Tag Archives: Parroquia de San Miguel de Arcangel

Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Evil is vanquished, it’s time to dance in San Miguel de Allende

This weekend has been a massive celebration of our community’s namesake, San Miguel, the archangel who drove the devil from heaven. We call it the battle of Good versus Evil.

There was a massive fireworks battle in the Jardin, with rockets shooting over the treetops — the forces of good on the Parroquia side and evil on the side that houses government offices. OK, the optics aren’t all that great for local government, but they must have signed off.

Fortunately, it was all symbolic.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Clean sweep

That must have been some party.

Early this morning, the limpia crew was all over the square in front of the Parroquia de San Miguel de Arcangel with brooms, buckets, and tanks of water. The bucketers would scoop and splash water on the stones and the sweepers descend on the water like hungry birds, sloshing it left and right, until only clean damp stone remains.

Splash and repeat. In the early morning breeze. The first in what feels like months.

While this is cleaning writ large, all over San Miguel de Allende in the morning, women (mostly) wash the sidewalks and streets in front of their homes. Same routine — water, bucket, and broom — as they have been doing for centuries.

Why the public square on a Sunday morning? I can’t say.

A messy party? Too much spilled and melted ice cream? Too much dust? In anticipation of the arrival of a wedding princess or social media queen? Simple hygiene?

You just never know, do you?

Unless you ask.

But why spoil the fun?

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized, Writings

Only in San Miguel de Allende could your massage help feed hungry abuelos: 35 years of So Others May Eat

Near the entrance to The Spa Wellness Center is a framed photograph lightly faded of around 80 abuelas in shawls, aprons and long dresses and a handful of bewiskered abuelos grouped on the steps of a Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel courtyard. Some hold canes and walking sticks. Many have woven shopping bags.

At the bottom of the picture is the bold caption:

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel sunset

The photo was taken on December 12, 2023, from the balcony of the home of friends. If you look closely, you can see the tall Christmas tree and decorations in the public square.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Star light, star bright, see how you’ve survived into the morning light

A star fell from the heavens and landed in a pocket park in San Miguel de Allende,

Right behind the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel.

Crazy how people take such things in stride.

If a star had fallen anywhere else, people would have been looking for it on the five o’clock news.

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photography, Writings

Gallery: San Miguel’s Night of the Catrinas – not quite a parade, definitely a promenade

Gaily costumed and made-up men and women just sort of filtered into the plaza last night in twos and fours. If there was a grand parade from any of the private Catrina parties around San Miguel de Allende, it was after I left.

By 8 p.m., I’d seen enough. And what I saw was delightful.

(Catch up with Thursday night’s official parade here.)

There were lots of traditional Catrinas and Catrines but there were spinoffs, too. Like the two cowboys, the bishop, the woman in the illuminated cape, and the tyrannosaurus rex. Yes, a dinosaur. It is just that kind of year.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The evolving physics of the Parroquia

Every time I think that I’ve photographed the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel from every conceivable angle during the past five years, something new comes along.

It’s like in physics. Scientists were pretty sure that the Standard Model that addresses all “of nature’s known particles and forces” was The Overall Encompassing Answer to Everything.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Hail to the (little) chief

So many many people pose on the steps of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, for so many reasons.

Social media queens and generational portraits, tourists and families, engaged couples and newlyweds, tarts and saints, models and misfits, quinceañeras and brides.

The backdrop is so iconic that it lends gravitas to any poser. The pink spires seal a special moment in the lives of so many, day after day after day. People clearly travel a long way just to pose in front of this church.

This youngster was working the steps this morning, for Dad and his iPhone and clearly enjoying the process. This felt like a coming-of-age moment for an indigenous tribe’s future leader.

I love seeing people having fun with photos in the public square.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Missed the parade, caught the warmup

After a long night of parading, doing battle with the Devil, blowing off fireworks, celebrating the city’s namesake, and just all-around old-fashioned shoulder-rubbing with neighbors — what do San Miguelenses like to do the next day?

Parade some more.

Of course.

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