Charles Binns - Landscape Photography, Nature Photography, Travel Photography

Taxco

All images (c) Charles Binns - Landscape Photography, Nature Photography, Travel Photography.

Taxco is an antique colonial silver-mining center located in the northern reaches of the Mexican state of Guerrero.

Even though silver mining had been the main commercial activity of Taxco since colonial times, it is no longer considered a profitable activity, and the city is better known for its traditional silverwork, which attracts tourism throughout the year.

The city is built on the side of a mountain, with very steep narrow cobblestone streets lined by whitewashed houses with red-tiled roofs. It is also renowned for its more than 200-year-old baroque-style church, the parish church of Santa Prisca.

Before the Spanish arrived the native Indians called it Tlacho meaning the place of the ballgame. According to local legend the Aztecs had the locals pay tribute to them with gold bars.  Hernan Cortes arrived and the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1521.   A year afterwards Cortes staked his mining claim in Taxco. By the end of the century, silver from Taxco had spread across Europe, and remote Taxco was reknowed for its wealth of silver. It had become Spain's primary source in the New World of precious metals and had become a busy mining area.  Mining gradually decreased in the Taxco area as other richer and more accessible mining areas were discovered and developed, and eventually faded out for almost 200 years.

In 1716  Don Jose de la Borda (a Spaniard of French descent)   rediscovered silver in Taxco, when as legend has it,  he was riding and wandering in the hills of Taxco and he spotted a rich silver vein. He struck a fortune in Taxco and in gratitude built among other things the beautiful and now famous Santa Prisca Cathedral, an ornate cathedral with lots of gold trim in the Spanish Baroque style (Don Jose's son served as a priest in this church). The church can be seen from all over Taxco, glitters in the sunlight and has become a focal point for the pueblo. Don Jose is still considered the "father" of Taxco, although he eventually left the area when he became over-extended, and left his mines unworked.

Thereafter more than a dozen other beautiful churches were built in this small town from other successful miners.

During Mexico's 19th century war for Independence the Spanish barons destroyed their mines rather than lose them to the revolutionaries, and the art of silver work died out in Taxco for quite some time.

In the late 1920's the highway from Mexico City finally reached Taxco and in 1926, William Spratling, a U.S. citizen  and associate architecture professor from Tulane University arrived in Taxco to study Mexico and its culture.

 Mr. Spratling discovered the potential talent in the locals and motivated the community artisans to create designs and rediscover the craft of silversmithing. With his own designs he created an apprentice system of training young silversmiths with artistic talent and gave them the opportunity to develope their skill. He brought in from Iguala a  highly regarded goldsmith to teach the art of working precious metal. The great beauty and craftmanship coming out of Taxco earned worldwide recognition and fame once again for Mexico. Over time many of these artisans opened workshops and stores of their own- all encouraged by his unwavering support.

The work of his apprentices, many of whom went on to become highly respected silver-smiths continues to inspire the next generation of silversmiths and artisans who now number in the hundreds.

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