I sketched under the tropic sun, in corrals, in a bullring, under an Indian laurel; I poked through empty rooms. As I sketched, burro trains passed, their sacks loaded with charcoal or corn; goat bells tapped as a herd grazed; ox teams hauled carts with wooden wheels; blackbirds crowded a treetop; a cowboy tipped his hat. There was always courtesy. I drank _pulque_ from a communal gourd; I shared pineapple grown in Tecomán; I was entertained at town houses of hacendados. On the estates there was silence from the days of the viceroys, the silence of padres, the silence of abandonment. [Illustration: Hacienda cattle brand] In the sixteenth century, following the Spanish invasion of Mexico between the years 1519 and 1521, the Spanish Crown granted enormous land areas to the conquerors and adventurers who came to the New World. Since this property belonged to the natives, the grants amounted to usurpation. Scattered throughout Mexico, from Yucatán to Sonora, the extensive holdings frequently included towns and villages. These grants of land were the origin of the haciendas, the rural estates. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish immigrants sometimes passed themselves off as noblemen--camouflaging criminal or poverty-stricken backgrounds. Others, with a sack of cash or a pair of brawny shoulders, used the invasion as an opportunity to bluff their way and claim land and lives through the power of the sword. They remembered that dropping quicksilver into a mule's ear made the animal trot faster. Wealthy immigrants were able to purchase titles, and this arrangement was encouraged by the Crown since it benefited the treasury. The hacendado (or his representative) employed or coerced native workers to build a residence, church or chapel, storage buildings, mills, dams, aqueducts, fences, and roads. He paid lip service to the Crown and whenever possible circumvented legalities. It was advantageous to sidestep the Crown since a letter or document took half a year to reach Spain. The employer was unable to communicate with the people who spoke Otomi, Coro, or Chichiméc. He was thwarted by new diseases, strange customs, tropical climate, and crop problems. Unlike the countries of Europe, Mexico was a corn culture, not a wheat culture. During his first years he learned that grain did better when planted in the most primitive manner, by stick and foot. [Illustration: Hacienda de Valenciana, Guanajuato: figure on 1788 church wall.] [Illustration: Hacienda de Holactún, Yucatán: chapel and residence. [Illustration: Hacienda de San José, D.F.: churrigueresque-style residence and chapel with blue and white tiled dome.] [Illustration: Hacienda de Valenciana, Guanajuato.] [Illustration: Hacienda Petaca. Guanajuato: patio side of main residence.] [Illustration: Hacienda El Pópulo, Puebla: residence with tiled façade.] [Illustration: Hacienda de Santana. Hildago: residence and chapel.]