Puente Grande, by Salvador Vargas

I’m from Mexico. I was born in a little town in Jalisco, Mexico. It’s called Puente Grande. Its name comes from a bridge that was built there in 1716 by Spanish people with an estimate of 700 pesos of gold. It has four towers, two in each side. Below each tower there’s writing of the information about who sent the money for its construction. That information is very difficult to read now because it has disappeared through time. Its writing isn’t very clear. Each tower has a statue with the image of Spanish people on top. This bridge has a length between 80 - 90 meters. It has only one way. There used to be one of the most beautiful rivers of Mexico under the bridge. It was called “Rio Lerma Santiago.” I remember when I was a child, all my friends and I swam all weekend. Also many people went there to wash their clothes in it.

When I left my hometown 10 years ago, this river deteriorated. I say that because its water wasn’t as clean as it used to be before and it became polluted. I’m going to show you one picture of how it looked 10 years ago. This is very shameful!

I don’t understand why some governments don’t give special attention our natural resources and inheritance. It’s very important to take care of them.


I’m going to tell you about one legend that the elderly people tell about who built this bridge too. The legend tells that: A man knew a beautiful girl on the other side of the river. Both fell in love and they started to meet each other every day and had beautiful nights.

But the problem was that he had to swim across the river every day to see her. He was very upset because his clothes got wet all the time and he couldn’t build a canoe because he had been very poor his whole life.

One night he was thinking about how to resolve his problem when suddenly a man ridding a beautiful black horse appeared in front of him, and asked.

"You know who I am?" The man said, "No, who are you?" The rider answered. "I’m the devil, and I can help you. I can build a bridge for you in one day if you want, but I have one condition. You should give me your soul. Do you want to accept my offer?"
The man answered, "Okay, I’m going to accept your offer, but I have another condition for you. You must finish it before a rooster sings. Do you accept my offer too?"
The devil answered, "Well, I will."

It was going to be the midnight when the devil started to build the bridge.

The legend says that the man was scared to death because the rooster hadn’t sung yet, and the devil was going to put the last rock over the bridge when suddenly a rooster started to sing and the devil couldn’t put the rock in it. The man was very happy because he had won two things. A bridge, and his soul again. He had beaten the devil.