The changes of El ‘Cardo’ throughout its history, it began as a sports space.

Published February 10th, 2022

El Cardo is a space that remains constant in the memory of the people of San Miguel, more than one that when passing by it, great memories come to mind, especially for athletes, because in its beginnings it was used as a sports field and from one moment to another, it disappeared, the land was transformed with the so-called development of the city.

With the passing of time this space has undergone many changes, a land that used to be used as a sports area, where athletes would go running or play soccer, then it became the property of the State, where many events were held for the people, such as a fair or a circus.

Later the government sold it to the “ISSEG”, a state company that has several branches of pharmacies in different municipalities of Guanajuato, among them San Miguel de Allende. For many years El Cardo was administered by this company, they also had a pharmacy there.

Sometime later, ISSEG sold the Cardo to a parking lot, thus removing the pharmacy they had there, the establishment passed into the hands of the company FEMSA, with whom the 2018 – 2021 government of San Miguel de Allende, headed with the then-mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal Garcia, made a temporary agreement in September 2019 to be administered by the Tourist Council.

Inauguration of the Visitor’s Center by the then municipal president of San Miguel de Allende, Luis Alberto Villarreal, on September 30, 2019, in El Cardo.
A visitor center was built with a cafeteria, which they did not serve, sometime later they were closed, but while it was open they were doing several events aimed at tourists and the red buses were launched, the fare was 10 pesetas, also the parking fee was lowered, and part of the proceeds would benefit the DIF System of San Miguel, 30% of the profits would be used for the remodeling of the CADI.

By September 2021 the agreement with FEMSA expired and the place was closed in its entirety, the transportation units that had been started up along with the visitor attention module were kept inside.

The parking lot was closed for a while (almost four months) and now it is working again, due to the Candelaria issue, vehicles are having free access.

It is not known what plans there are for the future of this place, unofficially there is talk of the construction of a hotel, but it is not known with certainty what it will be.

Don Luis Felipe Rodriguez, the chronicler of the city and who spoke to us a little of the history of “El Cardo”, only knows that “hopefully projects will be done for the benefit of the citizens”, he said.

“That space was used as a field for many years, there was a very big protest from the sportsmen when it was said that the parking lot was going to be dignified there, however, there was no common datum”, said Don Felipe.

In its beginnings the Cardo was being used for sports activities, sometime before 1968 when Don Felipe worked in a radio station, he recalled.

“El Cardo was much mourned because it was centrally located after all, and then the municipality had to open more spaces, it started to build some fields in the peripheral neighborhoods but already a little bit more in shape but there was already the Sports Unit, which had already been built some time ago, but it was much farther away and there were not so many urban areas on that side”, concluded Don Luis Felipe.