Creel-Terrazas Family

The Creel-Terrazas Family is a powerful and wealthy family based in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

During the rule of President Porfirio Díaz and the Mexican Revolution, this family was part of the científico faction. The científicos were conservative civilian technocrats and advisors of President Díaz. The family was poised to succeed Díaz in power, but it was largely discredited because of the economic decline at the time before the outbreak of the Revolution.

By the early 20th century, the family controlled 50 haciendas and ranches throughout the state with a total extension in excess of 7 million acres (28,000 km²). They owned 500,000 heads of cattle, 225,000 sheep, 25,000 horses and 5,000 mules. Encinillas, north of the state capital of Chihuahua, Chih., was the largest hacienda occupying an area of 1,300,000 acres (5,300 km²). It employed some 2,000 peons.

The wealth of the family is evident by simply examining the various properties in the city of Chihuahua that were owned by the clan at the outbreak of the revolution in 1910: the Casa Creel on Aldama, the Residencia Terrazas at the corner of Colón and Juárez and, formerly, the gem of the collection, the Quinta Carolina in Colonia Nombre de Dios in the north of the city. This latter was the summer estate of Don Luis Terrazas and his family. Though now in a semi-ruined state, the governments of the city and state of Chihuahua are beginning an extensive rehabilitation and restoration of the property. The estate was completely outside the city at the time, and where there are now houses, once only ranchland, cultivated farmland and gardens surrounded the estate house, chapel and outbuildings.

A book by Mark Wasserman discusses the family's "efforts to maintain its power after the Revolution, including its use of economic resources and intermarriage to forge partnerships with the new, revolutionary elite."

After the Revolution, the Creel-Terrazas Family extended to include other families that immigrated from Chile, Argentina, and Poland.

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