Today I debated about getting another pair of San Miguel shoes.  These shoes are made of stretchy material in many colors and patterns.  They are especially designed for walking on cobblestone streets.  Martha, the petite wife of the manufacturer has a shop here where she sits dressed to the hilt.  Today she had on a bright orange suit with matching hat.

Yesterday I took a walking tour, Secrets of San Miguel, sponsored by the library.  I learned that the town was established in 1542 by Fr. Juan de San Miguel, a Franciscan friar.  The town later thrived because it was on the route between the gold and silver mines in Guanajuato and Mexico City.  The wealth of the town is evident  today by the palaces and mansions that were built by the Spanish residents.  In 1926 San Miguel de Allende was declared a Mexican national historical site and in 2008 it was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.  Up until 20 years ago it was believed that San Miguel had no significant Pre-Hispanic history because it was on the outskirts of several Indian populations.  But based on some recent archaeological excavations, it is now thought that there is a rich Pre-Hispanic history yet to be uncovered.  

We started the tour at the Jesuit church of Oratorio de San Felipe Neri where we visited the chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Loreto.  The chapel was built at the expense of Manuel Tomas de la Canal in 1735 - the Virgin of Loreto was the patron saint of the Canal family.  The story is that the house where the Virgin was born, raised, and conceived Christ was flown by angels from Palestine to Loreto, Italy where a basilica was built around the 13 x 30 ft. house.  (The house was probably transported by water by monastic crusaders who were referred to as "angels" back then.)  Canal built the chapel in San Miguel adjacent to an area that measures 13 x 30 ft.  The chapel is lavishly decorated in a Mexican baroque style.





Next we visit the monastery adjacent to the Church of San Francisco.  Last year I visited San Miguel with Professor Silvia Acosta and a group of architecture students from Rhode Island School of Design.  The students used a couple of rooms in the monastery for their classrooms/studios.



The next stop on the tour was the original city hall, built in 1786. (There is a new city hall elsewhere.)  The council chambers have historical importance because in 1808 a couple of local fellws organized a coup and took control of the town away from the Spainards.  These same fellows, Fr. Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende, conspired with other men in the area and this lead to Mexico's independence from Spain in 1810.  Some of these meetings took place in the building where I get my morning coffee!

The last stop on our tour was the Bellas Artes, an art school establish in 1938  in former nunnery.  The famous Mexican painter, David Alfaro Siqueriros, once taught at the school and while there he began a project of painting the walls and ceiling of one of the large rooms.  The money that was promised to him by the government never materialized so the work was never completed.

 

This afternoon I attended a viewing of a documentary film sponsored by the library.  It is part of a film series of documentary films organized by a couple of American women who screen and select the films and then invite the film makers to San Miguel to discuss their projects.  Today's film was Moja, Moja and was about a woman in Kenya who established an orphange for disabled children.  It was a touching film about a remarkable woman.  For more, go to:  http://portalsanmiguel.com/2009/01/mexican-premiere-of-moja-moja-a-film-by-sam-oliver/