From the yard around my hacienda in El Nacimiento de los Negros I can look down across the valley to some other homesteads and see men tending their goats and cows, and women hanging their washing out to dry. Here at the foot of the Sierra Madre range, an hour's drive from Melchor Musquiz, Coahuila State's capital city, everything is hushed and peaceful. Only the wind, and the noise of the animals pushing through the brush, break the silence.