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San Marcos, Hidalgo, Mexico is a very pretty village, Tula River crosses the village. The people settled on both rims of the River. On the south rim is the railroad Mexico - Tula and in 1900 there was a Railroaad station.
In the year 1910 and as part of an expansion of the "Cruz Azul" (Blue Cross) cement factory other cement plant was established in San Marcos, called "La Tolteca" (The Toltec), taking the name from the pre-Hispanic culture that settled near to San Marcos, in the city of Tula.
The raw material, big rocks, was carried to the factory in hugh dumps named "yucles".
A cement road was built from the San Miguel hills were was extracted the rocks thru "La Toleca". This hill it was used for both cement factories: Cruz Azul (Blue Cross) and The Toltec. Also was built a narrow bridge over the Tula River beside the factory La Tolteca. This bridge it was used for the San Marcos people, cars, is working pretty good until the present time. La Tolteca closed their operations in 1980's. Cruz Azul factory is working until the present time (2015).
The factory "The Toletc" is 3/4 surrounded by the Tula River and is strategically located near the train station, where the vans loaded with cement were left for many years until the factory was closed in 1980
The land is fertile and in the year 1900 were irrigated by the clear waters of the Tula River. The main roads were marked by rows of big trees either pirules, ash, cypress.
There were two main road from Mexico city to Tula ("camino real" is the name for the main routes in Mexico in that time, used by the wagons, people, horses): in that area, one route was by the top of the mountais following the route Mexico - Tepeji - San Lucas - San Idelfonso - San Marcos on the left side of the Tula River (this part of San Marcos later became in the village named El Carmen) - Tula.
And the other route was following the Tula river: Mexico - Tepeji - Melchor Ocampo - San Jose Acoculco - Jasso - San Miguel Vindho - Ignacio Zaragoza - San Marcos - Tula.
Beside the main road was the ranch "El Godo". This was the first property that Monroy bought in San Marcos. Below a picture of some "camino real"
It was clear that interest and a few skills in the Spanish language were giving some of the brethren double-duty in the work of the Kingdom. But so it had to be. If the Church authorities in Salt Lake City would not approve colonization as a means of spreading the gospel, then other, more conventional, means would of necessity have to be employed.
Soon Helaman Pratt was heading the mission (March 1884). He extended the work to San Marcos, Hidalgo, a community that later would figure prominently in the expansion of the faith in Mexico. Little by little the work did expand
Also Elder Young says there were converts in this area during the early years of the First Mexican Mission from 1879 to 1889. Two of them are mentioned in the Journal of Elder Young, Joseph M. Yañez in the town of Nopala, Hidalgo who was baptized in 1880 apparently with his family.
The other is Jesus Sanchez he was baptized by the President of the Mexican Mission in that time August Wilcken in 1881 in San Marcos, Hidalgo. Jesus Sanchez it was the only member of the church of his family.
Both were visited several times by the missionaries of the first Mexican Mission as the mission remained open. Once the mission was reopened in 1901 missionaries returned to visit those members
When the Monroy family arrived to San Marcos they lived in a house near to the main square. Then when the engineers and constructors people of the La Tolteca facttory arrived to San Marcos they occupied this same house, therefore Monroy family bought other ranch named "El Capulin" and then they built a large room in this ranch, after that they built their house around this room. The mother and sisters of Rafael were living in this ranch at the moment of the execution.
The restored gospel in San Marcos, Hidalgo, Mexico
After the two missions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the states of Chihuahua and Sonora during 1875 - 1877, where the missionaries baptized the 5 first members in all Mexico, missionaries arrived in Mexico City in 1879 and then began to preach the gospel restored in many communities in the center of the country.
According to the Mission Journal of Walter Ernest Young (1887 - 1982) who was a missionary in the Mexican Mission from 1911 thru 1913, Helaman Pratt, Parley P. Pratt's son preached in San Marcos, Hidalgo.
Also the next paragraph from the article "Early Mormon Exploration and Missionary Activities in Mexico" By F. Lamond Tullis, says:
The work extended into numerous small villages in the central Mexican plateau--Toluca, Ixtacalco, Tecaloe, and Chimal, all in Mexico; Cuautla and San Andres de la Cal, in Morelos; and Nopala, in Hidalgo. In this endeavor, Isaac J. Stewart, who had accompanied his brother on the ill-fated visit to the Yaquis several years before, soon joined the group. So also did Helaman Pratt, another of the original missionaries to Mexico.
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