Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

In the 18th century, Catholic church fathers chastened the denizens of San Miguel de Allende for holding too many celebrations. Fortunately for us, no one seemed to listen and the fiesta goes on. Here are some highlights of the city’s many annual festivities.

November: Souls of deceased children are welcomed back by their families on November 1, Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints’ Day), and on November 2, Día de los Fieles Difuntos (All Souls’ Day), the adult dearly departed are enticed to visit. Altars laden with marigolds, candles, food, and photos of the deceased offer comfort and nourishment, and elaborately adorned plots serve as picnic sites as family and friends gather in the cemeteries to commune with the dead. Also called Día de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead,” this centuries-old tradition celebrates the continuity of life and a uniquely Mexican view of death.

San Miguel de Allende offers visitors seeking an adventure of the spirit a unique opportunity for personal growth.

A curandero’s (healers) broom standing upside down in the corner of an ancient stone house, fresh chamomile flowers on the floor sending up an intoxicating aroma. A painter at work on a dazzlingly colourful canvas, a vision she had in a dream the night before. A wildly gyrating group of dancers ranging from teens to people in their seventies, passionately expressing themselves in movement—dance as a personal sacred ritual.

Welcome to the Mexico of spiritual healing, inner exploration, and mystical seeking—a place of wonder amid the already exotic delights of a vibrant, centuries-old culture steeped in spirituality.

Where there’s a word there’s a way

Going to Mexico to study Spanish is a worthy goal, and to make your linguistic dreams a reality in San Miguel de Allende, one of the town’s many language schools might be just the boleto (ticket).

The city is the adopted home of several thousand expats; visitors found staring helplessly as they flip through pocket dictionaries are likely to find a translator on the spot. Mexicans working in hotels and restaurants can usually ease the frustration. That “out-of-my-element” feeling is thus minimized, but learning takes more determination than it would in a town not known for its tourist trade.

The Warren Hardy Spanish School is the answer for many. Hardy’s goal is to get students to a conversational level as quickly as possible. Since the school’s start in 1990, Hardy has built an industry out of his method. These materials are available online, but the best way to learn, many have found, is to enroll in his San Miguel school and practice their newly discovered language skills with Mexican-born tutors.

This bright, charming, colourful, and vivacious town can be found tucked away in the highlands of central Mexico. It is a place where Mexicans and world travellers mix and intermingle with ease, a place where the famous buenos dias (good morning) is still chimed by all. San Miguel is one of the few remaining towns that represents all that is traditionally Mexican. It is a town that seems to emerge out of time, a place that has seen no change since the 16th century.

San Miguel de Allende was founded in 1542 by a Franciscan monk, Fray Juan de San Miguel. There were actually two settlements founded by Fray Juan. The first called, San Miguel Viejo, was where he first settled among the local tribe, the Chichimecas. Water, however, became scarce, so while on one of his daily walks, he came across what is now known as the famous park El Chorro. He moved his settlement here and called it San Miguel el Grande.

It was never clear to me as to whether I discovered San Miguel or San Miguel discovered me. That dilemma has played havoc with my mind over a period of 20 years. Each person who resides in San Miguel often has an original narrative as to how they discovered this colonial Mexican town. Twenty years ago, I had been invited to San Miguel by an artist friend of mine. My first impression of San Miguel was because of the mirador or lookout point on the Salida a Queretaro. From this vantage point, one can view the town from above which appeared to be like a misty landscape in a Breugal painting. Multicoloured houses, domed and minaretted cathedrals, twisted cobblestone street, lavender-blossomed jacaranda trees all seemed to melt into the diffused light of the landscape. Lakes, fields and mountains seemed to slip off the horizon. Then and now, it is an enchanted view. My host took me to the 18th century residence of José Mojica, which had been turned into a small luxurious hotel called the Villa Santa Monica. My friend and his wife believed that the Villa Santa Monica was the quintessential location to sip Mexican margaritas before going to the Sierra Nevada Hotel on Hospicio Street to check in for my two-week stay.