Thursday Doors La Hacienda

                            The Bell Tower

                             The Barn Door Looking Out

Images by Sandro Ortiz Salazar  https://www.facebook.com/sandro.ortizsalazar?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments on Dan’s blog at Nofacilities https://nofacilities.com/category/thursday-doors/ anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.

Since I moved to Mexico, I’ve been fascinated by doors. I’ve taken pictures before of my husband standing in front of doors in various locations. When I learned about Thursday Doors Challenge, I decided to create my own.

Zacatecas y Su Historia

Here ends the road coming from Sauceda passing through the railway street railway extension and following to San Ramón el Mastranto ending in San José de Tapias in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

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The photos aren’t mine. I belong to a Zacatecas history and culture group, Zacatecas Y Su Historia. I found this story that I thought was interesting. The people standing in front of the gate are waiting to get permission to enter the hacienda since it’s privately owned. A hacienda is a large landed estate, especially used for farming or ranching. The main house on such an estate is also called a hacienda. Here are some of the comments from group members.

“Muchas gracias, Sandro por compartir ésta belleza de fotografías de la hacienda que perteneció a mi abuelo José Felix Garcia Espinoza y Mi abuela Josefa Reséndez Domínguez, lugar donde nació mi querida madre y dónde pasamos y convivimos los mejores momentos con la familia, recuerdos inolvidables.” 🙏

I translated the comments into English. “Thank you very much Sandro, for sharing the besuty of the estate that belonged to my grandfather Jose Felix Garcia Espinoza and my grandmother Josepha Resendez Dominguez, the place where my beloved mother was born and where we spent the best moments of the family. Unforgettable memoirs.”

Dining Room

From the inside looking out. This room was likely a pantry or storage. It also could have been a room where the cooks lived so they would be close to the kitchen.

The Courtyard

The main house where the front doors looked out into another courtyard or interior yard. The back of the house faced out toward the ranch for safety. Houses usually had no doors or windows on the back. The small building could have been where a servant family lived who were responsible for maintenance and in charge of employees. All workers lived on the property year around. There would have been guards who remained in the yard and in fact, on the hacienda land.

This is what the land still looks like today with a small lake that belonged to the owners.

“Yo viví en tapias era nieta de Octaviano Garcia.” “I was the granddaughter of Octaviviano Garcia.”

“Blanca Ventura, si recuerdo a tu abuelito yo iba con chayo y mi tía Teresa y m daba gayetas.” “Blanca Ventura, I remember your grandfather. I went to tea with my Aunt Teresa and they gave us a meal.”

“Ahí fueron grabadas unas locaciones de la película Zapata en Chinameca.” “This is the location where the filmed the movie about Zapata.”

“Mi suegra fue nieta de los hacendados, vivió su infancia en ese lugar está muy bonito, y tiene mucha historia.” “My mother-in-law was the granddaughter of the Hacendados. (the owners.) Sĥe lived her childhood in that place. It is very beautiful and has a lot of history.”

The Church

Many haciendas had their own churches. The family didn’t have to travel far àway for Mass. They were also guarded that way. Neighbors often attended when the owners permitted on Sundays and holidays. Sometimes the owner allowed weddings and baptisms of the surrounding communities to be held in the iglesia, the church. The church remains open on Sundays now.

The church.

Loking out into a entry way. This wooden structure was probably a baptismal font.

Small chapel inside the church

The sanctuary is the area at the front of the church where the altar and cross are located, and the area around it that is usually raised.

The choir loft

Stairs to the Choir loft and bell tower

“Mi papá vivió toda su infancia ahí, qué bonitos recuerdos.” “My father lived his whole life there. Such great memories.”

“Hermana aque pertenece San José de tapias.” “My sister belongs to San Jose de Tapias.”

“Dónde es en Zacatecas para ir a visitar está hermoso.” “Where in Zacatecas is it? Let’s go visit. It is beautiful.”

This small doorway looks into a room inside the church. It could be where the priest slept when he visited the night before a Mass or holiday. Priests had to travel on horseback to communities sometimes traveling miles across the state from church to church. Priests still travel to churches but they own cars nowadays. There are areas in the state very rugged in the mountains, and priests still hike or ride horses to those communities. These areas have outdoor Mass because they don’t have churches.

Zacatecas has had railroads since the late 1800s. Traveling priests rode trains if they were accesible. Since there were several mines in Zacatecas, rail transportation was crucial. These mines still operate today. The Zacatecas mines are the largest exporters of silver and copper in the world employing thousands of people. Gold is also mined. There’s a mine in our town where 5,000 people work. Hacendados owned stake in mines so that’s why they could own a hacienda.

Fireplace in the big house

A family who takes care of the property and the church. No one lives in the big house anymore.

I plan to write more about Zacatecas since it’s my home now.

As a bonus, this is a hotel in the capital city which is also named Zacatecas. So Zacatecas, Zacatecas. The door looks into a courtyard where there are one hundred rooms and a restaurant. See the doors on the top floor. Each room has it’s own door to the balcony with a view across the street to a park. Those are the most popular rooms. It’s a very old hotel. Many people say it is haunted. The cleaning women have the most amazing stories! Tony and I have been to Sunday Brunch there. You have to walk down corridors, turn corners and go up a small flight of stairs. The food was excellent. We might go to the Annual New Year’s Eve Extravaganza. Dinner, dancing in the ballroom and a night in one of those quaint old bedrooms.