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Tag Archives: colonial cities
Walking Tours of San Luis Potosí – Cathedral Plaza
10 Jan
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Walking Tours of San Luis Potosí – An Excerpt
9 Jan
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Walking Tours of San Luis Potosí
Copyright William J. Conaway, 1999, Derechos Reservados
Getting There
Getting to San Luis Potosí from anywhere is easy. It’s a major industrial city, capital of the State of the Same name, and a university town.
I recommend the first-class busses instead of taking a car because, as usual, there’s no place to park. The walking tours are just that, and where the distances are too great I suggest a cab. For just a few dollars you can get anywhere in the city in minutes.
Hotels are no problem because there’s a jillion of them. Use your Fodor’s. If you’re on a budget there’s plenty of low cost hotels right down in the heart of the Historic center.
Prepare yourself by reading the history of the place first….
La Gran Chichimeca
The Gran Chichimeca is the name given by the Spanish conquistadors to a vast stretch of land north of the settlement of Querétaro. The word Chichimeca comes from the Aztec language and means barbarian. The Aztecs had been unable to conquer these nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers, and had only begun rudimentary trading with them from their fortified settlement in what is now San Juan del Río.
After the conquest of Tenochtitlán, the Conquistadores built their houses in what is now Mexico City. They rested for awhile, spending their time gambling and carousing, but with each new ship arriving from Spain came more and more men of the same caliber—men looking for adventure, and filled with the desire to make their fortune in the New World.
These soldiers of fortune fanned out northward from Mexico City, at first following the Gulf coast into the lands populated by the more sedentary Indians on the edge of the Gran Chichimeca. These early conquistadors and the accompanying clergy evangelized the Indians they encountered and enlisted them into their armies as allies. This was readily accomplished because these Indians had lived in fear of the Chichimecas their entire lives, with good reason, and by joining the Spanish they were provided with powerful weapons and even horses.
These expeditions gradually moved inland to confront the Chichimecas directly. The Spaniards went, seeking gold and silver, and their Indian allies went along in search of fertile land, under the protection of the King, that had been promised them for their help.
These armies of conquerors followed all the rumors, the legends, the stories, that were related to them by the newly converted Indians they evangelized on their travels. Eventually, in 1546, they discovered the great deposits of silver in Zacatecas. The mines there, hundreds of miles from “civilization,” were totally surrounded by hostile Indians who murdered most of the original settlers and continually attacked those that followed. It became nearly impossible to bring in the much needed supplies, and to take out the rich silver ore that the miners extracted.
The settlement of Querétaro was the last outpost before the vast unsettled lands that made up the Gran Chichimeca. Vast stretches of unpopulated land along the trail known as “El Camino Real de la Plata,” the Royal Silver Trail, aided the Indians in their attacks against the Spaniards.
Father Juan de San Miguel was sent out with converted Tarascan Indians from Acámbaro to build new settlements, and to convert as many Chichimecas as possible.
The first settlement was San Miguel de Los Chichimecas (now de Allende), in 1542. From there Father Juan moved north and east to Xichu where he built another. These settlements, from the very first, suffered sporadic attacks by bands of marauding Indians, who viewed these settlements as encroachments on their territory.
Walking Tours of San Luis Potosí – Download on Amazon.com
8 JanDownload all eight “Walking Tour,” books from amazon.com; Barnes and Noble.com; or Kobo.com.
Walking Tours of Querétaro
7 Jan
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Walking Tours of Querétaro – an Excerpt
5 Jan
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An Excerpt from my, “Walking Tours of Santiago de Queretaro”.
Walking Tours of Santiago de Querétaro
Copyright William J. Conaway, 1998
The Early History
The State of Querétaro is bordered by deep canyons and towering mountains. Its eastern edge lies along the Sierra Madre Oriental and its northern and northwestern along the Sierra Gorda where you find the Cerro de la Calentura (Fever Mountain), 3,350 meters tall (10,887 feet); the Pico de Zamorano (Zamora’s Peak), 3,300 meters (10,725 feet); Cerro Pengüicas (Penguin’s Mountain), 3191 meters (10,370 feet); the Cerro del Callo (Callous Mountain), 2,940 meters (9,555 feet); the Astillero (Splinter Mountain), 2,850 meters (9,295 feet); and the Cimatario (Summit Mountain), 2,447 meters (7,952 feet).
These mountain systems form tremendous valleys like those of where the cities of Querétaro, San Juan del Río, Cadereyta, and Tequisquiapan are located. These valley floors are at 1,800 meters above sea level (5,850 feet).
Archeologist tell us that from 6,000 – 3,000 B.C. waves of migrating tribes moving south peopled the country to the north of Querétaro with agriculturally innovative settlers who domesticated maiz, frijol, calabaza, chile, champiñones, etc. The innovation of the new “sedentary” way of life, with its security of steady supplies of foodstuffs, led to the further advancement of mankind: the invention of ceramics and weaving looms provided humans with cooking pots and warm clothing. All this we know from archeological digs in the State of Querétaro.
Querétaro forms a dividing line between Mesoamérica and Aridamérica. In Aridamérica the people remained nomads, hunters and gatherers. Fierce independent people who remained aloof and hostile when they confronted their other more settled brethren. The mixture of these two very different civilizations give Querétaro its unique cultural heritage.
By 350 A.D., the people in the northern areas of Querétaro lived in the mountains and used the natural formations for defense. They mined the rocky peaks for minerals to trade with the coastal populations in the Veracruz area, as evidenced by the pottery shards discovered later.
In the southern regions of the state were large cultivated areas in the valleys, San Juan Del Río being the location of important markets for trade in the region.
Walking Tours of Queretaro
4 JanDownload any of the Eight “Walking Tour” books at Amazon.com; Barnes and Noble.com; or Kobo.com
Walking Tours of Guanajuato – an Excerpt
2 Jan
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An excerpt from my “Walking Tours of Guanajuato: City of Cervantes”.
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
This guide is designed so that you can see all of the important places downtown between the hours of 11 A.M. and 2 P.M., because most of the museums and churches close then. If you can wait for lunch until then, you’ll be better off. Take a Snickers!
If you’re physically unable to walk long distances and you need a shorter tour try to do #’s 1-10, M1, and M3 at least. You can buy postcards of #’s 11-15 and either take a bus or a taxi to all the rest.
The legends are printed in italics. They are authentic, and have been handed down generation after generation. I suggest you find a place to sit and read them while you’re actually at the place named in them. But if you wish you can read them before you start out or afterwards. It’s up to you.
You really should spend a few days here in this magical place to get the feel of it. Right downtown at the start of our Walking Tour is the Hotel Santa Fe (4 star) directly on the Plaza de la Unión, or across the street the Hotel San Diego (3 star) next to the church of the same name. These are great places to spend the weekend and be serenaded by the University band.
If you’d rather stay out of town there’s always the Hotel Misión de San Gabriel de Barrera (5 star) right beside the museum of the same name. You can taxi into town from there.
Don’t go to Guanajuato by car. Go by bus. México has the best bus service in North America. They have comfortable seats, movies, bathrooms, and they maintain a speed limit of 55 miles-an-hour. Having a car in Guanajuato is of no real benefit.
If you must drive, park as soon as you enter the city. There’s a public parking lot on the left hand side of the divided street just after the statue of the miners, Estacionamiento Público.
From the bus station or the public parking lot you can get a cab into the city to our starting point, Jardín de la Unión.
If you’re on a budget: from the bus station take one of the city buses that says Jardín Unión on the windshield. If you’ve driven to Guanajuato, from the parking lot, cross the street, and walk down to the covered bus kiosk. Take any bus that says Jardín Unión on the windshield.
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.
Walking Tours of Guanajuato – Available for download on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or Kobo.com
29 DecDownload all Eight Mexican Colonial Cities Walking Tours
Living and Writing in Mexico 