Jerez Part 5 of 7: Interesting sites near the Plaza Principal include Plaza Tacuba, Hotel Posada San Miguel, & Jardin Migual Hidalgo

 

Cowboy detritus. An old wagon wheel, a milk urn, and several harnesses are some of the items standing by the door of a shop located at Plaza Tacuba. The state of Zacatecas is pais del vaquero (cowboy country) and the shop contains all sorts of objects peculiar to Mexican cowboy culture. While some of the items in the store are antiques, others are new.

In this part of my Jerez series, we'll take a look at some attractive sites to be found within a block or so of the Plaza Principal. In addition to Plaza Tacuba, these include Hotel Posada San Miguel, Jardin Miguel Hidalgo, and Theatro Hinojosa. Rest assured that this list by no means exhausts the interesting places to visit in this area.

Plaza Tacuba

Las Portales de las Palomas face the broad expanse Plaza Tacuba. The steeple of Parroquia de la Concepción Inmaculada can be seen in the upper right. The name of Las Portales de las Palomas (The Doorways of the Doves) is a reference to two stone doves on the upper level of the arcade whose beaks touch in a kiss. The doves are connected to a local legend, according to historian Tony Burton in his book Western Mexico, A Traveler's Treasury. 

The legend says that two powerful hacendados (hacienda owners) arranged a marriage between the son of one and the daughter of the other. The boy and girl were appalled by the idea but publicly agreed to the marriage. However, they secretly made a suicide pact and carried it out by leaping to their deaths from one of the balconies above the arcade. It's a great story but, like all Mexican legends, it should be taken with a grain of salt.

View down the length of Las Portales. The structure was built by Hilario Llamas, owner of Hacienda Santa Fe. He had acquired the site in 1856 from a priest who was being transferred to Zacatecas. In 1861, Llamas applied to the Jerez authorities for permission to build an arcade along the front. His proposal was initially rejected, but an appeal to the Governor of Zacatecas finally succeeded. Both the arcade and Plaza Tacuba were finished in 1864 and soon the homes and business establishments of the elite surrounded the new Plaza. 

Las Portales de las Palomas was built with commercial space on the ground floor. The second floor was reserved for the Llamas family's residence. In 1887, they were among the wealthy families who objected when city mayor Rafael Paéz proposed moving the Jerez market from the Plaza Armas (now called Plaza Principal) to Plaza Tacuba. The elite simply couldn't stand the idea of all those scruffy vendors in their midst. In spite if their fierce resistance, Páez prevailed (See Part 3 of this series for the full story).

Artesanias y Novedades El Moreno is on the north end of Las Portales. I love antiques and this place drew me in like a magnet. Draped over the red wagon wheel are a pair of leather chaps, which are protective gear that cowboys wear over their pants while riding through thorny mesquite country. I am addicted to hats and, while visiting this shop, I purchased a handsome straw sombrero. I still wear it regularly, six years later. 

Beside another wagon wheel, I found a rustic wooden pack saddle. While hiking in the back country, I have often seen saddles like this strapped onto burros carrying heavy loads up mountain trails. Many "antique" items like those displayed are still in daily use by the campesinos I encounter while traveling Mexico's back roads. As William Faulkner famously wrote, "the past is never dead. It's not even past."

An old sombrero and a tangle of bridles hang from a wall. Although most campesinos now seem to favor American-style trucker caps, I still run across a few who wear traditional wide-brimmed sombreros like this one. Most of the time, however, you only see them on charros (rodeo riders) and members of mariachi bands.

In July of 2020, a fire broke out in one of the stores along Las Portales de las Palomas. It raged for some time before it was finally brought under control. Tragically, almost 50% of the old structure was damaged. News coverage from the time of the fire stated that its origin was undetermined. I haven't visited since the fire, so I can't say for sure whether Las Portales de las Palomas has been (or can be) fully restored, but I certainly hope so.

Hotel Posada San Miguel

Entrance of Hotel Posada San Miguel. The mansion was built by a wealthy family during the colonial era and now serves as a boutique posada (inn). Hotel Posada San Miguel is located at #24 Calle De La Parroquia, approximately two blocks southeast of the Plaza Principal. A plaque to the right of the front door commemorates a 2003 visit by Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano.

Hacendados often did not live full-time on their rural properties. Instead, they employed professional administrators to run them on a day-to-day basis. The hacendados and their families preferred the comforts and cultural offerings of city life and usually chose to reside in sumptuous townhouses like this and only visited their haciendas seasonally. 

The hotel's elegant dining room was obviously built for entertaining. In addition to the owner's extended family, those seated around a table like this might have included other hacendados, prosperous merchants, local officials, military officers, and priests. Such gatherings cemented the bonds between the various parts of the local ruling elite. The tragically-ended marriage associated with Las Portales de las Palomas might well have been arranged around a table like this.

A beautiful old grandfather clock stands in the foyer. The hotel is filled with lovely antiques. Those who transformed the old mansion into a posada preserved many of the original features. These include a central courtyard surrounded by arched Gothic/Arabic portales and a comfortable living room with a grand fireplace. 

Jardin Miguel Hidalgo

Jardin Miguel Hidalgo is a tranquil, shady plaza. The Jardin  (garden) is located on the western end of the block that it shares with Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (see Part 4).  Above, a tall plinth is topped with a bust of Padre Miguel Hidalgo, the first great leader of Independencia (the war for independence from Spain). The broad walkways leading to the plinth are lined with  benches.

Bust of Padre Miguel Hidalgo. A man with a very complicated personality, Miguel Hidalgo (1753-1811) was a Catholic priest who led a remarkably bohemian lifestyle. He had a common-law wife and several children and appears to have enjoyed wine and song as well. He launched Independencia on September 15, 1810 by ringing the church bell of Dolores, Guanajuato. Once the residents had assembled, he addressed them with his famous grito (cry) for freedom.

Hidalgo did not survive the first year of the war. He was captured and executed in 1811, following the defeat of his forces. Other insurgent leaders rose to replace him and were defeated and executed in turn before the final victory in 1821. Hidalgo is especially revered for his decree against slavery. Although slavery wasn't formally abolished in Mexico until 1837, this still preceded its abolition in the U.S. by 28 years.

Teatro Hinojosa

Entrance to Teatro Hinojosa. The theatre borders the northern side of Jardin Miguel Hidalgo. It was built by the master craftsman Dámaso Muñeton, who also constructed the Edificio de la Torre (see Part 4). Construction lasted for 19 years, from 1871 and 1890. Muñeton used Ford's Theatre in Washington DC as his model. It was the site of Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865. In 1882, the internationally famous soprano Angela Peralta (1845-83), known as the "Mexican Nightingale", performed here. 

Muñeton's work was commissioned by Jerez politician Jose Maria Hinojosa Escobedo. He was a member of the Llamas family, the same family who built Las Portales de la Palomas. His last name, Escobedo, indicates he may also have been related to the family that built the lovely Humboldt Portales at the Plaza Principal (see Part 2). Hinojosa involved the whole community in the building project, including local prisoners who did stone work.

Women chat in front of ornate doors at the west end of Teatro Hinojosa. The horseshoe-shaped interior of the Teatro has seating in the balconies and boxes all around the sides, but no seats on the main floor. Instead, chairs are set up there during performances or other events. Carbide lamps and a huge mirror in the back of the theatre once provided its lighting.

Under the stage there is a remarkable hydro-acoustical device. By filling or emptying a pit with water, the volume of the actors' voices can be increased or decreased. During the Revolution, Teatro Hinojosa  served as a military barracks. Later, it was used as a school, a public library, a movie house, and a meeting hall. In 2006, it was reopened as a theatre and public auditorium.

This completes Part 5 of my Jerez series. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments, please include your email address so that I may reply in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim

Jerez Part 4 of 7: Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad and the Edificio de la Torre

The steeples of the Santuario loom over the surrounding buildings. You are looking down the street called Del Santuario from the southwest corner of the Plaza Principal. The street runs along the west side of the Plaza. The church known as Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Solitude) is one of the architectural landmarks of Jerez. 

In this posting, we'll look at the Santuario's exterior and interior features and also visit the small but stunning Edificio de la Torre. I'll relate a little of the history of both along with some interesting explanations about the origins of choir lofts, church pews, pulpits, and confessional booths.

Exterior features

View of the facade and its two huge steeples. The main body of the Santuario was begun in 1805 and completed in 1819. The project was initiated by Captain Don Pedro Carlos de Godoy, with the assistance of Don José María Patron, the newly appointed Father Prefect. Most of the construction occurred during Independencia (the Independence War).

Delays caused by the war probably contributed to the length of time it took to complete the initial phase. Various improvements were added later. The north (right) steeple was completed in 1860 and the atrium was added in 1877. The south steeple was finally finished in 1885, using the north steeple as its model.

The Gothic main gate was added in 1880. The gate was the work of Padre Andrés V. Lopez*, who is also responsible for other changes during that period. Most of the Santuario was built with sandstone, but the gate was carved from cantera, a soft volcanic rock often used for decorative purposes. The ornate decoration and the tall, thin pointed arches are characteristic of the Gothic style.

While critics admired the gate, some felt it was too grand for the small atrium into which it opens. Early colonial atriums were usually large, open-air spaces in front of a church, enclosed by a fence or low wall. They were used for evangelizing indigenous people in groups too large to fit inside churches. By 1877, when this atrium was built, nearly everyone was already Catholic. So, the atrium here appears somewhat vestigial. 

*El Estado de Zacatecas, Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura Ramon Lopez Velarde, Gobierno del Estado, 1998-2004.

The south entrance of the Santuario is almost as grand as the front. This side entrance faces onto Calle Aurora. The gate is also Gothic and is more of Padre Lopez' work. The large dome of the church is visible above. Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad's architect was Tomás Villanueva, a very experienced and knowledgable man. 

Villanueva used as his model a famous Spanish pilgrimage site, the Catedral de Santiago Compostela which draws visitors from around the world. Over the centuries, the Santuario has incorporated several architectural styles, including Baroque, Neo-Classic, Mudejar (Arabic), and Gothic.

The Gothic-style south gate. Once again, the gate seems a bit "over the top" given the paltry size of the space into which it opens. Still, it certainly draws you in, which is its purpose. The tall, iron-studded, wooden side door of the side entrance is built so that it can either be opened completely or entered by one or another of the two small doors at its bottom.

The site on which the Santuario was built had previously been occupied by a hospital and chapel for indigenous people. Such hospitals were a typical feature of early colonial religious architecture. Although epidemics ravaged indigenous communities from the earliest days of the Conquest, the hospitals' primary focus was more about evangelization than healthcare. 

Such hospitals were usually organized and run by one of the religious orders, often the Franciscans. As the Age of Evangelism faded into history, the hospitals took on important economic and political roles. However, corruption crept in and, by the late 18th century, many of them were closed. This may have been among the reasons why the hospital was torn down and replaced by the the Santuario .

The Apse and Altar

The apse contains the altar and statue of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. The apse of a church is located at the opposite end of the nave from the main entrance. It is usually semi-circular and is the main focal point of the church. Nuestra Señora is in the center of the back wall, with statues of her parents St. Joachim and St. Anne to her left and right. A simple statue of Jesus on the cross is at the very top of the structure. It seems almost an afterthought.

Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is adorned with a halo and a beautiful gown. The cult of Our Lady of Solitude originated in Spain and is a special form of devotion practiced in Spanish-speaking countries. "Solitude" refers to the solitary grief of Mary on Holy Saturday, when her son Jesus still lay in his tomb. 

 

The veneration of Mary was especially intense in Medieval Spain and the conquistadors brought that with them to the New World. Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is the patroness of grieving mothers and those who are lonely. During colonial times she became the patroness of Jerez, as well as other Mexican states and towns.   

Various legends are associated with this statue. One involves its arrival at Jerez in 1569, shortly after the city's founding. Two travelers with a heavily loaded burro stopped in town for the night. In the morning, the men and burro had vanished, but the cargo remained. When it was opened, Nuestra Señora's bust and hands were discovered. In the 19th century, Nuestra Señora was credited with stopping a local cholera epidemic. Still later, she is said to have ended a drought.

When General Trinidad Garcia de la Cadena visited Jerez in 1872, he credited Nuestra Señora with assisting in the struggles against the U.S. invasion (1846-48) and the French Occupation (1862-67). During the Revolution (1910-17), General Panfilo Natera was surrounded and ran out of ammunition. A legend says that Nuestra Señora took his horse's reins and led him to safety. For these exploits she has been dubbed La Generala (the Lady General). 

The Transept

The dome's ceiling is octagonal. It covers the area directly above the place where the main nave passes through the transept to form the latin cross, an architectural arrangement found in many Catholic churches. Four arches support the dome and in their corners are four triangular paintings.

In one of the triangular paintings, Mary stands over the body of Jesus. Above her is the Spanish text Hazme sentir, oh madre, tu dolor (Make me feel, o mother, your pain). As a photographer of architecture, I was particularly attracted by the convergence of all these straight and curved lines. 

Chapel of the Virgen de Guadalupe. This is one of two chapels that are located at either end of the transept. A painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs above the altar. On either side are two white-clad figures, Jesus on the right and an unknown saint holding a cross on the left. On the altar below the Virgin is a photo of Pope John Paul II, who served from 1978 to 2005 and is much-beloved in Mexico.

The Virgen de Guadalupe is the Patron Saint of Mexico. She first appeared to a newly-converted Aztec man in 1531. He claimed to have encountered her in the ruins of a temple to Tonantzin, the Aztec earth goddess. His account of the apparition of the Virgen de Guadalupe was considered very controversial at the time. 

The reasons for controversy included the following: that she first appeared to an indigenous person rather than a Spaniard; that she spoke perfect Nahuatl (the Aztec language); and that she was dark-skinned, like an indigenous woman. All this made her wildly popular among  the poorer classes, but some in the Church (particularly the Franciscans) initially declared her a fake and a way for native people to continue to worship the old gods.

The Ceiling and Choir Loft

A series of glass chandeliers hangs from the ceiling of the nave.  The ceiling itself resembles the ribs of an upturned boat, hence the term nave, which means "ship or vessel" in Spanish. The ribs are another example of the Gothic style. The view here is toward the entrance of the Santuario. The balcony with the railing above the entrance is the choir loft. In many colonial-era Catholic churches, the choir sits above and behind the congregation. 

The choir loft's organ was installed in 1844 and has 28 registers. I was brought up in a Protestant church where the choir sat in the apse area, behind and to one side of the pastor's pulpit. When I began photographing Mexico's colonial-era churches, the location of choir lofts seemed odd to me. Looking into it, I found out that this practice was not ancient, but came into use in the Baroque era (1600-1750).

In previous centuries, choirs had been exclusively men and boys. During the Baroque period, operatic music performed by choirs that included women became popular. However, mixed choirs created a problem because women were not allowed in the sanctuary during liturgical services. The solution was to remove the choir to the organ loft, an area above and behind the sanctuary. 

This situation lasted until the 1903-1914 reign of staunchly conservative Pope Pius X. He wanted to restore "sacred music", particularly Gregorian chants. Accordingly, he abolished mixed choirs and restored the all-male version. This allowed the choir back into the sanctuary area. However the loft with the organ is still called the choir loft.

The Pulpit and Confessional

A beautifully-carved pulpit hangs on the nave's side wall. The wooden canopy overhead is called a sounding board and serves to amplify the speaker's voice. In Catholic churches, pulpits are reserved for clergy when they deliver sermons. While preaching has always been important in Catholicism, it got a real boost during the Middle Ages. The Franciscan and Dominican Orders grew rapidly through preaching to large crowds.

The use of pulpits dates back to the raised areas of pre-Christian Jewish synagogues and to Greek and Roman speaking platforms. For the first 1400 years of Christianity, churches had no seating and everyone simply stood during services. Fixing the pulpit on the side wall in a raised position enabled the speaker's voice to be heard more evenly than would be the case for one located in the apse. However, once front-facing seating became the norm, side-wall pulpits declined in use.

The arched doors of this confessional are intricately carved. A cross with various symbols relating to the crucifixion is framed by two angels peeking through foliage. Unlike stand-alone confessionals, this one is set into the wall, conserving space and decorating the wall at the same time. Like pews, confessional boxes arrived fairly late in Church history.

It wasn't until the early 13th century that Pope Innocent III required that all Catholics must confess at least annually. Mandatory confessions were viewed as a way to exert control over the faithful and to fight heresy. It was even later, in 1576, that Cardinal Charles Boromeo invented the first confessional box. Its design was aimed at thwarting physical contact between the confessor and the penitent.

Edificio de la Torre

View of the Edificio de la Torre through the Sanctuario's main gate. The Edificio de la Torre (De la Torre building) stands directly across the street from the front of the church. The name of the building is sometimes translated as the Tower Building, but this is an error. It was named after an 18th century philanthropist.

Pantaleón de la Torre y Salcedo (1744-1799) was born, lived, and finally died in Jerez. He was a wealthy man who sponsored education and cultural projects. In 1795, near the end of his life, he donated the land on this site and set aside funds for the construction of a girls' school, which operated for 70 years. 

View of the southwest corner of Edificio de la Torre. The building is so striking in its design that it has become an iconic image of Jerez. After 70 years the girls' school was demolished and replaced by the present building. Construction lasted from 1894 to 1896. The work was done by master stonemason Dámaso Muñetón, the same man who built the north steeple of the Santuario. 

Muñetón's work incorporates Gothic and Mudejar styles. The finely-carved cantera stone walls were completed in 1895. The Edificio's windows were crafted using lead and rivets rather than solder and still contain the original handmade glass. The work on them was finished in 1896.

A local vaquero pauses for my photograph.  Until recently, Edificio de la Torre functioned as the Jerez Institute of Culture and housed a public library. During our visit, the building was closed for renovation. Soon, it will open as an art gallery.

This completes Part 4 of my Jerez series. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, that you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below, or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments, please leave your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

 

Jerez Part 3 of 7: The lush and beautiful Jardin Rafael Páez

La Primavera is one of the fountains in the Jardin. It was one of four bronze nymphs representing the four seasons that were originally installed in the plaza of another town. The scantily dressed nymphs scandalized that town's local priest and he demanded their removal. The story of how Jerez ended up with La Primavera will be recounted later in this posting. 

In the first two parts of my Jerez series, I focused on the wonderful architecture surrounding Jardin Rafael Páez. In this one I will show the Jardin (garden) itself and tell the story of Rafael Páez, who

ordered the Jardin's construction in 1887. Páez was a powerful political leader and man of great culture who served as Jerez' first Mayor.  Like many mayors of this period, Páez decided to modernize his town's main plaza by turning it into a lush garden. 

Previously, this space had been called Plaza de Armas (Parade Ground). It was used for drilling the militia, evangelizing large crowds of indigenous people, and for public executions. Later, it became Jerez' open-air central market, full of booths and crowded with people. No doubt, it also reeked with the smells of animals, uncollected waste, and unwashed peones.

Entering the Jardin

Looking out through one of the Jardin's several entrances. Purple bougainvillea arches over a gate that opens onto Andador Benito Juarez. This pedestrian-only street runs along the Jardin's east side. 

Rafael Páez' beautification project aroused considerable controversy because the Mayor proposed to move the central market to nearby Plaza Tacuba. However, the wealthy families who lived around that plaza strenuously objected to the transplantation into their midst of all those noisy, smelly booths, crowded with ragged commoners. 

Today, this reaction would be called NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). The dispute grew so heated that one day a man named Rafael Billanti shot the Mayor's horse in protest. It is unclear from my sources whether Páez was mounted on the unfortunate steed at the time. Despite this violent reaction, the Mayor was undeterred and the beautification project proceeded.

A bust of the poet Ramón López Velarde was erected in 1946. This statue, along with one of the composer Candelario Huizar, celebrates Jerez' contributions to Mexican culture. Ramón Velarde (1888-1921) has been described as "Mexico's National Poet". He was born in Jerez to a father who was a lawyer and a mother from a land-owning family. Velarde was educated in a seminary, but abandoned the religious life to become a lawyer. 

Law was a way to make a living, but Velarde's first love was poetry. He collaborated in the publication of a variety of literary magazines and wrote several books of poetry. Velarde  initially rejected modernist poetry, but later adopted it as his style. Much of his work focuses on idealized memories of his childhood in Jerez and the people of the town are very proud of their native son. Velarde died of pneumonia  at the relatively young age of 33.

The Jardin contains several topiary sculptures. Topiary is the art of shaping plants into fanciful forms through clipping and training their branches. It originated in Roman times when Gaius Matius Calvinus, a member of Julius Caesar's circle, introduced it to Roman gardens. The practice died out during the Dark Ages, but was revived in Europe in the 16th century. Topiary sculptures were placed in the Jardin at the end of the 19th century.

In the 1890's, Mexico's dictator Porfirio Diaz decided to prepare for the upcoming centennial of Independencia by sprucing up the nation's plazas with statues. An official from Zacatecas named Francisco Román requested statues for his state so that he could distribute them to various pueblos. Among those that Diaz sent were four bronze nymphs, representing the four seasons. Román gave them to the pueblo of Villavueva, including one called La Primavera (The Spring). 

In 1896, Don Pedro Cabrera was the political leader of Jerez. He persuaded the leadership of Villanueva to loan him La Primavera to help decorate Jerez' plaza for its annual spring festival. Once the festival concluded, however, Cabrera neglected to return the bronze nymph. In the end, this caused no problem because Villanueva's priest had forced the removal of the other three nymphs from his town's plaza. Apparently, Jerez' priest was a bit more broadminded, because the statue still stands in the Jardin. 

Remarkable design on the Jardin's tiled surface. I haven't been able to find any history or explanation of the floral design, but it has a Far Eastern feel to it. Unusual tile arrangements can be found in many Mexican plazas. 

During the Mexican Revolution (1910-17) and the struggles over land reform following it, the Jardin suffered considerable destruction and neglect. In 1922, the Ayuntamiento (city council) decided to restore the garden. In doing so, they officially named it Jardin Rafael Páez, honoring the man who initiated its creation. 

The Kiosco

A kiosco (bandstand) is another typical feature of Mexican plazas. Work on this octagon-shaped kiosco began in 1888, replacing an earlier version. According to historian Tony Burton*, the structure has "the half-moon of Islam, Star of David, and Roman bells decorating it, presumably symbolizing the union of civilizations." A Moorish influence can be seen in the arches supporting the roof. 

*Western Mexico, A Traveler's Treasury 4th Edition, 2013, by Tony Burton, Sombrero Books, BC Canada.

The wooden ceiling of the kiosco originated in nearby forests.  Suspended from the ceiling of the painstakingly-assembled structure is a lovely glass lamp. Mexican kioscos can be found in nearly every Mexican plaza where they almost always stand in the center. Kioscos function as bandstands, speaking platforms, stages for displays like Christmas creche scenes, and jungle gyms for kids. While some kioscos are quite simple, others--including this one--are quite elaborate.

The intricately carved details of the kiosco are lovely. This photo displays some of the kiosco's detail work and craftsmanship that is among the best I have seen in Mexico.

Fountains and gardens

Four fountains were placed in the Jardin in 1888. The occasion was to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. This fountain is located in the southwest corner of the Jardin. Eight raised beds surround the fountain like the petals of a flower. In fact, the whole Jardin, viewed from above, is arranged like an eight petaled rose. In 1900, cast iron benches were added and the kiosco was again remodeled.

During the last part of the 19th century, the chief caretaker of the Jardin was Don Julio Soto, a renowned gardener. Under his supervision, the garden was treated as a precious jewel. It was filled with 310 pots containing carnations, pansies, hollyhocks, and other plants. Scattered around the Jardin were fruit trees, which produced pomegranates, oranges, apples, apricots and pears.

Another fountain, located in the southeast corner of the Jardin.  This one was done in the Art Nouveau style, popular in Europe and the Americas between 1890 and 1910. This period is known as the Belle Époque. Art Nouveau was a reaction to the formality of the Neo-Classic style of the 18th and 19th centuries and is characterized by long, sinuous, organic lines. 

Golden herons form the base of the fountain. The sinuous lines of the herons' necks and wings are typical of Art Nouveau style. The use of the herons to support the fountain's dish is another aspect of Art Nouveau. Decorative and structural elements are melded in an attempt to break down the distinction between fine and applied arts.  

People in the Jardin

A local couple is serenaded by a pair of guitarists. Street musicians are one of my favorite parts of Mexican culture. Most play for tips, which I nearly always give. Jerez is famous for the tamborazo bands who play in its Jardin. This style of music originated in the state of Zacatecas during the last half of the 19th century. 

The cast iron benches seen above were originally installed in 1900. There are thirteen grouped around the kiosco and each of the four fountains is surrounded by seven more. They provide a great place to people-watch while you hang out under the Jardin's many shady trees. 

A young student scans her smart phone. These devices have become as ubiquitous in Mexico as they are north of the border. Other popular ways of whiling away your time include listening to musicians, playing dominos, studying, talking, and sometimes just snoozing. 

My friend Jerry adjusts his smart phone for a selfie. Taking photos in the Jardin is another popular activity. Jerry was part of the group I organized for this visit to Jerez. He and his wife Lori produce a popular youtube video called Jerry Brown Travels. In it they provide a great deal of information for foreigners who are interested in traveling or settling in Mexico.

The Jardin also provides a quiet place for young lovers to meet.  The young couple were naturally posed for this shot and when I asked permission they readily agreed. I have always found young people in Mexico to be delightful and this pair was no exception.

This concludes Part 3 of my Jerez series. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to leave any thoughts or questions, please use the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim