Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Juan Manuel, director of the library, a cultural center of San Miguel de Allende, gave us a
tour. The library has over 50,000 books, a patio cafe, an art room for children, and a movie
theater. There is a music room dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, with murals painted on all four
walls. The children's choir practices there on Saturday mornings, and an adult choir sings
on Thursday evenings.
I sat with Juan Manuel, Joyce Wyels, who writes for the
Smithsonian Magazine
, and Mrs.
Able, whose Moroccan husband welcomed our group. With such luck, why go to morning
grammar classes?
Next morning, I was up at 6:30 a.m. and at Restaurant Jardín for breakfast. At the next
table a gentleman with grey hair pulled back and tied in a ponytail sat down, and we began
to talk. His name was Artemio Sepulveda. He said he was an artist, and he had just de-
livered four paintings to Galleria Diana.
He said he grew up in a poor family. They lived in a mining town in northern Mexico, but
he had a chance to study in Mexico City at the Bellas Artes in the 1940s. That was the time
of the great Mexican muralists, so I asked about Rivera, O'Gorman, Orozco and Siquieros.
He knew Rivera and studied with Orozco. To support himself, he modeled for art classes.
An agent visited the art school and invited Artemio to model for Siquieros, who had won
a contract to paint the mural in Mexico's Central Hospital. “So next time you're in Mexico
City,” he said, “look for Artemio, the young miner in the mural.”
Good luck didn't stop. In the afternoon, tired, thirsty and in need of a beer, I looked for
a seat under the arches in the plaza. All the tables were taken, but a single lady occupied
one. I asked if she was alone. “Si,” she said.
“Could I share a table with you?” I asked. She agreed, and I ordered a beer. I asked her
about San Miguel, if she was a resident or a tourist.
She introduced herself, Gabriela Zepeda García Morena, “I'm an archeologist, the director
of the dig at La Canada de la Virgin.” La Canada is the major archeological site about
twenty miles from San Miguel de Allende.
She told me that it would not be opened to the public for another two years. She believed
that the site was ceremonial and a center for astronomers and mathematicians because the
orientation of the temples and features were aligned with sun and moon cycles.
