Memorial unveiled for the 200th anniversary of the arrival of English workers to Mineral del Monte

Mineral del Monte, Hgo., Belem Oviedo Gámez, director of the Historical Archive and Museum of Mining AC, led the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Memorial to the English miner200 years after the arrival in Mineral del Monte, Hidalgo, of immigrants from the United Kingdom to work in the deposits of Pedro Romero de Terreros and Rodríguez de Pedroso, third count of Regla.

Likewise, he presided over the opening to the public, for the first time in 200 years, of the Dolores mine, one of the most emblematic of the also magical town of Mineral del Monte, at the entrance of which the Memorial to the English miner.

The metal statue, 1.90 meters high, represents one of the 191 miners, accompanied by seven women and three children, who between 1824 and 1825 arrived at the then mining town of Real del Monte, mostly coming from the region. from Cornwall, England, although there were also some from Scotland and Ireland.

According to Belem Oviedo, emigration from the United Kingdom to Mineral del Monte lasted approximately 140 years.

Accompanied by the enthusiastic residents of Mineral del Monte, many of them descendants of those English miners who decided to reside permanently in the town, where they formed extensive families, and whose mortal remains rest in the English Pantheon, located on the outskirts of the region. , Oviedo Gámez explained that on February 4, 1824, the so-called Company of Adventurers of the Real del Monte Mines was created in the city of London, England.

He pointed out that his name was adventurers to the group of businessmen who founded that mining firm, which later gave rise to the Compañía Real del Monte y Pachuca, in charge of exploiting the silver and other metal mines located in those two towns.

Los adventurers They stayed in England, but they recruited and sent to Mexico 191 Englishmen who, after a long journey by ship, arrived in Tampico and Veracruz, and from those ports they moved by land to Mineral del Monte with steam engines to extract metals. along with Mexican miners.

The men and women from across the sea did not come alone. Dreams, customs and beliefs accompanied them, and little by little the Mexicans who lived in Mineral del Monte made them their own.Oviedo Gámez explained, such as the cult of the Methodist religion and the taste for making and tasting pastries.

It was also the English miners who started the practice of soccer in Mexico: according to what the information plaque placed next to the memorial, In 1894 a group of English engineers founded the Pachuca Athletic Club team.

Likewise, with the arrival of the English, the mining landscape of Mineral del Monte was transformed due to heavy machinery powered by steam, which can be seen in the Dolores Mine museum.

The story told in the collections

After the inaugural ribbon cutting of the Memorial to the English miner, Belem Oviedo, together with the delegate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Hidalgo, Osvaldo José Sterpone, and representatives of the Mineral del Monte city council, made the first guided tour of the site museum in the Dolores mine, which It is divided into two parts.

The first corresponds to the history of the mine in its beginnings, in particular, to the development it had in the 19th century, with the arrival of workers and machinery from England, and the second, to the activities that were developed in the 19th century. XX.

The crown jewel of the site museumAccording to Oviedo, it is the room where the gigantic metal boilers are located, located on the floor of the place, whose steam was used to move the heavy machinery dedicated to extracting metals.

He explained that when activity at the Dolores mine ended, the boilers were covered with cement. At the time the aforementioned museum carried out the historical rescue, they discovered that the boilers, built in Cornwall, England, in 1888, according to the inscriptions that can be read on the lids, were in perfect condition, despite the fact that many still They had water.

There are also winches, which are equipment designed to safely pull and lift materials vertically or horizontally, as well as carts where the extracted minerals were transported by rails.

In interview with The Day, Belem Oviedo explained that the museum owns only the surface part of the Dolores Mine, where there are machine rooms and offices, due to a donation from the Compañía Minera Real del Monte y Pachuca, but not the subsoil, so it does not It will be possible to visit the galleries located where the miners worked.

Entering the mine will not be possible, because the association owns the surface, but the mining company owns the mining funds. To introduce visitors, a special permit is required, because, if you do not have it, the Ministry of Labor could even close the mine, which, legally, is still in operation.

He clarified that the objects used for mining activity were donated by the same company and that in the case of some paintings, by the artists who created them.

He said that the association owns four museums: the Mining Museum of the City of Pachuca and three located in Mineral del Monte: the Mina de Acosta Site Museum, the Occupational Medicine Museum (part of the Nicolás Zavala Cultural Center), the Sitio and the Mina La Dificultad Interpretation Center and the Mina de Dolores Interpretation Center, recently opened to the public.

He commented that to maintain these museums, the association requires a lot of money, which is why an almost symbolic entrance fee is charged to visitors, although they also receive donations from individuals.

He pointed out that despite the financial difficulties that the association is going through, the launch of these museum spaces has led to the revaluation of the mining culture of those who created it: the miners and their families, as well as by citizens and visitors, among which students predominate.

He added that 90 percent of the museum’s guides are retired workers or descendants of miners, and that a sector of the population works as guides or in other activities derived from tourism, where they have found a job alternative, and not choosing to emigrate to the United States. Joined.