The Pachuca—Real del Monte Mining District has a long and rich heritage. The mines in the district are conservatively estimated to have produced 1.2 billion Troy ounces of silver and 6.2 million ounces of gold. That is 6% of the silver mined throughout the world during the last five centuries. Some of the mines have continued limited production until the present day.
Gold and
silver were discovered after the
Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1520s. The
Colonial Spanish began
mining in the 16th century in the Pachuca area, but the mines were suffering from flooding by 1725. In 1741,
Pedro Romero de Terreros and Jose Alejandro Bustamante started a drainage program using an
adit. The native
Mexican Amerindians were often enslaved to work the mines, despite the Royal mandate for Colonial
Jesuit Reductions and later Franciscan
Indian Reductions. In addition, Africans were imported to replace Indian slaves. The
Real del Monte 1766 Strike is considered by many to be the first real labor strike in North American history. One of the leading personalities in 19th-century Mexico mining was
Francis Rule, from
Camborne in Cornwall. Known as
El Rey de la Plata (Silver King), Rule left a mark on the Pachucan cityscape, with civic generosity to his adopted homeland. His opinion could be a barometer for the rise and fall of mining shares. He became very wealthy from his numerous mining interests in the district. One was the Santa Gertrudis Mine, which by 1898 was one of the most productive in the State of Hidalgo under Cornish management. Four extant Cornish mine engine houses, and the 'English' Cemetery (
Panteon Inglés) containing the graves of hundreds of Cornishmen, bear witness to the Cornish contributions to Mexican silver mining for over a century. The cemetery is undergoing restoration following storm damage in 2016.
Sports It was the Cornish who first introduced
soccer/football to
Mexico (Pachuca). The first game of what would go on to be Mexico's national pastime (
futbol), was first played in Mexico by Cornish miners at Pachuca in 1900, a fact that is celebrated each year. The first soccer club in the country, the
Pachuca Athletic Club, was also founded in that year. The first team consisted of Charles Dawe, John Dawe, James Bennetts, John Bennetts, William Blamey, Richard Sobey, William Bragg, William Thomas, Percy Bunt, Lionel Bunt, Albert Pengelly and William Pengelly, a decidedly 'Cornish' team. The Pachuca club encouraged the formation of teams in Mexico City and
Orizaba, the first championship was played in 1902 and 'El Pachuca' won the 1904-05 tournament. Also
rugby union,
cricket,
tennis,
polo,
chess among other sports, were introduced here.
Methodism was introduced to Roman Catholic Mexico by the
Cornish upon their arrival, and most of the descendants of the Cornish in Real del Monte and
Pachuca are of
Methodist faith. They brought Methodist Christianity to other major Mexican cities as they relocated. Mexican remittances helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth, Cornwall, in the 1820s. ==Geology==