Guanajuato

After an early morning bus ride, I was rewarded with a wonderful day in Guanajuato, a city that boasts Spanish colonial architecture of the 1500s, a university known for its arts programs and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in October. The well preserved city was designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 1988.

Settled in 1559 due to the silver and gold deposits, the area is a maze of tunnels and narrow cobble stone streets. The colonial barons reaping the wealth of the mines built beautiful mansions, churches and theaters that still populate Guanajuato. The city and the surrounding areas were central to the start of the Mexican independence movement, with rebel leaders Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende in nearby Dolores and San Miguel beginning the war for independence in 1810. Almost 200 years later in 2000, Vicente Fox won the Mexican presidency under the PAN (Partido Accion Nacional), breaking the 70 year reign of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional). Prior to his presidency, Fox was governor of the state of Guanajuato.

City scenes of Guanajuato

La Catrina is an image made popular by Jose Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s. It is a common image used during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1 and 2.

Guanajuato is home to three main theaters. Teatro Juarez was inaugurated in the early 1900s during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. His French tastes reflect the lavish interior and the imposing exterior. The Teatro Principal and Teatro Cervantes are host to performances during the Cervantino festival in October.

El Museo Iconografico del Quijote is an excellent collection of a variety of images of the literary figure Don Quixote de la Mancha.

On my way to the University of Guanajuato, I passed a print of a Guayasamin painting. I was reminded of his museum in Quito, Ecuador that I visited a few years ago.

La Universidad de Guanajuato is considered one of Mexico's best schools for music, theater and law.

Finally, I could not have been in Guanajuato without visiting the birthplace of Diego Rivera, which has been converted into a museum. Diego Rivera and his twin were born in this house in 1886 and lived here until he was six when his family moved to Mexico City. The first floor is a collection of the family's furniture and antiques while and second and third floors house a few of Rivera's portraits and sketches and temporary exhibitions.