[Illustration: Hacienda de Puerto de Nieto, Guanajuato: stone residence and chapel.]
Flowers decked every fiesta. Gardenias were tossed into the fountains, carnations were woven into bell ropes, and rambler roses were spun around ox cart wheels and wagon wheels. Blossoms filled churches and chapels with fragrance, they crisscrossed patios on wires, they brightened roadside shrines.
Food and drink were plentiful: tortillas, beans, beans cooked with beef or chicken, pots and pots of beans, iron caldrons of soup, meat barbecued on spits, ox and goat, barrels of punch, buckets of pulque, barrels of beer, bottles of tequila, and, of course, cognac--for the _gente de razón_ (gentry).
[Illustration: Hacienda de Puerto de Nieto, Guanajuato: gate.]
In the big house, dinners were elaborate--the hacendado presiding. The menu offered _Cochinita pibil_ (pork barbecued in banana leaves), squash blossom soup, _quesadillas_ (tortilla turnovers stuffed with cheese and mushrooms), _uchepos_ (corn mush steamed in husks), _muk-bil pollo_ (chicken and pork tamale pie), _tamales Veracruzanos_ (pork-filled tamales), and _ate de guayaba_ (guava candy paste). For special guests, the chefs served more elaborate dishes: pheasant, quail, javelina, venison, dove, rabbit. There were no government restrictions on wild game. Fishermen contributed _gallo_ (rooster fish), _pardo trucha_ (trout), _huachinango_ (red snapper), turtle, turtle eggs, lobster, and crab.
[Illustration: Hacienda de Puerto de Nieto, Guanajuato: church.]
The guests gathered for cockfights. If it was summertime, a canopy shaded the pit. In the highlands a _mozo_ swept aside pine needles and built a green fire to fight the mosquitoes. In the south, white awnings and striped parasols furnished shade. The cocks, which were uncaged at a pit, were named: _Biba Manza_, _Panadero_, _Porfirio_, _Tigre_, _Mi General_, and _El Rayo_. At a signal the birds flew at each other, their razor blades flashing. Bets were wagered ... a hundred ... a thousand ... five.
[Illustration: Hacienda de Aurora, Jalisco: commemorative bridge column dated 1750.]
[Illustration: Hacienda de los Morales, D.F.: patio fountain, 1643.]
[Illustration: Hacienda de Xala, Hidalgo: residence and chapel, 1785.]