La Paz: All of Mexico’s History in One Museum

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The Anthropology and History Museum:  Of the city’s museums, this is my favorite!   If you are a history buff or spend your vacation in Baja California it is the go-to place to learn how Mexico evolved.  From pre-historic times to Spanish colonialism to the modern State of Mexico - it is all displayed here. 

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The Museo Regional de Antropología e Historia is an engaging museum located at the corner of Altamirano and 5 de Mayo, just 6 blocks from the Malecon. It features well-researched exhibitions of La Paz and Baja Sur history, from the Paleolithic era to the time of the missions, covering the influence of the Spanish colonization and how it impacted the original inhabitants.  

You will discover everything from the area's geological formation, and the history of Sea of Cortez pearls to the impact of the country's independence on the peninsula.

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The historical center or downtown La Paz is the heart of the city, an area rescued by the government for its public buildings promoting art and culture.  Close to the city center is the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History on Calle Ignacio Altamirano.  You will find two modern buildings in a little plaza with beautiful desert plants. 

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The Museum’s Exhibitions:

The first is the Introductory Hall, which opens the way to the ancient cultures of this land.

The second is the Archaeology Room, which deals with the birth of the first cultures in the Baja California peninsula.

The Aztec Empire was the last great civilization prior to the arrival of the Spanish. They came into power in 1325 and ruled until 1521.  In 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs and Mexico became a Spanish colony.

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The third Room displays the Rupestrian Painting, with reproductions and photographs of this type of manifestations of the ancient settlers in the region.

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The next room is dedicated to the first European contacts in the peninsula, their discovery, the missions, the development of the Jesuit missionary enterprise, and the first civil towns that eventually gave shape to the regional society.  The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict and political process, resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. 
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Former U.S. president James K. Polk, also wanted Texas as part of the United States. Mexico considered the annexation of Texas as an act of war.  In the fighting that followed, the U.S. military secured control of Mexico after a series of battles, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on February 2, 1848. 

The pact set a border between Texas and Mexico and ceded California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming to the United States.  Their transfer to the U.S.'s control also cut the territorial size of Mexico in half.

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Another museum room exhibits the passage of time of the great social movements: the Independence of Mexico, and the interventions, among which the one of 1947 stands out.

The next room contains the 20th century, the Porfiriato, the period of Porfirio Díaz's presidency of Mexico (1876–80; 1884–1911).  It was an era of dictatorial rule accomplished through a combination of consensus and repression during which the country underwent extensive modernization - but political liberties were limited and the free press was muzzled. 

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What I liked best were the photos of Rock Art, ancient cave paintings quite similar to the ones found in France, a taxidermied mountain lion, and beautifully made exhibitions of Aztec villages.

The explanations are all in Spanish, but if you hold your phone up to a QR Code on the wall and click the link that opens, a page with an English translation will appear on your phone.

The museum is open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Admission is less than $5.

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El Triunfo: 3 Museums in a Former Mining Town

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Home to only a few hundred residents, El Triunfo, or “The Triumph,” was once a thriving gold and silver mining town in Baja California Sur.  Today, visitors explore a relic of the well-kept local history.  

I personally like this small, charming town due to its beautiful flowers and palms, the lush vegetation on the surrounding hills, and its cobblestone roads.  It is a town where I don’t have to wear my cowboy boots like in other sandy places in this mostly desert area.

Now about 350 people live in El Triunfo, but it once boasted a population of over 10.000 inhabitants.  Mining began in the late 1700s and the mines and town shut down in 1926.  Without jobs, the people quickly moved away and El Triunfo became a ghost town.  The forced migration was hard on the people left behind but helped preserve the rich history of the area. The mineral-rich Baja peninsula still holds valuable resources and there is international pressure to resume mining. 

The future is looking good for El Triunfo though, as the Mexican government is keen on boosting ecological and cultural tourism in favor of natural resource developments. The town is now registered as a "Pueblo Historico".

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El Triunfo's Museos: 

Museo Ruta De Plata 

Also called the Silver Route Museum opened in 2017 and has become a focal point for visitors who want to learn more about El Triunfo, its mining history, and the mining history of Baja California Sur as a whole.  It preserves and shows the mining history of the El Triunfo area. It is an interactive, bilingual, and bicultural museum.  El Triunfo was once a flourishing gold and silver mining town. A small path leads up to the historic smoke chimneys and smelting ruins that still tower over El Triunfo.  

The museum includes a video introduction, exhibits about the significant locations along BCS’ “Ruta de Plata” (including El Triunfo), shares oral history videos of residents who remember mining operations in the region and has a simulated mine entrance where you can get a sense of what the work of mining was actually like.

Besides the museum's historic main building is a pavilion filled with beautiful samples of precious stones from the El Triunfo mountains that were found by the miners. 

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Admission to the museum is 100 pesos (about US$5) per person and it’s open daily except Tuesdays.

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Museo Del Vaquero De Las Californias

Also known as MUVACA, presents more than 300 years of history of the origins of the vaquero and ranchero culture in the Californias.  This bilingual, bicultural, and multimedia museum is located in the historic town of El Triunfo, Baja California Sur.

Natives, miners, and missionaries weren’t the only ones in El Triunfo throughout time: like any good Wild Western destination, there were cowboys too. Ranching work dates back some 300 years in Baja California - long before the now Western US was settled - and adopted the Mexican way of ranching traditions.

Learn about cowboy traditions that are kept alive today by ranchero families living in the rugged mountains of Baja California Sur, Mexico.  From Baja California Sur, vaquero families migrated north into what was known as Alta California, developing both the cities of San Francisco and Monterey. MUVACA brings this history to life as you explore the values, lifestyle, and identity of these people and their culture that still exists today.  

ALTA CALIFORNIA was the name given in 1824 to a vast territory that belonged to Mexico and that included present-day California, Nevada, and Utah as well as parts of Arizona, Wyoming, and Colorado. The first map above shows the United States of America and Mexico as they are today, including the area that was previously known as Alta California. The second map, from 1823, directly above, displays a close-up of both Alta and Baja California, as well as the state of Sonora.  

A VAQUERO is a skilled livestock herder of a culture that evolved in Mexico from a methodology brought from Iberia. The vaquero is the foundation for what is known as a cowboy. A vaquero may sometimes be referred to as a RANCHERO, or a person working on a ranch in Latin America.

The Cowboy Museum of the Californias celebrates this in Baja California Sur.  The museum is bilingual and has multimedia exhibits that introduce you to the founding vaquero families of the region, and how their traditions have been shaped by – and shaped in return – life in Baja California Sur.

Admission is 100 pesos (US$5) with a discount for locals (75 pesos) as well as seniors and students (60 pesos).

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Museo De La Musica

This specialty museum caters to antique music instrument lovers.  El Triunfo’s boom period brought a lot of culture to the area, including many musical instruments – some of which are preserved at the Museo De La Musica.  It displays not only music instruments but also sheet music and stories about the people who owned and practiced on them. 

The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday.  Free admission. 

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Dining & Drinking in El Triunfo:

Caffe El Triunfo 

This multi-level cafe and restaurant is in a lovingly restored building with courtyards, where pizza, bread, and pastries come fresh from the wood-fired brick oven. They also offer their delicious European-style breads, and sweet bakery items or coffee-to-go on an (always busy) counter, right when you enter the building.

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Margery’s Tea Room 

This place captures another slice of culture and brings it into the present – in this case, one you can live in. They don’t offer tea seatings daily (usually just on weekends and some special occasions).  Keep an eye on their Facebook page to see if it overlaps with your trip – then don one of the hats they provide, sip with your pinky up, and imagine a time 100+ years ago when miner’s wives met in these rooms and drank tea from this china while enjoying the high life in El Triunfo.

Their FB site https://www.facebook.com/MargerysTeaRoom/ is in Spanish only, but with the help of a translation app you will find the information and latest news about events. 

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El Minero Restaurant & Wine Bar

Their menu features signature items such as fresh regional seafood, handmade sausages, artisanal cheeses, and their traditional paella, awarded in 2015 by the National Chamber of Restaurants and Spiced Food Industry.  Enjoy lunch of dinner at a relaxing patio with a perfect view of a 19th-century long-standing chimney that takes you back to the golden age of El Triunfo.  In El Minero's tiny cellar enjoy national and international wines and cocktails.

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When you drive through the town during pitaya season, there are men standing on every corner with buckets of pitayas for sale.  All you have to do is roll down your window, and you can buy a fresh bundle of white and red pitayas and even mangos.

Don’t miss a visit to the huge cathedral.  The Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church is located in El Triunfo, Baja California Sur, Mexico. It's a historic landmark and the first non-missionary church in the Baja.

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Even though this is such a tiny town there is so much to see and do. 

Although no hotels exist today, El Triunfo is having quite a renaissance. 

Enjoy your trip to El Triunfo!

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