San Miguel de Allende

Before the Spanish arrived, the area was the land of Chichimeca peoples. The first Spanish settlement, which took its name from the 16th-century friar Juan de San Miguel, grew up near a Chichimeca village called Itzcuinapan. Attacks by the Guamare, a Chichimeca group, and the lack of water forced a move, and in 1555 the town was refounded about a mile to the east, beside two springs, as a mission and military outpost on the new road between Mexico City and the silver mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. It stood at the heart of the Chichimeca War (1540–1590).

Supplying travellers and mining camps, and weaving textiles, made San Miguel rich. By the mid-18th century it was one of the most prosperous towns in New Spain, with a population reaching about 30,000, and most of its mansions and churches date from this time. Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, both born here, joined the conspiracy of 1810; after Hidalgo's call to revolt at Dolores, the insurgents took their banner from the sanctuary at Atotonilco and entered San Miguel, which became the first Mexican town to gain its independence from Spain. In 1826 it was renamed San Miguel de Allende.

The 19th century brought decline, and after the end of mining in Guanajuato the town almost emptied. From 1938 the American Stirling Dickinson and the Peruvian Felipe Cossío del Pomar founded art schools, and after the Second World War US veterans came to study on the G.I. Bill. Artists, writers and retirees followed. In 2008 the historic centre and the Sanctuary of Atotonilco were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

San Miguel has been known as a haven for artists since the 1950s, when Siqueiros taught at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. The Instituto Allende and Bellas Artes still offer classes, galleries line the centre, and sketch artists sell their work on the street. The town hosts a yearly writers' conference, a free international film festival, the GIFF, with screenings in the Jardín, and a chamber music festival each August.

Most festivals are religious. The week around 29 September honours the Archangel Michael with dances, fireworks and a procession of his image from the Parroquia; concheros dance in March for the Señor de la Conquista, an old image made of corn stalks; and on Good Friday a silent procession passes through the centre. The Grito de Dolores is reenacted each September.

Foreign residents are part of the town's identity. Estimates of their number range from 20,000 to 25,000, at least half from the United States, mostly retirees drawn by the climate and cultural life. They have founded institutions such as the public library in the former convent of Santa Ana, which has the second-largest English-language collection in Mexico and works to build friendships between Mexicans and foreigners. Otomí and Nahua people from rural communities come into town to trade and attend church.

At the 2020 census the town had about 72,000 inhabitants and the municipality about 160,000. Most of the municipality's people live in small rural communities, where most Otomí and Nahua residents live, and about 96 per cent of the population is Catholic.

The economy has shifted from farming and industry towards commerce serving tourists and foreign residents. About half of the colonial buildings in the centre have become shops, restaurants, galleries, workshops or hotels, and with no zoning, homes and businesses stand side by side. The property market has boomed; colonial houses in ruins have sold for more than houses in Mexico City.

Preservation shapes daily life in the centre: building and restoration must keep to the colonial style, the cobbles are maintained, and there are no traffic lights, parking meters or fast-food chains. The Jardín is the town's meeting place. Two springs supplied all the town's water until the 1970s, and several dams in the municipality now manage the water supply.

Daily shopping happens in the markets. The Mercado Ignacio Ramírez, a few blocks from the Jardín, has halls of fruit and vegetables, meat, flowers and cooked food, the Mercado San Juan de Dios is the largest indoor market in the centre, and the Tuesday tianguis on the road out of town fills acres with stalls selling gorditas, tacos and fresh fruit juices alongside clothes and crafts.

The cooking of Guanajuato is on local tables: enchiladas mineras, the miners' enchiladas filled with cheese and served with potatoes and carrots, and cajeta, the goat's-milk caramel associated with nearby Celaya. Dolores Hidalgo, 40 km away, is known for ice creams in unusual flavours.

The centre also has a large international dining scene, built up to serve visitors and foreign residents, with cafés, upscale restaurants and restaurants inside cultural venues such as Bellas Artes and the Fábrica La Aurora. Nightlife runs from jazz clubs and sports bars to cantinas and bars specialising in mariachi.