Brief History of The Origin of Casa Blanca and La Rinconada
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ScribdTranslationsBRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF CASA BLANCA AND LA RINCONADA
Text/Image:
L.C.C. Mario Jesús Gaspar Cobarruvias *
IMAGE: view of the building called White House (photograph taken on August 18, 2019 by the
author of this text, in the course of his documentary expedition of the Second Route of Cortés.
On August 16, 1519, the expedition of the captain departed from the Mesoamerican city of Zempoala.
General Hernán Cortés, who was made up of around 2,000 men including Europeans,
indigenous allies and some African auxiliaries took the direction of an ancient pre-Hispanic route
of commerce, south of the Actopan River and parallel to the Huitzilapan River (now called La Antigua). It is estimated
that at the end of the first day of marching or in the morning of the second, they reached a village of
Totonac population called Itzcalpan ('place of white houses' in Nahuatl), which constituted a
independent lordship of Zempoala and neighboring another place called Oceolapan ('river of ocelots in
Nahuatl). In this place, the explorers were well received and then continued their march.
towards Xallapan.
In 1525, the town and the area near the river were already known by the Spanish name of La Rinconada.
in reference to the point where the La Antigua river divides into two channels, due to the presence of
sand banks, forming a 'river corner'. With the name La Rinconada it is
mentioned by the captain general Hernán Cortés in his Letters of Relation to King Charles I and three
decades later, by the chronicler Francisco Cervantes de Salazar in his "Chronicle of the New
Spain
journey of August 16 and 17, 1519.
In 1529, the town was granted as a tribute to Hernán Cortés, appointed Marquis of the Valley of
Oaxaca, in a strip of territory independent from the major municipalities of Veracruz and Xalapa.
Strategically located on the banks of the royal road from Veracruz (now the town of La Antigua) to the
Mexico City. It was estimated that in that decade it was a town of ten thousand inhabitants.
Around 1532, by order of Cortés, a inn or tavern was established for travelers on the royal road, in a
set of six houses of the chief Tecocoaquetzal. this establishment managed by
Spaniards, it was the famous sale of La Rinconada, which due to the increase in commercial traffic of
Royal Road after the official establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535, became
at the mandatory rest point for those traveling from the coast towards the highlands. Without
embargo, as the inn is located in the middle of the town, human and animal traffic caused
numerous inconveniences to the population, whose inhabitants requested in 1552 that it be moved to
another site. Although they obtained approval from the authorities, such movement did not take place and the
The sale of La Rinconada continued to provide services well into the 20th century.
By 1580, due to the epidemics that struck New Spain, a decline was recorded.
important in the population of Itzcalpan. Finally, customs and traditions imposed the name
From La Rinconada to the village, which appears on numerous maps from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
In the 18th century, important repairs were made to the royal road by the military engineer Pedro.
Ponce and between 1803 and 1812, due to the opening of the new royal road financed by the Consulate of
merchants of Veracruz and led by the captain of dragons Diego García Conde. This project
he was the one who built the King’s Bridge between 1806 and 1808, the flat road that rises from La
Ventilla (now Puente Nacional) to Tamarindo with numerous culverts, ascending and descending.
over a hill, in the place called La Cuesta de la Calera. The name is due to the presence of a
lime kiln almost 5 meters high, which still exists, whose production was used in the works of
royal road (bridges, causeways, culverts, and retaining walls) and in a communal way, continued
operating until the 1970s by the people of Rincón who sold lime in other towns.
During the Porfirio Díaz era (1876-1911), the name of the town was shortened to just Rinconada and
he wanted to explain the origin of the curious name, with a legend regarding a "doe"
"arrinconada" by General Juan de la Luz Enriquez, governor of the State of Veracruz.
In 1910, a station of the Interoceanic Railway was built in the nearby place of Los Ídolos.
and around this grew the current town of Rinconada, on the banks of the national highway
(old royal road). After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the site where Itzcalapan was located
it came to be called the White House because of the building of the old inn whose walls were whitewashed,
establishing itself as a locality of the municipality of Puente Nacional and separated only by a street
from the village of Rinconada, awarded to the municipality of Emiliano Zapata. On the side of Puente Nacional
the White House and the Calera slope remained and on Emiliano Zapata's side, the station of
railway and the populated part of Rinconada in the 20th century.
By decree of May 22, 1922, the municipal seat of El Chico was declared (founded in 1887)
with the name of Porfirio Díaz) to the town of Rinconada. In 1932 the municipality is renamed
Like Emiliano Zapata, in 1938 the municipal seat is moved to Dos Río, where it remains.
to date.
Currently, they survive as witnesses of the past, the White House that also served for the
procedures that descended from Mexico City since 1830, sewers of the royal road, thus
like the great retaining wall, the furnace of Cuesta de la Calera and the station with its striking
neogothic architectural style of English origin. As the town of Rinconada expanded in
in the 20th century, figurines and ceramic pots from the pre-Columbian era have been found, with great
similar to those found in Oceolapan, with an antiquity dating back to the century before
the arrival of the Spaniards in the region.
The author has a degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Veracruzana, technician in
computer science, diploma in pre-Hispanic, colonial, and modern art history, as well as
independent researcher and explorer in history. Director of the Exploration and Study team
of the Camino Real Veracruz-Mexico (EXESCR) and a state-level speaker, awarded twice
with the medal and honor diploma from the Institution of Citizen Improvement of the H.
City Hall of Veracruz, among many other recognitions of his professional career.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Del Castillo, Bernal. True History of the Conquest of New Spain. Introduction and notes
by Joaquín Ramírez Cabañas, Volume I, Editorial Pedro Robredo, Mexico City, 1939.
López de Gómara, Francisco. History of the Conquest of Mexico. Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho,
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 2007.
Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco. Chronicle of New Spain. The Hispanic Society of America,
Madrid, 1914.
Florescano Mayet, Sergio. The Mexico-Veracruz road in the colonial period, 1st Edition, Collection
Veracruz Stories No. 3, Center for Historical Research, Veracruz University,
Xalapa, Ver. 1987.
Melgarejo Vivanco, José Luis. The Actopan Codex. Institute of Anthropology of the University
Veracruzana, Government Editor of Veracruz, Xalapa de Enríquez, 1981.
Bermudez Gorrochotegui, Gilberto. Jalapa in the 16th Century. 3rd Edition, Xalapa Antiguo Ediciones,
2018.
Conquest Trail
ELECTRONIC SOURCES:
HISTORY AND WORKS OF THE CONSULATE OF VERACRUZ (1795-1824), Lic. Mario Jesús Gaspar
Cobarruvias: https://es.scribd.com/doc/288826180…
EMILIANO ZAPATA, Encyclopedia of the municipalities and delegations of Mexico, National Institute
for Federalism and Municipal Development:
