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I walk, camera in hand, on the streets of Palizada, State of Campeche. People in this quiet river town are engaged in their usual activities and, beyond sending an ocasional smile in my direction, pay little attention to me. Travellers are a frequent sight in this locality, designated \u201cMagical Town\u201d of Mexico in 2011 for its beauty and traditions. Palizada lies in the ancestral territories of the nahuatl<\/i> and chontal<\/i>, people who lived in this land for centuries before the arrival in Mexico of the expedition led by Juan de Grijalva, the first Spanish seaman to penetrate deep into the Laguna de Terminos and the Usumacinta and Grijalva rivers.<\/p>\n
In 1668 groups of European immigrants set foot here with intent to colonize the area, and by 1674 they were making a new life in a town they called San Joaquin de la Palotada, possibly alluding to the great quantity of fallen trees that floated downstream. One hundred and eighteen years would pass until, as part of a geopolitical strategy to fend off English pirates operating from Isla del Carmen, King Charles II of Spain made official\u00a0by Royal Decree the foundation of San Ignacio de la Empalizada.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>King Charles II, \u201cThe Bewitched\u201d, last king of the Habsburg dynasty. This painting by Juan Carre\u00f1o de Miranda portrays him in the Hall of Mirrors of the Real Alcazar, in Madrid. (Image: Public domain \/ Wikipedia).<\/p><\/div>\n
The peaceful palizada of today hides layers upon layers of history, going back to the maya-chontal<\/i> chiefdom of Acal\u00e1n Tixchel. The original inhabitants grew corn, beans, pumpkin, chile, peanuts, tobacco and achiote, they fished, hunted deer and wild turkey, and exploited woods such as mahogany, guayacan, ciricote, cedar, henequen and palo de tinte (<\/i>dyewood). Chronicles by Spanish navigators and English privateers attest to their encounters with these native societies, which employed thousands of canoes in intense commercial activities. Cortes himself described in his relaciones<\/i> how the area \u201c\u2026was surrounded by wetlands, and all the merchants in it would come out on canoes to the Laguna de T\u00e9rminos for their dealings with Xicalango and Tabasco\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n Father and son fish from the Palizada pier, continuing in their own way a tradition that goes back to the first natives who lived here. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n Trade of fruits and vegetables, today as yesterday, a vital and daily activity for the \u201cpale\u00f1os\u201d. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n More than a century later, in 1675, the pirate William Dampier wrote about the settlement in Laguna de Terminos of close to 250 English, Irish and Scottish buccaneers. These fierce men did not only stalk Spanish ships to prey on them, but also worked in teams of ten men to fell and limb trees for\u00a0trade with Europe. Of all the valuable woods in the area, even above precious mahogany, it would be the fate of palo de tinte<\/i> to become the main target of exploitation for profit by these pirates and by the\u00a0conquistadors and their descendants, to the point of making irrelevant many other economic opportunities.<\/p>\n The natives used the natural dyes from this timber-yielding leguminous plant to color fabrics and to paint their bodies with ritualistic purposes, boiling it in large pots until they obtained a paste that dyed black or dark blue. Europeans were quick to identify the potential profits available by trading this product with textile factories in Europe and later in the United States. The pirate John Hawkins is credited with bringing to port in England the first ship with a hold full of palo de tinte<\/i>, cargo which he sold at great profits to British businessmen hungry for dyes. The buccaneers took the lead in the exploitation of this resource to the extent that, as was reported to the Spanish viceroy to New Spain in 1676, pirates operating in Laguna de T\u00e9rminos were selling more hundredweights of wood than all which was exported through\u00a0the port of Campeche under control of the Spanish Crown.<\/p>\n Palo de tinte (Haematoxylum campechianum). Illustration by Adolphus Ypey, published in 1813 in a compendium of 100 medicinal plants. (Image: Public domain – Wikipedia).<\/p><\/div>\n Old cannons decorate today the Palizada pier, reminders of a past plagued by piracy. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n The church of San Joaquin is of modest dimensions and was built two centuries ago with stone brought from other areas, as the riverside provides only sand. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n In a letter addressed to the king of Spain in 1565, Diego Quijada reported the existence of palo de tinte<\/i> in such quantities that \u201ceach year all the carracks in the world may be loaded\u201d.<\/i> Traffic on the Palizada river seems restricted today to small boats, but back then it was navigated by ships large enough to carry 50 tons of the product obtained from the heart of Haematoxylum campechianum<\/i>. Thus subjected to extractive exploitation with no vision of the future, the species would be practically eradicated in spite of its apparently infinite abundance, modifying forever the ecosystems that had allowed it to prosper for millennia and affecting the entire ecological chain.<\/p>\n As early as 1853 Don Jos\u00e9 M. Regil documented the disappearance of \u201cthe magnificent tintales on the riverbanks of Champoton, (\u2026) Palizada and Laguna de T\u00e9rminos\u201d. <\/i>He also forecast the disappearance of the tree\u2019s commercial exploitation, as it became necessary to extract it from ever more remote areas, thus rendering the costs of operation unviable. With a conservationist\u2019s conscience ahead of his time, he wrote: \u201cNature had wished that the tintales, which were found by civilization in these beaches would be, like them, eternal, and they would have been if only the logger\u2019s axe, smart and economical, would have chosen to wait for the tree to fulfill its destiny, growing strong, spreading its seeds and then dying to pay man tribute, after leaving numerous descendants, which in the time of thirteen or fourteen years would have provided equal gain. But thus it has not been, and speculation with destructive voracity have cut without discretion or sense, almost accomplishing the extinction of such secure and spontaneous riches.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Boats continue to be the main means of transportation for many in Palizada (Photo \u00a9 Iv\u00e1n Gabald\u00f3n)<\/p><\/div>\n Cattle occupies today sections of the riverbanks where \u201cpalo de tinte\u201d used to grow. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n Mural depicting the indivisible link between the town and its river. (Photo \u00a9 Roselys Oropeza).<\/p><\/div>\n Children play around the monument to Benito Ju\u00e1rez on the main square. Palizada is the only town in the area that has preserved 185 houses with original tiles, brought from Marseille as ballast in ships that would then carry \u201cpalo de tinte\u201d overseas. (Photo \u00a9 Roselys Oropeza).<\/p><\/div>\n Every town needs a barber\u2026 (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n \u2026and every town needs some action. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n Alluding to a long history of cultural exchange between provinces, chronicler Jorge Mendoza Solano likes to say Palizada is \u201cof all campechano corners, the most tabasque\u00f1o spot in the State of Campeche\u201d. (Photo \u00a9 Roselys Oropeza)<\/p><\/div>\n The history of Palizada is rich in dramatic events interlaced through centuries of human activity. Amongst the more recent episodes are many of great significance to the republic that would be begotten by complex processes of independence wars and geopolitical configuration. It\u2019s not our intent\u00a0here to offer\u00a0an historical compendium, but it\u2019s not by mere happenstance either that we\u2019ve dedicated this segment to the history of palo de tinte<\/em> and its devastating exploitation. As we\u2019ve said in the first part of this trip report<\/a>, we\u2019ve come to this part of Campeche on a mission to assess its potential for bird-related tourism. The history of palo de tinte<\/em> is a perfect vehicle to reflect upon the loss of riches, natural and economic, that come about when humas allow greed to rule over conscience.<\/p>\n It is known that the Great Egret (Ardea alba<\/i>), emblematic bird of Palizada, was hunted intensively here during the XIX century and into the beginning of the XX century. Hunters that engaged in this activity throughout America had no qualms about shooting birds right in their nests, spurred by the price of feathers, which was then higher per ounce than the price of gold. Among the most hunted species where also the Snowy Egret (Egretta thula<\/i>), the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja<\/i>) and the American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber<\/i>). The fate of their coveted feathers was to be placed, with no trace of blood, on top of oversize hats worn by \u201celegant\u201d Victorian ladies.<\/p>\n Left: Feathers for decorative use. Illustration by Adolphe Millot (1857-1921), published in the 1907-1910 edition of the Larousse encyclopaedic dictionary. Right: Ladies with feathered hats, fashion magazine illustration, 1903. (Images: Public domain – Wikipedia).<\/p><\/div>\n Saving egrets from their foreseeable extinction demanded decisive action by two truly distinguished British ladies, Emily Williamson and Eliza Phillips, who opposed the frivolous use of feathers and in 1891 founded \u201cThe plumage league\u201d, embryonic organisation that would become the \u201cRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds<\/a>\u201d. The public awareness work advanced by these admirable women demonstrated that there was nothing elegant about the senseless and painful death of millions of birds.<\/p>\n Just as decisive to bring an end to such noxious fashion was the work of pioneers of the conservation movement in the United States, people like journalist and social reformer Adeline Knapp, hunter turned park-ranger Guy Bradley (who was murdered for his defense of birds) and Theodore Roosevelt, whose actions from the heights of power qualify him beyond doubt as that nation\u2019s first environmentalist president. These personal and collective histories prove how, where humans\u00a0are capable of destruction, we\u2019re also capable of preservation. It all depends on the level of consciousness\u00a0guiding our relationship with the natural environment.<\/p>\n That egret standing today on the bank of the Palizada river, at ease because it doesn\u2019t feel threatened, is for better or worse subject to our actions. Its loss is also ours. The town\u2019s chronicler tells us how every afternoon at 5, with punctuality worthy of an English tea ceremony, monkeys can still be heard howling here. Developing a non-extractive economy, in which tourism based on nature appreciation plays an important role, can provide a platform for the ongoing preservation of these rich ecosystems while providing human society with abundant and perennial economic resources. Only thus will the monkeys continue to amaze us with their howling, and the birds with their multitude of shapes, songs and colors in flight over the waters of the Usumacinta river.<\/p>\n Still with us thanks to the first conservationists, a Snowy\u00a0Egret (Egretta thula). (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n As she does her homework in the afternoon breeze, the future belongs to her. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n Night falls in Palizada. Next day we\u2019ll head back to Merida\u2026 and the best is yet to happen. (Photo \u00a9 Ivan Gabaldon).<\/p><\/div>\n I.G.H.<\/p>\n SOURCES:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n With special thanks to the Campeche Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR Campeche) for making this trip possible. For more information on this and other wonderful destinations in Campeche, M\u00e9xico, visit<\/em>\u00a0www.campeche.travel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n I.G.H.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I walk, camera in hand, on the streets of Palizada, State of Campeche. People in this quiet river town are engaged in their usual activities and, beyond sending an ocasional smile in my direction, pay little attention to me. Travellers … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
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