Throughout the Yucatan peninsula are historic haciendas—the country residences of wealthy landowners—where once the agave plant was grown. Henequen, a strong fibrous part of the agave cactus, was used for making rope and was an incredibly valuable export in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The hacendados (hacienda owners) controlled vast parcels of land in the Yucatan. Autonomous and self-sufficient, haciendas operated along feudal lines, with the land owners reigning supreme. The sad reality was that the land was mostly worked by indentured indigenous Indians. As the agave fields flourished in the heat of the Yucatan vast fortunes grew and the owners of working plantations continually upgraded their haciendas.

Throughout their evolution the haciendas became surrounded by thick and powerful walls to protect the great houses with their lofty rooms and plant-filled patios. The walls would also surrounded the hacienda’s chapel, the laborer’s dwellings, the warehouses and granaries, the henequen (or sisal) production facilities, kitchens, the schools, the cemetery, stables, cattle yards and other buildings.

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