Cont. from front page,

The first main event of the festival is the Alborada (dawn), a night-long celebration originally begun by workers from the former factory La Aurora, now an art and design center. Around midnight on October 3, mañanitas will be sung to San Miguel Arcángel outside the Parroquia, followed by a procession beginning around 3am.

Led by mojigangas (large cardboard caricatures worn by dancers) and celebrants carrying papier-mâché stars, the group travels from the intersection of calles San Francisco and Núñez to the Jardín, where they meet up with residents from the neighborhoods of La Aurora, Valle del Maíz and Las Cuevitas. The ensuing launching of noisy rockets is known as “the burning of the powder.”

Don Antonio Luna, from Valle del Maíz, has coordinated the burning of the powder for the past 17 years. “Every year we burn about 6,000 small fireworks and rockets and 700 large ones,” said Luna. The man in charge of the neighborhood church, the mayordomo, blesses the powder with incense directed to the four winds, or four cardinal points, asking the Lord’s permission to begin the festivities. A procession of 30 to 40 people then joins the others in Centro.

Along the way, rockets are continually set off. “Burning the powder is a very dangerous thing,” said Luna. “People watching the Alborada must understand it is a risk. That is why we are such a large group—to prevent spectators from getting too close.” The majority of fireworks and rockets will be set off in the Jardín at 4am.

Dancers and the dance

Dancers representing the different tribes of Chichimecas, such as the Pames, Guamares and Guachichiles, who inhabited the region before the Conquest, and other indigenous dance groups from around the republic converge on Centro in a spectacular, vibrant procession.

The meeting of dance groups at the bridge of Guanajuato symbolizes their asking forgiveness of one another. 

The conchero dancers, dressed in pre-Hispanic costumes with dried seed pods around their ankles and wrists, are also known as “groups of conquest,” because they travel to other places to dance and “conquer” the local dancers. Later, they invite the conquered groups to dance in their city. 

Entrance of the xúchiles

Along with the dancers, groups from different neighborhoods and rural communities congregate at Guanajuato bridge bearing large floral offerings for San Miguel Arcángel. Known as xúchiles, the offerings are constructed of a plant called cucharilla (green desert spoon, an evergreen shrub of the Agave family native to central Mexico) and marigolds, called cempaxúchitl. The word xúchitl comes from xóchitl, the Náhuatl word for “flower.”

Valle del Maíz is one of the neighborhoods with a long tradition of creating xúchiles. José Centeno and Juan Sánchez are the first and second mayordomos of the Valle del Maíz church, and they are in charge of creating xúchiles to honor the saint. “We use wooden posts for the base, and the structure is made of reed,” said Centeno, who has headed the construction of the offerings for four years.

The xúchitl is six meters high, with a three-meter cross on the top. Centeno and Sánchez said that a group of 14 spends an entire day the week before the event searching for and cutting the cucharilla around Alcocer, near the Presa Allende and along the road to Guanajuato.

The construction of the xúchitl is highly labor-intensive and is a prayer in itself; groups work throughout the night in a reverent ceremony. The following day, the 550-kilogram (1,200-pound) offering is carried by 20 men and placed at the entrance of the Parroquia. Other xúchiles are constructed in the rural communities of San Miguel el Viejo, Alonso Yánez and Cruz del Palmar; the only urban colonia to make such an offering is Las Cuevitas. 

Hermes Arroyo and his mojigangas

Mojigangas are a familiar sight at many of San Miguel’s celebrations, but they are most prominent during the San Miguel Arcángel celebration. There are two chief mojiganga makers in San Miguel: Leopoldo Estrada (“Don Polo”) and Hermes Arroyo.

The latter artisan learned to make mojigangas when he was seven, from his godfather, Don Genaro Almanza, a sacred art specialist who has created several of the religious figures in San Miguel churches. Arroyo, also a sacred artist, said he has taken part in the San Miguel festivities for more than 20 years. “I decided to get involved because I did not want only to see it, but to be part of it, so I decided, along with Don Polo, to begin making the giant dolls.” 

Arroyo said that during the summer he offers mojiganga workshops for children, and from those workshops he chooses the most skillful and invites them to help him make the mojigangas for the San Miguel festival. 

According to Arroyo, the mojigangas have developed and been improved in San Miguel. “Long ago, mojigangas were more rustic than they are now. They were only rigid cardboard dolls, with no decoration at all,” he said. “It used to be in San Miguel just as it is now in Comonfort: different organized groups, such as construction workers or truck drivers, led by the local church, team up with the cardboard maker in town to party and make mojigangas.

After the party, they take the mojigangas to the river’s edge and burn them.”

Arroyo’s mojigangas are mainly female figures–the tallest one four meters high–based on actual people. “I used to go to the Jardín and watch people, then reproduce their face as mojigangas,” he said. “My nieces and nephews used to give them names, such as Elizabeth, Ana Cristina, Wanda or Carmen.”

Arroyo studied art at Bellas Artes, and his mojigangas show this artistic influence, with detailed eyes, eyelashes, lips, hair, breasts and fingernails. He uses cardboard and gypsum to construct the figures then paints them with acrylics.

Arroyo said that it costs around 2,000 pesos to make one mojiganga. To afford the expense of keeping this tradition alive, he rents a pair of mojigangas, bride and groom, for weddings. He also promotes and sells his sacred artwork. 

For this year’s festivity, Arroyo, along with Don Polo, will present about 40 mojigangas at the Reseña, the Alborada and the procession of xúchiles.

Arroyo’s work is also known abroad. He made a mojiganga of Abraham Lincoln for an art museum in Philadelphia and a collection of six mojigangas for a museum in New York specializing in large artworks.

San Miguel Arcángel Festivities


September 26 

5pm, Reseña of San Miguel Arcángel, from Calzada de la Aurora and Puente de Guanajuato; meets at the corner of Hidalgo and Canal and ends at the Jardín esplanade 

October 3 

5:15pm, Pilgrimage from Colonia Aurora, with floats and music 
Midnight, Mañanitas to San Miguel Arcángel, Parroquia

October 4 3am, Meeting of dancers and mojigangas at the corner of San Francisco and Nuñez 4am, Alborada (burning of powder, rockets and fireworks)

6am, Mañanitas to San Miguel Arcángel, Parroquia

8am–11am, Pre-Hispanic dancers, Jardín and Plaza Cívica

9am, Music, Hermanos Aguascalientes, Jardín

11am, Mass to honor San Miguel Arcángel, Parroquia, cavalcade

1pm, Voladores de Papantla, Jardín

2pm, Burning of monitos, Jardín 

3pm, Parade with mojigangas, xúchiles, pre-Hispanic dancers, from Calzada de la Estación to Jardín

5pm, Entrance of xúchiles, Parroquia

7pm, Pre-Hispanic dancers, Jardín

8pm, Voladores de Papantla

9pm, Rockets and fireworks



October 5

7am–9am, Pre-Hispanic dancers, Jardín

9am, Music, Hermanos Aguascalientes

11am, Parade, mojigangas, floats, and dancers to honor the city founder Fray Juan de San Miguel, Ancha de San Antonio to Parroquia

1pm, Tribute to San Juan de San Miguel, outside the Parroquia

3pm, 7pm, Voladores de Papantla, Jardín

9pm, Fireworks

Next conference by UNAM October 11

The next UNAM lecture takes place on Saturday, October 11, at noon in Teatro Santa Ana (Reloj 50-A). The talk will be offered by Eduardo Vega, a member of UNAM’s economics faculty who holds a master’s degree in Public Administration and Politics from ITESM and a Ph.D. in History from Universidad Iberoamericana. The conferences series, titled “Environment, development and public politics,” explores the relationship between economic development and the excessive use of energy, natural resources and biodiversity brought about by it. 

Entrance to the talk costs 100 pesos per person. The funds raised will be used to help the Biblioteca improve its internet and computer infrastructure. 

Security tips 

Although San Miguel is still a relatively safe city, we should take precautions not to leave our residences exposed to possible robberies. Here are some tips for securing your home and yourself: 

1. Lock doors and windows before going out or going to bed

2. Be alert if your dog barks and try to find the reason for the barking

3. Be in contact with your neighbors; try to have their telephone numbers

4. Have the emergency numbers on hand: 152-0022, 152-0911, and 066

5. Try to learn Spanish so that you can communicate with your Mexican neighbors

6. If you are victim of a robbery or any other criminal act, report it to the police and to the Ministerio Público (District Attorney’s Office) on Salida a Querétaro 


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