Looking for Mariano in Guanajuato

We don’t really know much about Guanajuato except what we’d heard about old Mariano.

Robert Earl Keen is one of our fav singer-songwriters. We’ve belted out silly lines like “He was a Mexican. We didn’t know what to think of him until he sang ‘Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad’ too often to count.

But REK sings more forlornly about “Mariano.” The song starts with the words, “The man outside, he works for me, his name is Mariano. He cuts and trims the grass for me, he makes the flowers bloom. He says that he comes from a place not far from Guanajuato. That’s two days on a bus from here, a lifetime from this room.”

As the song progresses, we feel Mariano’s sadness for home. And visiting here, we can understand why. Guanajuato is filled with energy, beautiful old buildings, great food and lovely people.

There is a lot of culture. We have checked out the Teatro Juarez, the Museo Don Quixote, the University and several churches. Of course, we have eaten well too – a huge plate of grilled meats plus soup for dinner last night. Followed by flan from a street vendor.

The Museo Don Quixote was a little hard to relate to since we haven’t read it. I gave up halfway a few years ago. I did recognize Quixote’s comic exuberance in a lot of the artwork. My favorite piece in the collection, however, is a bronze of Quixote astride his horse. In the sculpture, Rocinante, curiously, is eating the pages of a book he was standing on. This silly pose reminded me of my Dad’s saying in reference to someone who isn’t known for being bright – “You could give him a book but he’d eat the pages.” I used to repeat this silently to myself the year I taught High School English. So it was fun to think of Dad and teaching English while looking at this sculpture

Last night we briefly wandered down into Guanajuato’s mysterious tunnel system, originally built to help control flooding from the Rio Guanajuato. Dams were eventually built to control flooding and the tunnels were converted to roads. There are entries and exits into the tunnels all through town. We had read that they are perfectly safe to walk through. We took one for a bit before we decided to turn around when our phone GPS lost all signal. It didn’t seem like a fun way to get lost.

While trying to find out hotel, we stumbling into the “kissing alley.” This is a little side path that is so narrow that you and your beloved can go up into the balconies of two different buildings and lean across for a kiss. A photographer stays set up there to take and sell you your very own kissing alley photo. We didn’t get our own kissing alley photo but look closely at the above photo of someone else’s kissing alley photo. Aren’t they cute?

This morning, we made the 15-minute nearly vertical hike to the Pipíla monument. The Pipíla is dedicated to a miner who lead an insurrection against the Spanish and burned a granary with them inside. The monument has a panoramic view of buildings built on the mountain sides around downtown.

We also toured the Basilica de Guanajuato. In return for the silver and gold obtained from this area, this church was gifted by Spain a statue of the Virgin Mary which is thought to be the oldest artistic depiction of Mary on the continent. It was kind of hard to see as it sits up on the high alter behind glass.

Tomorrow we head back to Queretaro. I have been listening to a few songs by Jorge Negrete, a famous singer from Guanajuato. Mariano probably was a fan of his.