Because
Guanajuato is a university town, there are hosts of cultural activities throughout the year. Fine art films, art exhibitions, dance performances, plays, and performances by the University Symphonic Orchestra are just some of the activities you can enjoy. Each February, the restaurant association of Guanajuato hosts a Paella Festival, complete with Spanish music, flamenco dancers, and at least 10 kinds of paella. In March 2005, Guanajuato hosted Latin America's first Medieval Festival. It was a success and officials plan to make it an annual event.
Cervantino 2008 - Narco-Terrorism
Of all the Cervantino Festival events that roll into the city of Guanajuato each October I believe my least favorite has to be that which sends many locals fleeing the city for three weeks each year. The ghoulish punks, the vampirish Goth, or the "hippies"—as the Guanajuatenses are wont to call them—are not what the founders, I am quite sure, had in mind for the Cervantino Festival of the Arts.
Our first Cervantino was in the fall of 2003. I can recall in a discussion I had with my Spanish conversation teacher that my unbridled excitement over participating in the festival was listened to with all the enthusiasm of one of the permanent residents of Guanajuato's Mummy Museum. Her deadpan expression was due, she told me, to the invasion by Mexico's youthful sub-culture, turning what was surely meant as a celebration of the Fine Arts into a celebration of drinking, drugging, and all the free sex one could muster. Apparently, a lot of mustering had become the main attraction.
My Spanish teacher went on to report how her rather large and extended family actually packed their bags and went to stay with relatives elsewhere for the three week duration of the festival as if fleeing a military invasion by Guatemala. Well, goodness, I had to find out what this was all about and would soon discover long-term expats as well as locals with lots and lots of stories.
The huge Cervantino Festival was originally meant to be a celebration of performing arts, fine arts, culture, and general artistic expression honoring the contribution of Miguel de Cervantes to Spanish and Mexican culture.
Cervantes was born in 1547. His work, Don Quixote, is considered to be the world's first modern novel and certainly a classic of Western Literature. The influence Cervantes had on the Spanish language is considered by some experts as a lengua de Cervantes (The language of Cervantes).
Some of the University of Guanajuato's students, enthralled with Cervantes' Entremeses—a kind of satire—began performing them in Plaza San Roque when it grew into a grand idea: increase tourism. That's how the idea for Cervantino was born. These small, almost informal, performances grew in importance and popularity to the point where the Mexican government saw an idea to increase the city's popularity and tourism income. The original idea was to attract world-class performers from all over the world, not just those from Mexico.
However the founders meant the festival to be, interference from the Mexico government is where things went afoul. That is, at least, the story I have been able to piece together from sources varying from Mexican residents to long-term Gringo expats.
To save money—of course—the Mexican government got it into their heads that they could recruit "free talent" from a pool of young and upstart groups looking for exposure. This translated into officially recruited groups and unofficially recruited groups, some of which had little to no talent and who brought with them their groupies and lots of them. And, they showed up in droves. Our first Cervantino, 2003, we had a startling revelation in our discovery that hippies had not died out as a species. They were alive and well and all in Guanajuato for three weeks each October.
What followed this migration of the Not-So-Fine-Art-inclined was a tremendous population of Flashback-From-The-Past Sub-culture individuals who thought nothing of displaying loose behavior and in a very public way, sending the very provincial Guanajuatenses into a vociferous complaining frenzy to the government. An elderly Guanajuato woman of no small financial or influential means told me the Cervantino Festival had become a celebration of the Barrachos or drunkards.
Cervantino 2008 began this year on the 8th of October and will last until the 26th. It began, however, under a cloud of fear. Morelia, Michoacan's Independence Day celebration on the 15th of September, in which shrapnel hand grenades were hurled into the civilian crowd of celebrants, cast a foreboding shadow over Cervantino. With 8 dead and scores wounded, many wondered if Guanajuato's Cervantino would or could be the Narco-Terrorist's next message.
I was delighted to discover that Guanajuato's government saw the light that an ounce of prevention was most certainly worth a pound of cure, as they say. Proactive action looked a lot better than waiting for another body count. Guanajuato acted!
Several days before Guanajuato's Cervantino Opening Ceremonies, the scary but welcome sight of Mexican soldiers with attack dogs appeared in the central plaza, El Jardin. I think it was this unnerving and never-before-seen sight that woke many Guanajuatenses to at least ask the question whether the events of Morelia could happen in Guanajuato.
Extrema Seguridad, or Extreme Security was the headline of Iván Rodriguez's story in the Guanajuato daily, El Correo.
"On each corner," writes Rodriguez, "Mexican army and agents from the Federal Police to guarantee peace and public order."
When Cervantino's opening night finally rolled around, a security presence never before seen and somewhat disturbing to provincial locals, was in place.
Rodriguez writes of barricades for better crowd control, metal detectors, and the manual checking of purses and backpacks by bomb-sniffing dogs assured a Narco-Terrorist incident-free evening.
I only hope that there will many more Terrorism-free Cervantinos to come and with a radical return to the founder's original intent of a high quality presentation of the Fine Arts.
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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel
– A Guanajuato Travelogue by Doug Bower, is now available through Unlimited Publishing. CLICK HERE
Guanajuato Events
Festival Cervantino: This big international art festival is held in October and attracts visitors from all over the world. The festival is named in honor of Miguel de Cervantes, who wrote "Don Quixote". His plays are performed by college students on a small, picturesque plaza.
Hot Air Balloon Festival : Held in November.
Alfenique Fair: This is held in the last part of October through November 2nd in San Fernando Square. It is part of the traditional Dia de las Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration. Vendors sell almond candies in various shapes and traditional sugar skulls.
The Festival de la Presa : This celebration commemorates the start of the rainy season, which officially begins on June 24th.
Guanajuato Religious Festivals
Dolores Friday: This festival is held the week before Good Friday and celebrates the Virgin of Dolores, who is the miners' patroness. The day is celebrated with altars, flowers and a festival in Jardin de la Union. The night before the festival ends miners and others hold the Flowers' Ball.
Holy Week: Celebrations on this week include special services at churches, various cultural activities in the plazas and the University Book Fair, which is held in Plaza San Fernando.
Our Lady of Guanajuato Festival: May 22nd to 31st: This festival is celebrated with a pilgrimage, fireworks and ancient folk dances performed in Plaza de la Paz.
Saint John & Presa de la Olla Festival: June 24th.
De la Olla Reservoir's Opening: First Monday of July The opening of the reservoir's gates is celebrated with swimming and diving competitions.
San Ignacio de Loyola's Day: July 31st. This festival started as a commemoration of the city's patron saint and is also known as Cave Day. People visit the caves in the mountain west of La Bufa and enjoy a day in the country.
The Alhóndiga Battle: Sept 28th The neighborhood of Santa Rosa re-enacts this famous battle.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Pilgrimage: Dec 12th. People visit the Lady of Guadalupe sanctuary to sing and to leave flowers.
Christmas period Last days of December: Christmas in Guanajuato is an unforgettable experience. Most families build a Nacimiento, or nativity scene and there are signs of celebration throughout the town.
