What’s New & Enterprising


Casa Anita marks anniversary with first open house
By Monty Dennison (July 21, 2006)

An authentic 17th-century arched doorway welcomes visitors to the entry and courtyard of Casa Anita, one of the smallest and newest bed and breakfasts in San Miguel, housed in a home dating from the late 1600s, about the time the Parroquia was built.

Although the bed and breakfast received its first guest in early August last year, owners Maria (Maru) Eugenia Luna Rivera and Antonio Monreal Rojo weren’t ready for a grand opening until now. “We hope neighbors, friends and prospective guests will drop by to see our little hotel and enjoy coffee or a glass of wine with us,” Rojo says. 

Guests are greeted by Rivera’s warm smile and Rojo’s cheerful conversational style, bountiful breakfasts, internet service and a genuine graciousness that causes visitors to give their host and hostess top marks on travel websites such as www.TripAdvisor.com.  

“I am proud and flattered to have people come into my home,” Rivera says through her translator-husband. If they ask, visitors can also learn a lot about San Miguel history and the personal values of their host and hostess.

Rivera and her five siblings grew up in the house, as did her mother, Anita, a well-known San Miguel schoolteacher and principal before her retirement. “We named the bed and breakfast after my mother, a beautiful woman who was loved by everyone,” her daughter says. Her mother died in 1995.

“When I lived here, the courtyard was a garden filled with lemon, pomegranate and other trees and many plants,” Rivera recalls. “Even though we had our own pomegranate tree, we used to steal from the tree next door because we thought the fruit was sweeter,” she adds with a chuckle.

The big reception room that faces calle Jesús was once Rivera’s bedroom and her mother’s office. The reception desk is at least 100 years old and came from a Guanajuato city office. The dining room now used by guests was once the family dining room where Rivera as a child would secretly hide hated vegetables in the drawers of an ancient table so she could get permission to leave the table.

The house came into Rivera’s family in the late 1880s when it was purchased by her great grandfather, who left it to his son. By then, the son, Rivera’s grandfather, an inspector of schools for Guanajuato state, also owned several other houses in San Miguel. One was the building that now houses Radio Station XESQ, and another the building now occupied by the China Palace restaurant. 

Rivera’s grandfather was strict and didn’t approve of her mother seeing the man who became her father because he was only a mill worker at the Aurora textile plant. It was only after the grandfather’s death that the two young lovers were able to marry.

Rivera’s father, Gregoria Luna Silva, 83, joined the post office after the factory closed and worked as a mailman for 30 years before retiring. The house he and his wife inherited, however, proved a constant drain on their finances because of its age. “There was always something, like the roof, that needed repair, and my parents worked very hard,” Rivera says. “We always had lots of family members staying with us.”

Although much of the house is original adobe and stone, a new addition was added in the l960s when the courtyard was paved over with stone.

Rivera’s father still lives in the house, and it was he who first suggested that Rivera and Rojo return to San Miguel from León, where they had been living for a couple of years. The idea of running their own bed and breakfast came to the couple, who married in 2000, as a result of Antonio’s experience in managing a bed and breakfast that is now closed.

A native of Chihuahua, Rojo came to San Miguel from Yucatán to visit a cousin. He went to a party and met Rivera. “For me, San Miguel was magical, because I met the woman I had been looking for.” They were both 34 when they married.
Although Rojo comes from a wealthy family who sent him to college in the United States to learn English, he wanted to make his own way. He quit college to perfect his skills as a professional handball player, then moved into construction and, finally, tourism in Yucatán. 

Money is less important to Rojo and Rivera than preserving the family home, which they may convert one day into a museum for their daughter, Ana Maria. “We are here to communicate with each other and to make friendships,” he says, “and I want our guests to feel at home in our home.” Anniversary and open house, Thursday, July 27, 4–8pm Casa Anita, Jesús 38