On a curve that borders an avocado tree in Cerro Gordo, there is a cross. People say that years ago, in 1839, there was a huge white oak tree, with leafy branches and white bark. Some oak trees have been known to live up to 500 years, this town legend has lived less.
Pedro Medina was a curious man. One afternoon, Pedro decides to go take a close look at the oak tree after he notices an intense light coming from its leaves. Pedro tells some friends, talks to them, and asks them to go with him. Véngase, vamos. There and with their eyes fixed on the tree, a trunk with its branches falls to the ground. Pedro then decided to get a team of oxen and dragged the piece of shimmering oak to Las Trojas.
Pedro and his friends tried to bring it to a small warehouse but, oddly, they could not move it. More than three pairs of hands didn’t seem enough. A storm was coming. Ahí que se moje, one of them said. Wanting to leave it there to drench. Later, some sculptors arrived – no one knows how they got there – and offered to carve the wood, giving shape to the Señor de la Misericordia, a divine attribute of Los Altos de Jalisco that evokes kindness and forgiveness.
High valleys and rugged landscapes of red, fertile land make up the outline of Los Altos de Jalisco. Upon the arrival of the Spanish to Los Altos and the río Verde creek, there were several settlements of Tecuexes groups in the towns of Tepatitlán, Tonalá, Zapotlanejo, Acatic, Temacapulín, Yahualica, Jalostotitlán, Mexticacán, and Manalisco. The Tecuexes were a tribe of the Chichimecas, groups of immigrants from the north of Mexico who arrived in the 12th century.
The homeland of mariachi and charrería, the charm of Los Altos de Jalisco is made up of landscapes, ranch life, and the fertility of the land. In 1497, Christopher Columbus recognized the importance of having highly productive agricultural regions. That was the year when he authorized the agrarian distribution in La Española, an island that includes the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In this distribution, farmers received lots in exchange for production, building a house, and establishing a permanent settlement.
Los Altos de Jalisco holds a similar story. Combining demography with public administration has assembled the region as an exclusive producer of beef and other crops in Mexico. But the Alteño space requires haciendas and ranches to organize work.
The ranch and the hacienda are forms of property, production connections, technology, and power. In these lands, inheritance and lineage have an absolute relationship with property.
Victoriano Salado Álvarez, a writer, described his town of Teocaltiche as “a land of absent men”. An absence that in Los Altos de Jalisco, José María Muriá sees in the male population, “they seem to be born with the urge to get outside and set out on a journey at the first opportunity. Leaving the land for a long or short time seems to be a ritual without exception of the men in the region”.
But we know that Alteños like to get away from their land just to have the pleasure of returning. When talking about moving away from Los Altos, it implies moving away from Mexico, leaving home life to find a job in a different city or country. A popular practice in Mexico’s working families.
-Do you still live in the United States?
– No, we just work there. This is where we live.
(Extract from: Aguascalientes y Los Altos de Jalisco: historia compartida.)
In any case, it seems like being Alteño means growing up to go on a journey. Not far from the land, sometimes only to get closer to it. Or, it could mean that you never want to leave.
Don Rigo is that person.
Don Rigo is 79 years old. He was born in the town of Piedra Herrada and has dedicated all of his life to taking care of his family’s land. When he was a child, every eight days, his parents used to horseback ride for four hours to Tepatitlán, to drop off cheese and eggs they produced at their ranch.
Adults were the ones who went to the closest town. Children were left here to work and on Sundays, we all played soccer.
Don Rigo is a tough, mountain man. He has never been to the beach, nor does he crave it.
I’m a very happy man living here. We used to have milking cows, over 60. Then it was just me and my boy so we didn’t have enough help.
Don Rigo loves everything about the surrounding hills and the ranch life. He wakes up every day to a mesmerizing early view. His main house is encompassed by meadows and picturesque wooded cottages. The air he breathes daily defines a real quality of life.
Indians were all over Cerro Gordo. Then, they began to cut down the forest and make charcoal, which they moved on mules to Atotonilco and Guadalajara. Cerro Gordo became a communal home and refuge to many.
In the history of Los Altos de Jalisco, families have left an imprint. The identity of these lands is built by the Alteños, their past, daily activities, work, family, values, and the adoration they have for their territory.
Even with the image of the colonizers as a cultural influence, who shared language, religion, culture, emotions, and ambitions with the Alteño communities, they also adopted new ones. Preserving the land among a new population was seen as a divine gift.
Seasons stunningly color-wash the region. The land has dry, colorful, and abundant years. When simplifying the Alteño space, we must talk about seasons.
In the spring, crops like corn, beans, and squash are planted, and wheat and garbanzos, however, are harvested. Summer is the season to spend on the ranch; weeding cornfields, milking, and savoring cheese. Alteños sow small areas with garbanzos and wheat during fall, cutting corn stalks and leaves.
And sweet, cold winter comes with corn crops, beeswax processing, and, evidently, mezcal.
Tucked in at the Cerro del Maguey, the philosophy behind Rancho Altos was born and raised in these lands. Allowing a community to build a new way of connection and intentional living with resilience completely linked to the past of Los Altos de Jalisco; ideas, values, ways of caring and bonding, and the adoration of an honest, regenerative land. Rancho Altos is created by a family of individuals that grew up in these areas and some of them have worked on this land for decades. A family linked by blood or reason. Ideas and philosophies.
Every area at the ranch honors the past, the influences, the soil, and the resilience of a land worked by many.
Wandering through majestical trails encircled by the highlands, your mind pauses for a bit trying to absorb the history that is still being written. Your eyes are wide open; animals, extensive fields, and that countryside scent.
The old man whom you would swear is 50 years old, turns out to be almost 90. And there he is, horseback riding and walking 10k almost every day. Naively, you think, oh, he must be the owner of all of this.
And that, in Los Altos de Jalisco, is probably true.
Words: Jossie Ayón
Photo: Regis Casillas
Special Thanks: Don Rigo
Sources:
La formación histórica de una región: Los Altos de Jalisco. Andrés Fábregas.
Aguascalientes y Los Altos de Jalisco: historia compartida. Gobierno del Estado de Aguascalientes.
Entre aromas de incienso y pólvora: Los Altos de Jalisco, 1917-1940. José Luis López Ulloa.
San José de Gracia. Mexican village in transition. Luis González, translated by John Upton.
Museo Municipal de Tepatitlán
