It follows 200 years of the Cornish community in Pachuca, Real del Monte and Mineral del Chico, set against the backdrop of Mexican (and British) history. This was probably the largest, most long-lived and important ‘English’ community in Mexico outside of the capital. Sharron charts the rise, decline and renaissance of this community and examines the importance of the links between our two nations today. Pachuca prides itself on being the spiritual home of football, a game popularised by the Cornish community. Real del Monte holds the world’s largest Paste Festival and is twinned with Sharron’s hometown of Redruth in Cornwall, the only part of the United Kingdom to be linked with a settlement in Mexico.

Dr. Sharron P. Schwartz was born and bred in Redruth, Cornwall. Sharron completed her PhD at the University of Exeter exploring the migration of Cornish mineworkers to Latin America. Sharron was the documentary Research Officer for the Cornwall and West Devon World Heritage Site Bid and Leverhulme Fellow in Migration Studies at the Institute of Cornish Studies. She is the author of Mining a Shared Heritage: Mexico’s ‘Little Cornwall’ (2011) and The Cornish in Latin America: Cousin Jack and the New World (2016). Her most recent book, The Great Trek of the Transport Party, Mexico (1825-26): A Tale of Tragedy and Triumph is to be published this May in conjunction with the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Last year the documentary film about this epic event was premiered in Cornwall at Kresen Kernow, Redruth, and was also shown during the annual Paste Festival in Real del Monte and at the invitation of the British Society Mexico at the British Embassy in Mexico City. The material that informs her talk is drawn from over 30 years of research and will be included in a future book, The Cornish in Mexico. Sharron is a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow and lives in the Republic of Ireland with her partner.