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...

      In the mid 1500's, there were only six coastal towns, which were poor Mayan pueblos, between what is now Holbox & Chetumal, of which two were located on the island of Cozumel. During the colonial era, the Yucatan peninsula was not really part of New Spain, and was administrated separately as a "General Captaincy", which included Belize, Honduras, and parts of Chiapas and Tabasco. It was a vast, difficult to control area, lacking in means of communication or transportation by land. In 1537, the Spanish government acknowledged that the waters of the Caribbean were infested with pirates, but made little progress to contain them.         Pirates found strategic shelter on the islands of Cozumel, Contoy, and Mujeres, and in Ascension and Espiritu Santo Bays. They were periodically expelled by the Yucatan government, who sent expeditions for this purpose every five or ten years. However, the outla...