| During October,
Guanajuato is overflowing with people as it puts on the Festival
Cervantino. Considered one of the most important cultural events
in Latin America, the festival attracts thousands of international
visitors annually to the narrow and maze like streets of Mexico's
most beautiful silver city. No doubt that Guanajuato has more
to do than any other town of its size.
 Looking
at Guanajuato from a distant hillside you'll see a panarama of
colored houses layered on the sides of ravines. This charming
setting, together with its history, tradition, culture, gorgeous
architecture and mild climate make Guanajuato for many, Mexico's
finest colonial city. Founded in 1557, Guanajuato - derived from
the Tarascan Quanax-huato, meaning 'Place of Frogs' -
was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.
The best way to see the city, absorb its distinctive
atmosphere and appreciate the colonial architecture is on foot.
This is especially true given that much of the private traffic
is carried below ground in tunnels - originally built to prevent
the Guanajuato River from flooding the city. The river now runs
deeper below ground but the networks of underground roadways are
an essential part of Guanajuato's originality. Above the ground,
many of Guanajuato's streets end suddenly in quaint plazas or
at the base of steps rising up as a narrow alleyway - a callejón.
Please note
that additional info (prices, activities, etc) are found to the
right of this pages. 
 A
great way to pass an hour or two is to tag along with one of the
organized walking tours called Callejoneadas - these tours wind
along the twisting back alleys following a student minstrel group
known as Estudiantinas. Some of these groups have existed for
many years, such as 'La Tuna Provincial', formed during the 1970s.
You can usually identify which Estudiantina it is that you are
following by looking at the collar on the costume that they are
wearing.
The Estudiantinas leave every evening during
the summer months and the Festival Cervantino (Friday and Saturday
nights at any other time) from outside the Teatro Juárez
or in front of San Diego overlooking the Jardín de la Unión.
You can get details from any of the information booths, but you
could simply hang around the Jardín around 9:00pm and you're
bound to hear singing or laughing. You'll be invited to share
some wine - just buy one of the peculiar ceramic jugs (called
a 'porrón'), then just follow the crowd through the twisting
callejónes. Sooner or later, all these promenades reach
the narrowest of all the alleys - only 23 inches wide at its  narrowest
point - the famous Callejón del Beso. You are told that
couples smooching on the third step will be guaranteed everlasting
happiness - and if you are alone, after a little wine you might
just kiss anyone!
For centuries Guanajuato was the most important
silver city in Mexico, more recently it is better known as a university
city. The extravagant State University is now one of the most
prestigious in Mexico and during school time; the student population
makes the city a vibrant place. The structure itself was completely
remodeled in the 1950s from a Jesuit seminary - designed to blend
in with nearby buildings. A climb to the top of the broad steps
offers fine view of the surrounding rooftops.
Undoubtedly, one of Guanajuato's most famous
sons is the painter and muralist Diego Rivera. He was born in
the house located at Pocitos 47 in 1886, now the Museo Casa Diego
Rivera, displaying some of his family's household possessions,
including the bed where Diego's mother gave birth to him. The
collection of paintings and sketches on the upper floors mark
his changing styles. There is a detailed biography on the wall
of the top floor and a small gift shop to the left of the entrance
hall selling postcards, posters and T-shirts.
Between Juárez and Pocitos stands the
forbidding Alhóndiga de Granaditas (Tues-Sat, 10:00-1:30,
4:00-5:30, Sun, 10:00-2:30), originally built as a granary and
finished in 1809, it is the most important of all the historical
monuments in the city. Within a year of its completion it came
under siege, following the 1810 proclamation of Independence by
Father Miguel Hidalgo in nearby  Dolores.
A young miner named José de los Reyes set the great wooden
doors ablaze with a shield of stone and a flaming torch, martyring
himself in the process, but permitting the Mexican insurgents
to storm the building and rout the Spanish garrison held up inside.
The hero miner -- known thereafter as 'El Pípila' - is
honored with a monument that crowns a hill overlooking the city.
Although the struggle for Independence had been ignited, this
particular triumph was short-lived; the severed heads of the rebel
leaders were suspended from baskets from the four corners of the
building as a gruesome lesson to the city's inhabitants. The hooks
from which the baskets were hung are still visible. Later converted
from a prison into a museum, there is a fascinating collection
of exhibits - mostly historical documents, objects and paintings
from the period around Mexican Independence.
South of the Alhóndiga, along Juárez,
is the Mercado Hidalgo - a huge iron-framed structure resembling
a Victorian railway station dating from 1910. The market stalls
are filled to overflowing with neat mounds of fruit and vegetables
- the greatest selection in the whole region, due to the fact
that the state of Guanajuato is the breadbasket of Mexico. A section
attached to the main market sells cheap comida corrida.
 The
International Festival Cervantino is definitely Latin America's
most important arts festival, attracting around 150,000 visitors
annually. It has been held in Guanajuato every October since 1972
as a homage to the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (who wrote
Don Quixote). Artists converge from all over the world to perform
in recitals, concerts, plays, ballet, contemporary dance and opera
in the city's wonderful colonial buildings and plazas (especially
the gilded Teatro Juárez). There are also many art exhibitions.
As many as 50,000 tickets go on sale a few days
before the festival starts. Tickets are available from the main
ticket office located on the south side of the Teatro Juárez
from mid-August - and from Ticketmaster (Mexico). The most expensive
tickets (for a performance in the Teatro Juárez, for example)
can cost $250 pesos with the cheapest about $15 pesos. |
