Manga de Clavo, Historic hacienda in Vargas, Mexico

Manga de Clavo was the preferred hacienda of Antonio López de Santa Anna, located in the town of Vargas, about 19 miles from the port of Veracruz. Its mansion and outbuildings were gradually dismantled as Vargas grew around them, so only ground-level ruins remain and the exact original layout is uncertain. The site is often confused with Santa Anna's other properties, such as El Lencero near Jalapa.

Antonio López de Santa Anna took over the estate in 1825 and made it his main home for many years. During the decades that followed, he used it as a base between his different periods in power, giving the property a political weight rare for a rural estate.

The hacienda's name comes from the manga de clavo, a thorny shrub of the region. The property served as Santa Anna's retreat for rest, intrigue and conspiracy, and he repeatedly left the National Palace to stay here. The Marquise Calderón de la Barca visited in the early 1840s and described the house as pretty and well kept, with no gardens because Santa Anna considered his twelve leagues of land his garden.

The hacienda stood in what is now the town of Vargas, about 19 miles from the port of Veracruz in the municipality of Veracruz. Because the town grew over the ruins and took its stone, the exact original site cannot be located, and chroniclers and locals often place it wrongly. Treat directions to El Lencero or Puente Nacional as other Santa Anna properties, not this one.

Santa Anna had his amputated leg buried on the property after losing it in battle, before it was later moved to Mexico City. This makes the estate one of the very few rural sites in Mexico directly connected to such a personal and politically charged event.