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Mexico Travel :: The North Mexican States

State of Nuevo Leon

Not much is known about the Desert Culture tribes of Nuevo Leon, despite the many cave paintings and petroglyphs they left in the mountains. Two years after Cabeza de Vaca passed along the northern border of the state, Spanish adventurers founded a town at the site of Monterrey but deserted it shortly thereafter. In 1579, Luis de Carvajal, usually called luckless' by historians, received permission to found the New Kingdom of Leon in northern Mexico.

Carvajal was a Portugese Jew who converted to Christianity, and he settled one hundred Jewish families in Monterrey. Unfortunately, he made enemies of the neighboring Spanish governors, who denounced him to the Inquisition. Carvajal died in jail, Monterrey was abandoned and many of the Jews died at the stake in Mexico City's Zocalo. The final, lasting founding of Monterrey came in 1596 at the hands of Diego de Montemayor, who named the city after the viceroy, the Count of Monterrey. The city became the economic center for Nuevo Leon's mines and vast cattle and sheep ranches.

Like many northern Mexico cities, Monterrey was captured by the Americans during their 1846 invasion, and two decades later it became the provisional capital of Juarez' government while he was being chased by the French. More than any other city in Mexico, Monterrey boomed under Porfirio Diaz and became the industrial capital. Mexico's largest steel mill opened here in 1890, and the next year Jose Schneider opened the Cervece-na Cuauhtemoc, soon the largest brewery. During this period the first family corporate dynasties were founded; some of these, like the Garza Sadas, continue to wield immense power and wealth.

The state of Nuevo Leon contains the bustling industrial and corporate center of Monterrey-the most Americanized city in Mexico-and little else. In the north there's a new multi-lane border crossing at Columbia, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Nuevo Laredo. Monterrey (pop 3,000,000), Mexico's third largest city, is built in a valley between three craggy hills at the edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The Cerro de la Silla, which looms to the east, is the symbol of the city. The oldest part of the city is built along the Rio de Santa Catarina, which is channeled to avoid floods. Monterrey's heart is the Gran Plaza, an ambitious, multi-level civic complex with many monuments and fountains, mixing the colonial with the ultra-modern.

At the south end of the plaza stands the Cathedral, now dwarfed by modern buildings. This pink stone building was begun in 1635, heavily damaged during the US invasion of 1846-47, and only finished in 1899. Next door is the new Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (MARCO). This dramatic building (open Tues-Sun, 11-5), designed by Ricardo Legorreta, is a testament to Monterrey's desire to be considered a 'world-class city'. The spacious interior has rotating exhibitions of Latin American and world art 'on the cutting edge'. The south end of the plaza is dominated by the new Palacio Municipal. The Faro de Comer-cio ('Lighthouse of Commerce'), across from the Cathedral, is a tall orange stucco obelisk from which a laser beam shines forth every evening. The Museo de Historia, in a colonial building just west of the obelisk, has good exhibitions on local history from pre-Hispanic times through the Revolution. Further north, the plaza is lined by mirrored glass and concrete governmental buildings, including courts, the Palacio Legislativo (tourism office next door) and the Teatro de la Ciudad. A staircase in the middle of the plaza leads to an underground mall and parking garage. The plaza ends at the 1895 Palacio del Gobierno.

The streets west of the plaza comprise the Zona Rosa, the downtown shopping area with many pedestrian walkways, restaurants and expensive hotels. Pancho Villa once rode into the elegant lobby of the Gran Hotel Ancira on his horse. The Mercado Colon on Avda Constitution, near the river, is a good place to shop for food and inexpensive crafts. The two main downtown avenues, Pino Suarez and Cuauhtemoc, run north from the river, pass the triumphal Arco de la Independencia, and merge near the enormous Central Bus Station.

The train station is two blocks west. The huge brick Cuauhtemoc Brewery, founded in 1891, has daily tours of the factory, a beer garden where you can enjoy free bottles of Carta Blanca, and a small museum. Also on the grounds is the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame, with pictures of American as well as Mexican stars who played here. The bullring, Ninos Heroes Park and the University are all on Avda Alfonso Reyes heading north. The Obispado, constructed between 1785 and 1790 on a small hill west of downtown (too far to walk), was the home of Monterrey's bishops, a fort during the American invasion, and heavily damaged by cannons in the Revolution. It now contains a museum of local history and a good collection of religious art. Monterrey's wealthy live and shop in the luxurious Colonia del Valle and Garza Garcia neighborhoods, southwest of the city. The hills around Monterrey have caves, hot springs, waterfalls and resorts for those wanting to escape the city's heat and pollution

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