THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
INTERVIEW WITH: Douglas Weatherston INTERVIEWER: Esther MacMillan DATE: March 7, 1984
PLACE: Oral History Office, ITC
M: Mr. Weatherston, first I want to ask you where you were born and when?
W: I was born at a town in the state of Vera Cruz named
Misantla on November 11, 1897.
M: Your father, I understand, had a coffee plantation, or finca • • . Did you call it a finca?
W: We called it a plantation, a hacienda • Hacienda
Miramar.
M: I am fairly familiar with the country from Tampico down to Vera Cruz. I know Papantla and down the coast.
W: Yeah, Papantla and then Nautla. Nautla belongs to the county of Mislanta. And Mislanta is about 1345 feet above sea level up in the hills, on the edge of the slopes of the mountains.
M: Where is it in relation to Poza Rica? WI It's south of Poza Rica, southeast.
MI Southeast of Poza Rica.
WI About the same distance from the coast, along the coast- WEATHER5TON 2
W, line. it's about 15 miles from the coast.
HI One of the things I remember going down that road to
Vera Cruz was all the big rivers rushing down from the mountains to the sea. Were you near a river? And--
W. Oh. yes. we were right there on the river. I'll show you pictures of that. and you know I'll show you pictures of it right on the river where we were.
HI Oh. you have got all those wonderful pictures. I didn't have any idea there were so many rushing big rivers emptying into the sea in that part of the country.
W. Oh. yeah. there's lots of rivers because it rains on the mountains and comes right down. you see. So on this river my Dad used the waterfall to put a power plant in there in
1907.
H. That's where it tells about the first power plant.
W. Yeah. he built that plant: owned it: and he supplied
electricity. He also had an ice plant because before that
they used to bring the ice from the town of Jalapa. which is
the capitol of the state. on muleback. And. you know. it would take three days to get the ice to this little town.
HI How far were you from Jalapa? Now I know that town.
W, Oh. I guess. we were about 52 miles. I imagine.
H. That close? That's beautiful country.
W. Yeah. northeast of it. And then. was I as telling you.
so we had ice there for ice cream on Thursday nights when
they had the Serenata. And also on Sunday. So they had two
times when they used to bring the ice from Jalapa to WEATHERS TON 3
WI Hisantla.
HI For Pete's sake.
WI So he built that plant in there to supply Hisantla. MI Do you remember how big Misantla was? How many people? W, Right now it is probably about 25,000. MI That big?
W, Well, it was about 12,500 about 30 years ago. I haven't been down there for quite a while.
MI When you were growing up as a little boy there, was it
smaller?
W, Oh yeah, it was much smaller. But then, you see, it was
6,566 people when I was a boy in 1910. Misantla was
officially incorporated as a city on the fifth day of
September 1910.
MI Even then-- W, And then it decreased during the Revolution.
MI Sure.
W, You know, it decreased. As you know, so many people
left those little towns for protection and went over to the
bigger towns. So it decreased. Besides, there was a
terrible epidemic of "Viruela Negra" smallpox that killed many inhabitants.
MI Well now, you were born on the plantation?
W, No, I was born in town.
HI Was there a hospital there?
WI No, there was no hospital at all. I was just born there.
, WEATHERSTON 4
HI Did your family live in town?
W, Yes. At that time we lived in town. We never lived at the plantation.
M: Oh, you didn't.
W: Never.
H: How far out of town was that?
W, Oh, it is about nine miles.
MI Do you remember about how many acres--haectares?
W, Yes, well, he had a half a million plants--a half a million coffee plants.
M: Oh.
W: And then he had, I think, about 1200 acres.
H: Twelve hundred acres.
W: Yeah, but it was on the edge of the mountains, you know.
And then he had this power plant where he built that house,
next to the power plant; therefore, we moved when I was
almost about nine years old. But we had--he put in--we had
heat--heated the house with electricity.
M: Really?
W: Yeah, they were big bulbs of incandescent light--you
know, the very low light--and that is what they used to use
for heating the house. And then he had--the kitchen--in
1910 and ll--it was electrical. We had electrical frying
pans and electric--oven and electric pans.
M: No kidding?
W, Yeah, and that's what happened.
MI Your mother must have been glad for that-- Well now, WEATHERS TON 5
Mt you Baid you lived in town and then you Baid he built a house later on the river.
Wt But just on the edge of town where the power plant was, next to the river.
M, What kind of a house was it? Was it built of Btone? Or adobe?
W, Yeah, the whole thing was all of-
M, Stone--
W, Well, stone and mortar. You see.
M, Was it built like the old Haciendas?
W, Yeah, it was--well--it was a little more modern. You
see,--
M: Sure.
W, If you had been on the road--to Mexico City--from
Tecolutla. Well, up that river--on the Nautla River--up the
river--there used to be a lot of Frenchmen--settled there at
San Rafael--and they are still are--and you go to that place
and you will see a lot of architecture--French
architecture--much more so than the Spanish.
M, That's interesting.
W, And as I understand now, of course, I didn't see this,
but I met some of those when I was a child and I still met
some of those old Frenchmen.
MI Yeah.
W, And some of my best friends in this little town were
French--descent--and some of them are still alive. Anyway,
as I understand it, some of those Frenchmen went in there WEATHERSTON 6
WI and started the vanilla industry. Or what do you call it? HI Sure. WI Because, you see, vanilla is an orchid.
H: Yeah. WI And the flower only lasts a very short time, about from ten till two. You know. So that they have to propagate it.
HI One day? Only one day? WI Yes, they are just one day. As I understand it--
H: Hy word. No wonder we pay so much for vanilla.
W: But anyway, these people--so if they had heavy
rains--they didn't have any vanilla. Not much vanilla,
rather. So they used to get this--so they used feathers-
So, you know, those French started that vanilla (industry)
and then by propagating with feathers.
H: Hoving the pollen from one--
W: You understand?
HI Sure, I understand.
W: O.K.
HI So you mean that--ten to two--that's only four hours-
W: That's what I understand. Now, I don't know, except
I've heard that, there.
H: But if the French started that--
WI But wait a minute. Hy Dad was also raising vanilla.
HI He was?
At one time, when I was a child, he was rais ing vanilla WEATHERS TON 7
WI and they used to put the vanilla out in the street. to dry, but they used to put it on those mat8 and wrapped up in blankets overnight to sweat-- This was done day after day.
You know, 80 that after it's dry, the vanilla was ready for sale.
MI It's a seed pod.
W: Yes, that's right.
MI Now I have bought vanilla in Papantla. We always think
of Papantla as the head--sort of the center--
W: Yes, that's right from Papantla and Misantla--that's
where the vanilla country is.
M: Right in there. Gee, I bet that's fun to see.
W: And, as you know, the Aztec King Montezuma used to drink
chocolate with the vanilla flavor at ten o'clock in the
morning.
M: But they didn't put sugar in till the Spaniards came.
(laughter)
W: (laughter) That's right.
M: Now, let's go back to when you were a little boy growing
up. Can you tell me what it was like to be a young boy
growing up in a Mexican town.
(Oh, isn't that a wonderful picture.) Is that you?
And that your criada.
WI Well, she was a Totonac Indian-- I'll have to tell you
about the Mayan women that were brought to Misantla-- You
know--
MI Yeah, (looking at picture)-- WEATHERS TON 8
W, Mexico had a war with the Mayans (The Caste War of
Yucatan, Stanford Univ. Press 1964)--the Government of
Mexico--Porfirio Diaz--(the President of Mexico) continued the war in Yucatan. And they brought--and they used to bring these women--young women--to the towns and give them away to the different families. The war lasted from 1847 to
1912. (Mayan Indians were refugees: displaced persons on
account of the war--1847-1912--during the Mayan war against
the Federal government.)
M: For servants? Slaves? Sort of slavery?
W: Yes, because they COUldn't speak Spanish and the idea
was to educate them to be " civilized"--so they said. So we
had them.
M: Is that you Mother and Father?
W: Yes.
M: And these are your sisters and brothers?
W: Uh huh.
M: Four. There were: one, two, three, four--four kids .
So there were four kids in your family?
W: Well, one more hadn't been born yet.
MI That's a fascinating picture. (laughter)
How did your father?-- Weatherston is definitely an
English,--British name.
W, Well, he started going south--he was a • • • Canadian.
M: Where did he start?
W, From Canada. From Toronto. He had been there as a
soldier in the Canadian Army when they had what they called
the Second Riel Rebellion in 1885. WEATHERS TON 9
M. What rebellion? W. The Second Riel Rebellion? They call it--there was .ome
Indian that was named Louis Riel. But I don't know how to spell it.
M. Real. Oh. I don't know that--
WI Riel Rebellion. In 1885 there was a war of the Indians against the Canadian Government . So he was what is known as a Trooper in the Governor of Canada body guard.
M. Yeah, sure.
WI And, he was stationed over there north of Winnipeg on the Fort Garry--I guess it was the upper Fort Garry--there
are two Fort Garrys. G-A-R-R-Y. And then he left Canada
and carne to Texas and he was a cowboy in Texas--in West
Texas at one time.
MI He was.
WI Yeah.
M. Can you put a date on that?
WI I couldn't tell you, but he went down to Mexico--well,
about 1890. Because, you see, about 1890 he went down-
You see, he went to school in Canada, an Agriculture School
called Guelph Agricultural College.
M. How do you spell that?
W. Guelph. G-U-E-L-P-H.
M: Oh, Guelph. Yeah, I've been there, in fact, in Canada. Sure. All right.
W. O.K. And then he went down to Mexico.
MI You don't know why he went down to Mexico?
W, (laughter) I don't know. WEATHERS TON 10
M. He was in West Texas being a cowboy.
W. Yes, it's only normal that he would be going down to
Mexico.
M. Drifted down to Mexico. Well, he wasn't married when he was doing this? Drifting? W: No, he wasn't married. He went down to the state of
Durango. And, as I told you. he was working for William
Randolph Hearst at a mine near San Dimas and married my mother at San Dimas, Durango.
But not as a mining man. But rather as an
agriculturist--to plant--to do the planting--to supervise
the planting--of corn and beans--chile--and so forth, for
the supplies for the mine.
M: This was in the state of Durango, now. O.K.
W: And from there he and my mother went down to the state
of Vera Cruz and. well, that was in 18--oh. that must have
been 1894. He went down there to Misantla.
M: Oh. he ended up in Misantla.
W: Then, you know, he always had heard of these people that
planted coffee and lived like--lived very well, you know, so
they had enough money to go and buy a plantation. But they
always, you know, all those people that have plantations
around Misantla, they always lived in town. They never
lived--except temporarily or on their farms close to town.
M. They did, huh?
W. No, they'd have their supervisors, you know, looking
after the place--Major Domos--they had them right in those WEATHERS TON 11
W, places but nobody lived on the plantation. MI Well.
W, So they all lived in town. So they were right close--you'd go on horseback. Everybody went on horseback. Now, when I lived there in this town of Misantla, you might
look for a river here (looking at map). There were no wagon
roads of any kind, there weren't any wagons. You had to get
there on horseback. Or muleback. There were improved roads
for horse and mule transportation only. M, No roads.
W, And it took us a day and a half on horseback from
Misantla to Jalapa.
M, A day and a half. W, Yeah.
M, That's going up, isn't it?
W, Yeah, and going up and down the mountains-- Now I said
it was 64 miles--it couldn't have been that long--that far.
It must have been 50 miles at most because you couldn't travel more than-- Well, four miles an hour on those
mountains--you couldn't go more than--three times
eight--twenty four miles in a day at the most. However, we rode 10 hours the first day.
M: Oh, gosh, that sounds like a lot.
W, That's at the most you could go--you know. So it probably was about 50 miles. Here is the river.
MI Oh, isn't that pretty.
W, You'd be seeing things like that there. WEATHERS TON 12
MI Beautiful country down there. Looks like they had
some--it looks like you had some rain.
When you were growing up, you were brought up by a
Mayan nana, you said. Did she speak to you in Mayan?
W, No, by that time she spoke Spanish perfectly. By that
time, yes.
MI She did.
W, No, that town of Misantla was very largely populated by
Totonac Indians.
MI Oh, it was.
W, Yeah, most of them were Totanac Indians. Most of my
friends were either of French descent, there were a few
Spanish descent, and I, oh, never knew of the Anglos.
MI No Americans down there then.
W, No. Not with children.
MI Well, then did you have any friends among the Indians?
Did you play with the Indian boys?
W, Oh, sure. Oh. yeah. I didn't (laughter) know that I
was any different until I went to school and they began to
talk about the--the Mexicans fighting the Spaniards--you
know.
MI Oh, so you--
W, So sorne of those Indian boys started kind of pointing to
the Spanish descent boys, you know. And then they started
with the American Invasion--you know, when the Americans
went in there in lB47--you know • . •
MI Oh, when--Vera Cruz? WEATHERS TON 13
WI When they • • • M: When the Americans went in--in Vera Cruz? W: When they heard that the Americans captured Vera Cruz in
1847. M: Uh huh. W: Well, then they (the Indian boys) pointed at me . And the school teacher said, NOh, no. He's not American. He's English ...
M: Well, you had Canadian citizenship then, didn't you?
You were a Canadian.
W: Yes, at that time. Yes.
M: Well, now growing up as you did. Did you go to grade school? Elementary school? In the--
W: Yes, I went first to Kinda (kindergarten there) in a private school. And then I went to the only school there was there; was a government school. I went up there to the
5th grade.
M: Oh, I see.
W: And then I was through the 5th grade and I didn't go to
school any more for a couple of years. M: Because, that's all they had.
W: (laughter) That's all they--
And then my Dad sent me to school for a couple of months up in Mexico City.
M: Oh, he did.
W: And then, I wasn't learning English very fast in a few
months anyway. WEATHERS TON 14
MI Yeah. WI So, he decided to Bend me up to Canada.
MI When you were a little boy? I mean, when you were quite young? W: Well, I went up to Canada when I was fourteen.
M: Fourteen. W: Fourteen years old. And that's where I-- I couldn't speak English then.
MI You still spoke Spanish .
W: And some Indian, too. Totonac. A little bit of
Totonac.
M: Oh, isn't that nice.
W: I still remember a little bit, a few words, but not much .
M: What was it like? Growing up?
W: It was very peaceful. M: Was it?
W: Oh yes, very, very peaceful, the whole country was
peaceful, eveybody was very friendly. That had RuraleB--You
know what Rural iB i n English? Rurales are those Mexican
mounted police. With their big hats.
M: Oh, Rurales. Sure. Rurales.
WI You know, the country is very peaceful . You would leave all the doors open . Never closed any doors in the town .
Well, maybe except BO Bome (laughter) animals wouldn't come in. You know--
MI Sure. But it was Bafe. WEATHERSTON 15
W, But it was entirely peaceful.
MI Oh--
W: And it was very hard to get anybody to work. M: It was?
W: Oh yeah, you couldn't get anybody to work more than two or three days a week. Maybe three days. MI Why?
W, Everybody had enough food and everything they needed.
They couldn't buy much . There wasn't very much to buy. If you wanted to buy a shirt, you couldn't buy one: you had to buy the cloth and they-- MI Have it made. W: And they made the shirts.
M: Well, I've read, in reading, that everything grew down
there--they didn't have to worry about buying groceries or
food--there was always enough to eat.
W: Well, everybody had a horse.
M: Yeah .
W, I had a horse. First I had a donkey. When I was a
child . And then I had a horse. And everybody had a horse .
We always had horses available in our home so we could go to the plantations anytime.
MI Sure.
W, Also we had--you see--where I was--we didn't have any
football or anything like that--but we had roping.
MI Yes.
WI You see, we had roping and riding on--riding those WEATHERSTON 16
W, ca1ves--or, and then--bu11 fighting-
M, Oh, you bad that--
W, We had bull fighting-- I know at our place we built a bull fighting arena--a small one. M: You didl W: And we used to have--1asso these calves and bring them in there and then go out there and fight them--you know-
M: Yeah, there's a Spanish name for that. I can't think
what it is.
W: Huh?
M: There's a Spanish name for that--fighting the calves. I
can't think what it is.
W: Toreada or corrida de toros or jaripeo.
M: Toreada. Is that it? Because I know they do that around San Miguel, too.
W: Toreada. We always spent--you see we didn't go to
school on Wednesday afternoon or Saturday afternoon.
M: Oh.
W: So Wednesday afternoon we used to go-
M: That was your entertainment.
W: That's when we used to go roping. And Saturday
afternoon, too. Sunday, of course, we all went to church
and then had a lot to do--a lot of music and everything else, as you know.
M: Sure. Well now, on the plantation itself, the workers
would be Indian, WOUldn't they? W, Yes. WEATHERSTON 17
MI Totonacs mostly? WI All of them. All of them.
MI All right. WI And it was hard to get them over there to the plantation. They used to have to--well, I remember, they used to advertise a lot to get people to go and work. And especially when the time came to pick the coffee, you couldn't get enough people. MI Oh, you couldn't.
WI You see, my Dad had on Thursday nights music and dances for the workmen--and free drinks.
M: Ohl
W: So Thursday nights the workmen had a good time.
M: Did they have it in town or out on the--?
W: And then they'd work. And people used to get their 75
centavos a day. M: Golly.
WI But if you worked picking coffee, you could make as much
as one peso or a peso and half a peso. You could make as
much as two and one half pesos--they used to take their kids
to pick coffee.
M: Sure . Did they live out there? The workers--did they
live out there on the plantation?
WI Well, most of them moved over there during that time. During the harvest.
MI Yeah.
WI You see, which was in December. And that was one of WEATHERS TON 18
W: the reasons I think that they used to have the vacation then-- Our vacation was not in the sumrner--like we do here.
It was in the wintertime. It was in December. And that was the time that was used for the children to go pick coffee.
You know children of the poor.
M: Sure.
WI Well, that's the way it was.
And then they picked this coffee. My Dad put in machinery for the treatment of coffee. [There is a treatment of coffee.] You know how coffee is. It has two shells.
M: Yeah, you have to take the husks off.
W: Yeah, and then, they had these women, before they had
the machinery, they had women picking the coffee, separating
the good from the bad by handl
M: Yeah.
W: But after, when machinery was put in, there was very
little of that that had to be done because the machine took
out the small ones--the undeveloped ones.
M: Oh, it did. Sort of a sorting machine.
W: Yeah.
M. I have gone along in the back roads of Mexico and I have
seen--
W: You have, what?
M: Along the back roads in that coffee country, I have seen
the coffee out in big wooden bateas or something like that
drying in the sun.
W: That's right. We used to do that. We had big places, WEATHERS TON 19
WI asaleaderos, and we used to put 'em out.
MI Asaleaderos.
WI Yeah. You know. M: I don't know that word ••• a-s-o-l-e-a-d- WI From the sun • a-s-o-l-e-a-d-e-r-o-s, places where they were put out in the sun. You have to do that.
MI To dry them.
W: Oh, yes.
M: I ' ve heard somewhere that Mexican coffee is the best
coffee in the world.
W: Well, the Colombian is supposed to be the best. You
know about coffee. You have to have coffee at certain
elevations, in order for it to be better than others.
Now, the coffee on the coast is not much good.
M: Ahl Better high.
W: Just like peaches, you know. Get a great big peach that
does not have the flavor that the little Hill country
peaches have.
M: Sure.
W: Well, that's the way with coffee. The higher you are,
the better it is. Our plantation was above Misantla. M: You said about 1200 feet.
WI Misantla is about 1345 ft. in elevation. We went up
higher than that to plant the coffee. Some people planted
it around Hisantla, too. But it was better higher up.
HI You got more money for it, didn't you? Sold for higher
prices? Hade more money? Better quality? WEATHERSTON 20
W. Yes. It was better coffee . It was shipped to Jalapa on muleback. Then after that, it was also sent by boat from
Nuatla to Vera Cruz City. And then shipped to the United
States. M. I was going to ask you where it went. W: Yeah. The United States. Arbuckle Brothers is the
buyer. M. Arubckle? Where? In San Antonio?
W: No. I think ••• no, I don't know ••• it was a
United States company. Arbuckle.
M: I remember that brand as a kid.
Tell me a little more about the vanilla Did your
father get into the vanilla business because there were
those orchids natively growing?
W: Lots of people have little plantings of vanilla. What you called it then, I don't know, I was too young. But you
probably bought one of those. Because they planted at the
same place as coffee. That's the only thing that used to be
stolen. At night the Indians would steal those beans.
M: Did you have to have them guarded?
W: We didn't guard them. They were lost. There wasn't enough loss to have the expense of doing that.
M. But they would be small areas?
W: Yeah. Small plantings. So they could take care of
them. I would say about 2 1/2 acres at most. Small.
M. Do those orchids grow up on high trees?
W, No. They get on the trees you see, but the roots WEATHERS TON 21
W, corne to the ground.
MI They do?
W, Yes. As I remember them I haven't seen them for a long time.
There is a publication that • • • it shows a picture of the vanilla plantation, an orchid, in the Smithsonian Institution magazine this month. This month. It shows the plant with the flower.
M: That's a fascinating business because it is so weird to
get vanilla from an orchid.
W: That's the only orchid of value for vanilla; commercial
value.
M: You told a story to Kathleen about taking gold to
Acapulco on horseback. What was that story?
W: In 1918, my Dad was going to buy a lot of things over
there on the west coast, which is south of Acapulco. I went
with him. The only thing you could buy with was gold or
silver coins. (No paper money at that time.) We took about
5,000 pesos, I believe, or thereabouts. I only had taken
part of it • I don't remember how much. But we took
all that money down to the coast to buy • • • you see, there
were no banks or anything. It took us eight days to get
over there to the west coast from Oaxaca, on horseback.
We were taking these gold coins to buy things.
M: What kind of things?
W, Well ••• buy cotton and hides. I don't know what
else. I was just a young manr I didn't know what he was WEATHERS TON 22
WI going to buy. MI What an experience that must have been. How come you
started in Oaxaca?
WI Well, when he abandoned the plantation • • • you Bee the
plantation was closed because of the European war. M: World War I? WI European war • • • because the price of coffee went to
nothing. The price of coffee dropped. You couldn't sell it
to the Central Powers because they were the one that were
heavy drinkers; the British were drinking tea, as you know.
So over here they put a heavy duty. In the United States
they were promoting Postum at the time. You remember that.
Anyway, the plantation was sold. It was abandoned,
rather, in 1917. The war was starting in 1914. When the price of coffee went down, everything stopped at the
plantation • • • a short time after.
M: And you just abandoned ••• ?
WI And it was abandoned. Just left. And you know how in
the tropics how things grow.
M: What were you doing in Oaxaca, then?
W: My Dad was seeing what he could do someplace else.
M: I see.
WI So my family moved to Oaxaca.
I was there when we moved in 1918 to Oaxaca. My mother
and sisters were in Paris from around 1912 to 1914. My
sisters were studying. School there in Paris, France. Then
they came back to Mexico in 1914. You see, I wasn't there WEATHERSTON 23
W, because you remember I was up in Canada. And also in the East, studying.
MI Before we started, you said you went back and forth to
Mexico a good bit as you were growing up. Then you must have been down for a visit in Oaxaca, when you took that gold over to the west coast. W, That's right. I wanted to say goodbye to my folks because I was going to go in the Army, British army. So I went down there and stayed with them a couple of months and then came back here. I left school 1 I was at MIT at the
time. MI Well, you happened to be there when this shipment of
gold . • •
W, We were taking that gold coin to the west coast to start
a business on the west coast.
MI Oh, you werel
WI You see, he was taking that money to the west coast to
start a business. And then when he died in 1920, I was over
at school, at the University of California. I went back to
Mexico to sell everything. That store on the west coast,
apparently from that money that we took over there. And he
had a little store there in a little town called Ometepec in
the state of Guerrero. That's just south of Acapulco.
MI Was there any danger • • • how many people went on that expedition to the west coast?
WI Oh, just an American, my Dad and I and, of course, an
overseer to take care of the horses. We never had any WEATHERSTON 24
W, trouble. MI No trouble of anybody stealing the gold?
W, Wasn't any trouble at all. Nobody knew we had the gold coin. M, What kind of a store did he establish over there?
W, Sort of a dry goods store. And he used to ship hides and things like that to Acapulco and then over to
Guadalajara.
Then when he died, I went down to sell everything. I went down there in May to Acapulco. I went from California by boat to Acapulco. And from there, I went down the coast on horseback.
M, You did?
W, It was the only way you could go. Went then on horseback. Before I got to the town, about 5 days horseback. • the rivers were high with rain. • and
just before I got to this town, I got held up by a bandit.
A bunch of bandits came over with about a • 25 of them
• • they were all armed, held me up. I was traveling with
a Spaniard, by ourselves, on horseback. They said, "Come
and see 'mi general,' my general Hernandez. So I went over
there to interview him • I had to • • • There he wasl
big Indian. He had sandals: he didn't have any shoes; but
he wanted to know who I was. I said, "Ingles." I showed
him my passport. I'm sure he didn't know how to read.
MI They have great respect for a piece of paper, though.
W, He looked at it and then after a while, he said, WEATHERS TON 25
W, Okay. you can go on." And then he sent for the
Spaniard. I waited for him and he let him go and we went
into town. M: Just two of youl
W, Yeah. So when I got into town. I told these people
about this. And they said. "Oh. you were very lucky because
this man. there is a famous bandit and he has committed a
lot of murders just for a little money. You're lucky."
They said the only reason he let you go is because he
joined the Obregon revolution. You know what that means?
He went over to the Obregon's troops and then he was on his
way to Chilpancingo • • • Chilpancingo is the capitol of the
state of Guerrero.
Then about ten days later. ten or fifteen days later.
in the place where I was staying in Guerrero • • • you know
I was selling out all this stuff that I had • • • the bells
of the church were ringing and fire crackers were going. I
asked. "What's going on? Is it a Saint's day?" "Oh no.
haven't you heard?" "No. what?" "This General Hernandez
that held you up? They give him the ley fuga." You know
what that is?
M: No .
W: When a prisoner tried to run away. they shoot him. What
I understand, he was such a famous bad man that the Federal
Government was going to try him for murder. He tried to run
away and was shot.
So there were all the people in that town were 80 WEATHERS TON 26
W, pleased that they e ven had • • •
H: Firecrackersi Fuega? W, F-u-g-a. Fuga means to run away. Ley fuga, probably, I guess, had been a long time in force.
MI Do you remember anything about the days of the revolution? W: Yes, I sure do. And I'll tell you. What I was very much impressed. Did you ever see this Fall of the Alamo,
the picture?
M: No, I didn't see that movie.
W: I was impressed because the soldiers came, some of Santa
Ana's soldiers came into the plaza here in San Antonio and
it was exactly the same way, the little town where I was
when the rebels came in. And they went around the plaza exactly the same way as Santa Ana's troops did here.
M: In the movie.
W: In the movie. Whoever did the work here, must have done
an awful lot of research as to know how the Spanish troops
when they captured a town how they did it. Because
they came in on horseback all the Infantry stayed
behind .. the ones on horseback, probably the officers
• • • rode right around the plaza . And then they would stop right in front of the palace (Palacio Nacional) waiting orders.
But the Infantry stayed in the streets.
MI In other words, the people on horseback Bort of
surrounded the Plaza? WEATHERS TON 27
W, They'd go around ••• started in here, like this • right here is the street, here is the plaza. They would go around like this and they would stop right here and they would line up right in there in front of the Palace all around the Plaza.
M: Were you there when this happened?
W: Oh, sure. I sure was. I was about 13 years old.
M: Was everybody scared to death?
W: No. Because Porfirio Diaz had resigned. So these
troops that came in they weren't fighting any more. They
were rebel troops that had been fighting in the country.
And they came into Misantla because that was the center of
• the county seat. So they came in there.
M: Did they harm anybody? Any shooting?
W: In fact, let me tell you. They came over, they had to
get loans from the merchants. So they came over to our
house, to my father, and they wanted a loan. My father gave
them a 100 peso loan.
M: He did?
W: And in fact, he invited them for breakfast--the
officers. There were four and ourselves. We all sat down
and had breakfast with them. Some of these rebels actually
were. • the ones that were fighting Diaz, you know,
troops. They were, some of those were also coffee
plantation owners. The country rebelled against ••• they
weren't bad people. Some of them probably were ••• there
were bandits. But all those people that came into our WEATHERS TON 28
W, town were well-behaved people. They weren't •• nothing to be afraid of. Nobody was afraid of them.
MI How did your father know he was ever going to be paid back if he lent the money?
W, Oh, he didn't expect to get paid back.
M: You mentioned the word loan.
W: Well, they called it a loan, but • • • that is customary
to do.
M: Is it?
W: It was customary when they came in there, the rebels
came in town, they got loans from the ••• Well, in fact,
even when Santa Ana came over here, he got loans over there
in Saltillo.
M: Did he, in Saltillo?
W: I believe it was Saltillo; maybe it was San Luis Potosi.
He got loans to buy the equipment and so forth for his
troops coming up this way.
M: You're using the word loans and loans means to me you
have to pay it back.
W, Sure.
M: But they never expected them to?
W, I don't know whether they did or not. But I just
assumed they never expected to get paid back. It wasn't too
big a loan ••• 100 pesos.
M, How long did the troops stay in Misantla7
W, From Misantla, they went on to • • • they stayed there,
I think, about, if I remember • • • not over a month: less WEATHERS TON 29
W, than a month. About two weeks maybe. Then they went on to Jalapa to the state capitol. From there •••
M: Diaz had been.
W: Diaz had already resigned and left Mexico.
END OF TAPE I, Side I, 45 minutes
TAPE I, Side 2
M: Diaz had gone to France1 had fled from Mexico to France.
Who was President then? Carranza?
W: No. Madero. Francisco I. Madera.
M: Madero spent a good deal of time in San Antonio.
W: You know his nephews still live. I went to school with
one of his nephews. When I was there at school in
California, one of his nephews--
M: You know, he did a lot of his work of planning here in
San Antonio.
W: Yeah . And one of his nephews used to live right about
where we are now. His home. I know him very well. He
comes up and sees us quite often.
M: There are two houses over on Presa that are supposed to
have been Madero houses and maybe still are.
W: You're right. He did a lot of stuff.
M: I'm interested in this money. • tell me about
this •
W, As I was telling you, this money here (showing) was WEATHERS TON 30
WI issued by my Dad. In March 1914. Remember the Marines took Vera Cruz in April '14, a month later. And you see, we are in the state of Vera Cruz. But this money was issued because the peso went down to nothing. So what happened our plantation was away from town • the people who lived up there, you know, the workmen • • . they got paid.
When they carne to town, they got paid with Federal money when the Carranzistas took over. The Federal money wouldn't be any good. So, you see, they couldn't buy anything. And vice versa.
And when Zapata's people carne in, Zapata's troops, nobody's money was any good. So the government of Mexico allowed my Dad to issue his money to pay the labor from the start • some of it is different dates there.
M: There's March 1914; July 1914; May 1914.
W: Okay, it says there that this money would be redeemed with bank notes not less than 5 pesos each. It says so on
the back. I don't know what he put up as collateral, but I
think it was the money itself. You see, the people in the
town would honor this money.
M: No less than 5 pesos it says here. Your father has
signed these. This is fascinating. How long was that in
effect?
WI That money was only from, until . . issued only those
months, after the European war started, we didn't issue any
more.
MI Let's see. March, May and July. Probably July, then WEATHERS TON 31
M. .ometime in July.
W. Yeah. I didn't know anything about this money when I went down • I had heard •• But I had never .een any of that money. I had heard about it. Because I was at school at that time. Up in Canada. When I went back to Mexico, on a trip, about ten years ago, I went to this
little town and this fellow had rolls of this money. He
said, "You'd be interested in this." He showed me. "My
goodness, I'll buy 'em from you." He said, "No, you can
have 'ern. I'll give 'ern to you."
Then I had my friends buy every bit of the money
available. So they bought it. I got 250 of these bills.
M: You did. I suppose for COllectors. People who collect
things like that?
W: Yeah, but he had 'em there; didn't use them anymore but
if I had to buy any more I'd have to buy two pesos for one
dollar because that's what they were then.
M. I want to put this on the tape. Each bill of different
denominations, each bill says Hacienda Miramar. Then
Misantla, Vera Cruz. And they're in denominations of 50
centavos, 1 peso and 2 pesos.
W, I don't think there were ever any higher than that.
M. They're signed Douglas Weatherston.
W: Some of them were printed, the name was printed and some
of them written. I have some that he actually signed.
MI This is signed. The dates ••• I forgot to put that in
. March 20, May 20, and July 1 of 1914. WEATHERS TON 32
WI Yeah.
MI This is wonderful.
As far as the Revolution went in Mexico, as far as you were concerned, you didn't get into any trouble, there was no shooting, or
101: We never had any trouble at all. I never had any trouble in Mexico.
In 1950, I started doing a lot of work in northern
Mexico in my business •• • geological.
M: Are you an oil geologist?
101, Yes. I talked to Mr. Pauley about northeast Mexico and we went in there and started a lot of drilling. Edwin W.
Pauley.
Buy anyway, we never had any trouble. I never had any
trouble at all in Mexico. My people never had any trouble .
M, The reason I ask . • . a friend of mine married a man who was in the oil business in Tampico during that time.
The rebels would corne in and shoot his men down in the
restaurant: just corne in and bang, bang, bang. He had
nightmares 'til the day he died.
101: We never had any trouble. Nothing was ever
expropriated. We never had any trouble, period.
M: You're an oil geologist. This is interesting. Did you
know Mrs. McNutt before she died? She had the Gallagher
Ranch up the road?
101: No.
MI Her husband was one of the first oil geologists in WEATHERSTON 33
M: the country. When he started in his business, ••• of course the oil business was just beginning ••• I can't give you a date ••• but the old timers would say, "What do we need a geologist for? What's a geologist?" He had to fight that. She died last year at 90 some years old so it's back that far. That's why I'm interested in the oil geology business •• because she talked about it. How he got his education at the University of Missouri.
You went to school at MIT and Berkeley?
W: Only for a semester and a half and I went into the Army.
And when I got out of the Army, my mother and sisters moved to Los Angeles. So I went to Los Angeles instead of going back. I hadn't been home so much and instead of going back to MIT, I went to the University of California. And graduated there.
M: Your father was dead by then?
W: No. My father died in 1920. And my mother died in the
same . 1920. About a month apart. Mother died first
then my father. My mother died in Oakland, California and
my father died in Guadalajara, Mexico.
M: You became an oil geologist. Did you go to Mexico for
your first work?
W: Well, I was a mining engineer. And I went to Mexico, to
Sonora, to work for Moctezuma Copper Company, which was a
subsidiary of Phelps Dodge .•• the copper company. Phelps
Dodge has all these mines in Arizona.
Anyway, I went to work there and then I went to work WEATHERS TON 34
WI for the Mexican Lighting and Power Company. Then I had an offer to go to Los Angeles as a geologist for Superior oil. So I went there.
MI And how did you get down to northeast Mexico?
WI From there, I went to Texas: they sent me to Texas.
Then I went to work for Standard of California. I stayed with Standard of California from about 1929 until 1949.
Then I wanted to go on my own. They had sent me here
to south Texas. I used to be an exploration manager here
for the company, San Antonio. Then I left it. And I went
to Mexico. I started working in Mexico with Edwin W.
Pauley. We were very successful. We were vert lucky: got a
lot of production.
We had an agreement with the Mexican company, Pemex.
We never had any trouble with them at all. Everything came
just right. We could develop this production: everything
turned out good.
M: This was north of Tampico?
W, No, right here at Reynosa: right close to Reynosa. We
discovered the Trevino field and also the Lomitas field.
M: For goodness sake. In the vicinity of Reynosa?
I figured you were farther down in.
W, I was telling you, I talked to Mr. Pauley to go into
northeast Mexico. He had been in the Isthmus, developing
there and I talked to him about there so we started that
work and were very successful. In fact, we drilled 54
without having a dry hole on that Trevino field. We WEATHERS TON 35
couldn't help it1 we had about 31 different sands and they were productive. In other words, what we had, we had 31 fields in one. M: You didl
W: It was very, very good. It produced a lot of gas. And that gas was shipped all the way to Massachusetts. It was 1
I don't know whether it is now or not.
M: Are you still active at all in the business?
W: Oh yeah, very much so. Not so much1 I just go to the
office about once a week or once every ten days. But my son
is doing all the work. He's a geologist, too.
M: You're not working in Mexico anymore, are you?
W: I sold everything I had in Mexico. I had a pretty large
interest in a service company called Rotary Engineering de
Mexico. I got these people from the United States to go
down there and I started this company. I put up money, too.
So we had quite a large interest . • • I had about 21
percent of the company. Called Rotary Engineering Company
de Mexico ••• mud logging. You see, we did most of the
work for Pauley and the Mexican government. Most of it for
Pemex, rather.
M: How did the expropriation affect you?
W: This was in 1950, when I started up. That was way after
the expropriation. But the expropriation didn't affect me
at all because, I didn't have anything in Mexico.
M. By that time you'd gotten rid of your •••
W: I was working here in Texas for Standard oil Company WEATHERS TON 36
W: of Texas.
H: You were lucky all the way around, weren't you?
WI Never had any trouble whatsoever.
H: You've been a very lucky man.
W: If a person that will go into Hexico, will follow the
laws, stay within the laws, they're not going to have any
trouble.
H: It's the people that try to break them that get into
trouble.
Is that Misantla? (looking at pictures)
W: There's where the soldiers came in.
M: The Plaza. Is that a government building?
W: They went around there and they'd land in front of this
Palacio Nacional.
H: You would know that was a government building.
W: Yeah.
M: This is a closeup of it?
W: That's the one.
M: That's pretty. What's that?
W: Well, this is interesting. This is a school. It used
to be a pyramid.
H: For gosh sake. And it's on top of the hill.
W: You see it used to be a pyramid or an Indian mound and
the school on the top of it.
M: Well, for pete's sake. Don't you wonder what's under
there? There is a marvelous ruin near Papantla.
W: I want to show you I have the history of the church WEATHERS TON 37
WI here. M: And that's on the top of a thing, too. Of a pyramid.
Oh. Isn't that a pretty tree? That's pretty. WI Here, that's where I was born. M: That's where you were born. W: And I learned how to walk here.
M: That was your house? Look at the fancy stuff on the top
of the roof. Oh, all these wonderful things. I can't think
of the Spanish word--those drain pipes that came out--that
real Spanish architecture. Those clay--you see that in New
Mexico.
W: Well, the whole thing is of Spanish architecture.
M: And the churchl That's on top of a pyramid?
W: I do not know whether the church is on top of a pyramid or on a natural hill.
Some of the churches of Mexico are on top of pyramids.
You can see them near Mitla in the state of Oaxaca, also at
Cholula,state of Puebla. Nuestra Senora Remedios Church is
located on top of a pyramid. M: Are they?
I know the one in Mexico City is. The Cathedral. I
saw it just recently.
W: Yeah . The Cathedral is on the edge of the Templo Mayor pyramid.
M: Is that where you went to school? In that building? W: No, that was made into a school later.
MI Later. But you could get the feel-- WEATHERS TON 38
WI The school that I went to was right in town.
M: That's the Plaza, the Government Building--
Lots of palm trees down there. What kind of weather--was it tropical weather?
W: Oh, ideal weather. It was never cold--never. Except the "Northers"--now the "Northers" come in there--they come in strong. And it would be cold.
M: Boy, I've been in Vera Cruz. Oh, the wind blows like crazy.
W: This might interest you.
M: Bees.
W: Bees. (laughter) But look at the color--look how artistic--
M: Isn't that pretty. Are they your bees?
W: No. (laughter)
M: Beehives, Posa Rica.
W: Yeah.
M: Posa Rica.
W: That's right.
M: That thatched roof. That's interesting. I remember the first time going down there and seeing all these things.
W: Yeah.
MI This says--? (tropolina?)
Is this the inside of the church? Oh, look at that- W, Flowers.
M I Flowers. "Misantla-- '83" I
W, Oh. WEATHERS TON 39
M. Folder of "Santa Maria de la " what is the name of that?
W. Asuncion. M. Oh, Asuncion. "Santa Maria de la Asuncion." Isn't that pretty? Isn't that pretty? Aren't you lucky to have all these pictures. Look at the nice roof. That's one of the
things that I remember about Papantla, looking down on
the--
W: That's right.
M: Looking down on the tile roofs. There are your horses.
W: Yeah.
M: What's this? Oh dear, there isn't anything that says
what this is. (other male voice, grandson, saying) Ask him what that is?
M: What about that? What's that?
W: Oh, they are having a celebration there-
M: Is this Misantla?
W: All that is Misantla.
M: Look, they have got that thatched roof there. W: Yeah, there again is that house I was born in there.
M: For goodness sake. Is the house still standing? Have
you seen it when you went back ten years ago? Was it
there?
W: Oh, yeah. This is just lately . I was there about four years ago.
M. Were you?
(other voice male--"uh huh, it was four years ago. He took WEATHERS TON 40
me, it was fascinating.") (grandson) W, Oh, yes, it was four years ago, he was there, too.
M: Did you drive or fly? (male voice-grandson) "We flew to Mexico City and drove the
rest of the way."
M: Did you? (male voice-same) "Well, he was a walking history book. It
was just fascinating. He has friends there. And it was real interesting."
M: Oh, I should think it would be. And isn't he lucky--
(male voice-same) "We went to the plantation and
everything. "
M: Did you? Is the plantation in production again?
(male voice-same) "No. No."
M: It's still abandoned. Was it ever put into action again after your father abandoned it?
W: No. A very slight, very little bit only. And then
the-- I don't know what happened to it. There is a
plantation now. When he went to Misantla we went over there
where the power plant was. M: Uh huh .
W: But as far as the plantation is concerned, I really
don't know what happened.
MI You'd think somebody might have appropriated it.
W: It was sold, and I know part of it was for sale here two
or three years ago.
MI Oh. But you don't know anything about that, huh? WEATHERS TON 41
W: I don't know-- M: But you have had a very interesting life, haven't you?
W: (laughter) Well, part of it.
MI Something. It's really something to think about.
W: Yeah. M: Is there anything else you would like on this tape? For
history purposes? W: No . I don't have anything else to tell you. You know,
you can think it over if you want--have any more questions .
I'd be glad to come back and tell you.
M: Yeah. I just think it is so interesting what a life you
have had.
W: But I think the most interesting thing would probably be
this, to you, for Texas--for you all to have here because it tells you all about this first President of Mexico.
M: This is a very precious little tape. We ' ll take good care of it.
W: Those two you should have.
M: This I can have. This is already a thing. Now, Mr.
Weatherston, this is called a legal release. W: Yeah, that's all right. Let me read it and I'll tell
you.
MI I sign it and you sign it because we want this when
it's--tape off.
W, They used to have picnics when I was a child to one of
these places and they used to dig and take things away. And
I remember, I was only interested in little toys, maybe WEATHERS TON 42
W. the little faces that the Indian kids had. But we had on our plantation, and it is still there, we have an abandoned ruins. You know of the old-- And a lot of those were brought to Misantla--you know--they were brought in there and are there--next to the church.
M: Is there a museum?
W: Yeah.
M: There's a museum there?
W: No, but just brought in there in carts or trucks. They
are as big as this table. You know they are all rock. And
they were brought there and they are there. I'll be glad to
show you some of those pictures some time, I think. I don't
know if I have them here or not.
M: Oh, the big ones. That was before they started to say,
"You can't do this."
W: Well, they do that now--as long as they don't take it
out of the country.
M: Yeah, I know it.
There is an archeological dig below--south--going
south--beyond Posa Rica--
W: Well, they have at the Tajin. You went to Tajin.
M: Tajin.
W: Yeah. That is a Totonac--
M, It is one of my favorite places because it hasn't been
finished. It is still kind of--the way it--
W. Well, you see, that was abandoned about 700 years ago.
Wait a minute. Seven hundred century. WEATHERS TON 43
HI 700 A.D. That's one of my favorite places because it is not all slicked up-- it ' . more like it used to be. When we were there, there were all kinds of pyramids that hadn't been dug and I suppose all around where you lived, all kinds of pyramids.
W: Wait, just a minute now. I didn't get what you said there. HI There are so many places that haven't been dug up yet.
The archaeological--
W: Hundreds of places.
H: Then you used to--
W: Like at our place. It has never been touched. Now the government has protected it. H: Oh, has it?
W, Yes, by putting barbed wire around it.
M: Good.
W: It has protected where our plantation was.
H: They have.
W, Yes, it is protected. But they never have done like
they have in other places. There are too many places in
Mexico. They couldn't possibly do it. You know-- H: And way down in Chiapas--you get way down in
Chiapas--you get down in the southern part--
W: Yeah.
HI Just hundreds of places.
WI Yeah, that ' s what I was referring to. They have SO many
of them that it's impossible to do them all. You know, WEATHERS TON 44
W: they • • MI It just drives you crazy.
WI You see only those that have been worked. MI How far were you from Tajin? Were you near Tajin? W: We were just south of Tajin. You see, there you get Papantla right there where they have the Tajin. Then beyond
Tajin, let me show you on the map, where that is-- I think we have the map. Where's the map?
M: Up in the front? Up here . W: Yeah. You see, here is Papantla, over here, and
Misantla is right here. And Tajin is about in here. M: Oh, it is?
W: Right there. Tajin is here. So it is about the same distance from the Gulf.
M: As you were.
W: Now the climate--the hottest I remember was, I think,
about 90°F but very humid.
MI Never froze, of course, did it?
WI You know, that was real hot--90"F--but after that--you
know during May--that is the hottest time in that part of the country.
M: It is. But what about the winter? Was it- W: Well, the weather was nice--
MI Pleasant--
WI Pleasant, it was nice except you get a big "Norther" to
come in. (laughter)
M. Those "Northers" just--just blew like the devil-- WEATHERS TON 45
W. (laughter) Then all those "Northers" were wet--as you know--it really rained an awful lot--that's why you have the
springs and rivers allover the place. M: And why everything grows.
W, Everything grows.
M: The flowers. Oh, the flowers are so pretty.
W: Well, they have three harvests a year.
M: Three. W: Three different harvests. You know they plant corn,
sugar cane, coffee beans, etc.
M. Getting back to the orchids of the vanilla. Does one
orchid plant? Is it perennial? Does it come back every
year? W: Oh yeah. It stays there, but they have the flowers-- I
don't remember the time--probably in the Springtime--or
early-- Oh, yes.
M: Yeah.
W: Like they do the others in--it was in May--and you know
and that's when your rains are starting. The rains were in
June, July: I mean heavy rains.
M: Yeah.
W, And they have some rains in May, too. The month of
March it doesn't rain much. Hardly at all. So it is very
dry. That's the time they have the roses. You know how the
roses are? And they cut all the brush and to plant, you
know to plant, the Indians used to cut all the brush and
they--you know, they set fire to the brush. And that is WEATHERS TON 46
W, what is called the rosas . As you go through that time of the year you aee a lot of amoke all over--
MI Rosa--ROSA--Rosas? W. Rosas, they called it the rosas.
MI How do you spell that?
W. Just like roses--R-O-S-A-S.
MI And they burned every year?
W: They burned every year. And they used this--if I remember rightly--they used this and they plant a couple of years on that and then they would abandon it and they go and
cut some more brush in another place and burn it and plant
that and abandon. I think that about every seven years they
come back for it--that's what they used to do.
M. Rotation.
W. Rotation, yes.
M: What about animals in that wild country? Did you have a
lot of animals?
W, wild animals?
M. Did you have jaguars? And big snakes? An things like
that?
W. No, we have a few poisonous snakes. No rattlers at all.
We didn't have any cactus at all.
MI No cactus, well, nice to live there then.
W. They (laughter) never had any cactus there at all. They
just had tropical growth.
MI It's 80 pretty. Lots of bananas--and I bought a 8tick
of tangerines on the aide of the road from a little girl WEATHERSTON 47
MI and I was speaking to her and she didn't understand a word I said. She didn't speak Spanish. She was a little
Indian girl. W, Yeah, that's right.
M: And she didn't speak Spanish at all.
W, Yeah, that's right.
M: She just looked at me. I thought I was being real cute.
Speaking Spanish I
W, Where was this?
MI It was on that road--
W: Well, those were Totonacs.
MI On the way down--
W: They also have a lot of jewelry?
M: I don't remember this. This was just a little girl by
the side of the road and the thing was on sticks. You know
how they put them on the sticks and they are so pretty. And
I bought them mostly because they looked prettyl
W, I have, you know, I used to--since these Indians--I got
interested in the archaeology of the Mexican Indians so I
made a lot of studies of archaeology of Mexico.
MI Did you?
W: So I made a lot of studies of the archaeology in Mexico.
The Indians of Mexico. And I took a lot of movies of these
things. I have them. I used to give lectures here at the
geological society--about the Indians. You know, how they
came in--and where they are--and how long they lived--
MI Isn't it wonderful that you have got that for a record. WEATHERS TON 48
W, I beg your pardon.
MI Nice that you've got that for a record. A record of the movies? W: But I don't have any--I have the pictures-
MI Yeah, I mean but for historians. W: But I don't have any--they are not talking.
M: I don't mean record in that way. I mean you've got them
for history purposes, historical purposes.
W: That's right.
M: You have got it down. That's why these things are so
important.
W: Yeah, that's right--
M: Because when I think about these things--let's get it on
the tape. Maltrata is the highest point--
W: Maltrata is one of the towns, one of the high points, of
Vera Cruz to Mexico City. It is about half way.
M: Between Vera Cruz and Mexico City. And you saw--
W, I saw eleven different wrecks--in 1918 of trains that
had been blown up between Vera Cruz and Mexico City.
M: Trains?
W: Well, yeah, you know that's what always we were afraid
when we would travel--you know travelling--that the rebels
might blow up the train.
MI My word.
W, And they used to--you see that number of trains were
there over a period of years. No, it didn't happen all at
once, but remember the Revolution, it started in 1910. WEATHERS TON 49
W: This was seven years later--eight years later--1918.
M, And the wrecks were still there.
W, Sure, the wrecks, some of them had been burnt. You know some of those oil tankers had been burnt. You know, they were down the side of the mountains. And one of them was wrecked--one of them was right at--I think they call it
Out of Vera Cruz. "Paso del Macho." And, right there was one of them that had been blown out and into a building--the railroad car had been blown right into the building.
M: Goodness. w, I saw that That is all I'm telling you--you know--I specify I don't know and what I have seen.
M, You saw people hanging from a tree. Tell about that.
W: Yeah, they had attacked. That was in 1917. They had
attacked Maltrata. And the rebels were out. You know they
didn't capture the place. So what they did, they took out
the bodies and hung 'em up. It wasn't that they were
hanging live ones.
M: Oh, they took the dead bodies--and--what did they do
that for?
W, And hung 'em up--you know, so as to show the others that
they better not--you know--just like we do here with crows,
you know. (laughter)
MI Oh, for heavens sake.
WI Yeah. WEATHERSTON 50
MI So, even tho' you didn't have any trouble in your town, you did see the effects of the revolution.
WI Well, I saw the effects on the travelling-- So you see, a lot of people lived in Mexico at that time, but there were very few people my age, you know, that travelled a lot like
I did.
MI No.
W: You see what I mean.
M: Sure. And when you had to go to Mexico City, how did you go--was there train service then?
W: There was train service from Jalapa.
M: No, but when you wanted to go to Mexico City, how did you get there?
W: From Misantla?
M: Yeah. Well, we got to Jalapa and there was the train
from Jalapa went to Mexico City. There was a train coming in from Vera Cruz City. And they used to go through
Jalapa.
MI That train's still running.
W, Yeah, but there are two trains. You know there are two
tracks. One is the "Mexicano."
M: Yeah.
W, What is known as the "Queen's Own"--because that was
built with Queen Victoria's money.
M: Oh, really.
W, Queen Victoria owned it.
M: I didn't know that. WEATHERS TON 51
W, Yeah, that's the "Mexicano." That road you took to go to Vera Cruz driving. The Mexican, they called it The
Mexicano. Why the Americans and the English used to call it the Queen's Own ••. the Queen's money built the railroad she had that concession for a certain number of years until it went back to Mexican government.
M: Someday, I'm going to take that train from Mexico City
to Vera Cruz. They say it's a beautiful train ride. From
Mexico City to Vera Cruz; goes through Jalapa.
W: That's one of them. That's not where I saw the wrecks;
they were on the Mexicano, on the Queen's own. That had a
standard track. The other one was narrow gauge .•. the
one from Vera Cruz city to Jalapa. They called it the
Interoceanico. That's not where the wrecks were. I didn't
see any wrecks on the other because I didn't travel on that
all the way to Vera Cruz City.
M: This was 1918, so as you say, eight years later.
W: But you see, I was already 20 years old.
MI How did that affect you, see dead bodies hanging off of
trees?
W: Well • . another time • • • you interested in this?
M: Sure.
W: Another time, I was going on the train from Vera Cruz
south to the Isthmus. That was in 1917, because my Dad was
buying cattle over there. And we weren't getting the cattle
so I went down there to see about it. Through one of those
little towns, the train stopped. I looked out and right WEATHERS TON 52
WI next to me by the window there was a body hanging with barb wire. Hanging right there.
He had been a bandit that had been killed. That is what they used to do.
M: You used to carry a ... say that again.
W: That was in 1925. We were working on the west coast of
Mexico trying to develop a mine for an American company. We had to go heavily armed because there had been a lot of banditry. I had a 30/30 and a revolver and a knife, machete, and then my wife had a Springfield rifle . all this on horseback. Four hours from town. And then she had a gun too. Then we had an Indian, just like myself, heavily
armed. And then another one behind, heavily armed. The
Indian traveled first, then I, then my wife then this other
Indian heavily armed. And then we had some dogs, too.
M: It was that dangerous I
When you say the west coast of Mexico, can you pinpoint
it?
W: We were over there in a state called Nayarit, south of
Tepic, in a place called Ahuacatlan. The Southern Pacific
hadn't gone through there yet. So we had to go to
Guadalajara; we had to go on horseback across the canada;
and then get a taxi and go into Guadalajara.
M: You were mining for lead and silver did you say? What were you mining for?
WI We were developing to see if it would be a mine. It
wasn't any good. There were a lot of silver and lead ore WEATHERSTON 53
W. but when we got through, it was not commercial. So we abandoned it.
M. So you worked there when you were first married and then you moved on and got to Texas? W: I was employed by Superior Oil out of Los Angeles. I was doing the work for the President of Superior oil. Then they sent me to Texas. My son was born here.
M. Where in Texas?
I was sent to Temple. Doing surface work there. Then he was born in Dallas.
M: And then you went on into the Reynosa area?
W: Well, then I worked for the Standard oil of California
and Standard Oil Co. of Texas from 1929 to the end of 1949.
Then I went on my own, since I was always interested in Mexico and spoke the language and knew some of the officials
of Pemex
M: That didn't hurt! It's been lovely. Thank you so
much.
END OF TAPE I, Side 2, 30 minutes WEATHERS TON 54
Additional notes from Mr. Weatherston:
1894-1895 Father and Mother migrated to Misantla from San
Dimas, Durango. Chose Misantla because good coffee
land and natives looked healthy. No malaria.
1904 Saw my first moving picture, The Fall of Port
Arthur, Japanese-Russian War. Our Chinese cook took me
to see it in the evening. Father and Mother had seen
it the previous night and thought it would be good for
me to see it. People were impressed with the Japanese.
They said, "The Japanese are small, but brave and
smart."
1906-1907
Building of the electric power plant by my father.
Considerable earth had to be moved, the Totonac Indians
doing the digging. Totonacs were very clean. Every
morning they would corne wearing clean white, starched
clothes and be dirty within a few minutes with mud.
Imported mortar workers from Jalapa. 1908
We moved to new home next to electric power
plant.
1909-1910
Of the Anglos only Mr. Charles Brandon and Mr.
Rayburn lived at Misantla. Mr. Flanders lived WEATHERS TON 55
occasionally at his coffee plantation. My father Bold
coffee plantations to the Anglos as follows.
British Rayburn El Pozon
British John Campbell Cruz Chiquita Minneapolis, USA Flanders Santa Margarita
Mr. Brandon married a Misantla lady. Mr.
Flander's brother came to Misantla around 1910 and I
went on horseback from Jalapa to Misantla with him.
He was on a reddish color male mule. Got tired of
riding so started walking. The mule got away at an
intersection with another road and it was some time
before the "mozo" got it back. Mr. Flanders was
acquiring data to write his book "Viva Mexico". The
Mexicans were much impressed with the Flanders. They
had never seen anyone like them. "Mrs. Flanders would
sit down on a chair where they dried coffee and she
shot doves out of the air. Mr. Flanders in the
morning dresses up like a saint . " (No Indian had ever
seen a man wearing a dressing gown before.)
An Army officer named Guzman, originally from
Misantla, also traveled with us. He preferred to walk
rather than ride. Later he was wounded by
Madero-Villa's troops when they captured Ciudad Juarez
in 1911 .
At Misantla there was a Colonel and Mrs. Gunter
from South Africa who lived at their coffee
plantation--no family. They built a prefabricated WEATHERS TON 56
home. Unheard of in Misantla. Their coffee
plantation was named Buenas Aires.
Previous to 1910, when traveling over
dangerous mountain terrain, Aztec Indians would
carry ladies and children on their backs, on a
chair with white cloth on top so there would be
shade for the passenger. The pay was one peso and
fifty centavos (twelve reales) per person. I was
car~ied when I was a child and got motion sickness.
A new road was built which eliminated this mode of
travel. The revolutionaries were very much against
this type of transportation because they felt it
was degrading for the Indians.
Inasmuch as there were no wagons, the bulls
for the bullfights would be driven from Jalapa to
Misantla accompanied by tame steers over mountains.
A cowboy would drive ahead of the herd and warn you
to stay on the road, on the mountain side, and not
to move. I was scared, but the bulls went by and
did not seem even to look at me. I was on
horseback.
The religious fiestas were in August, from the
15th to the 18th. Bullfights every afternoon these
four days. On the last day the last bull was for
the "panzones." These were prisoners who had a few
months left in jail. They were very heavily padded
with straw. They would be given an aguadiente WEATHERSTON 57
(rum) drink and would go into the arena. The bull
would throw them and they would use the cape as
well as they could. I never saw any of them hurt
except for a few bruises on their face. They were
volunteers and could walk out of the arena free.
Professional bullfighters were ready to get the
bull away from the "panzon."
Father ordered from Montgomery Ward a set of
baseball equipment, bat, ball, gloves and so forth,
for me. No one had even a baseball in Misantla
at that time.
I went to school in Mexico City, at
Marscarones, a Jesuit school, in the spring of
1910. Here is where I first played baseball.
We used to see Halley's Comet in the evenings.
The brothers got us up at 4:00 a.m. on a particular
day so we could see the comet, which was supposed
to be closest to the earth on that day.
I went back to Misantla in August, 1910.
School was closed in the month of September because
of the Mexican Independence Centenary.
We had an all electric kitchen at home in
1911. Once when I tried to help the cook fry meat
I had a strong electric shock. (Apparently a poor
connection.) The cook told me that I had to wait WEATHERS TON 58
until the frying pan got hot before putting the meat on it and electric shocks would be
eliminated then. There were no electric meters in town. The
charges were 1.50 pesos per month (75¢ U. S.) per
light. The City of Misantla paid 500.00 pesos
($250.00 U. S.) a month. Every so often my
father used to send me to collect the electric
bills: apparently when the bill collector was not
available. My father instructed me that when I was
away from horne in town at night, in case of
emergency, and he wanted me to corne horne, that he
would turn the city lights on and off three times.
He did this only once that I remember.
1910
Revolution against Diaz starts. President
Diaz resigns in 1911 and the rebels take possession
of Misantla peacefully. The Maderista chief was
Esteban Marquez. No damage was done. Among the
rebels was a criminal, Fernando Toledano, who had
escaped from Misantla prison. I remembered hearing
pistol shots that the police fired, wounding him.
He got on a horse owned by a Spaniard, Mr. de la
Hoz, and took off. The rurales (mounted police)
went looking for him, but no luck. De la Hoz's
oldest son used to corne back from their ranch at
noon, so Toledano knew when the horse was in the WEATHERS TON 59
yard, which adjoined the jail house.
In 1911 the jefe politico was Ing. Francisco
Canovas. A day or two after the rebels took over he and his aide came to our place (we lived next to
the hydro-electric power plant on the river bank,
in the edge of town) and borrowed from my father my
horse, a mule, and took off for Jalapa.
The rebels were poorly equipped with the
exception of the officers. Some of the officers
had 30-30 carbines and/or revolvers and were on
horseback. The infantry had muzzle loaders and
some had only machetes, and the majority were
Totonac Indians. The people sympathized with the
Maderista rebels.
I stayed in Misantla (no school) until
January, 1912, when I was sent to the Williams
School in Tacubaya, out of the city limits of
Mexico City. I was starting the sixth grade. My
mother and sisters took me to Canada in April,
where I stayed with my aunt and learned English.
They went to Paris, France, so that my sisters
could go to school and learn French.
1917
One of my friends told me, when I was in
Misantla in 1917, the following: A colonel of the
federal troops (Carranza), asked by another officer
who was replacing him, "What are those lights on WEATHERS TON 60
the base of the Algodon Mountain?" "Oh, that is a
hacienda that belongs to a gringo. He is okay.
When we go over there he gives us a drink and when
the rebels go he gives them two drinks."
During the revolution federal soldiers would
travel on top of and in the freight cars, then
followed by passenger cars and at the end the
Pullman. Armored cars often followed the engine.
Armored cars were used as late as 1925. In rebel
country an exploratory armored travel would precede
the freight-passenger train.
In the summer of 1917, traveling from the
Isthmus to Cardova ver. ihe soldiers on the train, J while repairing telegraph wires, started shooting
at rebels when they saw them lassoing and pulling
down the posts which had just been replaced.
1918
On a trip from Monterrey to Saltillo, in
March, 1918, Villa's troops shot at the locomotive
engineer. Many of the passengers laid down on the
floor. "Me too." I was scared. A passenger told
me that their idea was to kill the engineer so that
the train would wreck out of control. A young man
in the Pullman pulled out his revolver and prepared
to shoot at the Villistas. Some of the passengers
persuaded him not to shoot because shooting would
draw villistas' fire and endanger the passengers. WEATHERS TON 61
1907 When my father installed the hydro-electric
power plant in 1907 he also installed an icemaking
machine. In the machine there was a compartment
for freezing. I used to love to freeze oranges.
The population in Misantla now is between
25,000 and 28,000. The population in 1910 was
6,566.
When I was in the second grade, at a public
school at Misantla Ver. • , one of my classmates named
Mora was taken to Jalapa, the capitol of the State
of Vera Cruz, where he was vaccinated for smallpox.
When the vaccina were "ripe" the schoolteacher
lined us up and a doctor using the serum from young
Mora, each one of we students was directly
vaccinated. Three places were exposed on each arm,
so I have six small scars. The scars are so small
they are hardly visible. It certainly is better to
have them than a large scar.
The Maya Indian women that were brought to
Misantla by the federal authorities around 1900
were not slaves because they could at any time
leave the families where they were assigned as
domestic servants. However, they had very little
choice as to where to work. One of these women was
named Trini (Trinidad), assigned to the Ismael
Lavalle family . In 1906 Trini married Manuel WEATHERS TON 62
Sanchez, a rural (mounted police). Manuel died in
1945 and Trini went back as a domestic for the
Lavalle (Pablo E. Lavalle) family until ahe died in 1947 .
The last group of Maya Indians brought to Misantla around 1901 consisted of 33 women. One of these was assigned to our home . She stayed with us
about four months, eloped with a Totonac Indian and
we never saw her again. Another of this group,
together with her two daughters, owned a very small
restaurant in Misantla featuring Mayan food in
1917.