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Beautiful Mexico Never Seen by Tourists

In 1947, Eleanor arrives at the San Luis mine in Mexico, where her husband, Langan Swent, is remembered as “el niño Americano” (the American boy).His father came in 1915, the first foreigner to bring his wife; they traveled by mule from Mazatlan to Tayoltita. Eleanor arrives by plane, landing uphill in the narrow canyon. The Hearst Company of San Francisco bought the mine from descendants of Don Jose Antonio Delaveaga, Spanish Minister of Metallurgy, who came to America in the 1700s. His descendants founded San Francisco, Orinda-Moraga, and Santa Cruz in Alta California before it was acquired by the United States. Welcomed by the Mexicans, Eleanor is both insider and newcomer. She has B.A. and M.A. degrees but has never ridden a mule, seen a cockroach, or cooked on a wood stove. She visits remote ranches where the priest comes periodically to perform marriages and baptisms. She earns the confidence of women and teaches family planning. After seven years, with three children, she and Langan leave the Mexico they love and return to the United States with mixed feelings.