Today some of the descendants of the colonists who founded the American colony "El Chamal" in 1903 gather here, and we are gathered here because the homesickness makes us remember our youth spent here, because it does not allow us to forget that the remains of our parents, relatives and friends lie in these lands.

That is the main reason why we are willing to experience once again, the memories of our life in this colony.

The event I'm just about to mention had a tremendous effect in the life and fortunes of people, including my grandparents, parents, sisters and brothers and many of theirs and my contemporaries.

Some of us who consider ourselves as "chamaleños" are the third generation. There are still some of the second, that is all of the people who were children or youngsters when colonists arrived to Mexico, and, as far as I know, there is no one still of the first generation, that means the parents of the families who arrived to Chamal in 1903.

It is very strange to be able to point out only one event in someone's life and say that due to that event a complete transformation took place in the life of his grandparents and their descendants. I have copy of a document that may be the cause of such an event and that is an order of extradition signed by Judge Hosea Townsend in April 1899, representing the Indian territory in the United States, and giving instructions to Mr. George Blaylock to arrest and take back to Greer, Oklahoma an offender, Tom Richardson. Mr. Blalock was at that time the county's sheriff, and the offender was accused of horse stealing, a terrible crime in those days.

Trying to carry out the instructions, Mr. Blalock went to Mexico City looking for the offender, and there he found out that a big hacienda was being sold in the state of Tamaulipas; I'm talking about the Hacienda of El Chamal. When Mr. Blalock went back to Oklahoma he began to organize the Blalock Mexico Colony with the approval of the Mexican and American governments.

At the beginning, the group of persons interested in it visited the Hacienda and verified that it would be a good place to found a colony. Some of the members of the group were Mr. and Mrs. Blalock, George Ingram and my grandparents, Mr. William Wesley Taylor and Mr. Samuel Lafayette Penix, father of my mother. In that same year 1902, an organization certificate was granted to the enterprise by the Oklahoma territory. The deal to purchase the Hacienda was closed on January 1903 and on February 20th the first group of colonists left from Mangum, Oklahoma to El Chamal. vThey traveled in two trains, in one of them were the people, the luggage, mattresses, sheets, blankets, and personal properties, in the other were the cattle, horses, mules, pig and even hens; there were also cars and wagons and all the necessary tools to establish and manage the farms and ranches. To be able to take all these things, with them was done a previous agreement with the Mexican government.

I find it very interesting to examine these group of immigrants which was composed of 33 families and 9 singles, 220 people in total. Among them was a merchant, a physician, a cattleman, two smiths, two carpenters and 35 farmers, all of the essential occupations as you may see. They were not rich nor poor, to form that kind of enterprise was very expensive. Most of them had to invest one thousand dollars, which an that time was quite a figure.

On October 1903 the second group of colonist arrived also in a special train and during the next 8 or 9 following years people continued arriving now and then: finally in 1912 more than one hundred families were at El Chamal, in spite of that some of the first who arrived had gone back to the United States after attempting to be colonists.

On March 3, 1903, the first immigrants who arrived at the Escandon Station, situated on the railroad line Monterrey - Tampico, 60 kilometers east El Chamal, spent three days unloading the trains full of people and goods. Finally having the oars and wagons loaded and prodding the animals everybody took their way to El Chamal. As it was March, it was terribly hot, and the dust and lack of water made them suffer all way long.

They went through Xicotencatl and arrived to Forlon River (nowadays Gayalejo). There they spent the night camping on the bank of the river and on that night the first baby of the colony was born, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Snell.

Passing the Forlon River they crossed a dusty and dry flat land, finally arriving to Frio River, a deep running of cold and crystalline water.

There was a bridge made with giant trees. It wasn't a beautiful construction, but it sure was useful and they crossed safe and sound. Not very far from the river the jagged mountain range began and knowing it was the last obstacle between them and their destination the climbing started. It was a stony way, the wheels sparkled and made dust when jumping from one stone to another and the passengers were brutally shook. Finally they arrived at the top and from there the Chamal valley could be seen, what they saw seemed to be a virginal region, jungles and brambly grounds, nothing like crops or orchards nor human population, even though some farms could be seen spreaded in the valley.

I doubt that at least one person of the whole group understood what they were going to face in that place. They didn't know anything about the soil, the climate, the flora and fauna, about the people or the Spanish language.

They ignored that some of them would suffer malaria, that very soon they would find for the first time jigger fleas, small red ticks and gnats. Difficulties would be enough to challenge everybody's spirit and to defeat many.

This colonist came to Mexico with the purpose of establishing homes in lands already bought. The conditions of the purchase and the immigration to Mexico were asserted in an agreement signed with the Mexican Federal Government. They were not as many called them: intruders or usurpers.

Before Mr. Blalock bought the Chamal Hacienda it belonged to the Mexico Mortgage Bank. The way of how the bank acquired it and other facts about the history of these grounds are in a very interesting letter which I have a copy. The letter dated on January 13, 1903 is addressed to Mssrs. Blalock and Ingram who were at that time at the city performing the arrangements to purchase the Hacienda. The writer Lic. Rafael Pardo, distinguished lawyer of the city, was in charge of the examination of the title deeds and had to give his point of view about the validity of them.

According to the letter, the grounds of the Hacienda El Chamal had been sold from 1613 to 1617 by the viceroy Don Diego Fernandez de Córdova to Mr. Domingo Hernández Prieto, Juan Figueroa, Pedro Espinoza de los Monteros, Alonso de Campa and Antonio Fernández de Tavera. The rights then granted were affirmed on 1801 by orders given by the royal court and the viceroy.

During the following years the grounds belonged to different owners, until as heritage became property of Brothers Don Pablo and Don Luis Ibarra y Garíbar, who sold their rights to Don Cruz García Rojas on December 5th, 1885.

On September 1891, Mr. García Rojas obtained a $50,000 pesos loan from the Mexico Mortgage Bank depositing as mortgage the title deeds. The surface of the Hacienda according to the contract with the bank was of 70,663 hectares. Nevertheless, Mr. García Rojas did not perform the respective payments to the bank and so the bank obtained a mortgage trial in which the price of the Hacienda was fixed in $60,000 pesos. In that way the Hacienda came to be property of the Mortgage Bank which received the title dated on November 6, 1894.

Mr. Pardo concluded affirming that the titles were good and did not have any errors or faults that could endanger the pertinence of the Hacienda.

According to the contract of purchase and sale between the Bank and the Blalock Mexico Colony, Mr. Blalock paid $55,000 dollars or $143,000 pesos, $30,000 dollars cash and the rest in loans given by the same Mortgage Bank and another American Bank. Such debts were paid on January 1905, leaving the Hacienda out of any obligation.

Soon after that arrival of the first group. the examining and measuring of the grounds started. Everybody was anxious because no one knew where were they going to be placed.

The ground's allotting had to wait until the delimitation was done. Meanwhile, they built provisional homes made of otate and palm. A surveyor from Oklahoma was the one in charge of the delimitation, and it took him more or less one year to finish the work. Even though the Americans were accustomed to use the measures in acres in Mexico they had to use hectares. That is why they based on a 256 hectares block divided in four parts of 64 hectares each one so the block according to the American measures will be a square mile, that is 640 acres, and a quarter of 64 hectares will be approximately the fourth part of 160 acres. In this way it was easier for the colonist to understand the surveying terms.

What they had to choose now, was where to establish their town, this was very important for everybody. They finally choose the place where Chamal is now and decided to call it like that - Chamal . When the delimitation was done, they had already saved a block of 2,088 hectares for lots, a cemetery and a square. Fifty-six hectares were divided in small lots which formed the center and 254 suburban lots of 8 hectares each one were situated around them. This project with all the drawings and maps required was deposited at the Development Secretariat.

When the delimitation was finished the colonist began to classify the grounds, they classified them in three classes. The first were the best grounds for agriculture, the second were the grounds less rich but still good for agriculture and the third; were the grounds good for cattle raising only.

Each quarter of 64 hectares had it's own classification, number and short description so the location and quality could be easily found.

The casting of lots was performed on 1904, according to what a participant described, the method used was: tickets with the number and description of each quarter and it's class were placed in a pot, and since there were three classes of grounds, three pots were used, each stockholder of the colony had the right to take out a ticket of each pot, in that way they received three quarters of 192 hectares which location depended on each one's luck. In addition to this an other raffle was made in which each stockholder received an 8 hectare lot and one of the small lots of the center.

To be able to organize the farms as they wished many of the colonist exchanged grounds and taking advantage of their rights purchase and sale business were also made.

In this fair and neutral way the fractionization was carried out, perhaps the first fractionization of an Hacienda in the state and perhaps in the whole country.

During 1912 a newspaper called "The Chamal Record" was established and the following was written: "The Chamal village is at the northern part of the valley, there are 250 inhabitants; there is a square with fruit and fade trees around it, there is a public chain pump with a thin sheet ceiling in the square, there are four stores, two forges, a drugstore, a butcher's shop and a shoe store; there are also two mills, one for corn and the other to saw wood both work with a steam machine, there is a printing shop and a newspaper also, there is a two floor school made of stone and its size is 8 per 20 meters; it's a new building and has nice furniture, there is also a post office; doctors, interpreters, translators and real estate traders are in the village, a church is being built."

Besides what the newspaper writer said there was another corn mill in the Boquilla river, colonists had also built a bridge in the river with a lamina ceiling, a farmer who planted sugar cane bought from Monterrey a mill to be used by him and his neighbors.

Since the beginning, colonists worked to provide education to the youngsters and had schools in different places. In September 1903, education for children started in a temporary school that last only three months. In January 1904, the doors of the first school of the colony were opened, and it had two teachers and 60 pupils. In 1909, another school was founded 12 kilometers south of the village so the families who lived there could send their children to school. Nevertheless, due to the necessities a bigger and better situated school had to be built. 450 cubic meters of stone and 10,000 feet of wood were used to build the new school, and the cost was more than $6,000 pesos.

The school opened its doors in 1910 with three professors and more than 100 pupils. The colonist were proud of the building and said it was one of the best of the whole state, I started by studies there in 1922. The building still exists today, but is not a school anymore, now it is being employed for the general public use.

According to what I know and to what has been written most of the colonist who lived at El Chamal were happy and satisfied with their life there. It didn't take them very long to learn how to dismount, build "homes" and take advantage of the gifts of the ground. The majority of them were farmers so they knew very well how to increase their crops. The tools they had brought with them were the best and the cattle was of an improved breed. There were for the first time perhaps at El Chamal truly milch cows.

Everything was successful in the colony, and in 1912 there were more than 500 hectares seeded with corn and another 150 in orchards of orange, banana, pineapple, plum, mango, lemon and in sown lands of sugar cane, sesame seed, beans and pumpkin. Many of the colonists had gardens and enjoyed vegetables unknown of that region. The farmers also seeded different kinds of grass like the Guinean and the Parán grass.

As I have already said the Hacienda El Chamal had a surface of more than 10,000 hectares, nevertheless 23,000 of them were mountainous land which was not good for agriculture. That's the reason why that northern part of the Hacienda was sold to a wood company of Canada in 1906. The remaining 47,000 hectares were distributed as we have already seen among the stockholders and the purchasers, therefore in the year 1909 all the lots had been sold and the title deeds done according to the law and the delimitation, they had been registered in the Ocampo and Antiguo Morelos municipiums and in Cd. Victoria (capital of the state). The number of owners was of 230.

We may now ask: which was the destiny of the colony? I would have to answer that for the larger part of the colonists who had come to Chamal looking for a new life, the adventure was a complete failure. They had taken their savings with them to be part of this enterprise and even though they were not rich, they had something with them; when they left because of the Revolution, they couldn't take anything with them, they left their lots and goods hoping to go back whenever the political circumstances would allow them. Only a few came back, and those who didn't lost everything anyway, even their lots. In 1921, twenty families came back to El Chamal, my parents were one of those families. What they found was terribly sad, nothing like what they had left 8 years before, that makes me remember the song "Las Cuatro Milpas." They found their homes burned, the tools destroyed, the wire fences fallen, the cattle and the animals gone and the corn fields and gardens covered with brush. Of course they didn't expect to find everything as they had left it, but to see everything destroyed was an appalling stroke for them. Not much could be seen left of the ten years of work they had done there, and it was very disappointing. That is why it didn't take a long time before some families went back to the United States and never came back. In spite of that, the remaining families began once again to establish their homes, their orchards and their farms.

The struggle has been extremely hard and the progress very slow, nevertheless the development of El Chamal valley has been tremendous, and deserved recognition should be given to the descendants of the first colonists, and let me mention that among them the Taylor last name is one of the outstanding.

At the beginning I said there were no rich men, well 73 years later there are still no rich men in Chamal. Nevertheless, those descendants of the colonists who are still of Chamal haven't stopped fighting to improve the place: they have made it blossom and undoubtly the name "Valley of the Paradise," that in 1903 the colonist choose for the place, fits it much better today.