Cont. from front page,

During the last half-century both processions have undergone changes but have not lost their magnificence. Perhaps the change that is most keenly felt is the loss of Don Inés Granados, who led both processions for many years.

The Sacred Encounter and Priest’s Passing Procession

This spectacle begins at 11am with a re-enactment of Christ’s judgment before Pontius Pilate at the entrance of La Santa Escuela (immediately to the left of the Parroquia). The procession then begins, guided by Father Alfaro’s original banner and an eighteenth-century statue of Saint Roque. Barefoot penitents wearing crowns of thorns and silicios (tunics of rough cloth) and bearing skulls (representing death, the passing from life to eternal life) or crosses are followed by Roman soldiers and four men carrying an eighteenth-century statue of the Lord of Eccehomo (Latin for “Here is the man”). Father Primitivo, the current parish priest, follows carrying a cross, just as Father Alfaro did in the original procession. By the priest’s side walk Dimas and Gestas, the two thieves crucified alongside Christ. 

Then comes the statue of Jesus the Nazarene; a special mechanism allows the head to move. The statue is carried on an anda (bier) by 22 men. Four other statues follow the procession: Saint John, Mary Magdalene,  Mary Cleofas, and Verónica, bearing the Holy Shroud with which she is supposed to have cleaned the sweat and blood from Christ’s face.

The procession was begun by Father Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, the founder of the Shrine of Atotonilco. A marvelous painting by Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre depicting the original procession of Padre Alfaro can be seen in the Chapel of the Calvary at the shrine. 

Father Alfaro’s procession, performed for the first time around 1756, was originally a complete Via Crucis. Fourteen crosses, marking its 14 stations, were inlaid in the walls along such Centro streets as Correo, Corregidora, Juárez, Mesones, and San Francisco. These crosses can still be seen today.

Rubén Villasana, organizer of the Sacred Encounter and Priest’s Passing Procession, said that “today we only see three stations: the first, which is the sentencing; the second, Jesus carrying the cross; and the fourth, which is the main point of the procession: the encounter between Jesus and his mother.” Villasana also explained that over the centuries the procession was abbreviated and localized, although during the 1970s it moved through the streets surrounding la Parroquia: Cuna de Allende, Cuadrante and Sollano. 

Other things that have changed in the last 50 years are the religious figures representing saints. “Today the figures look more elegant and dignified, and they have their own bearers.” According to Villasana, the penitents were also reinstated from the original procession; they had disappeared from the spectacle for 30 years.

The Holy Burial Procession

The most solemn and longest procession of Holy Week is undoubtedly the Holy Burial on Good Friday, which departs from the Oratorio at 5pm.

The Holy Burial procession began in 1712, when the congregation of the Oratorio was founded by Father Antonio Pérez de Espinoza. Manuel Tomás de la Canal instituted the procession, which recalls the Spanish tradition that venerates the Virgin of Solitude.

A crucifix called the Lord of the Inspiration leads the procession. It is carried by six young men, and a group of 24 athletic men dressed as Roman soldiers march behind. They are followed by young girls dressed in white with purple ribbons who carry figures of small angels. Six groups of six women each—dressed in black, heads covered with black lace mantillas and a peineta (an ornamental comb)—carry the figures of the six archangels; more women dressed in black and carrying lanterns surround them. Next comes a glass coffin containing a replica of the body of Jesus which is borne by 36 men in black suits and accompanied by lantern bearers. The casket is followed by three priests, who walk under a gold and purple canopy. More women bearing the figure of the Virgin of Solitude follow. Finally, the figures of the Apostle John, Mary Magdelene, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea mark the closure of the procession.

According to María Eugenia Cerroblanco, a participant in the Holy Burial for more than 40 years, a few years ago this procession was shorter than it is today. It used to leave the Oratorio and move through Pepe Llanos, Mesones, Reloj and Insurgentes to return to the Oratorio. “In about 1976, the procession began to make a larger journey, as it does today: Pepe Llanos, Juárez, San Francisco, Jardín, Hidalgo and Mesones,” said Cerroblanco. Among the things that have changed in the procession she also mentioned the introduction of large statues of angels and the figures of the holy men Nicodemus and José de Arimathea, which were not present in the procession some years ago. “They were also introduced around 1976,”she said. She also said that the Roman soldiers were introduced in the seventies.

The figure of Jesus currently used in the procession is not the original, which remains in the Altar of Souls in the Oratorio. The one in use now was made in 1967 by the artisan Jesús Vidargas. Years ago, the crystal coffin with the body of Jesus was plainer and lighter. The current one, which dates from 1970, includes more elaborate carved, gilded embellishments and weighs three tons.

Cerroblanco has participated in the procession since she was seven, first as an angel, dressed in her first communion dress. When she was a young, single woman she carried the cloak of the Virgin, and currently she is one of the women in black who carry the Virgin. Her daughters currently carry the cloak. “Since I was seven, I have never failed to participate each year in the Holy Burial,” she said.

Don Inés Granados The elderly Don Inés Granados headed the processions of the Sacred Encounter and the Holy Burial playing the chirimía, a kind of flute, for many years. According to María Eugenia Cerroblanco, Don Inés produced a very special tune of his own inspiration. “It seemed that it came from his soul,” said Cerroblanco. Don Inés also participated in several religious events during the year.

He could be seen seated at the front of a church, playing his instrument. “He was a muleteer and sometimes he worked construction. He died about eight years ago,” remembered Cerroblanco.

Adios Don Felix Luna
By Atención staff

Don Felix Luna passed away on March 6 after a long illness. He was known and respected as a city historian and a tireless defender of San Miguel traditions. 

Some of Don Felix’s many friends and collaborators recall one of San Miguel’s great men.

Don Felix Luna was a dynamic man who played an important role in the protection and rescue of the authentic traditions and historical personality of our city.

Obviously his leaving is unfortunate, precisely now that San Miguel de Allende will have many important events as a designated center of cultural heritage.

Don Felix leaves a deep mark in the memory of all who knew him and all the people who, like him, have worked to preserve the true character of San Miguel.

His legacy will endure because of his dedication to protect the memory and spirit of the town that he loved.

Graciela Cruz, historian and author of the official file on San Miguel for the UNESCO World Heritage List bid.

An important figure in San Miguel de Allende, Don Felix Luna was committed and generous, working selflessly and without compromising his ethics.

It would be difficult to find someone who respected traditions as much as Don Felix Luna. I just hope that his successors, disciples or their children continue his work. While people die, traditions must not.

He left an impressive legacy to all those who continue on the path of preservation, defending the customs and traditions that make us what we are.

We will greatly miss him, as well as his devoted and tenacious approach to his classes and workshops. But we must move forward.

Don Genaro Almanza, craftsman and festival participant

Don Felix was a specialist of our “raices,” a faithful representative of ethnic groups and a deeply concerned protector of traditions.

In the cultural sphere Don Felix always strived to reconcile pre-Hispanic and religious festivities and unify the customs of our ancestors with the customs of the Catholic religion.

All his stories and legends have gone with him and it should worry us because, like Don Felix, many elderly people are passing away, taking to the grave their traditions and knowledge. What will happen to all their experience and historical testimony? It is unfortunate and disturbing that our intangible heritage can be lost so easily.

Jesús Ledesma, Dirección de Educación y Cultura of San Miguel de Allende (Culture and Education department) 

He was a person who worked selflessly for San Miguel people through their traditions that he always tried to conserve. His only purpose and his only motivation was that all sanmiguelenses know and put into practice those traditions. 

Don Rubén Villasána, organizer of the Good Friday procession

He helped me with the celebration of the traditions such as the altars for Viernes de Dolores (Friday of Dolores) or the ofrendas for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), or Thursday of Corpus Christi. He was always there to help me, a dear person, a good friend and a great teacher, always ready to work.

Don Felix Luna transmitted his enthusiasm and encouraged many people to participate in the celebrations who previously showed disinterest for these city traditions. All members of the museum are very grateful for all the things that he taught them. Don Felix is gone now but we must continue with his work, following his example.

Matilde González, director of Museum Allende

My Friend Don Felix
By Tania Noriz

When I started working at Atención I didn’t realize how many wonderful people I was about to meet. It was when I was assigned a story on El Señor de la Conquista festivity in 2004 that I met Don Felix.

My editor Suzanne sent me to interview Don Felix, referring to him as “a very wise man, a descendant of Chichimecas.” Ahhhh, I thought, as I approached his home at the corner of Hernández Macías and Calzada de la Luz.

I was received in the hall of his home, surrounded by baroque cardboard pictures and many books. A sense of history permeated the air. Don Felix, an important and recognized historian, spoke for three hours about San Miguel history. He told me everything about the festivity, opening my eyes to a world, unknown to me, of ancient, meaningful traditions in the region.

Through his eyes and stories I learned a love of this area. His stories of legends and practices in San Miguel I will certainly pass on to my son in the future. After all, that is how the history and the memories of a city continue to live on, passed on from generation to generation.

I will never forget when Don Felix told me the history of the Hortelanos (orchards), the ancestors of the “Locos” who would throw fruits and vegetables to onlookers giving thanks for an abundant harvest and asking for blessings for their families. Or I would imagine Doña Josefa Lina de la Canal supervising everything—the works of the temple and the Convento de la Concepción (Convent of the Conception now known as Las Monjas and Bellas Artes) and the “butterflies that came out through her nose.”

I enjoyed his talks about Easter carnivals, the religious traditions that flourished in the eighteenth century, the meaning of the Christmas piñatas, the beginnings of the Día de los Muertos as well as the history of the altars during the Friday of Dolores, a tradition symbolizing “the people’s attempt to prevent the tears of the Virgin falling to the ground.”


Don Felix was born in San Miguel on April 25, 1941. Son of a craftsman, he was also a craftsman. “My ancestors, my father, were craftsmen weaving rebozos, a lucrative business in the eighteenth century,” he told me the last time we met. Don Felix, however, crafted fine pieces of religious art that led him to become well recognized.

“I was too young and the only thing I learned was to spoil my father rebozos, but somehow inherited the art of making something with my hands.”

Don Felix was a prolific craftsman from 1978 to 2005 and won many prizes. His work of virgins, angels and crosses were well known in Germany, Canada, France, Spain and the US. His work is also in personal chapels of important Mexican politicians.

He had many interesting projects. The last time we spoke he told me of the creation of a popular art museum and pieces he drafted representing festivities and traditions of San Miguel scenes, with the intention to help people get close to the city history.

For Don Felix it was just as important to tell the history of his land as to contribute to regional popular art. “Legends of our land and popular art are an important legacy that had to be told and taught family to family.”

I was not a member of his family, but I learned a lot from him. He planted in me an important seed of love for this place that my son will inherit as well as the children of my children. Don Felix passed away without knowing how important he was for me and the great respect and affection that I have for him

He was my teacher and my friend who has a very special place in my heart, and probably remembered him from time to time, when I say or write the stories that he affectionately taught me.

A railway project in Los Frailes
By Jesús Ibarra

The American company Kansas City Southern, which manages several of Mexican load trains, intends to build a train park area and a three kilometer railway, through Los Frailes and El Mirador, beside the one already existent.

Residents and parents of children at Atabal school, which is near the place where the train park area is intended to be built, protested before Mayor Jesús Correa, who gave them his complete support.

On Thursday, February 21, Daniel Trujillo, head of the Public Security Department, with several police elements, arrived to Los Frailes railway, at the place where the parking area was being built, with the order of stopping the construction.

Neighbors of Los Frailes agreed that a project like this would have several impacts in different ways: ecologically since three kilometers of trees are being cut down; the fact that trains stop there, will cause that people from Central America who travels illegally to work in the USA, can get off from the trains and turn the place into a focus of criminality.

The neighbors said that it would also cause visual and noise contamination.

Alberto Cervantes, works coordinator from the Urban Development Department, said that Kansas City Southern was violating the Municipal Construction Law, since it has not reported the work to Urban Development.

Felipe Sáenz, the engineer in charge of the works, said that the site is of federal right, but he refused to give any more declarations. “The company would have to talk to the authorities,” he said.

San Miguel’s Rotary Clubs and government join to capture clean water
By Sam Decker

The Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende is leading the Water Harvesting Project, which seeks to provide clean drinking water to an elementary school and kindergarten in San Miguel Viejo.

The water at both schools contains unsafe levels of fluoride, a reduced form of the element fluorine.

For this project The Midday Club (English speaking) is joining forces with the Evening Rotary Club (Spanish speaking), the San Miguel government and the West U Rotary Club of Houston, Texas. “I think that for a project like this—one that is important for the entire town—it is crucial to work together,” said project leader Enrique Orvañanos after a Club meeting in early March. 

The design concept utilizes the schools’ rooftops, exploiting their large surface areas to trap rainwater, the majority of which falls during the wetter months between June and October. The rain will be channeled through a filtering system and then stored in tanks, where it will remain until drank or used for cooking.

The government is playing a key role in the project. San Miguel’s Director of Ecology, Don Patterson, led a study that tested wells throughout the municipality for fluoride, arsenic and other contaminants, identifying 20 communities that contained hazardous levels. Funded by the municipal government, the first water-harvesting system of this design was implemented in the Augustin Gonzales community. Members of the Midday Rotary Club were invited to observe the project’s execution. Since the municipality only had the resources to provide clean water to 17 out of the 20 communities in need, the Midday Club jumped on the cause, adopting the three remaining contaminated areas. If the project is successful the other two areas will receive systems the following year.

Orvañanos approaches the project confidently. “There’s no doubt about it. The project will be successful. We will get it right the first time.”

The West U Rotary Club has partnered with the Midday Club in the funding of this matching grant proposal. The Midday Club has already been approved for a grant of US$17,000, the required amount estimated to complete the endeavor.

“One of the miracles of Rotary is its ability to leverage the money required for these projects,” said Midday Rotary Club Vice President David Bossman. “This is what happens when you have a great service oriented international organization.”

The Water Harvesting Project is conceived in three phases. Presently the Club is finishing the first phase, which includes creating a detailed design, outlining costs and timetables and meeting with the principals of the schools in order to explain the project and its benefits. The second phase involves acquiring all the components for installation, at which point volunteers from San Miguel Viejo will help with the assembly.

The third phase entails education about the system and its maintenance, ensuring that it will continue to run efficiently, improving the quality of health of residents for many years to come.

“Part of the effort and commitment of a project such as this is for us to get closer to the communities and to the government in order to teach—and to learn—how people can work together to improve lives,” said Orvañanos.