A monument- a building, structure or site that is of historic importance or interest.
It is not uncommon for twinned cities and town not to have a singular physical monument.
It is perhaps more important to reflect on how the two cities and towns became "twins".
Nothing could be further from the unusual than the twinning of Real Del Monte Mexico and Redruth UK.
It really started when the local miners sought work elsewhere, This was when the mining in Cornwall became too expensive, miners were laid off. Emigrating to all corners of the world seeking work and using their skills.
Miners ended up in Mexico, where a small mountain community, having large mineral deposits needed to be mined.
Many Cornish miners worked their mines and took with them.
The Cornish Pasty (the recipe and how to make them) which has become one of the local foods of the area. Pastry wrapping different ingredients crimping and then baked, much like the traditional Cornish Pasty.
And then there was Football.
The Cornish took with them and introduced the Mexicans to football and it is claimed that Real Del Monte was the first community to have a proper football pitch (To think Mexico is one of the best football Nations of the world.. the Cornish Miner have a lot to answer for.
To this end
The monument for the twinning of the Real Del Monte and Redruth could be interpreted to
All of the disused mine workings in the area
The Traditional Cornish Pasty
or even A Football
Dignitaries from Mexico and Redruth often meet up
Below Ref from (
visit link)
The Mine District of Pachuca—Real del Monte has a long and rich heritage. The mines in the district are conservatively estimated to have produced 1.2 billion Troy ounces of silver and 6.2 million ounces of gold. That is 6% of the silver mined throughout the world during the last five centuries. Some of the mines have continued limited production until the present day.
Gold and silver were discovered after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1520s. The Colonial Spanish began mining in the 16th century in the Pachuca area, but the mines were suffering from flooding by 1725. In 1741, Pedro Romero de Terreros and Jose Alejandro Bustamante started a drainage program using an adit.[2]
The native Mexican Amerindians were often enslaved to work the mines, despite the Royal mandate for Colonial Jesuit Reductions and later Franciscan Indian Reductions. In addition, Africans were imported to replace Indian slaves. The Real del Monte 1766 Strike is considered by many to be the first real labor strike in North American history.[2]:77–90
The town's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings, some dating back to the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain period (1500s - 1810). The older houses with high sloping roofs and chimneys in town show the 19th century Cornish and English influence.
The Acosta Mine Museum
Bracing inside the Acosta Mine
19th-century Cornish miners
Mining
The Cornish role in the development of Mexican silver mining is significant. The Cornish brought "new" mining technology of the industrial revolution in the 1820s, reviving Mexican silver mining. Especially important was English equipment to drain mine tunnels flooded by groundwater since the Spanish period. The majority of immigrant miners came from the Cornish Central Mining District of Camborne-Redruth-Gwennap in Cornwall. The Cornish firm that ran the Real del Monte-Pachuca mines between 1824 and 1848, employed 350 Cornish miners and, when the mines were in full operation, the municipality was once the richest in the state.
One of the leading personalities in 19th-century Mexico mining was Francis Rule, from Camborne in Cornwall. Known as El Rey de la Plata (Silver King), Rule left a mark on the Pachucan cityscape, with civic generosity to his adopted homeland. His opinion could be a barometer for the rise and fall of mining shares. He became very wealthy from his numerous mining interests in the district. One was the Santa Gertrudis Mine, which by 1898 was one of the most productive in the State of Hidalgo under Cornish management.
Four extant Cornish mine engine houses, and the English Cemetery (Panteon Inglés) containing the graves of hundreds of Cornishmen in Pachuca, bear witness to the Cornish contributions to Mexican silver mining for over a century. The cemetery is undergoing restoration following storm damage in 2016.[3]
Sports
It was the Cornish who first introduced soccer/football to Mexico (Pachuca). The first game of what would go on to be Mexico's national past time (futbol), was first played in Mexico by Cornish miners at Pachuca in 1900, a fact that is celebrated each year. The first soccer club in the country, the Pachuca Athletic Club, was also founded in that year. The first team consisted of Charles Dawe, John Dawe, James Bennetts, John Bennetts, William Blamey, Richard Sobey, William Bragg, William Thomas, Percy Bunt, Lionel Bunt, Albert Pengelly and William Pengelly, a decidedly 'Cornish' team. The Pachuca club encouraged the formation of teams in Mexico City and Orizaba, the first championship was played in 1902 and 'El Pachuca' won the 1904-05 tournament. Also rugby union, cricket, tennis, polo, chess among other sports, were introduced here.
Methodism was introduced to Roman Catholic Mexico by the Cornish upon their arrival, and most of the descendants of the Cornish in Real del Monte and Pachuca are of Methodist faith. They brought Methodist Christianity to other major Mexican cities as they relocated. Mexican remittances helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth, Cornwall, in the 1820s.