selling their work in nearby Mérida.

Celebrated locally in Mexico as The Day of the Battle of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo commemorates May 5, 1862 when an underdog Mexican army defeated the behemoth French military in a small town just outside of Mexico City. It was the middle of the 19^th century and France had occupied a near bankrupt Mexico since the end of the Mexican-American War. President Benito Juárez had just declared a suspension of foreign debt payments, and the European powers were angry. While the American Civil War raged in the North, Britain, Spain and France sent their navies to Mexico to threaten Juárez and collect on their loans.

 

Napoleon III of France considered the debt a window of opportunity for establishing a French stronghold in Latin America. Although the French army outnumbered the Mexican army two to one and was significantly better trained, Mexico emerged victorious. This defeat of the proverbial Goliath lent a sense of patriotism to the suffering country.

 

Today, where the battle occurred in the State of Puebla, schools and businesses close for the holiday, and the sense of national pride is strong. Cinco de Mayo, which many wrongly think of as Mexico’s Independence Day, has become more widely celebrated in the United States than in Mexico proper. In the U.S. Cinco de Mayo has transcended its own history, with little or no relation to the original event…becoming a colorful and somewhat raucous annual party centered around Mexican food and drink.

The newest addition to the Hacienda Petac estate is called Casa Ramón, named for the towering trees that offer a canopy of shade above it.  As with the rest of the Hacienda, we believe that the greatest purpose of any building is to bring families and friends together. That’s why the plans for this 3,000 square foot annex with two master suites, also included an irresistibly inviting terrace and a state-of-the-art entertainment salon big enough to host a group for movie night.

We also considered that any new building at the Hacienda should be as memorable as the old. For this reason, the innovative Casa Ramón design is very much an evocation of the beautifully grand hacienda architecture of the Yucatán. The expansive terrace, soaring columns and colorful tiles are all very classically Yucatecan. But, just as importantly, the new building incorporates Petac’s history without imitating or diluting the Hacienda’s colonial past.

By design, the Casa Ramón’s dual use as a house and an entertainment teatro affords us the opportunity to send a nod back to a unique part of our past. To enter the new complex, guests walk through the partial walls and stone remains of what once were the Hacienda’s schoolhouse, theater, and teacher’s home. We have purposefully included these remnants of the past, in order to retell their story.

According to those who still remember the trio of buildings, they were beautiful structures of both stone and wood, painted to match in the same colors as the casa principal. The little compound was home to both morning and afternoon school sessions. Students could attend from either 7am to 10am, or, from 2pm to 5pm. The theater was used to recite lessons and poetry.  At the back, with walls of stone, was the school teacher’s house.

 

As the story goes, about 65 years ago, the teacher decided one day between school sessions to take the narrow gauge railway that ran through the Hacienda, into town to buy some ice cream. Apparently, a candle was left burning in her absence, and by the time she returned, the wooden schoolhouse and theater had burned to the ground. 

 

A permanent school was rebuilt–from cinderblocks this time–three years later in the village of Petac. The stone foundation of the teacher’s house, a column from the teatro and the charred rubble of floor tiles still remain at the Hacienda.

 

The legacy of the school house, theater, and the teacher’s blunder, are preserved as we welcome the beautiful new Casa Ramón to Petac’s historical record.

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAwzfSqMNk4

The vernal equinox, the day each spring when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun and so night and day are of roughly equal length, falls on March 20^th.

 

Lucky for us, there are two extraordinary locations near Hacienda Petac to view the event. Chichén Itzà and Dzibilchaltún, both just outside of Mérida, are considered to be the most impressive places in the Yucatan to witness the fusion of Mayan astronomy and architecture.

 

The Maya, known for an almost preternatural understanding of astronomy, built the pyramid at Chichén Itzà in honor of their serpent god Kukulkan. The angle of the sun was accounted for in such a way that during the equinox, the cast of the sun forms seven isosceles triangles that resemble a feathered serpent slithering toward its stone head at the base of the pyramid (see video above).

 

As Chichén Itzà’s serpent is meant to show the might of the gods, Dzibilchaltún’s Temple of the Seven Dolls, which was originally built in 700 AD, demonstrates Mayan architectural precision. At sunrise during the spring equinox, the sun shines directly between the doorposts into one window of the temple and out the other. With the “arrival of the sun” a beam of light shines over the thousands of worshipers and tourists that come for the event each year.

 

The Maya measured their lives by the sun, and as such, the equinoxes had practical importance for them as well. The spring equinox marked the time to begin planting the corn crop and the autumnal equinox signaled the time to begin the harvest. For us at Petac, the event summons a bit of nostalgia and appreciation for our culture’s history but also reminds us that the warmth of spring will soon be here.

 

The vernal equinox, the day each spring when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun and so night and day are of roughly equal length, falls on March 20^th.

 

Lucky for us, there are two extraordinary locations near Hacienda Petac to view the event. Chichén Itzà and Dzibilchaltún, both just outside of Mérida, are considered to be the most impressive places in the Yucatan to witness the fusion of Mayan astronomy and architecture.

 

The Maya, known for an almost preternatural understanding of astronomy, built the pyramid at Chichén Itzà in honor of their serpent god Kukulkan. The angle of the sun was accounted for in such a way that during the equinox, the cast of the sun forms seven isosceles triangles that resemble a feathered serpent slithering toward its stone head at the base of the pyramid (see video above).

 

As Chichén Itzà’s serpent is meant to show the might of the gods, Dzibilchaltún’s Temple of the Seven Dolls, which was originally built in 700 AD, demonstrates Mayan architectural precision. At sunrise during the spring equinox, the sun shines directly between the doorposts into one window of the temple and out the other. With the “arrival of the sun” a beam of light shines over the thousands of worshipers and tourists that come for the event each year.

 

The Maya measured their lives by the sun, and as such, the equinoxes had practical importance for them as well. The spring equinox marked the time to begin planting the corn crop and the autumnal equinox signaled the time to begin the harvest. For us at Petac, the event summons a bit of nostalgia and appreciation for our culture’s history but also reminds us that the warmth of spring will soon be here.

Sources:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/chichen-itza/

http://www.yucatantoday.com/en/topics/dzibilchaltun