Terán House
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This owes its name to the illustrious native of Aguascalientes José María de Jesús Rafael Terán Peredo. As is known, the political work of Jesús Terán in Aguascalientes was important but also at the national level, given that in 1862 during the administration of Benito Juárez he was appointed Secretary of Foreign Relations for a few days and then occupied the Secretariat of Justice and Development. A year later, on November 28, 1863, he was named Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of Mexico and Confidential Agent of the Mexican Government before Spain and England to try to reconcile the interests of Mexico with these powers that, together with France, had invaded the country.
It all started around 1750 when Felipe Pérez Mier y Terán, a poor gentleman, originally from the Cabuérniga valley in the mountains of Santander, emigrated to Nueva Galicia to settle in the real de los Asientos, belonging to the mayor's office of Aguascalientes. Pérez de Terán, an abbreviated formula that he and his descendants used, married twice, the first with María de San Juan Serrano, with whom he fathered José Rafael; and the second with Rosalía Castorena, with whom he conceived five children: María Teresa, María Loreta, Remigio, Andrés and Felipe. Of all the brothers, the one who distinguished himself was Felipe Pérez de Terán Castorena, a landowner and merchant from the town of Aguascalientes, who when the war of independence broke out in 1810 took charge of the subdelegation and became “the most influential, respected and feared person in the region.” Like his father, he married twice: the first in 1787 with María Josefa Jiménez, who gave him two daughters, but in 1789 he was widowed and in October 1790 he married María de los Dolores Moreno, with whom he fathered José María Jacinto, who during the war of independence appeared as captain of the corps of patriots of the royalist cause.
In 1826 Pérez de Terán died and from then on his son Jacinto Terán appeared “as an honest businessman and a faithful supporter of the new order of things.” By then Jacinto Terán was married to Francisca Peredo and their son was Jesús Terán Peredo, who was born in 1821 on the farm in question and at that time marked with number 2 San Diego Street, which he owned from 1842 until his death in 1866. After Jesús Terán the farm had different owners: his sisters inherited it because he left no descendants, who in turn bequeathed the farm to his niece Paz Arteaga de Terán, who She married Julio Pani of Italian descent. For this reason today we understand that the property retains a certain influence of this country "in its walls and ceilings."
The estate is one of the few civil buildings from the 18th century that are still standing and for this reason, rescuing the history and uses that the property has had over the centuries is interesting, because it belonged to one of the most important families from the end of the colonial period and the first half of the 19th century. Likewise, to reaffirm the historical memory and identity of all of us who form the imagined community called Aguascalientes. It should be said that the architectural style of the building belongs to the baroque and neoclassical called “neo-style”, and the layout of the spaces is similar to all eighteenth-century buildings in which a central patio scheme predominates, around which there are different areas.
The house was built on the old San Diego street and according to our records for 1694 it was just a piece of land on which Juana de Orozco de Santa Cruz had built her house through the sale of the property by the bachelor Francisco de Carasa. Some time later Juana de Orozco sold the house to Gabriela Ruiz de la Fuente without being able to specify the date at this time, although through a public testamentary instrument it is known that by 1747 it was already her property, which was inherited by her daughter Micaela Gertrudis de Esparza Ruiz, who sold the property on December 19, 1760 to Diego Durón for 200 pesos and by then it consisted of “twelve yards of front and forty-two and a half of depth, and three rooms, borders on the east with the house and wall of the said house of heirs of Don Antonio Joseph Emazabel, on the west with the house of Doña Rita Jiménez y Sandi, on the north with the house that belonged to Don Andrés de Lomas, and today belongs to Francisco del Rivero, and on the south with the orchard of Francisco Gómez street in the middle".
In 1764 Diego Durón sold the farm to Pedro Manuel Calera, who in turn in 1771 bought from Rita Jiménez and Sandi “a ground floor room with six yards of clear space and a depth of forty-five” that he added to the farm, which Antonio Carrera sold on April 2, 1778, with license for the death of the said Calera in favor of the Santander native Felipe Pérez Mier y de Terán, capitular of the jurisdiction in the match of the Real de Asientos at a price of two thousand 12 pesos, four reales. By then the estate did not compare with the ancestral houses that were located around the main square, such as that of the Rincón Gallardo (now the Government Palace) or that of Juan Fernández de Palos, who "built one of the best houses in the town, in the Plaza Real, known as the Portales, where in addition to having his store, he lived with his family: his wife and nine children."
However, the Pérez Mier y de Terán house was decent enough, whose factory was “new and made at all costs, with all the useful, precise and necessary parts.” As the Terán House was quite modest, at the end of the century Felipe Pérez Mier and Terán Castorena ordered the construction of the second patio and the surrounding rooms of the property, as recorded in one of its arches in which the year 1795 is inscribed. Its builders were the builder Gregorio Reyes and the stonemason Rodrigo Rodríguez, apparently disciples of the “Master of Architecture”Felipe de Ureña.
By the middle of the 19th century the property had three rooms, kitchen, pantry, living room, dining room, attendance, hallway and two patios. In addition, another patio or corral was added to the back of the house, although from then on several modifications were made to both the architectural and decorative elements, horseshoe arches and stipe columns.
In the 20th century, the property frequently changed hands and spaces were also added, as noted in the decree that declared it a historical monument: “D. Enrique Flores was at the beginning of the 20th century, then his daughters Ma. Concepción Flores Parqman of Seville and Luisa Flores Parqman Vda. Of War. As of October 19, 1928, Mr. Ambrosio Aguilar. Since July 25, 1939, Mr. Rafael Aguilar Alba, and since January 18, 1975, DoñaMa. Guadalupe Alonso de Aguilar, and the last owner is Doña Ma. Elena Esparza de Jiménez, who reports that the property is in probate litigation.”
In the last quarter of the last century the property was in danger of becoming ruins because it was not inhabited and the owner did not maintain it. In order to preserve the eighteenth-century property, as well as the historical importance of the person who was born on the property, on July 15, 1986, it was declared a historical monument. From then on and to date, the integrity of the building, as well as the restoration and conservation works, were under the supervision of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. In this same vein, in August 1991 the state government expropriated the property for “public utility reasons” in favor of the Aguascalientes Cultural Institute.
According to the “Catalogue of Historical Monuments” of the INAH Aguascalientes Center, the city only has 36 civil and religious buildings from the 18th century with architectural and historical value. For the year 1992 and in commemoration of the CXXVI years of the death of Jesús Terán, on April 25, the Cultural Center called Casa Terán was inaugurated. The rehabilitation and remodeling of the building was carried out by the architect and restorer José Luis García Ruvalcaba.
Casa Terán contains baroque and neoclassical elements, which make it an eclectic estate. Knowing our Historical Monuments leads us to create awareness, since they are part of the history of Aguascalientes and if we do not preserve them, the historical memory would be lost, since without a shared past there is no common present. The same goes for recognizing the character that gives its name to the farm, as it leads us to strengthen our identity as Aguascalientes.
