Zacatecas

We're in Zacatecas (that's "zach - ah- tay-cas") today and tomorrow. It's a very small town about 600 northwest of Toluca, a Unesco World Heritage Site with a beautiful downtown and an amazing history.

550 years ago, Spaniards discovered silver here, and that silver became the "pieces of eight" that filled Spanish treasure ships and floated around the world. for 3 centuries, the Spanish enslaved natives to work in very dangerous mining conditions (approx. 5 people died every day in the mines). Then, during the 1830s, dictator Santa Anna won a small battle here and celebrated by raping and murdering thousands of innocent civilians. In 1914, Pancho Villa won the bloodiest battle of the Mexican Revolution which led to the end of that war. The mine closed in the 1960s, and the local economy crashed. Today, there are as many "Zacatecans" in the US as there are in the state of Zacatecas - about 1.5 million each.

Today we rode a cable car up to the top of a local mountain to look at the town from a unique perspective. Tomorrow, we're going inside the mine and also to a "world-class" museum.

Whoo-hoo!