Violante Ulrich

Violante Ulrich (right) with Shayna Weeden at an exhibition of Romero Betsabeé's work. Photo: Gilberto Covarrubias

I once met a slender young woman with long dark hair and pale skin who lived a privileged but purposeful life on a ranch outside Taxco, Mexico.   Her home was an inheritance from her father, Alberto Ulrich, an Italian engineer, who had purchased the ranch from his friend William Spratling along with furnishings and creative works.  Though it all belongs to Violante and her sister now, it is still called Spratling Ranch.  

The property was not really a ranch as we know them in Texas, but rather an estate, what might have been a former hacienda or the remnant of larger land holdings and wealth.  Restoration and preservation filled much of Violante's purposeful life; that and managing the grounds of the estate, part neatly cultivated gardens, part jungle pushing up against cream colored adobe walls and over terracotta tile roofs.  A long lane from the iron gate winds under an archway, past hand stacked stone fences, aviaries and a swimming pool off  the main house where she lives in dark cool rooms and works at making silver jewelry.

Spratling Ranch was not a museum, not a place where strangers could ever hope for an invitation but on a buying trip to Taxco almost a decade ago, we met someone who knew Violante and who was comfortable dropping by unannounced.  He offered to take us to meet her and after a 30 minute drive out of town, we were at the ranch .......where he drove his car over a freshly washed Persian rug drying on the pavement near the front portico of her house.  I know that she has forgotten the few who have made the pilgrimage to her front door over the years and she has forgotten me, thank goodness, but she isn't likely to forget the day tire marks appeared on her oriental rug.  We were horrified.  She was gracious. 

I was in Taxco last summer and learned that Spratling Ranch has opened part of the estate as a bed and breakfast.  What better way is there to hold onto her legacy than to share it?

~Carolyn in Mexico