Pirates in Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres was considered a pirate’s shelter during the 1700’s and 1800’s, having an strategic location plus an inside lagoon perfect for hiding it was the perfect refugee for buccaneers and pirates. The Yucatan península’s ports use to have lots of traffic taking gold and other values to Europe so pirates took advantage of their position to attack them. They use to leave their women on the island, another reason for its name. Famous and Infamous pirates use to walk around the island such as Mundaca, Jean Laffite and Henry Morgan.
Mundaca the pirate was in particular an important piece of the island’s history, he arrived in 1858 with wealth that came from selling slaves and piracy, when he arrived he immediately ordered the construction of an Hacienda he later named “Vista Alegre” which lands covered almost 40% of the island, including livestock , vegetable gardens and exotic plants.
The legend says that Mundaca fell in love with Martiniana Gomez Pantoja, “La trigueña” one of five sisters and the most beautiful woman in Isla Mujeres, he tried to win her by naming the arches above the Hacienda’s gate “The entrance of the Trigueña” and “The pass of the Trigueña” in hopes this could impress her to win her over, this never happened and she ended up marrying another man closer to her age and Mundaca slowly went insane to die in Merida far from his loved one.
Keywords: Isla Mujeres, Pirates, Mundaca, Merida