I've gotta be honest having been an Englishman in Mexico for a long period
now I have at times felt somewhat left out because I'm not an American youtuber
in Mexico I've always been slightly naive and fascinated as to the amazement
that many Americans have with Mexico Mexico for me has always been just
another country and there's never really been anything that's connected me to my
homeland England until now that's right people this video is quite possibly one
of the most highly anticipated videos of the year
welcome Real del Monte!
(MUSIC)
hola amigos so you're probably wondering how on earth does a small tiny magic
town or Pueblo Magico in Mexico such as Real del Monte also known as mineral
del Monte had such an interesting history with England I bet you never
expect that right specifically Cornwall, Cornwall is a
county in the southwest of England and just like many states cities and small
towns in this area of Mexico, Real del Monte has an extensive and immense
history when it comes to gold and silver. Mining gold and silver was originally
discovered in the state of Hidalgo during Spanish colonial times and mining
was an operation for many many years and as a result of flooding in the mines
mining basically ground to a halt in the state of Hidalgo however in the early
1800s English miners from Cornwall came to the state of Hidalgo, Pachuca, Real del
Monte with new innovative equipment to not only resolve the issue of
flooding but also to rejuvenate the mining industry in this state and as a
result this town has such a mix of England and Mexico I'm absolutely
overwhelmed at this point and in this video we're going to be checking out
some food which is influenced by England we're going to be checking out some
architecture a cemetery you name it there's so much here many of you have
told me to come here (advised me to come here) is probably the best way of
saying it I'm really happy I'm here let's get going then - Centro Historico is
peaceful, kind of, blue skies, colorful architecture and in the middle there is
a fountain and I've read that actually came from England I could be wrong and
around the bottom you have these four tortoises or could they be turtles and
useless back to the day when I was younger I had a tortoise a pet tortoise
called Fred so that's another thing that kind of connects me back to England
we're gonna start off a little tour every other Monday by having a look at
some of the architecture in this wonderful pueblos magico there's a
wonderful church it's an orange or peach color I would say and church signs
always test my pronunciation so here goes
Parroquia Nuestra Senora del Rosario oh that's a bit of a tongue
twister, let's have a look inside
(Dramatic Piano music jaja)
here we are in another stunning spectacular grand Mexican Church one of
the best things about Mexico in my opinion I'm truly lucky that I can just
walk into a church like this in complete silence I'm the only one in here and
marvel at the size of air the organ at the top of the architecture those gold
things what are they called they like the sun's rays or something I don't know
but they're really pretty I see them in many Mexican churches and this one kind
of reminds me of the one in Real de Catorce say in the fact that it's in
quite a small town and there's nobody around and it's not as you know
grand in terms of the amount of gold and things are the one in lacks color but it
still got that amazing look just listen
silence! when I got off the colectivo off on Pachuca this morning the first thing
I noticed and it was quite an emotional moment was the difference in
architecture so usually in towns like this Mexican buildings and houses we
usually have like flat roofs at least that's what I've seen in the past but in
the old amante it's different roofs like that which you would have in England and
walking up these hills it very much felt like I was walking through somewhere in
Cornwall Devon southwest England which you know my family live in Devon so it's
especially poetic I think the fact that I'm here now going back to England in a
week's time so as you could tell from my voice already I'm getting quite choked
up life in Mexico would not be complete without a bottle of squirt this video is
not sponsored by the way and we're going to talk about pasties now I described
this in the Pachuca video which you can check out up above somewhere and Cornish
Pasties where do I even start one of the things that has come from
England in terms of the influence is the food in Real del Monte and there is a
pasty festival every year I think it's an October so I missed it no but the
thing I've read about it is the the people of Real del Monte are very
appreciative of English miners in relation to the fact that not only did
they rejuvenate Real del Monte in terms of mining the mining industry but also
nowadays they give the locals a source of income because pasties everywhere
I've read that there around 30 pasty restaurants in Real del Monte, honestly it
feels like there's about 3,000 because every other building is a pasty place
the next video is going to be all about pasties
but even so we're gonna have one today because there's a place just down there
that I saw walking from the collectivo which is quite possibly the best thing
I've ever seen ever in my entire life let's go look at this amigos and also
English people autentico Paste Ingles pasties y empanadas and this place as I
walk past I saw this on the door pasties al pastor only here
okay you know from previous videos how much I absolutely love tacos al pastor
but here is a pasty al pastor but I haven't looked at it yet
let's open have a look oh that is a Cornish pasty if I haven't seen one in
my life before it's got that orange color look at it beautiful let's tear it open
oh look at that man look at the al pastor oh god let's eat it
more Mexican than this sitting on the floor outside I torteria with a pasty
al pastor let's go
stunning stunning oh here comes the spice okay and you know what this is a
pasty that taste is closest to an English pasty as I can think even though
it's our past or it's way because a lot of English pasties are me you know like
beef with potato and vegetables things like that but this kind of feels like it
because you know when you are in England and you go to a bakery and get a pasty
it's full of meat and this is exactly that and the thing about Mexico I've
said about before is that you know most fixing a bakery is it's predominantly
like sweet items but coming to a place like this to have a pasty without a
store and it can you come in to take a moment to stop with the amazement of
this it's al pastor pasty
this is one of two mine museums in the Real del Monte
I'm going to go to the other one it's a bit of a walk and the thing I will say as you
can see from this building it's so English it feels like somewhere in
anywhere in England to do with industry or mining or anything and the thing I
will say about Mexico is that we compare places very easily especially when
you've been here a long time but Real del Monte is absolutely unique
I've gone for a long walk heading to this mine and just look at this reminds
me of England southwest of England with these hills and the roads down there
it's like Devon where where I will be very soon I'm approaching the mine and
look through this fence look at the walls down there this is England it's
like an old castle or something in terms of what it looks like
you know these stone walls let's go down look at this it's a mine it feels
exactly like England right now
and as always we have an extremely fetching hat I'm not an English builder
"you alright mate? How's it going?" we're
down in the mines in Real del Monte this is like a life achievement, now I read
that there was a tall clearly not you can just go down it yourself which
actually I think I prefer watch your head as always turn the mines
okay so there is a talk but I had to catch up with it as per usual no idea
what he's talking about hhe's talking about life in the mines I
think vaguely and then I'm just looking around me there's like a moss on the
rock and it's glistening with water and you can also see like the glistening of
the silver in the rock as well all right we're out of the mine my fetching hard
hat is off remind me never to wear one of them again and anyway I mentioned
about Spanish so yeah my spanish listening isn't great but I think I can
get the gist of what he was talking about down there but I think it's more
about the experience you know I didn't realize Mexico had such a history of
mining before I came here now I've been to three mines so I would absolutely
recommend anyone coming to Mexico to do that purely for the experience even if
you don't fully understand what's being said by the tour guide before I could
gather he talked about the experience down the mines obviously it was an
extremely difficult strenuous activity damp wet cold dirty etc he talks
about toilets he showed us toilets where people would go to the toilet in the
bucket of sand he talked about the depth they would go down to when they were
working and what they would do in the event of an accident is unimaginable you
know and what I have read about not only Mexican wines would make mines all over
the world is a slavery was a thing free labor
people that ran the mines would take a lot of money off people as they leave so
people who worked it wouldn't earn much anyway so just goes to show you know
these people did so much in terms of country's economy and industry and so we
only have them to thank I think. right I was gonna sit with those dogs down there
but they started barking at me what is it with dogs in Mexico they hate me
where are the cats and the other thing is about football I didn't know that
football was introduced to Mexico via these Cornish miners they had a football
team in Pachuca and they had the names were like William Percy Albert John you
know typical English names and when you think just how fanatical Mexicans are
about football it's astounding that you know that came from England and also
things like cricket tennis rugby union you know English games that have come
from England and I'm in the place where it all started in Mexico anyway
brilliant it's time to get the cemetery okay believe it or not I didn't bring a
change of clothes with me it is the next day we flash forward about 18 hours
because I came here yesterday within opening hours and it was close
where am I let's look at the sign right cue overly
dramatic strings or potentially piano copyright royalty free music because we
are at the Panteon Ingles the English cemetery I'm so excited because this is
somewhere that I've wanted to come since day one sits the first day anyone ever
advised me to come here because this place has a connection with England as
you can see 1851 it was established Cornwall - from Cornwall their presence
was vital for the exploitation of the mines there are 750 tombs here not just
Cornish miners there I believe there are people in Germany Italy and other
countries as well so let's go and see if it's open
and for the second day in succession it's closed there's a padlock the sign
says it's open from 9:00 to 5:00 Tuesday to Sunday today is Thursday it's about
11:00 a.m. and unfortunately this is the only short we're gonna be getting of the
Panteon Ingles never mind these things happen you can't get
everything in life at least I'm here at least I can see it I have eyes
and I wanted to say while I was here the fact that Mexican cemeteries are always
quite elaborate and intricate in terms of the design of gravestones and things
like that and I've seen it I said in San Luis their English cemeteries tend to
not be like that as much and it's interesting because you know England
Mexico predominantly Christian Catholic countries it has a religion so you would
think there would be similarities but there are definitely differences and I
think what I can see of it it very much does look more like an English cemetery
right my persistence has paid off for the cemetery you're not gonna believe
what I did I was walking hood down all the tour buses coming ups up here I
thought why they're going up there is closed then I thought maybe the drivers
are something I've got the key today I came up the hill saw a school trip or
something like that walking up the hill and then the woman I asked earlier "is it
closed?" she's the tour guide, I thought she was just a
random walking her dog but now I'm in the cemetery finally
as I said earlier before I could get in it is so much more of an English
Cemetery you know English gravestones will often have all of this text on
there in loving memory you know it's it's really weird to be in Mexico and be
seeing English on gravestones rather than Spanish
Henry Alfred and William I can't read the surname the beloved children of
William and Annie classic English names you know this is it's surreal that you
know there are English people buried in in a cemetery in Mexico it's astounding
I think this cemetery much really sums up what Real del Monte is about it's not
an English town it's a Mexican town with English influence the key word is
influence I think the same goes for this cemetery because I must say having
lived in the UK for many years some cemeteries and graveyards can be
extremely rundown and quite basic in terms of the style of gravestone but I
think these they very much look English with a bit of a twist of Mexican
cemeteries you know with the crosses on the top and the slightly more
elaborate with the little little statues on them things like that names like
Frederick Laura hilda Maria I can also see German names like Ludwig and
Guillermo Italian yeah it's beautiful so amigos that was Real dem Monte
or Mineral del Monte we finally got into the panteon Ingles, see if you're if
you're persistent enough you can get what you want in life
all right and I going back to the beginning of what I said at the
beginning of this video in terms of feeling left out in Mexico since the
beginning because there's never really been anything that's connected Mexico
with where I'm from for the first time today that has happened Mexico and
England have come together I feel like I've come full circle and it's quite
appropriate and poetic actually that this is my last stop in Mexico for this
year I'm going back to England next week and you know it was just amazing to see
English names English people buried in Mexico and for me that's really cool
because it shows that there's part of my history in Mexico if you know what I
mean all right so next up is another video from Real del
Monte we haven't finished yet huns and I'll see you soon hope you enjoyed this
video don't forget to do the like and leave a comment what do you think of Real
del Monte and I'll see you soon hasta luego