By Walter Hodges The sun was just cracking open through the low clouds along the high-desert horizon line outside San Miguel when Sylvia Luna, an indigenous Otomí woman, gathered some small wild rosemary stems in her hands. She gently crushed them, held the soft “needles” close to her nose, and breathed deeply from a memory 1500 years in the making. She smiled. She remembers. Silvia traces her cultural heritage back to the beginning in Mexico. Centuries before the Aztec came

By Camie Fenton Welcome to the July 2026 edition of Atención News, your ultimate insider’s perspective on the stories, people, and events that shape our extraordinary community. As the dramatic summer showers arrive to cool our warm afternoons and transform the surrounding high-desert countryside into a lush, vibrant green, the town comes alive with an unmistakable rhythmic charm. We invite you to step away from the digital rush, slow down, and immerse yourself in the rich na

By Liam Stidham Every great musician usually started with an influence, like watching a music video on TV, or watching a live concert on YouTube. In my case, when I was 8, I was with my parents watching a video of my favorite drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and then out of the blue, I told my parents that I wanted to play the drums. They were surprised but supportive and the next summer I went to a place called BandAid School of Music, and the School of Rock, in the US. When I came

By Bob Graham Continuing on from my past articles featuring the look alike birds of San Miguel, I suggest now that we next turn to three mid sized, black birds we see in the waters locally. That being the case, lets start with Neotropic Cormorants ! The best way to see them is kayaking on the Presa Allende with the Amigos De La Presa, an Audubon de México program. For information on their paddle times and cost, check their web page. Neotropic Cormorants nest throughout

By Don Krim “I am supporting my housekeeper’s daughter, preparing to go to college. What does she need…?” “…My gardener’s son is in prepa [high school] and I wish to support him. What do I need to know?” I am asked questions like these all the time. In most of México outside of the larger urban centers, less privileged Mexicans’ transition through high school and to university can be daunting. Kids and their parent(s) may be eager for furthering education, but usually have li

By Frank "Sugar" Hudson It was Friday morning and the four old friends had settled into their usual rhythm. At their age, routines mattered. The same arguments about who was to drive, and the same hope that this week they would discover a hidden vineyard among the rolling hills outside of San Miguel. Fridays were meant to be peaceful. A small winery under the pepper trees with a light breeze blowing. A young lady pouring tastings of a new vintage while a sommelier explains t

By Aundria McMillan Humphrey When you speak with Carla Cadena, Project Manager for the Campo Economic Development Project of the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende–Midday, the conversation quickly moves beyond infrastructure. Yes, the project builds rainwater harvesting cisterns and dry composting toilets. Yes, it addresses water contamination and rural sanitation. But what Carla sees every day is something deeper: the transformation of families and communities from the ins

By Patricia Schneider For several years now, I have been organizing very particular journeys throughout México and France, conceived less as simple itineraries than as a way of truly entering a place, until one sometimes has the feeling of having always lived there. Understanding a culture is not only about visiting monuments or seeing what one is “supposed” to see, but about sensing the rhythms of a city, its silences, its contradictions, and its deeper sensibility. In certa

By Judith Jenya In a sunlit home tucked into the hills of San Miguel de Allende, photographer and author Leah Feldon and drummer Rick Shlosser have built a life stitched together by passion, persistence, and a lifelong pursuit of creative expression. Their studios live on different floors—hers a light-filled space of painterly photographs of landscapes, abstracts, and flowers; his alive with drums, recording equipment, and gold records. Together, they embody a creative partne

By Lisa Babincsak For years, growth here largely existed at the boutique level. Independent hotels. Independent developments. Smaller hospitality concepts. Residential expansion that, while noticeable, still felt relatively localized in scale. That is beginning to change. Today, some of the world’s most recognized luxury hospitality groups are entering — orpre paring to enter — the market. Rosewood has long maintained a presence in the region, while internationally recognized

By Carla Maria Pérez Soon the rain will return, bringing with it a particular kind of peace. After months of dust, heat, and bright skies, the air softens, the light dims, and the whole day seems to exhale. Even the familiar streets feel quieter, as though the city itself is remembering how to rest. That is one way the rainy season can teach us about vibrant living. It reminds us that wellness is not always found in doing more, moving faster, or filling every hour. Sometimes

By Meryl Truett At Estudio Mario Oliva, color becomes more than pigment. It becomes memory, atmosphere, language, and emotion. A Través del Círculo Cromático is an evolving series of exhibitions exploring the emotional and symbolic power of color through the work of contemporary artists whose practices move fluidly between abstraction, figuration, photography, and mixed media experimentation. Each exhibition inhabits a different point on the chromatic wheel—sometimes vibrant

By Doreen Cumberford What do you call yourself when you move to another country? Expat? Immigrant? Nomad? Global citizen? If you've spent any time in online forums for foreign residents, you'll know this question generates more heat than a June afternoon in the Jardín. People feel strongly. Labels matter, or do they? Here in San Miguel de Allende, the locals have already solved this problem for us. They call us extranjeros. Simple. Neutral. Done. Except it isn't simple at all

By Lisa Babincsak There are cafés in San Miguel, and then there’s City Market Café. Technically, it’s a grocery store coffee counter. But spiritually, it’s something else entirely. A social vortex. A microclimate of espresso, gossip, networking, accidental reunions, and highly strategic table selection. You don’t really go there just for coffee. You go there to see who’s there. Or who isn’t. By around 10 a.m., once the city has stretched, caffeinated, and accepted the day, th

By Felecia Ford From Ontario indie-pop jams as a teenager to deeply expressive jazz improvisations today, San Miguel's multi-instrumentalist and saxophonist Sophia Smith speaks about music not just as performance, but as a path toward self-discovery. FF: What first drew you to the saxophone, and when did you realize music was becoming something more serious for you? SS: I was around 14 when I started jamming with friends and really connecting to the saxophone. Playing in an i

By Aundria McMillan Humphrey When Pascual Hijuelos opened the door to his home, I expected an hour of conversation. He gave me two. What unfolded was not an interview, but an invitation into his world, his work, and the quiet interior landscape that shapes both. His home, with its clean lines and expansive light, feels like a sanctuary built with intention. Vivid paintings — one stretching more than twenty feet — pulse against white walls. Deep, vivid colors and tonal shifts

By Cathi House There is a rhythm to every great city, a palpable beat that moves through the streets, felt in the cadence of those walking, the ebb and flow of traffic, the movements of those who live there, the calm buildings punctuated by great monuments… Once you feel the rhythm, you feel everything start to pulse with it. We have just returned from six weeks in Paris and the rhythms of that great city still modulate our heartbeats, reluctant to let us feel San Francisco a

By Randolph Rogers Just below the Rosewood Hotel and at the corner of Ancha de San Antonio and Nemesio Díaz is perhaps the best liquor store in the state of Guanajuato. The supermarkets have impressive wine sections, but I choose Cava Sautto for the good selection of vinos locales. When talking to local winemakers and winery owners, the question of distribution comes up. Local wineries depend on the retail sales at their locations. Only a few large wineries like Tres Raíces a

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 Organizers of the annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival announced the establishment of the San Miguel Global Literary Institute, a new umbrella organization designed to offer expanded year-round programs and a global reach for San Miguel’s bilingual and multi-cultural literary organization. Because the new Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in the U.S., contributions are now tax-deductible for U.S. donors. “This is one o

By Richard Adelman, M. A. Do you feel as though you are always in a rush? “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get” is a common experience—even here in San Miguel. Time pressure is not inevitable and does not come from nowhere. It can come from your self-image: thinking of yourself as someone who can or ought to be able to accomplish certain things, regardless of your actual age or ability. Many try to pretend that they are younger than they are. They expect themselves to be a

By Natalie Taylor You can find the taco just about anywhere in the world, and it screams out “México!” The origins of this humble food are pre-Hispanic, going back almost three thousand years. The indigenous peoples of México used freshly made corn tortillas as vessels or utensils to hold food. There are various stories about its name, but most likely it comes from “tlahco” a Nahuatl (Aztec) word meaning “in the middle.” This perfectly describes the action of placing a fillin

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 Jonathan Lockwood You may already know Alejandro Vasconcelos. If you've been around San Miguel long enough, you probably visited Mezcal-Art, his place near centro, before it closed. Beautiful outdoor courtyard, serious mezcal selection, food that kept getting better. While plenty of local spots were content to coast, Alex kept building — literally. He put a roof over the main seating area, perfected the menu and pumped up the mezcal list even further. I was always impresse