Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1913-09-18


TYPICAL GPe
~ HE little village of Panuco de
Coronado, in the state of Du-
range, presents an average
Mexican village, one That
be duplicated anywhere in the
northern two-thirds Of the country. It
Is typical even in its legend-all min
ing towns here have the same. Once
upon a time its mines yielded SO much
rich ore that the owner could pave
with silver the street leading from
his house to the church on the occa-
sion of his daughters marriage.
Panuco. like all Mexican villages. is
a t~ransplanted bit Of the orient.
There is the same small, low adobe
house with fiat roof and MCKINNEY
and usually no window. Women carry
the same jars of water on their heads
and men clad in loose white cotton
trudge lazily behind their little burros
or more likely add their weight to the
already overburdened animals. The
glazing SUI beats down from a trop-
4SGAA 0Ay VII tAO ~ Rox11 III N0SLu6
and a general air of emptiness and 81
lence pervades the streets.
The universal building material is
adobe, which is faced with plaster only
In the better houses. These are al
ways built in the form Of a hollow
square-the rooms opening into the
patio in the center. The more pre-
tentious homes have windows, barred
on the outside because the houses are
built snug up to the street, which
gives them the appearance of cells In
q prison.
Village Scenes by Day..
There is nc patch of green or any
thing bright to relieve the uniform
dust brown color Of house and street,
writes Jessie Fawler in the Los An
geles Times. No spear Of grassis in
sight and all the flowers are kept
in the patio. The particular village
can boast of two trees, n cottonwood
on the outskirts and n pepper berry.
: To enter one of these huts is to
step in on a mud floor, rarely a brick
one, to see a few earthenbowls and
saucers in n rne a little pile of
charred ashes in another and a rude
altar made of a couple of packing
boxes, decorated with a few gaudy
bits OF tinsel and scraps of ribbon and
empty beer bottles with withered flow
ers, an offering to the virgin OF
Guadalupe who looks down from the
wall. Chairs, bed and table are lux
uries not commonly found. Mexican
women are fond of flowers and the
patios are bright with blossoms
throughout the year.
One traveller describes a Mexican
village as "sun, silence and adobe
and this is ones first and last impress
sion. Whatever life it is around the
plaza; for away from here n sees
only an occasional water carrier or q
peon closely wrapped in his serape
squatting on the ground in the sun
Pigs and dogs are everywhere. They
come from every open doorway and
follow us, yelping and barking. a
dozen dogs are not too many for ar
average family. And the pigs-they
sleep in the middle of the street, anG
not until our horses feet are almost
on them do they grunt and lazily move
a step to the right.
But in the evening all is changed
and the place is full of life and stir
Everybody ome out to enjoy ths
music and to stroll around and aroun6
the plaza. Men and women do no
walk together unless married or en
gagged, but the men walk three or four
abreast on the inside of the promenade
and the women on the outside in ths
opposite direction. Through the opel
doors Of the pulque shops may b.
seen groups of men drinking thu
nauseous beverage.
These shops, as we'll as all thu
stores, are not known by the name G
i their owner, but by some such fanci
full names as Flowers of. May. aft
in April and s"The Surprise.
No village is too small to have 1T
band, and a good one, too, that play,
at the plaza one or two evenings
week throughout the year. The ma
tives are very musical and one hear
everywhere the tinkle of the guitar O
mandolin playing some native air, Xix
the p~laintive La Go1odrina," or pos
sibly the latest Importation from
home.
!. One does not need to read the sig
"Esquela para ninas" painted in bi
black letters on a low plastered build
ing to know that 1t is school 10
girls, for the children study in conceT
and-wel, pulmonary troubles are no
49,