Between San Miguel and Zacatecas
By Arturo Morales Tirado

Talk with Slides
Arturo Morales Tirado
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Tue, Sep 8, 1:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
60 pesos

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, over 1,250 miles in length, is the living testimony of one of the first two roads built in the colonial era in the Americas.

Designed to explore and then administer the mine sites north of the semi-central highlands of former New Spain, El Camino joined Mexico City geographically to Santa Fe, New Mexico. For 300 years during the Spanish domination, the road linked the people of the most cosmopolitan and sophisticated capital of America with those in areas most inhospitable and remote from amenities and services.

Built to give access to the gold, silver, copper, mercury, iron and lead mines, El Camino was the cultural lifeline of the founding peoples around presidios, Indian chapels, Spanish villages, haciendas of all types, cattle placements (estancias), commerce of Spanish and Creole (ventas), gangs of laborers and hamlets (cuadrillas) that formed around one of the most important routes of communication in America.

Today, these material and spiritual works form a living legacy of cultural and natural heritage that we can experience around San Miguel. For example, we see the link between commercial motivations for mineral exploitation in Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Pozos, and the spiritual inspiration of Propagation of Faith convents founded by the Franciscans in Mexico City, Querétaro, Guadalupe (Zacatecas) and other missions that were built all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro also was basic to the Independence movement in Mexico, making it doubly historical, and linked to the movement of people and goods between Dolores, Atotonilco, Guanajuato and San Miguel el Grande in the last years of the Viceroyalty in New Spain.

In a presentation with many pictures, Arturo Morales Tirado explores El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the route between San Miguel de Allende and Zacatecas, including mineral sites around Guanajuato, Pozos and San Luis Potosi. Visit www.tasma.info  for more information.