On our first full day in San Miguel we began with a walking
tour. The most interesting parts of the
tour for me dealt with the problems caused by divisions in social class, the
pure blood Spanish, the Malados, and the Indios. These divisions were critical
in the outcome of the revolution as well as the evolution of the churches in
San Miguel. Last night we went to a Spanish Mass at Templo Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Apparently the
native peoples originally the native people had the church next door, but the
city officials in the early seventeen hundreds tricked the natives out of their
deed. The native built another and that is where Truckee and I went to Mass.
Earlier in the day we saw dozens of girls coming out of the church with large dolls, beautifully dressed in their arms. At first I thought that they were real babies. Actually they were bringing their little Christ child "El Nino" to church to be blessed in preparation for Christmas.
The town of San Miguel seems
a strange mix of natives in their traditional dress, what I would call regular
Mexicans, wealthy Mexican tourists, Mexicans who live in town, Anglos who live
in town most of whom seem to be retired and American tourists. To put things in
perspective, Truckee and I were the latter.
For Christmas the town was lit up and crowded with people.
The most prominent church in
town, Parroquía San Miguel Arcángel, is across from the main square, zocolo. Built in th1649 it has a design unlike any in
Mexico. Some compare it to a pink wedding cake. The execution was done
by the master mason Zeferino Gutierrez who according to legend would
come to the church every day as it was being built and would draw the next
phase for the masons. Legend also has it that the local bishop gave Gutierrez
pictures of European churches from which he gained his inspiration.
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