The History of San Miguel de Allende
A rich and interesting History
Welcome to San Miguel de Allende, the cradle of Mexico’s movement to independence.
The City was founded by Fray Juan de San Miguel in 1542. He was a missionary from the Franciscan order, Spanish by birth.
Originally, Fray Juan de San Miguel and the Franciscans built a chapel near the railroad station and a small pueblito (village) formed around it. They named it San Miguel – today the area is known as San Miguel Viejo.
Another monk of the time of Fray Juan de San Miguel, Fray Bernardo Cossin moved to higher areas of San Miguel, where a spring was providing fresh water. This area is known today as El Chorro. You may see on certain days women washing their cloth there. At the same time El Chorro serves also as an exhibition place for artists and their works.
Over time the name of San Miguel was changed to San Miguel el Grande, before 1769.
On January 21st, 1769, Ignacio de Allende y Unzaga was born here in San Miguel. He took a keen interest in the fight for independence from the Spanish. Together with a parish priest, Father Don Manuel Hidalgo, they joined forces with others and started the independence movement. Unfortunately, their plan was discovered which led to the famous Cry of Independence speech on September 16th, 1810 in Dolores Hidalgo. However, the Spanish were still very strong and the independence movement was crushed. Ignacio de Allende, father Hidalgo and also Jimenez and Aldama were all executed and their heads were exposed in cages outside the Granary in Guanajuato for all to see.
In 1826 on March 8, to honor the heroic efforts of General Allende, the Government of the state of Guanajuato changed the name of San Miguel del Grande to San Miguel de Allende.
1926: San Miguel de Allende was declared a National Monument, for that reason there are no traffic lights, fire hydrants nor neon signs in the historic center of the town.
On or about 1938 the Instituto de Allende was opened as an art school and foreigners started to arrive. A large number of Ex-USA servicemen moved to San Miguel de Allende from the USA in 1950. The much lower cost of living here in Mexico made it very attractive to them.
The foreign community of San Miguel de Allende, mainly USA and Canadian citizens, represent about 10,000 to 15,000 depending on season.
The city as such (about 10 miles radius) is supposed to have a population of 140,000.
A part from a vibrant and growing art scene, San Miguel de Allende offers an enormous amount of culture: Literary festivals, baroque- chamber music and Jazz festivals. There is a film festival and many others. A big variety of courses are available in San Miguel every year: Photography, Yoga, Wellness, cooking classes, Dancing classes and much more. For the sports interested tourist or emigrant San Miguel offers: Tennis, golf, horseback riding in short You are never bored in San Miguel.
But the most wonderful thing of San Miguel is its very unique, dry and even climate. Balsam for mature bones. Nice warm days and cool nights, a real treat. The days are always clear with lots of sunshine and even the so called rainy season is very attractive to live through here in San Miguel. Incredible sunsets for price photography.