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Guanajuato and Cervantes
A Love Affair With Don Quixote Among the Mines &
Mummies
by Eleanor S. Morris
GUANAJUATO, Mexico - This most photogenic city on Mexico's
Colonial Circuit is built in a canyon, wedged between two rugged mountains.
The city grew here in 1559 because these mountains were chock-full of
silver, all mined for theenrichment of Spain. In Colonial times, Guanajuato
was the silver capital of the Americas, generating nearly a third of the
world's silver.
The mines are still working, especially rich La Valenciana,
but it's Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha that has captured
Guanajuato's heart. The town hosts an international Cervantes Festival
every fall, and a tall statue of the Don and faithful Sancho Panza stands
at Plazuela del Quixote beside the small Cervantes Theater.
But Cervantes' hero of the Impossible Dream is celebrated
all year long in the Museo Iconografia del Quijote (as the name is spelled
in Spanish). Here within the museum, the story comes to life with statues
and murals vying to depict the poignant tale of Don Quijote and Sancho
Panza and the beautiful Dulcinea. When during the year performances are
staged in the museum's indoor courtyard, voice swell up, magnified, to
the arched balconies as chorus and principals sing passionately of the
deluded Don.
 On
the outskirts of the city, the suburb of Valenciana has both a beautiful
church and the rich still-working La Valenciana Silver Mine. It's reached
by Dolores Hidalgo Highway (Rte. 110) with spectacular mountain views
along the way. The church nearby, La Iglesia de San Cayetano, known as
"La Valenciana," was built by the mine's first owner, the Count
of Valenciana. Rumor has it that he had silver dust mixed into the cement
binding the building stones.
But we mentioned mummies: If your interests include the
bizarre, there's a museum housing the old remains of bodies interred in
the crypt of the city's municipal cemetery. For some reason, perhaps the
dryness of the air, the bodies mummify, and it was explained that "if
you don't pay within five years (for perpetual care) you are dug up."
Now a tourist attraction, they are on display in glass cases, 197 of them
at present lining the walls of the crypt. However, if you're squeamish,
you can skip this ghoulish attraction.
UNESCO has declared Guanajuato a "World Heritage Zone."
Since the city grew up, not out, the result is a labyrinth of winding
cobblestone streets wending upward from the canyon floor, one almost on
top of another. Driving the one-way thoroughfares, you go in and out of
tunnels which originally were subterranean drainage canals, many built
hundreds of years ago (although new ones are built by every mayor, we
were told). Wherever you look, you see rock walls rising up to the right
and left, and the sky only widens if you go to the top of the town to
see the huge statue of El Pipila, young hero of Mexico's War of Independence
from Spain, looming over the city.
An attraction is Alhondiga de Granaditas, the grain warehouse
where with the help of El Pipila, Father Hidalgo won his first victory
against Spanish forces in the War of Independence. Now a regional museum
of the Institute of Anthropology and History, there are murals by Chavez
Morado and a Heroes of the Independence Chamber, lit by an eternal flame.
During the day and early evening, crowds promenade around
triangular shady-sunny Jardin de la Union, one of the city's central plazas,
also known as El Pedazo de Queso because it's shaped like a wedge of cheese.
The obligatory bandstand is almost hidden under the thick trueno trees
whose branches shade the wide sidewalk. The walk itself is paved with
tiles, reaching into the cafe's and shops. Wrought iron benches, bright
yellow umbrellas and crowds around the tables at the outdoor cafes make
the Jardin resemble a Parisian scene.
Also on the plaza is the magnificent Teatro Juarez, its
Doric exterior, French foyer and Moorish interior standing as a testimonial
to the great silver mining booms of 1873 to 1903. Atop the building, statues
of eight muses stand silhouetted against the sky. Open daily, it's used
for opera, theater, dance and special events.
Around the corner on Plaza de la Paz, you can't miss La
Parroquia, the gold and coral church standing out among the lowly rooftops
and gleaming in the sun. Known as the Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato,
the church dates from 1671 and contains what is considered the oldest
piece of Christian art in Mexico, a wooden image 
The Diego Rivera Museum is in the artist's birthplace,
and much of the furniture, including the bed he was born in, has been
preserved on the first floor. The second floor has exhibits of much of
the his work. The third floor is a gallery for changing exhibitions.
Guanajuato becomes medieval of an evening when groups of
estudianias, students of the University of Guanajuato dressed in medieval
costume, lead callejoneadas, singalongs through the narrow, winding alleyways
called callejones. Anyone can join the laughing strollers who follow the
musicians into the crooked callejones, treading over cobblestones and
up terraced steps to cross wide squares with fountains playing in the
cool night air.
CERVANTES FESTIVALS:
* Coloquio Cervantino: February.
* Festival Internacional de Cervanino: October.
* Entremeses Cervantinos: For information contact Informes en Difusion
Cultural de lad Universidad de Guanajuato, Meson de San Antonio calle
de ALonso No. 12, tel. 473 2-51-02. (Entremeses are short comic scenes
written to be performed during play intermissions. They're in archaic
Spanish, difficult to understand, but entertaining to watch.)
* Callejoneadas: Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 p.m.
* Museo Iconografia del Quijote: Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 6:60
pm; Sunday 10 am to 2:30 pm.
For more information contact your travel agent or the Mexico
Tourism Office in Los Angeles, 310/203-8191 or 1-800-44-MEXICO. The tourist
office in Guanajuato is located at Plaza de la Paz 14, tels. 473 2-15-74
and 2-19-82.
Copyright Eleanor S. Morris
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