Yanga-first free town in the Americas

My faithful co-pilot consulted his maps and charts and set the directions to Yanga after driving about an hr., through beautiful lush green, vibrant country side we were arriving at another town rich in history, all but forgotten in Mexican history. Homes were simple, their people full of pride. In the distance you could see old buildings, no doubt, old Spanish haciendas which have fallen in disrepair, forgotten by time as well as their owners. During the early day of the "Nueva España," there were thousands of African slaves working the cane fields, the slaves outnumbered the Spaniards 30 to 1. They lived in constant fear of uprisings from Indians and African slaves. The Chichimeca Indians who lived here, before the arrival of the Spaniards, were in no better condition than the Africans. During the late 1500s, there were a number of uprisings but the most successful one was led by Gaspar Yanga, an African slave who was brought to Veracruz. It is said that he was from royal family in Gabon. He became the leader of an uprising with about 500 other slaves and settled in the high mountain of Veracruz. In order to survive, he and his followers constantly raided the Spanish haciendas and the supply caravans making their way to the port of Veracruz to export the Mexican riches to Spain. Well... it seems that Yanga and his followers were more than the local garrison could handle, so the Viceroy of Spain sent the Royal army from Puebla with orders to quell the insurgents and crush Yanga. They quickly found out that this was easier said than done. Time after time, Yanga would attack the royal army and flee to the mountains where the Spaniards were outmaneuvered by guerrilla tactics and fierce fighting. After several defeats of the royal army, the Viceroy called for a treaty. In exchange for their freedom and that of all their descendants, Yanga would stop raiding the caravans. This is how the town of "San Lorenzo de Los Negros" was born with Yanga as their mayor. Later the name of the town was changed to Yanga.
Below is the sign that welcome the traveler to the town of Yanga. You can see that they are proud to have been the first town in the Americas to have freed the slaves.


































You may recall from previous entries on this blog, the location of the central plaza and the location of the building are determined. On top left is the where the civic orchestra or bands play on week ends. To the right above and below is the most important church of the town and
below left is the government building. Cont. Yanga part 2

Journey to San Ignacio Sinaloa.

Click on pictures for larger view

We returned to the repair garage and we found an unofficial exit and entrance to the toll road,
some enterprising citizens have found a way around the pirates of the road "las casetas de cobro" if you look closely you can find a number of this entrances and exits, this is a way of showing the "piratas" what happens when they bypass a town, we cautiously followed our new found road, wide enough for one car fortunately there wasn't too much traffic so we manged quite well. After about 15 kilometer we reached the town of San Ignacio, Sinaloa to our surprise it was the most beautiful town we had seen so far. We crossed the Piaxtla river and drove through the welcoming arch of the beautiful town, we drove straight to the plaza square I parked under the purple canopy of a tree while. As I walked around with a "raspado de tamarindo" tamarind flavored shaved iced in my hand, with out doubt this is the most relaxing atmosphere we've found so far. Javier armed with the last name of his in laws began questioning some of the citizens who were taking in the mid day sun. He found three homes that match the name and after the third one he found them. They were so pleased to see him that they gave us a tour of the entire town. The town was named San Ignacio de Layola by the Jesuit missionaries who did their best to covert the Piaxtla indians to the catholic religion. In 1748 gold mining was at its' prime the Spanish continued mining until it went dry. The present citizens are very proud of their picturesque town and are trying to keep it historically true to the classical colonial period. The town fathers had a majestic, gigantic monument of Jesus Christ on top of a hill with open arms watching over the town and its faithful citizens. Another of the town jewels is the Jesuit mission which was renovated into El hotel Anjolin.
After a wonderful meal we departed this restful place and we were quickly in our way to Tepic, we arrived late in the afternoon and not liking what we saw crowds, traffic congestion and more congestion we decided to go to the adjacent town, San Ixtlan de rio we walked around a bit in this non non-descript town, tasted the tacos "al pastor" not being impressed. We called it a night.





























top left: Welcome to San Ignacio
top right: view of the town
lower left: Statue of Christ looking over its' town
lower right view of the towns' church