How Guadalajara lost and found a huge stone bridge built by women

For nearly a century, the missing Puente de Damas bridge was under residents' feet

By John Pint
Published on Friday, May 13, 2022

A few years ago the story broke.

“¡Lo encontraron!” ran the headlines. They found it! They found Guadalajara’s legendary lost bridge, el Puente de las Damas (the Ladies’ Bridge). There really was such a thing, and at last we know where it is!

This, I thought, was an interesting piece of news, but to me, it seemed a mere nothing in comparison with the much bigger story: that the city had managed to lose the bridge in the first place.

“What?” I exclaimed, “a hundred years ago, Guadalajara lost a bridge 50 meters long 12 meters wide and 15 meters high?”

From the moment I heard the story, I was determined to visit the Ladies’ Bridge in the hope that seeing it up close would reveal how in the world they had managed to lose track of a structure weighing countless tons.

A guide points out the heavy basalt blocks used in the construction of the bridge’s arches.

More:
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/guadalajara-lost-and-found-a-bridge/

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4 replies	Author	Time	Post
How Guadalajara lost and found a huge stone bridge built by women (Original post)	Judi Lynn	May 14	OP
More to add, from the article:	Judi Lynn	May 14	#1
This message was self-deleted by its author	Judi Lynn	May 14	#2
Remarkable on all counts. Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's Rights And Issues?	niyad	May 14	#3
Just did it. I was so surprised by this article. We know so LITTLE about Latin America, etc.	Judi Lynn	May 14	#4

Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2022, 01:28 AM

Judi Lynn (152,029 posts)

1. More to add, from the article:

Guadalajara of the late 1700s was inhabited by mestizos and Spaniards, we learned. To the south, the town ended at a river running through a gully known as el Arroyo del Arenal. On the other side of the gully lived the indigenous people in their own town, appropriately called Mexicalzingo, which means “the place inhabited by the honorable Mexicans.”

Many people were ultra-pious in those days, and the ladies of lineage had the custom of crossing the river every Friday to go visit a celebrated crucifix ensconced in the church of Saint John the Baptist on the other side.

The crucifix was known as The Lord of Penance because once upon a time, teachers used to send their disobedient students to say their penance while kneeling in front of it.

. . .

Not only was it impossible for the ladies to visit the church, it was equally impossible for the indigenous people to come to work in the ladies’ homes as servants and laborers.

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Judi Lynn This message was self-deleted by its author.

Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2022, 12:45 PM

niyad (87,010 posts)

3. Remarkable on all counts. Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's Rights And Issues?

Thanks in advance for this fascinating find.

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Response to niyad (Reply #3)

Sat May 14, 2022, 02:02 PM

Judi Lynn (152,029 posts)

4. Just did it. I was so surprised by this article. We know so LITTLE about Latin America, etc.

We also had never heard about the suffering dealt the Native Americans in the U.S. in the immediate present, not to mention the actual enormity of the genocide here, and not a peep about Canada, and, of course, the fact ALL of Latin America's rabid racism throughout the brutal theft of land and subjugation of the other Native Americans in each of those countries.

Of course, as you see working this very minute, the racist demons are hot to completely kill ALL reference to their ancestors' vicious abuse and barbaric cruelty and primitive, ignorant hatred of the kidnapped and forcefully controlled human beings who did all of their work for them until well after the Civil War.

Really burns to know all that hatred continues to churn away toward all "outsiders" undeminished while these stinking idiots try to inform the world they are the "moral" part of the human race. Takes your breath away, doesn't it?

It would be impossible to make stuff like this up.

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