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Chronological Table of Contents (Click on "Read More" to open the Chronological Table of Contents)

Chronologically: From Mayas to Tourism PRECOLONIAL     Ruins of a second temple to Ixchel were found on the Mundaca Hacienda a few years ago EARLY CONTACT Mayan Merchant-Sailors Traded Salt & Stingray Spines and Met Columbus PIRATES Hard times in the 1500's: Attacks by Conquistadors, Corsairs & Pirates Do you think of Isla Mujeres pirates when you hear the song "La Bamba"? SETTLED IN 1850 From Pirate Refuge to Established Settlement   From Five Fishermen to 1500 Refugees: Isla Mujeres in the 1840's Sending Slaves to Cuba, Conspiring With Rebels & Liberating Sailors from Cozumel: The Caste War The Census of 1866 (16 years after the town was founded) Mundaca & La Trigueña   Isla Mujeres in 1876 1876: The Fishermen & the Bay by Alice Le Plongeon AMONG THE TURTLE CATCHERS by Alice le Plongeon in 1876 This Town was Built by Farmers Who Learned to Fish and Survive Disasters & Disease 1900's The Hu...

Remembering the Coco Plantation: El Chocolate Garrido I from article by Fidel Villanueva Marid

In this article, eighty-year-old islander "El Chocolate" Garrido talks about his life to Isla Mujeres historian Fidel Villanueva Madrid. This is part I and a copy in Spanish is below.      Don Chocolate related his story while sitting in his wheelchair, remembering the days when he was a coprero, milpero, carbonero, artesano, marino naval, lagartero, and pescador. (Copreros work on coconut plantations, milperos are farmers, carboneros make charcoal, and he was an artesan, Naval sailor, crocodile hunter, and a fisherman.)      He is one of those pure blooded islanders who each day watches his community lose some of the charm that made it famous.He was born June 18, 1933 and his full name is Perpetuo Socorro Garrido Tuz. His parents were islanders who lived and worked on the coast as copreros. He was born with a midwife in attendance, between coconut palms. He says, "As soon as I learned to walk, I helped plant coconuts, prun...

From Dozens of Farmers & Fishermen to Millions of Tourists: The Changing Face of the Isle Statistically

Residency statistics....   In 1592 and again in 1597 , every human being on the islands of Isla Mujeres, Contoy, and Cozumel was seized and removed by Spanish conquistador Juan de Contreras and his men, including Maya rebels and Negroes from Guinea, who were hiding on the islands, fleeing from slavery. Until the 1820's , when the Lafitte brothers were expelled, Isla Mujeres was a refuge for pirates. After that, t he isle was only occupied a few months of the year by a handful of fishermen from the Yucatan peninsula and Cuba. A report in 1825 said there were about a dozen huts.   *Link to Pirate history articl e   Link to Mundaca article         .. In 1842 , a visiting American archeologist found the isle was vacant except for "two huts and a shelter made from branches, inhabited by three fishermen and two natives , who were fishing for turtles." In August, 1850 , the town of Dolores was founded by ~250 refugees from the Cas...