The Nigromante Center -- San Miguel de Allende

Guanajuato, Mexico

Visited December 2007

The former cloister of the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Las Monjas) now defines the space used for the Cultural Center (Bellas Artes) which Miguelinos call "El Nigromante."  All of the land once owned by the Catholic Church except for the inside of churches was nationalized during the 1860s by president Benito Juárez and turned over for secular purposes -- the start of a tortured relationship between the Catholic Church and the Mexican state. Formal persecution ended late (officially in 1992.)  

Today the cloister shelters symbols which remind us of the religious/political turmoil of the many years when Mexico struggled to find the right balance between church and state.  For some Mexicans (and a whole lot of expats), religion has been replaced by Art: "El Nigromante" serves as the center of San Miguel's cultural life including a school of the arts, exhibition space, and a concert hall.

An Oasis of the Arts

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After trekking down cobblestone-paved but sparsely landscaped streets in an arid region, visitors enter this large and beautifully landscaped space radiating like a tropical jungle from the central fountain area seen above.   Some consider this to be the most ambitious cloister in Mexico; but not because of its size or riches but rather for the lavishness of its gardens.  Most convents served as retirement homes for wealthy (and widowed) matrons who brought their servants and pets with them.  This dictated many internal rooms to house the help -- resulting in less courtyard space.  Not so here.  Maria Josefa, the 16 year old founder of the order of the Conception Sisters, insisted that her nuns live without servants.[46]


The atheist in the cloister

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The nickname "El Nigromante" honors San Miguel writer Ignacio Ramirez, called the Voltaire of Mexico because of his atheism  and satirical wit.  He chose the term Nigromante (Sorcerer, Magician, Necromancer) as his nom de plume as a student, since nearly everything he wrote would have caused punishment during the 1800s.  He served as the only radical on the Supreme Court and was the only free thinker at the Mexican Constitutional Convention of 1856.[114]  

Confiscated from the church by the federal government (like most church land), the cloister was used as an elementary school in the early 20th century.  During the revolution, it housed cavalry  regiments.  (By then, the federal government  was strongly anti-clerical and had expelled most priests and bishops.)   In 1937, Peruvian artist, Felipe Cossío del Pomar started the first art school here called Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes.  That institution grew into the Instituto Allende which moved in 1951 to Josefa's birthplace and the old Canal summer estate in the southwest corner of town.  

This cloister then became the cultural center and took Nigromante's nickname in the 1960s.  

Arts walk

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The north corridor contains the common rooms of the ex convent; these larger interior spaces are used for ballet and other performing arts.

A lamb no longer of god

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(Above) At the center of the courtyard rises a large fountain with the traditional Christian symbol of the lamb.    (Below) Native Mexican poinsettias add color to the lush green of the courtyard and reminded us of Christmas three weeks hence.  Mexican tradition holds that a peasant girl, too poor to buy flowers for the nativity scene, was told by an angel to put weeds at the foot of the statues.  They, of course, turned into poinsettias.

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Note in the above picture that this is a two-story cloister.  After its liberation by the federal government, the cloister deteriorated, especially the upper floor.[47] Today maintenance is much improved today and the second floor holds a concert hall.

The atheist in the refectory

In the northeast corner of the cloister is a room thought to be the refectory, the dining room.  If so, the nuns ate in a dark place with only two windows at one end to let in the San Miguel sun.  As you can see from the pictures below, it has been considerably lightened by abstract murals.

Siquieros mural in the refectory

The painting was started (but left unfinished) by famous Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros during a workshop he taught here at the Bellas Artes center in 1949.  Siqueiros  had a temper and the story goes that while painting this mural, he threw one of his pupils down a flight of stairs.[47]    
Siquieros mural in the refectory


These walls are obviously abstract; however, Siqueiros  was a social realist. With Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he is considered the father of Mexican Mural Renaissance, the first Latin-American  movement to alter the shape of Western art by providing a realistic alternative to abstractionism. A Stalinist who won the Lenin peace prize, he was exiled in 1940 for trying to assassinate the anti-Stalinist Leon Trostsky.  
Siquieros mural in the refectory


Today floor lights illuminate Siqueiros's mural, making up for the lack of natural light.  The wrought-iron artifact at left suggests that this may occasionally be a gallery space although we found it empty.  Begun in 1948 but never finished, the mural is entitled "Vida y obra de Ignacio Allende."[234]      Exactly as pictured.

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