page_title: Pachuca
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pachuca / The English/Cornish influence / History
caption_attribution_description: English: An interesting house located on Mina Street with English and Spanish design features in Pachuca Mexico
context_page_description: Pachuca, formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of which the city serves as municipal seat. Pachuca is located about 90 kilometres from Mexico City via Mexican Federal Highway 85.
  There is no consensus about the origin of the name Pachuca. It has been traced to the word pachoa, Pachoacan, and patlachuican.
  The official name of Pachuca is Pachuca de Soto in honor of congressman Manuel Fernando Soto, who is given credit for the creation of Hidalgo state. Its nickname of “La bella airosa” comes from the strong winds that blow into the valley through the canyons to the north of the city. In the indigenous Otomi language, Pachuca is known as Nju̱nthe.
  The area had been long inhabited, but except for some green obsidian the mining that Pachuca is famous for began in the mid-16th century, during Spanish colonial rule.
  Pachuca remained a major mining center until the mid-20th century, with the city's fortunes going up and down with the health of the mining sector.
context_section_description: Beginning in 1824, Cornish miners and English investors came to Pachuca and the neighboring town of Real del Monte to invest and work in the mines here. Some founded the Compañía Real de Monte y Pachuca. Mexico's remaining Cornish community represents a largely forgotten immigrant story. In the early 19th century, miners in Cornwall were enduring economic hardships. Ships carrying 125 passengers and some 1,500 tons of equipment sailed out of Falmouth, Cornwall, landing in Veracruz three months later. The treacherous 500-kilometre (300 mi) trek inland killed about half of the miners and their family members, many succumbing to malaria and yellow fever. Those who made it settled in Pachuca and Real del Monte.
  The immigrants brought technology, notably the famous high-pressure steam pumping engines designed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, which turned many of the area's water-logged mines into huge silver producers. The majority of the immigrants to this region came from Cornish mining areas of Camborne, Redruth and Gwennap. Cornish/English workers and their technology revitalized the silver industry here and miners’ remittances sent back home helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth in the 1820s.
  Architecture
  Today the Pachuca – Real del Monte District retains much from its period of association with Cornwall and home of one of Mexico's most enduring cross cultural pollinations. The miners' influence is obvious in architecture. Up in the hills around Pachuca, many houses feature distinctly British characteristics: thicker walls, square windows and pitched roofs. Some of Pachuca's landmarks have English/Cornish influences. The Spanish Baroque style Reloj Monumental (Monumental Clock) chimes to the tune of Big Ben, and was financed by Francis Rule. The city's main Methodist church was built by Cornish miners. The English mining company's main office as well as the residence of Francis Rule of Camborne, the last Cornish manager of the Real del Monte mine, still bears his initials. The archives of the company are part of the "Historic Archive and Museum of Mining in Pachuca" (Museo de Minería) collections, and contain detailed records of Cornish employees, especially between 1824 and 1849.
caption: Old English-style house, in historic central Pachuca
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