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San Miguel de Allende
As famous as the city of 80,000 might be in the illustrious history of revolutions within the country, San Miguel has a reputation as a beautifully preserved colonial style city with a focus on the arts. Most structures in San Miguel stand less than four stories and are brilliantly painted with oranges, yellows, pinks, and blues. The colors augment each other as no two adjoining buildings are painted in the same scheme. Though there is obvious wear on many facades, it only adds to the feeling that San Miguel has been left alone for 200 years. Combining the rainbow of walls with the omnipresent cobblestone, the city has a feel of a movie set. This city exist with no stoplights or stop signs and no paved roads. Shopkeepers wash and sweep their portion of the stone sidewalks each morning as roosters announce the start of a new day. As the sun rises over the mountains behind the city, light extends over the quiet streets and gives life to a city that still relies on church bells to announce the hourly mass.
Until American artist and writer Sterling Dickinson arrived in 1937 to direct the newly founded Bellas Artes art school, the city bordered on ghost town status. After WWII, however, San Miguel became an attractive site for American GI's to study art as the GI Bill extended to Mexico. Though the school was eventually shut down under charges of communism, the city had developed a strong reputation for housing Americans.
Today, San Miguel hosts a large number of expatriate Americans and Canadians who live either full or part- time in the city. Though a significant portion of the population is foreign born, the city has not collapsed into the consumer culture as many beach and resort cities in Mexico have. San Miguel de Allende represents a more authentic view of life in Mexico without the dilution of their traditional values.
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