Colonias de San Miguel: Villa de los Frailes 
By Alejandro Devesa 

San Miguel de Allende is well known for its mix of international residents. No other colonia has a more diverse group of neighbors, and architectural styles than La Villa de los Frailes.

The neighborhood and its houses 

La Villa de los Frailes, better known by all as Los Frailes, is located on Salida a Celaya about a 10-minute drive from downtown. Construction of Los Frailes began only 25 years ago, putting it in the group of more recently developed neighborhoods in San Miguel. Many different architectural styles can be found among the houses in this colonia, although the main architectural style could best be described as Spanish colonial. The most noticeable exception to this is the “castle,” a large house constructed to resemble a medieval royal residence. 

The residents 

Although some residents of Los Frailes are San Miguel natives, many are not. It is very common to find expats from the US and Canada as well as people fleeing the big cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara or Monterrey.

Residents are largely professionals, among them architects, doctors, engineers and artists. The average family has an estimated four or five members, including both parents aged between 45 and 55 years and two or three children aged from 8 to 21 years. There are, however, many single-resident households. The ages of retirees range widely from 60 to 80 years. Most of residents have cars or other vehicles, even two to three per family. 

Utilities and transportation Los Frailes has a complete complement of utility services and paved streets. Yet for this high income area the most notable lack of service is the absence of a sewer system—residents rely on septic tanks.

The colonia does not have security issues generally, and police patrol throughout the day to discourage problems. Because it is located outside the main part of the city most residents rely on private vehicles for transportation, although a bus does stop across from the entrance to the neighborhood at the Unidad Deportiva (sports complex). Taxis are frequently seen throughout the day. There are two grocery stores in Los Frailes, but they are patronized mostly by construction workers and domestic employees, most residents prefer to shop at the large supermarkets. A small church at the entrance to the colonia offers Mass on Sundays and holidays. Surprisingly the neighborhood has no public schools, the private primary school Atabal recently relocated. Most students living in the area attend private schools such 
as Colegio Fray Pedro or José Vasconcelos or attend school in the cities of Querétaro or Celaya. 

The problems 

According to residents of Los Frailes, they do not in general experience recurring problems. Occasionally street lighting requires maintenance or paved roads develop potholes, but those problems are usually resolved fairly promptly. The only comment that was made was about the difficulty of exiting onto Salida a Celaya because of the speed and amount of oncoming traffic. Although speed bumps have been put up on both lanes of the highway, often drivers do not slow down to allow vehicles to exit Los Frailes.



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Making Christmas dreams come true

‘Twas almost the night before Christmas and all through the town, not a creature was stirring not even a hound. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but if we don’t start collecting money, they’ll be mighty bare!

For the past 12 years, La Conexión has organized a Christmas Wishes Shopping Spree for kids from local orphanages at Sollano, Mexiquito and Santa Julia. This year we’re asking everyone to put 100 pesos in an envelope addressed to “Christmas Shopping Spree” and drop it off at any one of the three locations of La Conexión. You can also make a direct deposit at any of the Intercam offices to Contract Number 4087 in the name of Suzanne Paris.

Once we have the money, we will put 500 pesos in envelopes addressed to each child. We will give these envelopes to the Madre Superior in charge of each orphanage to hold until a volunteer chaperone comes to pick up a child and enjoy a day of shopping and togetherness.

If you cannot donate money, please volunteer your time to accompany the kids on this special day. We start as soon as we have the funds, usually around December 1; then you can choose the date and time for the spree.

This is such an important part of the children’s lives and we don’t want to disappoint them this year even though the economic situation has disappointed us! Keep in mind that we usually take the kids to the Mercado San Juan de Dios, and thus we also stimulate the local economy.

Our tradition here at La Conexión has been to sponsor the orphanages, but we welcome other under-privileged children to participate as well. When you bring other children, please be sure to include the additional funds necessary to provide for the children you invite!