The Hacienda San Miguel Acocotla was founded in 1577 in Puebla's Valley of Atlixco by the Spanish colonizer Lucas Perez Maldonado.
At the Hacienda San Miguel Acocotla, 34 small rooms (together called the calpanería) would have housed the workers. Each room measured only about ten feet by ten feet, and each room would have housed an entire family.
On Sunday, the workers would have gone to mass in Acocotla's chapel with the rest of the community.
But not everyone was so vulnerable. A few families were more trusted. These workers got to live inside the walls with the goats in a space called "the goat patio."
The Patio Abierto, the "Open Patio," would have also housed some of the animals, along with many of Acocotla's agricultural tools and equipment.
The Patio of the Limes was back in the most remote part of the Hacienda Acocotla's buildings. It would have been a quiet space. The open space in the center would have had lime trees and a fountain. Surrounding it, two stories of rooms would have housed the hacienda owner, his family, and his guests in luxury. The rooms--bedrooms, living spaces, a dining room, and a kitchen--would have been beautifully decorated and painted in bright colors.
In 2005, we put shovel to earth and started uncovering the detritus left by Acocotla's indigenous inhabitants. We spent four weeks exploring the calpanería and the field in front. In 2007, we returned for another eight weeks of digging.