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The
town of Villa Union borders Highway 15 on both sides as it heads out of
Mazatlán towards Concordia and Copala. With minds on the picturesque pueblos
farther down the road, most of us barely blink as we drive through this
town which lies 20 minutes outside Mazatlán. Yet it has an interesting history.
Villa Union was the first European settlement in this area, founded in 1576
and named “Precidio de Mazatlán” by Spaniards who built a military post
there. It was first mentioned in written documents in 1602 as a small village
re-named San Juan Bautista de Mazatlán. When the harbour in Mazatlán became
the focal point for industry in the new colonia, the town of San Juan Bautista
slowly slipped into historical obscurity. Today nothing remains of its past.
The Spanish military post is long gone. There are no plaques commemorating
the town´s historical importance. Instead, what remains of the first European
settlement in Mazatlán is a vibrant, working class village. The heart of
Villa Union lies in its plaza which houses the San Juan de Bautista Church,
an ornate wrought-iron bandstand, and a small, rectangular library tucked
ingeniously underground below the bandstand. Across from the plaza is the
Mercado Municipal Cuauhtemoc, which opened in 1965 and was remodeled in
2001. Here you can buy eggs by the kilo, slabs of beef, vegetables, charcoal,
cheese and seafood. In |
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the streets branching out from the plaza are small tiendas selling everything
from hand carved wooden saddles to modern airconditioners. There are no
maps or brochures of Villa Union. Instead, it´s truly a walker´s adventure
where you can turn a corner and suddenly find yourself in front of a run-down
textile factory which produced fabrics from 1910-1945 when it closed its
doors for good. Or pass by the humble many-roomed Cuchupetas Restaurant,
well-known among locals and Mazatlecos for its fresh seafood. Along the
way you´ll probably meet school children anxious to try out their English
with you, or someone on their way to the mercado stopping to ask where you´re
from. You can wander down to the Rio Precidio where livestock and families
wade in to cool off on hot summer days. Two kilometers before Villa Union,
at the El Rodondo turnoff, is a large garden nursery open to the public,
and just past the town is the clay brick factory where you can watch bricks
being made by hand and left to dry in the sun. Villa Union is the nearest
full-service town to the Estrella del Mar Golf and Beach Resort community
and as such it offers everything from Internet Cafés to flower shops to
furniture stores. Even if you are not heading into Villa Union to stock
up for the week, it is well worth a trip to catch the flavor of a solid,
working Mexican town that has survived four centuries of change and continues
to thrive. |
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