Present Day – Guanajuato, Festival Cerventino

Guanajuato, Festival Cervantino

Present Day – Guanajuato, Festival Cerventino

Excerpts from my “Walking Tours of Guanajuato.”

Walking Tour of Guanajuato: City of Cervantes
Guanajuato is one of the Mexican cities which have best preserved their own peculiar spirit, and in consequence, their authentic stateliness.
Introduction to Guanajuato
“Nature made this corner of México one of magnificence. Its indescribable dynamism fills all who see it with wonder and enjoyment. And it gives one an uneasy sensation: that of the intense power of geology over the stupendous and rugged landscape.” Esteban A. de Varona

The city, approached by road, is completely concealed in a long deep valley until the last turn in the road when suddenly you’re on one of the busiest thoroughfares (there are only three) of Guanajuato.

The mountains to the north are Los Cerros del Cuarto. Due south, across town from them (statue of Pipila) is the San Miguel mountain. On the east are Los Timultos, and northeast the Mellado, Valenciana, and Cata. The Guanajuato River, with its tributary, the Cata, flows underground mostly, and completely follows the length of the city.

Almost at once you may realize, there is no geometry or coherence here. It is a confused capricious huddle of tunnels, narrow streets, innumerable alleyways, and steep winding stairways. The houses crowd together at varying heights in a Moorish conglomeration, a “Casbah.” It is one of the most spectacular cities in America. (And there’s NO place to park!)

As the famed Mexican author, Esteban A. de Varona, said,
“One should always go to Guanajuato with the spirit of a pilgrim, to live the emotion of its poetry, to receive the confidence of its uneasiness, to hear its eloquent and dramatic silence, in a peaceful [early morning] stroll through the city. Here everything is almost intact. It has survived the remote time of its wonderful past.”

Guanajuato is filled with many popular legends, and linked these days with Miguel de Cervantes, romantic Quixote spirits, and the Festival Cervantino (a yearly festival of music and dance).

A fable persists that on the nights of full moons a side door of a house on Baratillo Square opens and in a spectacular manner and suddenly, out comes a strange carriage, drawn by two frisky horses of a diabolical aspect, shedding fire from their eyes and froth from their nostrils. Winged spirits of a exceedingly repugnant aspect help to push the two hind wheels of the sloven vehicle.

A thunderous noise proceeds from the carriage as it stampedes down the street, the hoofs of the horses striking sparks from the stones of Sopeña street.

A cloud smelling like sulfur envelopes the coach carrying a suffering spirit incorporated in a skeleton and covered in a white shroud, furiously lashing the horses with a whip which it brandishes in its right hand, cracking it with a deafening noise.

Perhaps, it is said, it’s Don Melchor Campuzano, who before his death became a terrible miser, looking for the forgiveness of the divine will.

Guanajuato, Festival Cervantino