Advertisement
Published: January 11th 2009
Window
Guanajuato Every year in October, the city of Guanajuato hosts the International Cervantes Culture Festival, named after the epic Spanish author. At venues throughout the city, residents and visitors alike can soak up the arts; ranging from music and theater to visual art. Even on a normal day, the city of Guanajuato is a very artsy place. In a way it seems like a strange divulgence for a city whose sole purpose was once mining. The silver-rich hills surrounding the city allowed it to thrive both during Spanish occupation and after Mexican independence.
Today, Guanajuato is a lively university town, with over 25,000 students enrolled at the school. Another large draw for the city is tourism, as its beautifully well-preserved colonial “old town” is ranked as a UNESCO world heritage site. Interestingly enough, it is an official sister city of one of my other favorite college towns and artistic communities: Ashland, Oregon. Though while Guanajuato exudes Cervantes, Ashland is famous for its yearly Shakespeare festival.
The town of Guanajuato is nestled in the hills, and at first glance appears to be a jigsaw puzzle of bright, blocky houses, stacked precariously on top of one another. This jumble of color
Plaza
Guanajuato is permeated with the spires and domes of the city’s many colonial churches. Once we entered the old town we became lost in a maze of narrow, cobbled streets that wound around the hill, with buildings cramped close together. Every so often we would emerge onto a quiet plaza, filled with pigeons and old men dozing on the benches.
We stumbled onto one such plaza with our noses buried in the map, and an American retiree sitting nearby took pity on us. He was relaxing on a bench with his wife and two dogs, doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the midmorning sunshine. He told us they had been in Guanajuato for thirteen years, and I highly doubt he spends much time away from that bench. But in a city as gorgeous as Guanajuato, you have to envy him.
He pointed us in the direction of our guesthouse, which was basically a series of rooms let out by a bubbly, middle-aged Mexican woman named Pita and her family. Guanajuato seems to have a lot of this bed-and-breakfast style accommodation; communal and all reasonable priced. We ended up with a small apartment just off one of the winding alleys, which
Content
An adorable dog getting some afternoon sun was beautifully but simply decorated with roughly carved furniture and bright tile.
The most crowded area of the city is the Jardin Union, which is always buzzing with activity. This pretty, tree-filled plaza is surrounded by restaurants and filled with roaming musicians and peddlers selling jewelry and blankets. At night, the city truly comes alive with music and activity.
Mariachi bands perform all over, some dressed in traditional costume. One notable tradition is the “callejoneada” which we witnessed often during our stay in Guanajuato. It is best described as a type of moving party. Musicians began playing at one location and move throughout the town, followed by a procession of listeners that gathers as they go along. It is sort of like the “Pied Piper”, but with a lot more flare. On winter nights, the temperature in Guanajuato is quite cold, with strong, icy gusts of wind. To stay warm, we would occasionally run back to the apartment for a shot of tequila, and could often hear the procession pass by our door singing and shouting loudly. You would encounter them again when least expected, singing on someone’s doorstep or gathering in a courtyard, apparently undeterred by the
Guanajuato
Just to prove I was there... frigid temperature.
We had a great time in Guanajuato simply wandering around; climbing up on the hill to take in the view, or passing the time at an artsy coffee house or outdoor café. Somtimes museums can seem sterile in the midst of such an active environment, but Guanajuato boasts two which are well worth visiting. One is the Diego Rivera house. The famous Mexican painter was born in the city, and lived there for six years. His childhood home is well-preserved, and features a great collection of his works.
Another noteworthy attraction is the Don Quixote Iconography museum. It’s galleries are filled with representations of the famous knight-errant, rendered in everything from oil paint to blown glass. We were told by one friendly shop owner that the city of Guanajuato was bestowed a special title by Spain, designating it as a Cervantine site. Indeed, in one area there is a large bronze sculpture of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote, apparently meandering through the city. There is also a “Cervantes Theater”. Even though the Don never made it to the New World, I would have to agree that the city seems to capture the spirit of Cervante's
most famous work. It is not hard to imagine Don Quixote here on Rocinante, facing down perceived threats to his honor in the shadowy alleys.
Guanajuato is the kind of town that I would like to disappear to permanently, but it’s also ideal for a brief respite from the outside world. It’s the sort of place that has artistic inspiration at every turn, and where you can while away hours on a park bench listening to guitar music. As our retired friend told us, “it’s a great place to have a catharsis”.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
