La Alborada (The Dawn) in San Miguel de Allende

Published September 30, 2022

By Joaquin Sierra Rangel

In the early hours of the Saturday closest to September 29—to begin the annual Archangel St. Michael festival—the tradition of La Alborada (the dawn) has been carried out in San Miguel de Allende for almost 100 years. The tradition began in Hércules, Queretaro, in approximately 1880. It later went on to Salvatierra, Guanajuato, and then to San Miguel, brought here by workers from Salvatierra’s La Reforma factory when that factory burned and some of its workers moved to Fabrica La Aurora, bringing their traditions with them. One such tradition was the veneration of the Virgen Purisima (the Purest Virgin).

San Miguel’s La Alborada was first held on December 8, 1924, at Las Monjas (the Church of the Immaculate Conception), where the nuns created 50 paper stars as decorations representing Saint Lucia’s eyes, along with comets, the sun, the moon, and stars from Las Siete Cabrillas (a star group also known as the Seven Sisters). It is said that there were other stars that eventually disappeared over time, such as Three Ave Marías and the star of the three Magi.

In 1925, at the request of Priest Refugio Solis and the city council, the Alborada was changed to honor San Miguel’s patron saint, the Archangel Saint Michael, and moved to the Parroquia, but due to the Cristero Wars, celebrations didn’t begin again until 1929.

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