San Miguel de Allendecolonial Mexico
cobblestone streets
guitar lessons in San Miguel de Allende
guitar instruction in San Miguel de Allende
Instituto Allende
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San Miguel de AllendeHome of Guitar Vacation RetreatsSan Miguel de Allende is in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, about 3 hours north of Mexico City, and a 9 or 10 hour drive from the Texas border. Founded in the mid-16th century as a stop on the caravan route to the silver mines, San Miguel and its citizens took a prominent role in the beginning of the Mexican war of independence from Spain in the early 19th century. It has a lot of Mexican tourist traffic, particularly in the couple of weeks around the 16th of September when Mexican Independence Day is celebrated.San Miguel de Allende is nowadays home to a large colony of expatriate Americans and Canadians, and a few Europeans and Japanese as well. An artist named Stirling Dickinson founded the Instituto Allende after the Second World War, and tuition was made available to American veterans under the GI Bill, resulting in an influx of artists and art students. Since then an ever-increasing number of foreigners have settled here, along with artists, musicians and writers who are both Mexican and foreign. Nowadays, San Miguel is also a retirement destination, which may have somewhat diluted the artistic atmosphere, but has also increased its general level of affluence. Since NAFTA many of the consumer goods which people from the USA are accustomed to have become available in Mexico, which is a considerable change in only the last few years, and this has been a factor in attracting the retirees. |
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We (Jack and Frances of Guitar Vacation Retreats) have lived in San Miguel for
4 years. It's a fertile cultural crossroads where you can rub shoulders with many artists,
musicians, and writers, as well as meeting tourists from all over the world (which we do
when we are performing in the local restaurants).
San Miguel, though now "discovered", with the consequent real estate boom and development, is still a remarkably beautiful small town with many traditional Mexican elements. On narrow streets of cobblestone, peddlars with burros sell their wares, high stone walls with broken bottles embedded in the top shield beautiful private gardens from the public eye, ancient women sit on corners selling home-made tortillas and nopales (cactus leaves) that they have picked in the countryside and cooked at home, traditional musicians wander from restaurant to restaurant with their guitars in hand, and a blind harmonica player sits on a corner rain or shine, day or night, playing "Solamente Una Vez" and "Cielito Lindo" for pesos thrown in his hat. The center of San Miguel is the Jardin in front of the Parroquia. (In many other cities the Jardin would be called the "zócalo".) The Parroquia is a most atypical Mexican cathedral. Most Mexican churches are massive constructions in 17th Century Baroque style; the exteriors are imposing but plain, and the insides are often extravagantly decorated in Mexican Baroque style, with gory crucifixion and martydom scenes and magnificent murals. 
The Parroquia of San Miguel de Allende, one of the most prominent of the dozens of
churchs in SMA, was remodeled in the 19th century with
a sandstone facade modeled on a fairy-tale castle on the Rhine. With fireworks exploding
over the top of it (a frequent occurrence), it looks just like Disneyland. As an introduction
to Mexico it is unquestionably dramatic, and it takes a while for the newcomer to realize that
it is not at all what most Mexican colonial churches look like. However, it is an essential
part of the myth and mythos of San Miguel de Allende.
If you are coming to San Miguel and plan to stay in the center of town, be forewarned that the many churches all have bells which are rung regularly, and irregularly (meaning often in the wee hours of the night). The local joke goes, "In San Miguel, ask not for whom the bell tolls, or why, or when." Also, there are also many fiestas in the historic center of town... and this usually means fireworks, particularly on weekends, and especially during the month of September. Both bells and fireworks can start in the early morning (4 am) and continue until late into the night. The weather forecast for San Miguel de Allende... Lodging in San Miguel de Allende... | |||
Last page update 05-30-08 |
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