George and Deborah's Great Adventures: Guanajuato

Our first visit to Guanajuato was everything we expected and more. Guanajuato (I love saying the name out loud) has a bit of everything. It combines hundreds of years of history with an active mining site and a vibrant academic/arts community. The city celebrates both visual and performing arts, culminating in the Festival Internacional Cervantino which includes artists and performers from around the world as well as Mexico.

Theatre Juerez

The city traces its beginnings to the 1540s when the Spanish discovered gold and silver in the hills surrounding the town. The town centre sits in a narrow valley. The original miners dug the minerals from the mountainsides but built the first-level ore extraction buildings adjacent to the river. The valley is so steep the streets (there are only two major ones) are narrow, winding and room for only one-way traffic. Most alleys connecting neighbourhoods are too narrow for cars and involve long sets of stairs to get up the mountainsides. According to our guide, there are 3200 alleys and stairways throughout the city. We witnessed workers carrying 50 kg. sacks of powdered cement into the hills. As tour guide Gabriel mentioned, “There are no chubby people living in Guanajuato”.

Unfortunately the original town centre sits below the flood plain. The last devastating flood occurred in 1905 when much of the town was underwater. Since that time the city has built above the original buildings and as a result there are still underground walk ways connecting different neighbourhoods.

Getting in, out, and around the city is so difficult, the entire city is undermined with roadway tunnels to enable folks to move about. Like many tourists, we assumed the underground roads were remnants of old mining tunnels but no, it makes an interesting story but the tunnels were not started until 1979 and the last one was completed in 2008. There are 22 tunnels making up 14 kms of underground roadways under the city. There are approximately 250,000 folks living in the city in addition to 33,000 students attending the university.

Cars Go In

Cars Come Out

You Find Women & Children Walking Alone - Very Safe

The journey to our hotel proved interesting. We flew from Mexico City to Guanajuato but the plane actually landed in the nearby city of Leon. A 600 peso ride took us to the city. Our taxi driver got lost in the narrow streets and had to call for help. It was little wonder as the street markings were almost nonexistent and our hotel was represented by a single wooden door to the street. Luckily it was on a street and not an alley. No bag drag.

During the taxi trip we passed several huge automobile assembly plants including GM, Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Later, I commented to Gabriel that I had seen a lot of Asian folks in the town. His reply was, “far too many” suggesting that the arrival of the management teams of the Japanese auto plants hasn’t been universally pleasing. He did admit that the relatively high paying jobs were welcomed by the locals. When pressed, he said the average unskilled (grade 12 graduates) workers were earning about 200 pesos (less than $20 CDN per day), while skilled workers (like in the auto plants) make closer to 800 pesos (less than $80 CDN) per day. Practising professionals might make as much as 1200 pesos. I guess we know why car manufacturers moved their plants to Mexico.

After settling into our boutique Hotel Ponciano, we took a short stroll to the central zocalo. We passed the Guanajuato University’s downtown campus. The University Law School dominates the skyline of the city. It is one of the top schools in Mexico and is celebrating it 285^th birthday. There were street musicians, dancers and thespians entertaining the crowds in the central square. It reminded us of the vibrant squares in Italy where everyone comes to socialize and be entertained in the evenings. One of the Guanajuato traditions is to sign up with one of the 7 or 8 companies for a show. The show involves wandering the streets and alleys following a troop of musicians, stopping to sing and perform skits. The audience participates in everything from the singing, dancing and performances. Since the songs and jokes were in Spanish, we (I) decided to give it a miss. The costumes were great.

Zocalo Fountain

Guanajuato Basillica - 50 M From our Hotel

But I Don't Speak Spanish

From Our Hotel Room Window - G.U.

Day two saw us explore on our own. The first stop was the Diego Rivera Museum. Rivera is considered the most famous artist in Mexico’s art history (1886-1957). He didn’t actually create his art in Guanajuato but was born in the house that is now the museum. His sister gathered samples of his work for display. Rivera is best known as the Mexican leader in murals and one hangs in the upstairs courtyard.

A Challenge To Find Initially

Famous Mural

We visited the Contemporary Art Gallery.

Luckily Nothing Was For Sale

We hired Gabriel Alcaraz on day two of our stay for a four-hour tour. Gabriel’s English was very good. I asked him where he learned the language and he told me he had lived/worked in California for three years before being deported by Obama’s ICE police.

Pipila

Our first stop was the Alhondiga de Granaditas. The building dates back to the 1700’s and served as the areas grain storage. Most importantly, it was the scene of the first successful skirmish between the Spanish and its Mexican born citizens. The Spanish blockaded themselves in the granary and managed to hold off the rebels first attack until local miner, Juan Jose de los Reyes Martines Amaro saved the day. Nicknamed El Pipila, (apparently that translates into “turkey” since he had the gait of a turkey from years of work in the mines). El Pipila hoisted a large, flat stone onto his back and manoeuvred close to the granary door. With bullets pinging off the stone on his back he managed to light the main wooden door on fire before fleeing. After the fire burned through the door, the rebels stormed the granary killing all the Spanish soldiers and those loyal to Spain. This action started the War of Independence from Spain. El Pipila's statue sits atop of the town and his name is still revered today.

Tough Place to Attack - Pipila's Door

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The next stop was the Mummy Museum. Essentially it is an underground walkway viewing numerous dead bodies. The simple notion of such a museum is repugnant to many gringos but Mexican culture treats the notion of death differently. Death is looked at as a natural process and the dead are revered as an important remaining part of the family. November 2 is the official Day of the Dead, when Mexicans present gifts to those that have gone on before. Even the national ski team competing in the South Korean Olympics have bejewelled skulls adoring their uniforms. Deborah was not comfortable taking pictures so the only one here is copied from the Internet.

The mummies are not like those found in the tombs of Egypt. There are no preservatives or bandages on these. The mummies of Guanajuato are simply dried remains of folks that died between 1860 and 1958. They were buried as they were and appear to be only dried, not deteriorated. The clothing is mostly intact, down to their leather shoes, The skin is dried and much of their hair is still in place. On some you can see the cause of death, like the discoloured skin near a stab wound.

The mummy story has its beginning in 1860. Before then, folks with money could be buried in a churchyard. In 1860 a new law was created in Mexico guaranteeing all people a burial in a public cemetery for a fee paid over the first four years after death by the family. Some folks didn’t pay. After four years, the bodies that had families who didn’t pay, were dug up and their spots were given to paying customers. In Guanajuato they discovered that approximately two of every hundred bodies dug up, were still in tack. Scientists say it is due to that fact there is only 20 cm of earth in the area and bodies are not buried in the earth. They are placed in wood caskets in rock/concrete/brick tombs. In the summer heat, the tombs act like ovens and the deceased body fluids evaporate. They don’t speculate why some and not all react this way. Curiously the majority of those that do not deteriorate are women. No one knows why but guide Gabe suggested that women are simply harder to get rid of.

Our next stop was the San Ramon Mining Museum in the hills above Guanajuato. The mine was opened in 1548 and the museum does a good job of representing the extracting of ore during early times. Originally, indigenous people were used (slaves) to extract the ore in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Due to the lack of dust protection the miners usually lived to around 30 years of age. We took the steps to the 60 meter mark and the return trip left us winded. It is hard to imagine the workers travelling deeper than that and being required to carry 900 kg of raw ore to the surface everyday.

Gabriel Telling the Mining Story

A Vein of Silver

There is still an active mine in the immediate area. It is owned by two Canadian companies and they pay a royalty of 20% of the profits to the Mexican government. Not a great deal for Mexico but as Gabriel said, the Mexican government doesn’t have the funds to do the mining themselves so this is the best deal they can make.

The fourth stop was to the Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera Museum. It was both a mining processing place and a residence for the mine owner. It is now a museum. The residence has been returned to its 17th century style and is surrounded by gardens.

The last stop was the lookout above the town. El Pipila’s statue sits atop the cliff and the lookout offers outstanding views of the old city.

Our last day was spent visiting the Eulalios Ferrer Rodriguez Museum that features a collection of Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

I confess, I have heard about Don Quixote but have never read the book. In fact, I didn’t know whether he was a fictional character in a book or a real life person. Eulalois Ferrer was a big fan and found the Cervantes’ book about the swashbuckling Quixote such an inspiration he founded and dedicated a museum to the idea of Quixote. I may have to read the book for having been there.