Diario las Américas Newspaper, November 18, 1956, Page 22

‘ San Miguel de Allende, México eli MOST COUNTRIES are content to a statue and call it a na- tional monument. But México, a nation that memorializes its heroes and history in spectacular ways, has a habit of designating whole towns as national monuments. The most colorful of several such officially honored towns, and the most historically, since it is the cradle of Mexican independ- ence, is San Miguel de Allende, a festive city of some twelve thou- sand inhabitants located on the mountainous plateau two hundred miles north of México City. Living in a national monument places quite a responsiblity on the shoulders of the local citizens. It colors their way of life and modes of thought. For some people, living up to the past could be a strain, but not for the San Miguelenses, Frem town councilmen to the san- daled porters in the market place these tradition- respecting citizens are extremely conscious ef the treasure they have inherited, and they intent to keep it looking and feeling right. Unlike most museum towns, this one is pleasant and un- spoiled an aristocratic little jewel with a lion’s share of seignorial mansions, flower-filled Mudejar pa- tios, and people passidnately de- voted to fiestas. Here one sees no Aztec temples next door to a hy- brid Bauhaus-style movie theater, no echoes of medieval Spain squeezed between garages and Co- ca-Cola plants. San Miguel is pure colonial. Because of its historical signifi- cance, its picturesque charm, and its gay fiestas, San Miguel appears to be in a continuous state of open house. During the course of a morning stroll through the twist- ing cobled streets one is likely to run into a Mexican cowboy decked out in appropriate array right down to his pistols, perhaps the Canadian Ambassador, a French or Hollywood movie star, a bull- fighter er two, at least a dozen Painters, and a group of solemn pilgrims on their way from tropical Veracruz to the near-by Sanctuary of Atetonilco. Just as aristocratic Spanish co- fonial families chose San Miguel as their home, so the town continues to draw outsiders who have adopt- ed it for year-round or parti-time residence. This lively colony of cosmopolites represents the theat- er world, the arts and professions, and people who just like to retire in a comfortable national monu- ment. Cantinflas, México’s leading tomedian, owns a house there; a few doors beyond is the former home of the artist Rufino Tamayo, now owned by the singer and mo- vie actor Pedro Vargas. On a fanch just outside the town, Pepe Ortiz, one of México’s most famous bullfighters, who is now retired, raises fighting bulls. Eduardo Car- denas, the director of Selecciones del Reader’s Digest, shuttles -be- tween his New York and Havana offices and his easy chair in San Miguel de Allende. Howard Smith, the well-known portrait painter; the Canadian artist Leonard Brooks; and Robert Lawrence, symphony conductor and NBC opera commentator, also com- mute between their homes in San Miguel and jobs outside the coun- Te shid tice: ae ei " Pégine 10 HEMISPHERE SUNDAY, NOVEMORR 16, 1a, ing the broad sweep of the Laja River valley and the distant blue fume of the Guanajuato Mountains, the town offers a superb back- ground for either painting or fies- ta. Almost every house is higher than the next, overlooking red-til- ed rooftops and the shimmering blue-and-yellow-tiled cupolas of twenty or so churches. Most of the social life revolves around the market and the jardin, or central plaza. The well-kept old village square is actually an oblong block with a pale pink sand- stone bandstand as its pivot. Prim flagstone walks, plots of vivid green grass, and several fountains surround the bandstand. Lime trees, hemlocks, and glossy mag- nolias, all carefully boxed and tim- med, spot the jardin with great blobs of shade. During fiesta time the branches blossom with lafge paper flowers pinned on one’ by one until the entire plaza quivers with vivid bloom. Scattered pround the outside walk are some remark- ably uncomfortable, frivolous ben- ches, usually occupied by people waiting for or plotting fiestas. Since the climate is kindly throughout much of the year, the ~ jardin and its furnishing serve as a sunlit athenaeum, concert hall, and open-air living room for the entire town. It is also the foyer for the principal public institutions — the colonial city hall, the police station, various hotels, and the pa- rish church or “cathedral,” as tour- ists call it. The church, a soaring “Gothes- que” pile of pink stone, is the one anomaly in San Miguel’s other- wise uniform architecture. Its height is so dominating that the entire city seems to swirl around its solid base like clusters of dories around a lighthouse. Originally this church was a simple Franciscan building of no pretensions, but dur- ing an architectural spree in the last century its face was lifted by an Indian mason named Zeferino” - Gutiérrez a lad without formal education who could neither in- terpret blueprints nor read a book but who was without a doubt an architectural genius. Basing his churchbuilding concepts on picture postcards and _ etchings of the French Gothic cathedrals (which showed only facades), he created a unique pink monument, Gothic in feeling, yet touched with the peculiar plastic freedom native to the Indian artist, Gutiérrez was al- so responsible for several other: San Miguel churches and for the matchless classic dome on the nearby Church of the Concep- tion. Notable among San Miguel’s baroque facades with their carved doors rich in Churriguerresque de- tails is the Casa del Mayorazgo de Canal, popularly called the House of the Counts of Canal and the San Francisco Church, whose ela- borate facades and towers were de- signed by the architect Francisce Eduardo Tresguerras, the Michel- angelo of México. In a sense this church is the product of San Miguel fiestas, for it was paid for by donations and assessments . on bullfight tickets. San Miguel de Allende was founded in 1542 by Friar Juan de San Miguel, an indefatigable Fran- ciscan educator, pioneer, and town builder. For years the original vil- lage, a Spanish outpost in the dan- gerous Chichimeca Indian-country, was called San Miguel de los Chi- chimecas. Growing in importance asa weaving, leatherwork, and ad- ministrative center, it thea be- came San Miguel el Grande: Its present name — or, more accurate- ly, combination of names — was officially conferred by an act of Congress as a tribute to the town’s role and the heroism of one of its sons in the struggle against Spain for independence. On September 16, 1810, the name San Miguel skyrocketed across the Mexican firmament. For some time local citizens had beem plot- ting a revolution with men in Que- rétaro, Dolores, and other neigh- boring cities. San Miguelenses who led the conspirators were Ignacio de Allende and Juan Aldama, two young officers of the Queen’s Dra- goons, and Narciso Maria Loreto de la Canal, a colonel. Much of the planning took place in Allende’s brother Domingo’s home, which fa- ces the plaza._ Learning that their conspiracy was discovered, Dona Josefa Do- minguez, wife of the Corregidor in Querétaro, sent a messenger to warn Aldama and Allende in San Miguel. They in ture rode to Do- lores to inform Father Miguel Hi- dalgo y Costilla. That night, Sept- ember 15, from the steps of his parish church, Father Hidalgo is- sued the famous Grite de Dolo- lores, the declaration of inde- pendence. Tragically, though Hidal- go, Allende, and Aldama had ignit- ed the flame that swept México toward freedom they were not to see the final liberation, which took ten years of fighting. Within a year after the grito, all three were captured by the Spanish, executed, then beheaded. In addition to supplying México with an unusual number of re- volutionary heroes, San Miguel. de Allende has also contributed a sub- stantial number of intellectual lead- ers and national figures. The noted liberal Ignacio Ramirez, known as “El Nigromante”, was a San Mi- Miguel’s recurring celebrations, guel lense. Dozens of small plaques marking historical. houses — the home of Gen. Mariano Escobede, who defeated the forces of Max- imilian and Napoleon IH; that of Gen. Anastasio Bustamante, one of the nation’s celebrated presidents, The singer Pedro Vargas was born not far from the market, and across town stands the mere elaborate house left by José Mojica, opera star and matinee idol of the twen- ties, when he abandoned his ca- reer to become a monk in a Peru- vian monastery. Neither the accessibility nor the moderate living cost of San Miguel does it any harm with settlers or visitors. The crack Aguila Azteca, the through train between Laredo and México City, stops there; the El Paso train stops at Celaya and Querétaro, forty miles by bus or taxi from San Miguel. By _ high- way, it is a trip of about five hours from México City, over any of several routes. Though in the cemter of town land costs from ten te forty pesos a square meter, on the outskirts it can be bought for three or four. People who know their way about ean buy or build for between four and ten thousand dollars the sort of house that would run to twenty or thirty in Beverly Hills. As for visitors, they have’their choice of hotels, ranging in price from rea- sonable to cheap: the two best, the Posada (on the plaza, with a beau- tiful garden and fine service and the Instituto Allende Hotel the newest and largest, connected with the art center); the Colonial, much more modest but good; the Vista Hermosa; and the San Miguel, which provides food and rather rough accommodations. The town has so much that ex- cites the eye that people seem ex- ceptionally anxious to enhance its glories. Recently former President Lazaro Cardenas, a frequent visitor in San Miguel de Allende, bought a plot of land overlooking the town and valley. He presented it to the city for use as a lookout so that Conchero dancers come from near-by montain villages to perform from noon te midnight in Sag visitors could see the town from the very best vantage point. With so much history to memer- ialize, plus religious holiday that need celebrating the San Miguelen- ses are kept busy. There are people in México whe insist that the major heavy industry in San Miguel de Allende is fiestas. According to the official tewn calendar of events, there are well over thirty celebra- tions throughout the year, some of them week-long affairs. This aver- ages one almost every tenth day, Among the most brilliant are the Independence Day celebration (September 15 and 16), the Day of the Dead (November 1), the Christ- mas Posadas (December 16 to 24), ‘the pre-Lenten carnivals, Easter Week, Corpus Christi (June), and the explosive fete im honor of the town’s patron saint, San Miguel (September 28 to October 1). In many towns the Indepen- dence Day festival amounts to lit- tle more than a few casual fire- works, a speech, and some athletic eompetitions.But in San Miguel de Allende it becomes a full-fledged production. The evening of Sept- ember 15 opens with a band con- cert and serenata in the plaza. At eleven, heralded by a brilliant shower of fireworks, runners bear- ing torches and a_ scroll ar- rive from Querétaro, re-enact Josefa’s warning..Afterward come a speech and a delirious wrangling of church bells. The net day is given over to parades. of elaborate floats and historical tableaus and one of the season’s major bull- fights. Two weeks later comes the Fies- ta of San Miguel. Visitors who have seen the Mardi Gras at Cannes, New Orleans, and Veracruz, say they are pale by comparison with this four-day spree. During the pre- vious week basket-weavers, toymak- ers, peddlers, and ranchers jam the roads and donkey trails. lead- ing into town. A rash of celebra- tions breaks out here and there: anticipatory rockets sail into the j ~~ ‘ ii eee ud