Taxco: The Silver Pueblo

Along the beach, huts of the fishermen hide in the growth of the forest and fishermen mending their nets sing their songs of the sea and the songs of their country. Only now the peace is broken by the soldiers under the stern general, but even these military men, with their brisk business, outwardly change little the leisurely pace of the city.

A fishing boat passes unconcernedly a small destroyer riding in readiness and at anchor in the harbor. A sailor looks down at the fisherman, but the fisherman, his mind on nets and matters of the sea, looks ahead and far out into the blue Pacific.

CLINGING to a steep mountainside on the Sierra Madre range 99 miles south west of Mexico City, is the ancient and picturesque pueblo of Taxco, in the state of Guerrero. On the road to Taxco you pass Cuer navaca, the capital of the state of Morelos, and on to the south and the east by the same highway you come to Acapulco the resort town by the sea.

Taxco (Tahss-ko) today stands as a monu ment to the Colonial days of México. A far sighted government vigilantly watches over Taxco so that no new building will mar the ancient form of the town, no note of modernity will clash with Taxco's dress of the 18th Cen tury. Even the modern filling station, a strange cry from the days of regal carriages, must wrap its 20th Century splendor and efficiency in clothes that hearken back three hundred years. The Republic of Mexico has avowed that nothing will ever change the appearance of the ancient pueblo, for which all travelers today and all travelers in decades to come can be forever grateful.

Life placidly flows down the narrow streets and cobblestone roads of Taxco today. The Church of Santa Prisca, with its high spires and its rich gold-leafed churrigueresque altars watches over the town, like a patient parent. There are many little silver shops opening into the streets, where the visitor can watch the silversmith beat out his artistic creations in metal. Some of the finest silver in México is the product of these shops, and Taxco hand made silver is known the world over.

The history of Taxco is too voluminous to record here, but all the pageantry of Mexican history has sounded its tread between the white adobe and brick walls of the town. Cortés the Conqueror mined silver for the greedy king of Spain in Taxco and here José Bordo mined silver and became fabulously wealthy, endow ing both churches and monastaries, motivated by the belief that "God gives to Borda and Borda gives to God."

Revolutions have swept through the town, leaving the town unmarked or unspoiled. The mines about the town are no longer the fabu lous producers they were in former times, and with the fall in the price of silver, Taxco would be reduced to ghost town proportions except for the artist and the tourist.

Taxco is an artist's paradise. The red-tiled roofs, the narrow streets, the colorful inhabitants, the flowered balconies, the clinging appearance of the town to the mountainside-all these are food for the artist. Many famous Méxican artists live and have lived here. Many American artists, fleeing the shove and the push and the hurry of U. S. A. Century No. 20 have wandered into Taxco to joust with the gods of art on the pueblo's hillside. So far the gods of art have scoffed at the artist's attempts, The ancient pueblo of Taxco high on the rich Sierra Madre range in the state of Guerrero, southwest of Mexico City. Here Cortés mined silver, and here the same mines are worked today.

The spell of the past hangs heavily on Taxco, one of the quaint and most colorful villages in all México. (Dorothy Hamilton.) Colonial architecture and cobblestone streets are the charm of Taxco. The village is now famed for its art colony.

The people of Taxco blend into the beauty of their town.

Taxco is a little sea of red tiled roofs against a mountain.

The Republic of México carefully preserves the 18th Century charm of Taxco as a monument to colonial life in México.

Neither time nor modes nor manners have changed the life or appearance of Taxco. The town remains essentially the same as when it was built. The rich mines that spewed forth fortunes in wealth to Spain continue to yield white metal. The town today is famous for its silver jewelry made by the fine craftsmen, each an artist in his own right.