By Rafe Calder
Silver paid for all of it. The domes, the theater, the market hall. Even the streets that go under the hill.
The setting
Wikipedia describes Guanajuato as the capital of the state of the same name, in the Bajío region, in a narrow valley with winding streets. The municipality has 194,500 residents, it says. UNESCO gives the elevation as 2,084 meters and describes a layout that follows deep, winding valleys, unlike the grid of a typical colonial town. That is the first thing to understand about the place. It was not planned on paper. It was fitted to the ground.
Founding, and a date that depends on who you ask
Wikipedia says Spanish colonists formally established the outpost in 1548 as the Real de Minas de Guanajuato, under viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. UNESCO says only that Spanish settlers founded it in the early sixteenth century. The two are not in conflict so much as at different levels of detail, and we are giving both.
The mine
UNESCO says Guanajuato became the world’s leading silver-extraction center in the eighteenth century. Wikipedia says the La Valenciana mine began operations in 1774 and was one of the most productive silver mines in the world, accounting for two thirds of world production at its peak. We have not found a second source for the two thirds figure. UNESCO also mentions a mineshaft it describes as plunging 600 meters.
What the money built
UNESCO names two churches as masterpieces of Mexican Churrigueresque baroque: La Compañía, built 1745 to 1765, and La Valenciana, built 1765 to 1788. It adds that the Juárez Theater and the Hidalgo Market also show the wealth that mining produced. Wikipedia says the theater was built between 1872 and 1903 in neoclassical style. PlanetWare, a travel site, says the Hidalgo Market opened in 1910 in an iron structure that was originally planned as a railway station. We have not checked that detail against a second source.
Streets underneath
Wikipedia says several of the city’s thoroughfares run partly or entirely underground, because colonial-era tunnels built to deal with flooding were later turned into roadways. PlanetWare gives the same reason and describes underground routes for both people and vehicles. The Alley of the Kiss, the Callejón del Beso, is only 168 centimeters wide, according to Wikipedia. We are not repeating the romantic legends that go with it, since we have no source for them beyond a travel site’s retelling.
A city of other stories
Wikipedia lists the Alhóndiga de Granaditas as the site of the first battle of the Mexican War of Independence, on September 28, 1810. It says the University of Guanajuato began as a Jesuit school in the eighteenth century, that the muralist Diego Rivera was born here, and that the city holds a museum of naturally mummified remains. It also says the Cervantino festival began in 1972 and is held in October. PlanetWare says the festival draws upwards of 200,000 visitors. We have not checked dates or numbers for the current year.
Why it matters for a curator
Guanajuato is a place where industry and ornament sit next to each other, and where the geography shapes everything from street plans to traffic. If you want to carry something home, the useful question is how it connects to the place’s own past: silver, stone, paper, cloth, food or something else.
What to ask before you buy
We have not profiled any maker, workshop or shop in Guanajuato, and we will not name one we cannot source. If a piece is described as local, ask who made it, where, from what and by what method. Ask whether the material, silver or otherwise, is what the label says. Ask for the maker’s own account in writing. We are not recommending any producer.
Roam first. Shop later.
Guanajuato makers can find out what’s involved at /sell-with-sephari/