The Forgotten Modernism: Hotel-Balneario de San José Purua in Michoacán
To assess the architectural heritage of the twentieth century it is necessary to know its history. Many constructions of the so-called functionalism or modernism are in bad condition, and several of them will certainly disappear in the coming decades. The Hotel Balneario de San José Purua is proof of the above. After being one of the preferred hotels in the interior of the Republic for three decades, now lives in uncertainty, and only its history allows to know that site that was the epitome of luxury life.
Located in the east of the state of Michoacán, in the municipality of Jungapeo, San José Purua was the typical example of the "tropical paradise" that was so attractive for the society of measuring of the twentieth century: exuberant vegetation, located in a glen crossed by the river Tuxpan, With water falls and a temperate climate to rise to a height of 300 meters above sea level. But there were other elements that called attention: it possessed numerous lagoons, springs and sloughs with curative powers. Alkaline and carbonated waters waters of sedative effects, similar to those of European spas recommended especially for nervous conditions, asthma and respiratory allergies.
The hacienda of San José Purua dates from the early nineteenth century, when it covered an area of 7.500 hectares. His last owner — before being acquired by Mexican politicians Miguel and Jorge Henríquez Guzmán — was Pedro González Vélez, a Spaniard from Santander, who, when he gave up the medical career he studied, decided to travel different types of spas in Europe, like those of Vichy in France or Karlo Vary in Czechoslovakia, where hydrotherapy was practiced. When he arrived in Mexico in 1906, several people helped him to settle in the country and thanks to them he was able to obtain the Hacienda in property.
When González realized that there was a spring in his land, he had to examine the water to different laboratories in Mexico City and Europe to confirm its curative properties. The idea that he had in the beginning of bottling the water failed, but he saw the possibility of making his hacienda a spa to receive national and foreign visitors. When the agrarian distribution came from the hand of Lázaro Cárdenas, González tried to defend everything his property, however, the economic resources with which he counted were exhausted in these unsuccessful attempts and the people benefited were the brothers Henríquez Guzmán, to whom Gonzalez had to sell this fraction of the hacienda.
The brothers acquired most of the Hacienda of San José Purua and decided to enter the tourist business. The construction of National Highway number 15, to unite Mexico City with Guadalajara via Morelia, was what ended up convincing them to enter the hotel business. Besides being in charge of the construction of the road, they could take advantage of the favorable moment to build a spa. In fact, the first thing that was done was pave a road that reached the spring and in that area were built three pools and a dressing area.
This small test announced a promising future and the brothers Henríquez Guzmán decided to invest in a much larger space that would also offer more services. The first thing was to develop a project, so they opened a contest for architects and engineers to present their proposal and thus choose the most convenient. We have information on at least three projects to build the spa Hotel in San Jose Purua. The first was inspired by the Palace of Versailles, but it was dismissed for how expensive it would be to build this type in the rugged terrain of the area. The second imitated a city skyscraper in the middle of the Sierra, which resulted in an absurd building. The third, and the one that convinced the entrepreneurs, was the collaboration presented by the German-born architect Max Cetto and the Yucatecan Jorge Rubio.
To say the German architect, his project was the winner because it was the least expensive, not because the entrepreneurs really understood the proposal presented to them. They were given a week to fully elaborate the hotel project and in 1938 the architects moved to San José Purua. According to his testimony,
[…] After some days of not sleeping, we present the work with everything and budget the[…] terrain was so rugged, the landscape so beautiful and our project was very well arranged to him respecting the levels of the terrain. What we did was draw the project on the site, rescuing the ecology of the place and then we made the layout of the blueprint; So, that project is not raised on the Restirador but on the ground itself […]
For experts in Mexican architecture, what was done in that place located in the Sierra Madre Occidental, was unprecedented for the Mexican field. To integrate the architecture to the site, taking advantage of seemingly simple materials, like stone, wood, tiles or terracotta; Plan spaces from terrain accidents; To relate the construction closely with the nature and with the Michoacan culture through a modern building. All this was achieved in San Jose Purua as in any other space, to the degree of being considered by his contemporaries as a "total work of art".
Hotel Balneario was inaugurated in 1940. In its most booming days, the place had almost 352,000 square meters of extension. In addition to the restaurant and bar, it had bowling, billiards, auditorium, nightclub, several pools and hot springs. The hotel initially had 166 rooms but approximately in 1959 a remodel was made to reach the 225. There is evidence that at this time it reached a 80% occupancy on an annual average, with a sixth of foreign visitors.
This spa Hotel was also recognized by the personalities who stayed in it. The famous Cordovan bullfighter Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez, better known as Manolete visited the place before leaving Lima after his season in Mexico in 1946, where he took the time to relax from the tensions of his profession. Luis Buñuel had a special hobby for the place, which from 1948 visited to spend long periods to write the arguments of his films. Another illustrious guest was B. Traven, who is counted, arrived in San José Purua thanks to the relationship he maintained with Esperanza López Mateos. Erich Fromm and Anna Freud also enjoyed the Hotel Balneario which for the fifties had a rate of $60 pesos for the single room and $100 for the double.
The spa Hotel of San José Purua, after being one of the preferred hotels in the interior of the Republic for three decades, began to decay after the Seventies, when its owners were no longer of age nor the interest of preserving the facilities , which produced its deterioration. His grandchildren came to the relief, but the only option to return his glory years was through loans that were insufficient. Thus, they transformed the building into something completely different from the one projected by Cetto in the 1930s, with little clientele and waiting for new financial bailouts to prop it up as a major tourist center in the country, which unfortunately It never happened.
by Paulina Martínez Figueroa