The residence
that the Mexican government provides for the Chief Executive and
his family during his six years in office, is located on land
that has a varied history of human settlement dating from even
before what we consider the Pre-Hispanic period, though little
is known about that time. Los Pinos, as the house is called, is
located in Chapultepec Woods or Park (Chapultepec means "hill
of the grasshopper"). According to oral tradition and some of
the indigenous codices used by the Spaniards to reconstruct the
history of the Valley of Mexico, this area has been permanently
inhabited since the 12th Century AD. It was once densely wooded
since it was located near the sweet water lakes and natural springs
that irrigated the Valley.
The Mexica
tribe arrived in the Valley of Mexico after a long pilgrimage
from Aztlán, and settled in Chapultepec around 1250, when Azcapotzalco
(then dominating the Valley) was ruled by tlatoani Acolnahuacatzin.
The Mexicas settled behind Chapultepec, in a place later known
as Techcatitlan, according to the Mexicáyotl Chronicle.
Chapultepec
was the last stage of the Aztec pilgrimage before the tenochas
took possession of the heart of the lakeland after "finding the
eagle prophesied by Huitzilopochtli, perched on a nopal cactus,
devouring a serpent". On that hillock, they laid the first stone
of what would become their home: Tenochtitlan (1325).
The Annals
of Cuautitlán tell that it was in the year 12-house (1465) that
the "water road" was begun. At that time, Moctezuma Ihuicamina
ruled Tenochtitlan, and the wise man of Texcoco, Nezahualcóyotl,
was in charge of the construction. This tlatoani beautified the
forest, planting ahuehuetes (or Moctezuma's Cypresses). He fenced
it in, making the Hill of the Grasshopper a place of rest and
recreation for the Lords of the Mexica. Some of them had their
likenesses carved in the cliffs. It was believed that the waters
had a purifying influence, freeing one from guilt and curing illness.
Moctezuma
Xocoyotzin was especially fond of Chapultepec. It was the sacred
place in which he chose to hide (in the cave of Techcatitlan)
when he heard of the arrival of the "white gods". However, the
fate of great Tenochtitlan had been cast (1521), and from its
ruins and the Meso-American world arose New Spain.
During the
colonial period, the oldest reference to this place that we have
comes from a town meeting on December 15, 1525, which notes a
mill "beside the Tacubaya River". The land on which the "Molino
del Rey" (King's Mill), which was then known as the "Salvador"
mill, was located, must have belonged to the crown and, possibly,
to Hernán Cortés before it was granted to Alderman Ruy González
in 1550.
During the
first half of the 17th Century, the growth of Mexico City led
to the construction of many mills. Several were in the Chapultepec
and Tacubaya area, and all belonged to well-known families granted
the waterways which provided the power for the mills and irrigation
of the surrounding cultivated lands.
Don Juan de
Alcocer y Rodríguez de Contreras (who died in 1649) owned the
mills of Chapultepec. Toward the mid 17th Century, the mills and
their lands were seized and put up for public auction. They were
acquired by Field Master Don Antonio Urrutia de Vergara, one of
the richest men of the period, who founded three estates, one
of which included the mills of Chapultepec and the Tacubaya heights,
as well as those in Santa Fe. By 1724, although there had been
some trouble with wills and heirs, the lands were well cared for,
the mills were functioning and crops were grown around the house
in which the Urrutia de Vergara family frequently took short rests.
In 1732, Ana Urrutia de Vergara married the Sixth Count of Santiago
de Calimaya, of the opulent Altamirano de Velasco family. By this
marriage, the hacienda, including real estate, mills and lands
of Chapultepec, as well as the Molino del Rey, as it is called
in the papers, passed to his family.
The mills
and lands were successively rented out to various people, had
several administrators, and passed on to other heirs. In 1784,
Doña Ana María Guitiérrez Altamirano de Velasco y Ovando, Tenth
Countess of Santiago de Calimaya, heiress to the Molino del Rey
estate, married Don Ignacio Leonel Gómez de Cervantes y la Higuera,
of the no less illustrious Cervantes family.
At the beginning
of the 19th Century, the first stirrings of insurgency were felt
in New Spain, leading inevitably to the independence of Mexico.
This property, then held by the Cervantes family, underwent several
transformations.
After Cortes
de Cádiz abolished mortmain in 1820, and this was confirmed in
1822 by Agustín de Iturbide as Emperor of Mexico, the estates
were divided up. Molino del Rey was gradually sectioned and sold
to various people. On one part of the land, the shell of the house
that would become Los Pinos, residence of the President of Mexico,
was built.
It appears
from what we know of the battle of Molino del Rey, during the
war between Mexico and the United States of America (1846-1847),
that this conflict had serious repercussions on the hacienda.
After 1851, the last descendants and owners of the estate decided
to get rid of what were hotly disputed properties. The purchaser,
a Mr. José María Rincón Gallardo, sold the property again in 1853,
to Doctor Pablo Martínez del Río, granting him "possession and
property of the Mill named the del Rey" near Chapultepec. Dr.
Martínez del Río, a gynecologist, built a ranch there, where he
spent short vacations from his activities as a businessman and
doctor. He named it "La Hormiga" (The Ant), perhaps because it
was the smallest of his many properties. Beautiful cedar-lined
avenues were built; he planted many of the trees himself. Seven
years after "La Hormiga was sold to Maximillian's government (Dr.
Martínez del Río was ambassador of the Second Mexican Empire to
Greece and Turkey), the property returned to the Martínez del
Río family (1872). This was when Don Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada
was interim President of Mexico after Benito Juárez' death. As
the years went by, the once-rural property became a splendid residence.
When Dr. Martínez
del Río died (1882), his seven children and their offspring fought
over it in court until this century, when they reached an agreement
with General Alvaro Obregón's government to cede the rights they
held over the "La Hormiga" Ranch.
In the midst
of the Revolution, in 1916, Carranza's troops occupied the estate.
On May 2, 1917, the first Chief of the Constitutionalist Army,
head of the Executive Branch of the Nation, Venustiano Carranza,
expropriated the Hacienda "La Hormiga" and other private properties
(including El Chivatito and Molino del Rey) due to their public
utility. The decree states that they will be used to enlarge the
ammunition factory, vital at that time. In 1917, it was occupied
by General Alvaro Obregón, Secretary of War in President Carranza's
cabinet. In 1919, the Martínez del Río family recovered their
property from the government, but they were not able to put it
up for sale until 1924. Between 1920 and 1922, General Plutarco
Elías Calles, Secretary of State to President Obregón, lived there.
Between
1923 and 1925, its was occupied by General Manuel Perez Treviño,
Chief of Staff of the Obregón's Presidential Security Corps. From
1925, until a little after 1932, General Joaquín Amaro Domínguez,
Secretary of War and the Navy during Calles' administration and
for two years of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio's, lived there.
President
Lázaro Cárdenas (President from 1934-1940) himself decided to
leave Chapultepec Castle, until then, the presidential residence,
so that the people of Mexico could enjoy its interior and its
historical importance to the country. On November 20, 1940, the
Castle of Chapultepec became a museum by presidential decree.
President
Cárdenas and his family had already moved to the Hacienda "La
Hormiga" in 1935, because its house and grounds satisfied the
family's longing for nature. They planted many pine trees on the
grounds and changed the original name to "Los Pinos", which also
reminded them of the place by the same name in Tacámbaro, Michoacán,
where the President and his wife had first met.
From 1935
to date, Los Pinos has been the official residence of the Constitutional
President of the United Mexican States. The following Presidents
have lived there: General Manuel Avila Camacho (1940-1946); Miguel
Alemán Valdés (1946-1952); Adolfo Ruíz Cortines (1952-1958); Adolfo
López Mateos (1958-1964); Gustavo Díaz Ordáz (1964-1970); Luis
Echeverría Alvarez (1970-1976); José López Portillo (1976-1982);
Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (1982-1988); Carlos Salinas de Gortari
(1988-1994); and the current resident, Doctor Ernesto Zedillo
Ponce de León (1994-2000) and his family.
