Intangible Wonder of the Spirit of San Miguel de Allende

Published August 17, 2022

by Jose Arturo Morales Tirado

Contemporary art in San Miguel de Allende had a fundamental boost 85 years ago with the founding of the Ignacio Ramírez el Nigromante Cultural Center, commonly referred to as Bellas Artes. It was the arrival of two Mexican artists, in love with San Miguel de Allende, who would indirectly help manage four generations of material artists and artists in general, plus influence the contemporary cosmopolitan society that has been slowly forged here, creating an identity, sense of belonging, and atmosphere of tolerance and peaceful and creative coexistence in the daily life of San Miguel and its surroundings.

The process began in 1935 with the decision of the matador, actor, and amateur singer Pepe Ortiz, the so-called “goldsmith of Guadalajara,” to marry the actress Lupita Gallardo in the Church of San Francisco in San Miguel. One of her godfathers was the Hollywood actor and tenor of the Chicago Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera House, José Mojica Montenegro y Chavarín. After the event, Pepe Ortiz and later José Mojica decided to live in San Miguel. Ortiz bought the Atascadero, the Rico, and Calderón; Mojica sold his house in Santa Mónica, California, and bought Granja Colón, to the southeast of today’s Parque Juárez, a farm known as Villa Santa Mónica.

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