By Isabel Castrejón Pascacio The Mexican rebozo is memory, identity, craftsmanship, and fashion woven into one long piece of cloth. For centuries, the rebozo has accompanied women through everyday life, used as a shawl, baby carrier, head covering, symbol of resistance, and statement of elegance. Today, it is experiencing a remarkable revival, finding its place once again in contemporary wardrobes around the world. The story of the rebozo is also the story of México itself: a

By Catherine Marenghi Among the sacred foods of México, chocolate stands out. Cacao trees were first domesticated in present-day Ecuador and later in Mesoamerica, where cacao became an elite elixir some 4,000 years ago. The Maya and Aztecs, possibly even the Olmecs, considered cacao a gift from the gods and used it as currency, medicine, and in ceremonies. Spanish conquistadors encountered cacao in 1519 and brought it to Spain, where it was used in medicine. Cacao spread acro

By Frank "Sugar" Hudson John Steinbeck told us that in early June every sunset is different. Well, June is here, with longer days and the promise of the coming rains, cooler weather and beautiful sunsets. Early June is still a warm month, with average temperatures fluctuating between 57 degrees and 78 degrees Fahrenheit. But late June usually brings the rains and cooler weather. The first major holiday in June is the Feast Day of Saint Anthony of Padua which is celebrated fr

By Natalie Taylor The annual Locos Parade of San Miguel de Allende seems like a local take on Mardi Gras, with people in outrageous costumes parading along the streets of the city. But Los Locos goes back to the 1700s when it began as a harvest festival honoring San Pascual Bailon, patron saint of cooks and orchard keepers. Later, St. Anthony of Padua was also added to the celebration. The hortelanos, orchard keepers, danced to honor the saints and handed out fruits and veget

By Alex MacLeod A chance encounter with Stirling Dickinson seven decades ago changed the trajectory of a young Elvira Sierra Cruz’s life, which ended Easter Sunday in her peaceful death at age 85. As a teenager, seeking work to help support her large family, she saw a big building, as she recounted in an oral history three years ago, and went in to ask for a job. As it turned out, the building was the Instituto Allende and the person who greeted her was Dickinson. Despite the

By Frank "Sugar" Hudson May in San Miguel de Allende marks the transition from the dry spring season into the early buildup of summer. It’s one of the warmest months of the year, with increasingly humid conditions and the first signs of the rainy season. The month of May begins with Labor Day, May 1st, which is celebrated with a parade of Union workers. The real celebration begins two day later on May 3rd: Día de La Santa Cruz. Construction workers will show up after attend

By Catherine Marenghi A woman newly arrived in San Miguel shared a complaint on Facebook: She had sampled her first ear of local corn, and she bitterly proclaimed, “Mexican corn is terrible!” To say her statement was sacrilegious would be an understatement. After all, corn is one of the sacred foods of México. It was first cultivated in México thousands of years ago, producing hundreds of varieties, of which this woman had tasted only one. Corn is integral not only to Mexican

By Patricia Schneider As the plane descends into the 2-to-5-million-year-old Valley of México, the city appears all at once, stretching across the high plateau. In the distance, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl rise majestically, volcanoes that have watched over this valley for hundreds of thousands of years. The mexica founded Tenochtitlan around 1325, on an island in Lake Texcoco , once a vast shimmering blue expanse encircled by mountains. Long before the Spanish arrived, t

By Natalie Taylor A great city deserves a great museum. San Miguel de Allende, with all its history, culture, and art lacks museums to showcase them. Certainly, the Allende house museum—home of the eponymous hero—informs about his life and times. Within it, Sala Izquinapan has a fantastic (though by no means complete) collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts from the area. There are a few small, specialized museums, but not a comprehensive repository of the history and art of San

By Cathi House The Jardín Principal of San Miguel is the beating heart of this beautiful town, in which the past and the future are linked with the joys of daily life. Leafy trees carefully shaped meld together to create an embracing ceiling for those seated on the many benches of the Jardin. Birds twitter overhead, the rustle of the leaves in a gentle breeze, soft sounds of water in fountains that cool the air - all work together to create a peaceful space in which to gat

By Patricia Schneider Traveling is not about distance. It is about presence, about learning to see, to listen…to feel. With Le Voyage Intime , each journey becomes a conversation between art, nature, craft and the self. I personally accompany a few travelers through México and soon through France to experience places few ever reach: private homes, hidden ateliers, gardens suspended in silence, and moments that transform the way we look at the world. These are voyages - atelie

By Aundria McMillan Humphrey At precisely 4:00 a.m. on October 4 th , when most small cities are asleep, San Miguel de Allende erupts....

By Francisco J. Báez In a study published in PLOS Biology in 2021 by Sascha Frühholz, professor of psychology at the University of...

By Natalie Taylor International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is celebrated on August 9 th . Established by the United Nations,...

By Natalie Taylor I want to invite you to two lectures/talks I'll be giving this month. On June 18th at 5:00p.m. at Teatro Santa Ana...

By Patricia Schneider It begins, as many good things do, in México City — a metropolis that breathes with both ancient gods and modern...

By Dr. David Stea Do you know the geography of San Miguel de Allende? Do you know there exists an upper and lower San Miguel, the upper...

By Danita Brisson For 290 years, the structure at Insurgentes #25 has housed charity and mercy, death and evisceration, commerce and...

By Acton Bell From Patrick Henry’s proclamation, “Give me liberty or give me death,” to Martin Luther King’s: “I have a dream;” leaders...