Guanajuato - Festival Internacional Cervantino

Festival Internacional Cervantino 2010
Guanajuato

One of my favorite cities in Mexico is most certainly Guanajuato (GTO), a UNESCO World Heritage City. GTO has been a major player in the history of Mexico, located in the mountains; the city gained its wealth and power from the many silver mines in the area.

On my first visit a couple of years ago we had traveled across the sierra and approached the city from the countryside. We passed many of the now abandoned mines on the way, but true to the Mexican way of doing business we were able to tour one that was closed to the public. By tipping the caretaker 50 pesos at the main gate, then going around to a side entrance we were able to take a private tour. Not sure how long it had been closed down but the equipment still seemed to be in place and the grounds mostly maintained. The layout was that of a crown. The open shaft, we threw rocks down, and waited an eternity to hear hit bottom was located in the center. The walls surrounding the shaft and work areas were peaked at intervals to represent the points of the royal crown.

On that trip we made our way down into the city which I can only describe as medieval. GTO is built into the mountains with buildings stacked one upon the other. The streets are narrow meandering and steep. Then there are the tunnels. The tunnels just plain fascinate me. The city was originally built over a river, which flowed through tunnels underneath. However, after years of raising buildings to accommodate repeated flooding engineers built a dam and redirected the river into underground caverns. The tunnels were then lit and paved with cobblestones for automobile traffic and parking. The underground roads carry the majority of cars driving through the city today and are just fun to explore.

GTO is a city where the history of Mexico is alive in every stone. The Alhóndiga de Granaditas, what was originally the public granary and now a museum figures largely in Mexican history. When Miguel Hidalgo's insurgent troops threatened to take over the city in October 1810 at the start of the Mexican War of Independence some 500 rich crillos took refuge inside the fortress like walls of the Alhóndiga. In the caste system of what was New Spain the crillos were those of pure Spanish descent born in the New World and viewed as the oppressors of the native people and those of mixed race. When the Alhóndiga was finally stormed all 500 were massacred and the city was pillaged.
Eventually the first insurgents of the revolution fell and the four main leaders — Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama, and José Mariano Jiménez were beheaded. Their heads were hung from the four corners of the Alhóndiga in metal cages to discourage other independence movements. Their heads would remain hanging there for ten years, until Mexico achieved its independence.

Guanajuato is the site each year of Festival Internacional Cervantino, started in 1972, a festival of performing arts and culture celebrating the works of Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quijote). The festival takes place in October over the course of three weeks and features world-class performances by international and Mexican artists, in music, dance, theater, visual arts, and street-performance. Every year the festival invites a country of honor, as well as a specific Mexican state. This year the honors going to Argentina, Chile and Columbia with Mexico being represented by the states of Queretaro, Michoacan and Chihuahua
Upon entering the city that Saturday night I was immediately astounded by the throngs of people. The few streets that were open to cars were packed with people and parking was nonexistent. Eventually finding a place to park we started to walk back to the main part of the festival, with the great big giant October harvest moon sitting on the mountain above the city. Again I was struck with the incredible mass of people as we walked down the narrow streets which with the tall buildings on each side only seemed to magnify the crowd. Being it was a Saturday night the place had the feel more of Mardi Gras than a cultural arts experience. But the very visible police presence and the ban on drinking in the streets kept the crowd in order while still being extremely festive.

There were street performances of all types, the first we came upon were the leather clad, silver studded mythical fighters of the Zena, Warrior Princess genre. They had spent a lot of time and money on their uniforms and weapons but had failed to polish their lethargic routine. When broadswords are clashing in sparks of metal upon metal and it makes you giggle something has gone wrong.
The belly dancers up the street weren't bad though.
Then there was the Asian fellow with his computerized, digitzed, electronic combination flute and keyboard thingy that was putting out a very loud, hypnotic, techno sound with pyshedelic images projecting on the trees surrounding the gazebo where he was performing. To show what a diverse crowd is at Cervantino here is a guy playing this new age trance electronica and you have the old school mariachis sitting on the benches in their traditional uniforms watching him perform. And on the corner is a group playing Banda music for the crowd and across the street the traditional Cervantino musicians are performing their act.
A couple in another plaza were signing beautiful love songs with each other in an operatic style while down the street from them the homeless were performing. The homeless were outstanding. They were well put together, well played, full of energy, extremely fun and had the crowd going.

Next to the main theatre of Guanajuato, the Teatro Juarez, there is the Church of San Diego. This is where the various competing goups that were the traditional entertainers of Cervantino start their shows and lead their audience up through the winding “streets” of the city. I say “streets” because in many cases the street is nothing more than a sidewalk, or a flight of stairs and sometimes so narrow that you can pass through only by single file. I have always thought it would be terrific to live in GTO but wonder just how do you get your furniture to your house and where do you park your car.

Before we began our journey with these strolling troubadours we could see the giant stone statue of El Pípila illuminated on the hill above the church. Pípila was so named because of a birth defect that caused him to walk like a pipila or hen turkey. At the beginning of the War for Independance when the Spanish had barricaded themselves inside the Alhóndiga against the insurgents it was Pípila, an unlikely hero who made it possible to breach the entrance. With a long, flat stone tied on his back to protect him from the rock and gun fire of the Spanish troops above, Pípila carried tar and a torch to the door of the Alhóndiga and set it on fire, burning it down and allowing the insurgents entry.

That night the Cervatino group we were following would stop and play songs, tell jokes and point out the sites as we made our way up the city. Tradition was that they would stop below the balcony of their true love and sing until the young lady would appear. Guanajuato is a most enchanting city at night with the lights of the University, the Cathedral and numerous churches, homes and streets. That night the full harvest moon sitting above the city in the clear sky made it even more beautiful and you could almost imagine you had traveled back some four or five hundred years.

We had arrived around 19:30 and left GTO at 2 in the morning, as we left the party had settled down but was still going strong with most of the businesses remaining open. Considering the mass of people most shops were doing a brisk business but we had taken advantage of the free entertainment and had done very little to support the economy aside from paying for parking. That is something I have learned about Mexico there seems to be free entertainment where ever you go and usually you have a variety of choices. Lasting three weeks and with over 2,000 artists participating I know this was just a glimpse of what Festival Cervantino has to offer. Not sure if we’ll make it back this year but it is certainly on the calendar for next October.