We are still reminiscing about our memorable trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, two weeks ago when we stayed with long-time friends who have a home there and will likely soon move there permanently.
I wanted to share with you some of our favorite photos from the trip with a little bit of explanation for each and some background about San Miguel, the city of about 170,000 (including 20,000 American ex-pats and about 3,000 Canadians).
San Miguel de Allende is probably not known to a lot of Americans, although it has deep ties to the United States. Following World War II, two Americans established an art institute on the then outskirts of the town and attracted many young men who had served in the war to come and study art there. The Americans who established the art program somehow managed to arrange for the GI Bill to cover the tuition costs for the returning American servicemen who were interested in establishing a career in art. Here’s a link about the Instituto Allende if you want to learn more.
In addition, San Miguel de Allende has a prominent place in the history of the Mexican war for independence, which separated the country from the rule of Spain. San Miguel was the first city in present-day Mexico to have been liberated from Spain. Two prominent figures in the history San Miguel were Miguel Hidalgo, a Catholic priest, and Ignacio Jose de Allende y Unzaga, a Spanish army officer who became sympathetic to the quest for Mexican independence. Hidalgo, whose full name was Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor is considered the father of the Mexico and was also known as “El Zorro” of “The Fox” because of his cleverness. He was recruited to the cause of Mexican independence by Allende, who was born in San Miguel. Allende’s name is now permanently attached to the town in central Mexico.
Here’s a Wikipedia link if you want to learn more about Mexico’s successful struggle for independence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_War_of_Independence
Because of its unique nature, it was also named as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. Here’s a link about the city:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Allende
Enough about the history. Here are some photos with a brief explanation of each:
aero-cordero.com 