La Chonita Hacienda

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Main house of La Chonita

La Chonita is a former

youth hostel
and dormitory for students and the site provides a number of other tourism services.

History

The hacienda’s establishment has been dated to the year 1800, but little has been written about it. Oral tradition states that it was originally called La Chona in reference to the hundreds of acres of lands that originally belonged to it.[1] In the 19th century, the hacienda was the property of the Cruces family, with the first known owner being Benito Cruces, the father of Santiago Cruces Zentella, the governor of Tabasco in the 1870s.[1][2][3] The hacienda lost most of its lands during the Mexican Revolution and is now called La Chonita (“little Chona”). Much of the former property is now La Chonita Ejido. The main hacienda house, along with 30 hectares (0.30 km2) of property now belongs to a family named Fernández.[1]

Description

Toasted cacao beans produced at the hacienda
Dining area inside the main house

The hacienda extends over thirty hectares located in the municipality of

Cunduacán in the Chontalpa region of Tabasco.[1][2] It is part of the Cacao Route along with various other chocolate haciendas such as La Luz and Jesús María and the Comalcalco (archaeological site) archeological site.[1][4] Today it is the property of Benito and Alfonso Fernández, who have preserved the house almost completely intact.[1] The main room of the house contains photography done by former owner Santiago Cruces, as well as preserved specimens of a serpent locally called mazacoatl. The front yard has a small deep well, an old sugar mill and an area dedicated to the raising of earthworms.[1]
The hacienda grows
Central American river turtles are allowed to reproduce each year.[1]

It offers various services such as environmental education, workshops on how to prepare chocolate from cacao,

Mayas. It is constructed to resemble a return to the maternal womb, spiritually that of Mother Earth. The hacienda has two temazcals, a more modern one with a cement roof and the other more traditional with a clay roof. It also has a building dedicated to recreational and therapeutic massage as well as space for indigenous inspired rites.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Hacienda La Chonita" (in Spanish). Cunduacán, Tabasco: Municipality of Cunduacán. January 24, 2010. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "Somos" [We are] (in Spanish). Cunduacán, Tabasco: La Chonita. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  3. ^ Francisco Triano Coronel (July 16, 2010). "Historia y ecoturismo en la Atenas de la Chontalpa" [History and ecotourism in the Athens of Chontalpa]. Tabasco Hoy (in Spanish). Tabasco, Mexico. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  4. ^ "La Ruta del Cacao" (in Spanish). Tabasco, Mexico: Secretaría del Turismode Tabasco. Archived from the original on January 2, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  5. ^ "Las Haciendas en Tabasco". Explorando México (in Spanish). Mexico: Secretaría del Turismo. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  6. ^ Román Hernández; Jesús Gómez (February 15, 2010). "Temazcalli te transporta con los dioses" [Temazcals transport you with the gods]. Tabasco Hoy (in Spanish). Tabasco, Mexico. Retrieved January 4, 2012.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=La_Chonita_Hacienda&oldid=1155189405"