British immigration to Mexico

British Mexican
británico-mexicano

Panteón Inglés, Real del Monte, Hidalgo
Total population
4,182 UK-born residents (2012)
Regions with significant populations
Mexico City, Hidalgo and Northwest Mexico
Languages
Mexican Spanish and British English
Religion
Catholicism • Methodism • Anglicanism
Related ethnic groups
Britons • other British diasporas

British Mexicans are Mexican citizens of British descent or British-born persons residing in Mexico.

History

The El Divino Salvador Methodist Church in Pachuca was founded by Cornish immigrants and Mexican converts.

In the State of Hidalgo, in central Mexico, a local speciality originates from the Cornish pasty, called pastes which were introduced by immigrant miners from Cornwall who were contracted in the silver mining towns of Real del Monte and Pachuca. The majority of migrants to this region came from what is now termed the Cornish "central mining district" of Camborne and Redruth. Real del Monte's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings and many houses with high sloping roofs and chimneys which indicate a Cornish influence. Mexican remittances from these minors helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth. The twin silver mining settlements of Pachuca and Real del Monte are being marketed as of 2007 as 'Mexico's Little Cornwall' by the Mexican Embassy in London and represent the first attempt by the Spanish speaking part of the Cornish diaspora to establish formal links with Cornwall. The Mexican Embassy in London is also trying to establish a town twinning arrangement with Cornwall. In 2008 thirty members of the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society travelled to Mexico to try and re-trace the path of their ancestors who set off from Cornwall to start a new life in Mexico.

The Grand Channel or Gran Canal de Desagüe was built through here during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz in order the drain the Valley of Mexico, was built in second phase by British company signed as Mexican Prospecting and Finance Co Ltd. y la Read & Campbell, the workers stay in campament around the Acatlan hacienda in El Tajo de Tequixquiac.

The Panteón de Dolores, which became the largest cemetery in Mexico, was founded in 1875 by Juan Manuel Benfield, the son of Anglican immigrants. Benfield fulfilled his father's goal of creating a cemetery after his sister was refused burial in Catholic cemeteries and had to be interred at a beach.

Culture

It was the Cornish who first introduced football to Pachuca and indeed Mexico. As well as other popular sports such as rugby union, tennis, cricket, polo, and chess. Football clubs founded by Britons included the British Club, Rovers FC Mexico and Reforma Athletic Club. The most successful club founded by Britons is C.F. Pachuca.

Institutions

British immigrants established several institutions of their own, among others:

• Anglo Mexican Foundation

Notable individuals

3

See also

• Las Pozas
• Mexicans in the United Kingdom
• Mexico–United Kingdom relations

External links

• Los que llegaron - Ingleses from Canal Once (in Spanish)