Correcting five Álamos Myths

    The chart below by Álamos historian Juan Carlos Holguín Balderrama corrects several myths about the history of our pueblo mágico.

Myth:  The Almada family was the richest that has ever lived in Álamos

Reality:  First the Campoy and Alvarado families were prominent, and later the Salido family.  From these three families the Almadas received inheritances.  Afterward, when the Almada family fortunes dwindled, the Urrea, Goycolea, and Gómez Lamadrid families exceeded the fortune amassed by the Almada family.

Myth:  The center of Álamos is completely colonial.

Reality:  The plan of the city most certainly comes from the 18th Century (doubtfully from the 17th Century), but the facades of the houses, the cornices and elements such as the arches come from the 19th Century—the majority of them from the last quarter of the 19th Century.  The Palacio Municipal, the mercado, the jail, and kiosk in the Plaza de Armas, the slaughterhouse, and the Plaza Alameda were constructed and finished between 1875 - 1900.

Myth:  Buildings of the Hacienda de los Santos go back to the 17th Century

Reality:  The principal house of what is now the Hacienda de los Santos belonged to the Otero Terminel family, of the lineage of the Salazar family, located where Molina Street meets Corbalá and where the theatre of the Alamada family was located.  These buildings are of the 19th Century, and undoubtedly the Otero Terminel house and the others were destroyed in a fire in April of 1903 and had to be completely reconstructed.

Myth:  The municipal jail is from the 18th Century

Reality:  The jail was constructed, with much difficulty, between 1888 and 1889.  The foundation was laid in 1882 with a design similar to the jail in Guaymas, but when Sr. Ortiz Retes left the government that plan was revised.

Myth:  Hotel los Tesoros was once a convent

Reality:  There is no data to suggest that the building now known as La Casa de Los Tesoros hotel was once a convent.  In the late 18th Century and the 19th Century it was the residence of the priest Nicolás Quirós y Mora, and after that it was the residence of the Ortiz Retes family and, still later, the Orrea Quirós family.  During the 1950s it was converted into a hotel, and at that time was born the legend of the convent.

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Current Events

https://alamoshistoryassociation.org/50.63.41.1/Current_Events/Current_Events.html