Isla Mujeres History

Top  photo is  part of the gardens and bottom photo is his empty grave & tombstone in the downtown Isla Mujeres cemetery From Yank in Yucatan by Rolfe F Schell, 1963           After the British Navy stepped up enforcement against piracy, in 1858, pirate Fermin Mundaca, 33, came to Isla Mujeres. He purchased 40% of the island, having acquired his fortune through the trafficking of slaves from Africa to Cuba. There are indications that Mundaca was also involved with transporting Mayans to work as slaves in Cuban mines and haciendas, as well as Africans.       He was the first to construct solid buildings on the isle, except for the old Mayan temples, whos e stones he presumably used. The foundation of a temple to Ixchel has been found on his Hacienda, which he named "Vista Alegre".        He was in his 50's when he became infatuated with a beautiful teenager known as "La Tri...

    Isla Mujeres was still a relatively young community in 1876, when archeologist Augustus le Plongeon lived here briefly with his young wife, Alice. The town of Dolores had been established twenty-six years earlier, by ~50 families fleeing the Caste War. In the early 1800's, the isle had been a temporary base for pirates & fishermen, without permanent settlements.      He described downtown as consisting of ~500 thatch huts ( ? that number sounds high, maybe a typo for 50? About 50 families founded the town in 1850. ), sitting in a grove of palm trees, with three sandy streets running north & south, with the main one ending at the cemetery. He said there were only about a dozen more substantial homes, made from stone and mortar, but these were also thatched with palmetto leaves. The houses were separated by courtyards, and some families proudly grew rose bushes & other flowering shrubs in the sandy soil.    ...