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Pictures left on the cutting room floor

San Miguel's living room

Like many Mexican town centers, San Miguel's Jardin achieved its pseudo French-garden character around the turn of the 20th century when a rising wealthy Mexican elite began to mimic European ways, especially those of the French.  Starting in the 1870s,  Mexico was ruled for parts of 5 decades by José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori. The Mestizo Diaz loved French stuff despite the Maximilian Affair which made him a household (or at least hacienda) name. Diaz's long tenure gave him time to share his Francophile public designs with many Mexican town centers.  He also developed an ingenious method of getting reelected president: he habitually had his opponents assassinated if there was any chance that they might beat him.  Somehow viable candidates became few and far between.  He died in exile -- in Paris, of course.



Anytime of the day or night, it seems the Jardin is home to expat and locals alike.  The carefully maintained Mexican laurel trees provide needed shade on warmer days.  For many of the locals, their small houses do not provide much space for visitors -- so the Jardin serves as their living room. It may also serve as their den now that it has free WiFi.  In March 2008, a Starbucks opened across the street, much to the chagrin of many vocal expats.
  


San Miguel has a bigger  square in the central historic district, but not as green, and bigger green spaces, but not as well trafficked as this lovely space that most consider the heart of the town (with the soul across the street at La Parroquia).

A walk around the Jardin

The south side of the Jardin is typically filled with tourists who like the view of the quirky La Parroquia pink spire and its neighboring San Rafael church (below).  The area has long been preserved in its Spanish colonial state -- first by a slow economy that made construction superfluous in a town with too many buildings.  After  San Miguel's historical designation in 1926, conservation laws made change all but impossible (except for cosmetic improvements such as burying those ugly post-colonial utility lines).  



With churches holding the south, 18th century Spanish/Mexican baroque arcades, called portales, line the east (upper portal) and west (lower portal) edges of the Jardin.  The designations of upper and lower refer to this area being on a hill. In fact, the west side while lower in elevation contains the mansions of the town's two most elevated colonial-era families, the Allendes and the Canals.

 

Above is the east (upper) portal as seen through a former market arcade (now a restaurant shown below). The east portal is still lively, filled with coffee houses and stores.  While the portals shelter retail space (and always have), these were built as residences for the wealthy.  Mexican colonial architecture typically provided for stores on the first level, a tradition started by the conqueror Cortez who mandated that all public buildings contain rentable space to reduce the burden of the building on the tax rolls.^[10]  

The open-air restaurant above is just east of the Parroquia complex.  Previously it served as a market.  Built about the same time as the turn-of-the-century (20th) Jardin, it shows a few French flourishes as well. Ignore the visual clutter trying to convince you to open your wallet to celebrate the Christmas season.  

A tale of two neighbors  -- and two statues

Crossing the Jardin and moving slightly downhill, we see the portal and area to the west of the Jardin.  It doesn't bustle like the east side but rather rises in noble splendor with the Canal palace and the Allende House.  Both these houses of aristocratic families sit on northeast corners and contain statues, one (Ignacio Allende at left) of the secular hero who provided what military structure he could to the ragtag mob that attacked this town to start the War of Independence.  The other (at right) of the Virgin of Loreto, patron of the powerful Canal family.  When the mob came to San Miguel, the commander of the local garrison was Colonel Narciso De La Canal.  He kept his troops in quarters.  His rebellious neighbor Ignacio Allende herded the Spanish aristocrats into the nearby college  -- terrifying them, but saving their lives by stopping the mob from approaching them.

Casa de Allende

The Allende homestead: Here was born a man known everywhere...	...with its plaque

Almost directly south-west of the Jardin, the home of the military instigator of the War for Mexican Independence stands as a museum (pre-Columbian through War of Independence).  Some consider this structure to be the finest Spanish colonial residence in the city.  By now you've translated the Latin above the doorway telling us that "He who was born here is known everywhere."  Note the baroque embellishments above the door of this late 17th century neoclassical structure.^[16]   While the fronds and vines here are laid out in perfect symmetry, the rest of the facade provides baroque surprises such as no two windows being alike.   No religious statues grace this opening, in contrast to the larger Canal mansion on the corner whose pink east wall can be seen in the next picture.  

Note in that same picture the white statue of Allende watching the scene from his second-story perch.  This is a replacement statue for one thought to be the great rebel military leader  but which was, in fact, that of his arch rival the royalist General --and eventually Mexican president --Anastasio Bustamante.  Bustamante  fought the rebellion until it was obvious the revolt would succeed.  He then switched sides.^[111]   The correct statue now keeps a stone eye on the Canal home where the commander of the local garrison lived in his family's mansion -- and kept his troops away while his neighbor Allende's mob ransacked the city on that fateful night in 1810.  

No one who visits this house would view its most famous occupant, Ignacio Allende as a poor revolutionary.  But he rebelled for the upper, not lower, classes.  For more on that revolution, check out our page discussing the attack of the nearby college building where Allende had locked up his threatened Spanish aristocrat neighbors for their own safety.  Click here to go there.

Before turning our attention to the De la Canal mansion, let's study a few architectural flourishes on its fellow west side buildings:  

Above is one of those baroque windows sporting both stone carvings and wrought iron.

Above and below are two versions of a typical 18th century Mexican Cortina: the stone reliefs suggesting cloth draperies.^[17]   

Not all of the embellishments are attractive: note the electrical wiring below...

...the delicate cast iron railings not necessarily improved by the lights from the wiring.  Do you want to look good during the day or at night?

Above is a typical west-of-Jardin residence abbutting the Canal mansion.  It shows the arcaded retail space below the living quarters typical of a late 18th century well-to-do family's residence.

Before turning to the granddaddy of San Miguel mansions, let's look at some newer construction (above) on the north side of the garden.  This building, the Posada (hotel) San Francisco is trying its best to fit in with the lavish Canal Mansion kitty cornered to it, but it's a bit budget-challenged.  But thanks for the effort!  The site was previously a residence of a Canal relative.  In 1939 it became the first hotel built specifically for tourists; it's target were the art students, also somewhat budget-challenged. Form follows cash flow!

The Canal Winter Palace

Above: A detail from the Banamex building at left which was originally the De la Canal Family mansion.  The banking conglomerate Banamex was gobbled up by CitiGroup in 2001.   They occasionally  exhibit their art collection inside.

The next several pictures show the residence of the towns most historied family, the Canals.  (By the way, this was their winter residence; their summer estate is about a mile away and is now the Allende Institute, an internationally acclaimed art school.  Click here to see more of it).  

The picture below actually shows two places where the family lived: the northeast edge of the pink family home and the steeple and dome of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception (called Las Monjas by Miguelinos).  The convent was built with the dowry of the Canal's oldest daughter Josefa, who at age 15 decided to use her inheritance to create a convent for a new order of nuns which she would lead.  Her convent exists to this day, see it by clicking here.  This photo was taken from the north side of the Jardin looking west as Canal steet slopes ever-so-gradual to the dry riverbed.

In contrast to the white secular statue of Ignacio Allende watching from the south side of the west portal, here's the Virgin of Loreto guarding the same area from the north end.  The street is, of course, named after the family that built the two most important structures on it:  the mansion and the convent.

Many street corners in this area contain statues, many of them of the stations of the cross, used by the faithful for outside devotions during the Lenten season.  In other cases, these are merely simple shrines, often decorated with freshly (or not so freshly) cut flowers.  On this now Starbucked corner, the simple statue echoes the icon above the elaborate doorway across the street.  It is, of course, the doorway of the mansion of the town's richest family, the Canals:

The Canal Palace is in the Mexican neoclassic style called "severe"  in vogue in the 18th century.  It usually featured black and one other color, often red as we see here.  The influence of the famous regional architect/artist Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras is evident, but may be through craftsmen imitating his work which can be found elsewhere in the town, notably in the crypt at the nearby Parroquia or directly east in the church of San Francisco.   Let's look more closely at this entrance which borrows from many traditions: Greek columns, Moorish doors, Spanish heraldry, and, of course, Catholic myth.

Between Corinthian columns, the mansion sports  extremely lavish carved wooden doors in a town where photographers publish books on just the town's doors.  A stone carved eagle bristles at attention above:

Behind the pigeon wire, this ornate doorway rises to the heraldic shields of both sides of the families: Paternal Canal on the left and the equally important maternal Hervas clan on the right.  Above each shield rises a plumed helmet which means both sides of the family had knights in the battles that liberated Spain from the Moors before 1492.  (If that's hard to see, click on the picture to see an enlargement).  These flank the central  statue of the family's patron, the Virgin of Loreto, here more elaborately carved than what we saw on the street corner (above.)  

The Loreto Virgin is not that popular in Mexico where the Virgin of Guadalupe rules.  But it is quite common in San Miguel, town of the Canals.  Why does she stand atop a simple house here?  
While alive, the Canals lived behind this elegantly pompous portal.  Afterwards they stayed three blocks away in their gilded tomb called the Casa Loreto depicted as the house above.  This is the girlhood home of Mary, air-expressed by "angels" from the Holy Land to Italy and replicated here in San Miguel by the wealthy Canals as their Casa Loreto.   Click here to visit the most elaborate worship space in town.

Jardin Party

A final shot of the Jardin at night:  We found this spot  lively at all times.  Once darkness falls,  Mariachi bands congregate, hoping to entice gentlemen to purchase a song for their ladies.  The better musicians (including Doc Severinsen) are often working in the many lively bars and restaurants.  Musicians left on the street play enthusiastically but not always that well.  What of it? The atmosphere is great and by this time of night, your belly and hopefully your spirits are full.  You may also be full of spirits which makes the music sound even better than it is -- and you more likely to part with pesos to hear more of it.

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