Queretaro: Part 5 - The Magic Pueblo of Bernal

Bernal is one of Mexico's Pueblos Magicos. Mexico has given the designation of Pueblo Magico, or Magic Town, to 35 very special villages around the country. Each of these is a place with a special ambiance, or an unusual feature. San Sebastian Bernal, a town located about 1/2 hour's drive northeast of Queretaro, certainly fits this description. The narrow winding streets are lined with open air restaurants and beautifully picturesque old hotels and stores. Looming over the town is a huge stone monolith called Pena de Bernal, the third largest of these natural structures in world.

Bernal is an old colonial-era village. The mural above was painted on the wall of an open- air arcade on the main street. The scene depicted could have occurred 400 years ago, or yesterday. You can see the same activities on the streets today: sombreroed horsemen chatting, campesinos toting produce or other goods through the cobblestone streets, and the well-off and poor rubbing shoulders in the open markets. San Sebastian Bernal was founded by a Spanish army lieutenant named Alonso Cabrera in 1647. Local Otomi Indians requested protection from the Spanish, apparently because their wild Chichimec cousins were raiding again. Lt. Cabrera (some say he was a captain) brought 10 soldiers, along with his 3 sons, to protect the locals and enforce the Spanish Crown's presence. They built a small fort in the area and, as usual, a town grew up around it.

La Pena is a massive rock, visible from most places in town. La Pena rises about 1150 feet (350 meters) from its base. The rock formation can be seen for many miles in every direction and stands in an area where the fertile valleys of the south and the rugged and rocky mountains of the north meet. When we left Tequisquiapan (see Part 4), we were uncertain of the correct road to Bernal, but almost immediately spotted the rock. Simply by keeping it in sight, we found our way easily. The size is hard to appreciate unless you have something to scale it against. Look at the center of La Pena and you will find a small, light-colored "Z"- shaped formation. If you look very closely, you will see some tiny dots in the Z.

This is the "Z" you were looking at above. The dots are people on the trail. The monolith is a popular destination for rock climbers and others attracted to extreme sports. Bernal and its Pena are under consideration by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The rock has sacred significance to the Otomi and other chichimeca in the area. Very soon after they arrived, the Spanish built a chapel on the top which has become the focus of annual Catholic religious processions. In addition, various "New Age" groups have adopted the monolith and consider it a spiritual center, especially on the Equinox. There is a trail to the top which we did not take for lack of time, but perhaps on our next visit.

The environment of San Sebastian Bernal is high desert. Cactus, low scrub, and desert grasses marked this area for cattle and horse grazing when the Spanish arrived. At just under 7100 feet (2510 meters), the climate in May was dry and pleasantly warm during the day and cool in the evening.
We encountered various forms of transportation in Bernal. One has the choice of a trolly-bus, a tricycle cab, or one's own two feet. We parked our car in an inexpensive public lot and hoofed it. El Centro of Bernal is small enough that walking is an easy and pleasant experience. In addition, you get to see so much more.

The clock tower is a landmark in El Centro as La Pena is for the whole area. Built in 1900 by a German, the tower and the building it surmounts are beautifully kept. In fact, the whole El Centro area left an impression of having just been buffed, touched up, and freshly painted. The clock tower overlooks the central plaza area.

Casa Tsaya has a Moorish feel. The entire front of this old hotel is covered with painted tiles in the Moorish style. We decided to peek inside Casa Tsaya to check out the ambiance.

Just inside the door, we encountered the central courtyard restaurant. The courtyard was surrounded on all sides by portales behind which were the rooms. The tables were set around the stone fountain in the center. Various plants on the balconies gave a nice finishing touch. Casa Tsaya struck me as a great place to stay if we ever spent the night in Bernal. Shelley, our Home B&B host and volunteer tour guide, took us on a brief tour of the hotel.

No two dining room chairs in Casa Tsaya were alike. Color and humor are typical features of Mexican art, and both were employed in the decor of the Casa Tsaya dining room. It is these extra little touches that make places like this old hotel special.

Entrance to San Sebastian Martir church on the plaza. The church is not imposing and overwhelming like so many others we have visited. Somehow the size of the church fit well with the human-scale architecture of the town. The well-preserved church was built between 1700 and 1725.

Music everywhere. These Indian musicians were one group among many in the plaza that day. Some kind of fiesta was going on. The musicians followed each other in performing and sometimes overlapped. As I have said before, living in Mexico is like having a live music sound track in your life.

Halloween all year long! Next to the building with the German clock tower was a small museum whose walls were lined with carved wooden masks. The local Indians carvers, have vivid and colorful--and sometimes frightful--imaginations. Carole and I have begun collecting masks and we are amazed by the variety of forms and techniques. I particularly liked the blue face on the bottom.

The Devil in detail. A devil mask offers a toothy grin. Devil figures are particularly popular with mask makers. The masks are used in various fiestas that have a patina of Catholicism over a deep reservoir of ancient native religious beliefs. This one put me in mind of a popular Rolling Stones poster.

Having a bad day. I call this one Indio Enfermo. I probably looked something like this after one of my more rigorous bouts of "turista".

Keeping it all in the air. This stick juggler was pretty good. He kept quite a crowd entertained as they waited for him to finally drop one of the sticks. It took a while.

The loom at the back of the shop. Shelley took us into the back of one of the textile shops where beautiful woven goods are sold. In back, we saw the looms where they weave the old fashioned way. The techniques go back at least 500 years or more. This particular loom was a very unusual upright device. The weaver was apparently creating some kind of wall hanging.

Keeping a sharp eye on things. We encountered this parrot guarding a wall hanging on our way out of the textile shop. He eyed us suspiciously until we finally stopped cooing at him and went away. The Bernal area is definitely sheep country and lots of woolen goods are produced.

This is also horse country. We found this beautifully-made saddle with a lariat casually draped over it in what was apparently part of an old colonial home. Mexican cowboys--called vaqueros or charros--take their horses and equipment very seriously. They are proud of their outfits and love showing them off.

Some beautiful stonework from long ago. This was part of the floor design in the large patio of the old colonial building. This segment was probably 2 feet by 2 feet, and there were many segments. Seems like a lot of work for a floor until you understand that under the old encomienda system, Indians were treated like serfs. Since many of the Indians were skilled in stone masonry and other kinds of crafts, it made for some pretty nifty features costing the Spanish aristocracy a pittance.

Don Quixote, deep in thought. 16th Century Spanish author Miguel Cervantes and his creation Don Quixote are very popular in Mexico. A couple of hours drive to the west, in Guanajuato, the community throws an annual Cervantino Festival that is internationally recognized. I found this wooden Don Quixote gracing a sidewalk restaurant on a side street near the plaza.

An extraordinary egg. We found this large sculpture of a world within an egg in a small shop a couple of doors down from the wooden Don Quixote. The egg is about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Inside is a whole village behind a bridge. Under the bridge, a real waterfall flows. The Mexican artistic imagination is amazing.

This concludes my series on Queretaro and the surrounding area. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our visit as much as we enjoyed going there. Queretaro offers much more than we had time to see or do. We hope to visit many times more in the future.

Please leave a comment below or email me any reactions you may have.

Hasta luego. Jim

Queretaro: Part 4 - Folk art of Tequisquiapan

Colorful pottery masks in one of Tequisquiapan's folk art shops. Carole and I wanted to sample some of the small towns arrayed around the City of Queretaro like planets around a sun. We had not even heard of Tequisquipan until Shelley, our Home B&B host, offered to show us around. Shelley was an excellent guide, and knew all the little out-of-the-way attractions in each location that really make a visit worthwhile. Tequisquiapan is about an hour's drive east of Queretaro.

The center of the nation. Tequisquiapan enjoys the distinction of being located in the exact geographical center of Mexico. The monument above marks the spot. According the plaque adjacent to the monument, the town was founded in 1551, but the Spanish originally called it Santa Maria de la Asuncion y de las Aguas Calientes, referring both to its patron saint and to the local hot springs. The town was given its Nahautl name Tequisquiapan in 1656 for reasons that are still not clear to me. Usually, under the Spanish, the naming process worked the other way. In 1916-17, the new constitution resulting from the Revolution was being drafted in Queretaro. General Carranza the head of the Constitutionalist army, used to take breaks from the work to visit Tequisquiapan and enjoy the hot springs.

Coffee that will snap your eyes open. Shelley and Carole both bought bags of cafe from this vendor, who drove his product over from Veracruz State on the Gulf Coast. We get vendors like this in Ajijic too, and it amazes me that they make the long drive over for what must be a fairly modest profit. Shelley worked out an arrangement for him to make a stop at her B&B whenever he is in town. She is a strong believer in small businesses like his.

A broad plaza surrounded by portales. Although the paint looked a little weathered, the overall appearance of Tequisquiapan's plaza and mercado areas was very prosperous.

Shopping families stroll by under the shade of the portales. The mother in the foreground seems focused on her next shopping stop, but her small son has already focused on his main interest.
Carved wooden door was an attention-grabber. Since Queretaro State and Michoacan State to the south both have heavily wooded mountains, wood carving is a specialty of local crafts people. The symbolism of the sun and moon appears in many different art forms around Mexico.

A smile for a stranger. I was trying to discreetly photograph this family so that I could catch them in relaxed candid poses. The abuela (grandmother) spotted me immediately. Rather than being irritated with my effrontery, she rewarded me with a beautiful smile. Basketry is obviously the family craft, and theirs looked very well made.

Painted pottery is another local speciality. Shelley told us that the designs on the cups are typical of the immediate area.

A mobile fruit store. This fruit vendor doesn't wait for customers to come to him. He loads up his wheelbarrow and parks it on a likely street corner and soon has customers digging in their purses and pockets. Given the narrow streets, I expected angry remonstrances from motorists trying to get by, but no one objected and everyone was pretty laid-back about the whole thing. This is a major difference in my experience of living in the US and Mexico. In the US, nasty looks, honking, and maybe even road rage violence might have resulted.

Local weavers also display their wares. Woven products such as this are often made on old wooden looms, held together by twine. Sometimes they are made on hand looms, where the weaver sits on the ground with one end of the loom tied to a tree.

More fine baskets hang from the rafters of crafts stalls. I liked the way the light streamed through, making the baskets seem to glow warmly.

A marimba player sets up under the plaza portales to entertain the shoppers. Street musicians are everywhere in Mexico. This fellow was handling four marimba "drum sticks", two in each hand. Usually there will be an assistant in the area with a cup for donations. In this case, the donations go in the metal can on the left end of the instrument. I usually donate to the musicians I encounter, even if I don't have time to listen much. They work very hard and their music provides a wonderful "sound track" to life in Mexico.

Lizards, snakes, and frogs decorate pottery in this stall. Whimsical humor is a constant refrain in Mexican art. So is a close affinity with nature.

A typical day at the plaza. The activities you can see above are typical of what you will see in Tequisquiapan or any other town plaza. A shoeshine man works his trade while an Indian sells baskets, diners enjoy an outdoor lunch, and loungers take advantage of the pillars lining the plaza. Everyone is sociable and enjoying the day.

More fine basketry. The delicate colors and fine weaving of these baskets caught my eye. Since I saw more basketry than other kinds of crafts, I believe that it is one of the prime crafts of the area.

Colorful minerals remind that Queretaro is mining country. Above you can see various crystals, including some thunder eggs, as well as fools gold and other minerals. Opals are heavily mined in the area and crafts people make fine jewelry from them.

This completes Part 4 of my Queretaro series. Next, I will show the old town of Bernal, with its amazing rock monolith, and delightful narrow winding streets and sidewalk restaurants. Bernal is one of Mexico's designated Pueblos Magicos (magic towns), and I'm sure you'll enjoy the visit as we did.

Hasta luego! Jim

Queretaro: Part 3 - Treasures of the colonial period

El Museo de Arte in Queretaro is a work of art in itself.  We were fascinated by this graceful and incredibly ornate old building. The museum did not allow photographs of the art displays, which ranged from 17th Century Flemish to modern abstract. The prohibition was acceptable to me because the building itself was so extraordinarily photogenic.

In this post I will focus on the Museo de Arte, and the Museo Regional. While they represent different eras and different architectural styles, and contain different kinds of displays, they are similar in their religious origins and in the history of their transformation into great museums. They are but a tiny slice of the architectural riches adorning Queretaro's El Centro. We only had a short time in the city, and barely scratched the surface of treasure chest that is Queretaro. This is a city deserving of many return visits.

El Museo de Arte began as an Augustinian Convento (monastery). The architect Mariano de las Casas, under the direction of Fray Luis Martinez Lucio, built this vast edifice in the Latin American baroque style. Baroque is an ornate and highly detailed style popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The Augustinian friars arrived in Queretaro in 1723 and dedicated their work to the Virgin of Dolores.  Work was begun on their Convento in 1731 and completed in 1748. Above you see the original entrance to the Convento. The museum entrance is out of sight to the right. Hours of the Museo are 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Tuesday through Sunday. There is a small fee of about $2.00 (US).

View of the Convento tower from inside the interior courtyard. You can see the baroque style on the courtyard arches, or portales, and on the square tower above. If the tower looks somehow unfinished, it is. At some point during construction, work was suspended, but the Augustinian friars craftily kept hope for completion alive and thus kept up a stream of donations from their Order's supporters. The tower stands today as it was when work was suspended 250 years ago. What appear to be electrical lines against the sky are actually part of the fine wire netting stretched across the top of many old courtyards to ward off pigeons, the bane of statuary.

Two levels of archways surround the four sides of the courtyard. The design of the courtyard and its portales is typical of an 18th Century convento. The vertical lines point toward heaven and the repeating arches give the impression of both equilibrium and infinity. 

Beautifully painted and tiled walls and ceilings lie behind the archways. The effect of a quiet walk around the perimeter of the courtyard under the portales is both powerful and contemplative. One is both inside the shelter of a building and outside enjoying sunlight or gentle rain.

Figures of Caryatids are sculpted into the courtyard pillars. The 18th Century was the period known as the Enlightenment, when ancient Roman and Greek forms became very popular in European art and architecture. Caryatids were architectural features of many Greek and Roman temples, with a figure, generally a female, standing upright and taking the place of a pillar supporting a building. Caryatids can be found supporting the roofs of temples on the Acropolis in Athens, and some have been found in Phoenician ruins earlier than the 6th Century BC. I found it very interesting that figures from ancient pagan temples were built into a major Catholic religious building. All of the details of this figure have a religious meaning, from the upraised hands to the way the lower torso becomes sculpted vegetation.  The tube extending out from the mouth functions as a drain pipe, directing water from the roof to the stone patio below. 

Caryatids on the lower level pillars were much more naturalistic. I could imagine they were sculpted from the faces of real human models. Each of the faces is different, with a different expression. Sometimes they appeared severe, even angry. Others smiled or looked worried or startled. In a break with ancient tradition, all the figures on the pillars are male, with the older ones in the corners and adolescent faces in between.

Museo Regional de Queretaro

Looking through a portal into the courtyard of the Museo Regional. The Museo Regional began as a convento for the Franciscan Order, who arrived in Queretaro in the 16th Century, two hundred years before the Augustinians. The Museo was part of a vast Franciscan complex that included the Templo San Francisco (still an active church), and part of the modern Jardin Zenea and several other public plazas. 

Today the Museo Regional houses a wide array of displays from the bones of Paleolithic animals, to pre-hispanic Indian artifacts, to artifacts of colonial and Mexican history. These include the lock and keyhole through which La Corregidora whispered a warning that the 1810 insurgent's plot was discovered, an act which triggered the War of Independence from Spain (see Queretaro Part 1). Although I was allowed to photograph, I could not use a flash. Since much of the interior lighting was dim, I only took a handful of photos. Some of these I include below, and some are in Part 1 of this  series.

The Renaissance style of architecture was more austere than the later baroque. It was still lovely though, and actually a bit more to my own taste. The central fountain provides a cool and soothing sound within the echoing stone courtyard. This part of the old Convento complex is called the cloister. While work on the Franciscan Convento began as early as 1540, the work on the cloister wasn't begun until 1660, under the direction of Sebastain Bayas Delgado. The Museo Regional is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The entrance fee is about $2.50 (US), but the Museo is free on Sundays.

Domes of the Templo San Francisco glow in the afternoon light. The Convento performed many functions in addition to religious ones including infirmary for the Indians. During the War for Independence, it functioned as a jail for captured insurgents. After independence, a long struggle ensued between Liberals and Conservatives. The Liberals wanted to reduce the power of the church and build a secular state. This led to a fragmentation and partial destruction of some of the Convento properties. The process reached its end with the Revolution, during which some of the buildings were used as a barracks.  After the Revolution most of the Convento property was turned into public property, and the cloister became the present day Museo. 

Masks have been popular  in Mexico since long before the Spanish arrived. This one was part of the Otomi Indian collection. Notice the lifelike leather ears. The teeth appear to be actual human teeth, but I couldn't get close enough to be sure. Beautiful although often grotesque, masks are still hand made and used in religious ceremonies and fiestas all over Mexico. Carole has started a small collection and we add to it on our various adventures. They can range in price from a few dollars to several hundred. 

Religious statue, possibly Santiago (St. James). According to legend, Santiago appeared during a battle between the Spanish and the Indians at the site of present-day Queretaro. Suitably impressed, the Indians conceded (see Queretaro Part 1).

Old map of Queretaro and surrounding country. Even when this map was drawn, Queretaro was a cross-roads. Note the many villages in the country around the city. In colonial Mexico, the Indian name of a village was generally preceded by the name of a Christian saint who became the patron of that community. Thus, the full name of Queretaro was Santiago de Queretaro. This may have been partially because the Indian names were extremely difficult for the Spanish tongue. 

A cool, quiet hallway beside the courtyard lends itself to romance. Still another function the old Convento provides, although the Franciscans would probably not have approved. I hope you have enjoyed these wonderful old buildings as I did. They are full of history and meaning, and I could have stayed for days just to find out more, but we had to return.

In my next postings, we will visit a couple of fascinating villages in the countryside.  Shelley, our B&B hostess, guided us to these and they were definitely worth seeing.

Hasta luego!  Jim