Tag Archives: Efrain Gonzalez

photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Lord, what a conquest

All day today, since sunrise roughly, colorfully costumed dancers, drummers, and musicians have been filing into the central jardin of San Miguel de Allende. They fill the four corners of the park in front of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel with trancelike dances to the steady beat dozens of drums.

For visitors and expats, the pageantry has been extraordinarily colorful and thrilling but there is a deeply religious foundation to it all that goes back 450 years. Centuries ago the statue called the Lord of the Conquest arrived in the region. Señor de la Conquista is a life-sized Christ and one of the most revered images in this World Heritage City, and not only because of its antiquity.

Many of these dancers began their journey on Thursday evening with an all-night vigil of music, ceremony, chanting in preparation for the grueling performances today. I will leave you with these images but if you want to know more, please visit the Facebook page of my good friend Efrain Gonzalez.

He has written extensively on this and the many other cultural events with which San Miguel is blessed.

Be sure to click on any image to expand it.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

About a dozen reasons why I like Tuesdays in San Miguel de Allende

Of all the days of the week, I find Tuesdays to be the best. For many reasons.

Number one, of course, they are not Mondays. This isn’t nearly as important as it was when I actually worked for a living. Just the same, Tuesdays give you a chance to accomplish all the things that never got done on Mondays.

Even in so-called retirement, a lot doesn’t get done on Mondays. Some sort of psychological hangover from the days of full and meaningful employment, I imagine.

Tuesdays also seem to be the day on which the most stuff happens to you when you are least expecting it.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Ballpark Posada celebration is a home run for San Miguel kids, parents & ex-pats alike

One minute a bunch of San Miguel youngsters are rounding the bases and heading for home in a lively baseball game against their parents. Moments later, they are rounding the same bases in single file, carrying a creche on a platform and singing the traditional songs of the Posada.

And shortly after that, the kids were back swinging a bat — only this time at a candy-filled pinata.

In between the Posada and the pinata?

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San Miguel de Allende

At first brush: San Miguel’s open-air Urban Art Gallery is many strokes of creative genius

The south wall of the Urban Art Gallery at the El Puente underpass in San Miguel de Allende on Tuesday morning as the artists were just arriving to resume painting their murals.

If you are going to open up an art gallery these days, you may as well do it outside, right?

That is exactly what San Miguel de Allende’s Direction de Cultura Tradiciones is doing right now. 

The city has invited 10 well-known street artists to put up their best work on the expansive concrete walls of the Libramente underpass called El Puente, located just south of Hospital H+.

The artists began yesterday, Nov. 24, and will paint through Thursday. Each artist has been provided with a 2-meter-by-4-meter space within which to work.

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San Miguel de Allende, Writings

One thing leads to another: A mural grows in Colonia San Antonio

The bicycle mural of Efrain Gonzalez at the corner of Orizaba and Refugio in Colonia San Antonio. The joy is spreading from this corner to other parts of San Miguel.

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This is how things work in magical San Miguel de Allende:

Susan Campbell Skinner lives on the corner of Refugio and  Orizaba in Colonia San Antonio.  Across the street is Dona Rosa’s tienda where she buys organic eggs, produce, and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Susan does not know Rosa well but she feels a kindred spirit. She feels like Rosa is always looking out for her and her casa when she is away. This is what neighbors do for each other here in San Miguel de Allende.

So, Susan wanted to do something nice for her neighbor. 

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