Under the Spell of San Miguel de Allende

Ever since American Stirling Dickinson arrived there in 1937, the Mexican town has been a magnet for artists and U.S. expatriates

  • By Jonathan Kandell
  • Photographs by Ann Summa
  • Smithsonian magazine, December 2010, Subscribe
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San Miguel town
Renowned as an art colony, San Miguel also mounts festivals showcasing indigenous cultures. (Ann Summa)

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Related Books

Model American Abroad: a Biography of Stirling Dickinson

by John Virtue
Windstorm Creative (Port Orchard, Washington), 2008


In 1937, after several months spent traveling through Mexico, a gangly, 27-year-old Chicago native named Stirling Dickinson, who had been somewhat at loose ends since graduating from Princeton, got off a train in San Miguel de Allende, an arid, down-on-its-luck mountain town 166 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Taken from the ramshackle train station by a horse-drawn cart, he was dropped off at the town's leafy main square, El Jardín. It was dawn, and the trees were erupting with the songs of a thousand birds. At the eastern side of the square stood the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, an outsize, pink-sandstone church with neo-Gothic spires, quite unlike Mexico's traditional domed ecclesiastical buildings. The first rays of the sun glowed over mountain ridges to the east. "There was just enough light for me to see the parish church sticking out of the mist," Dickinson would later recall. "I thought, My God, what a sight! What a place! I said to myself at that moment, I'm going to stay here."

Founded in 1542, the settlement of San Miguel had grown rich from nearby silver mines during centuries of Spanish rule, then fell on hard times as the ore was depleted. By the time Dickinson got there, the War of Independence from Spain (1810-21) and the even bloodier Mexican Revolution (1910-21) had further reduced the town to 7,000 inhabitants—less than a quarter of its population in the mid-1700s. Houses languished in disrepair, with shattered tile roofs and crumbling, faded walls.

Dickinson made his home in a former tannery on San Miguel's higher reaches and soon became a familiar sight, riding around town on a burro. For the next six decades, until his death in 1998, he would lead a renaissance that would transform tiny San Miguel into one of Latin America's most magnetic destinations for artists and expatriates, most of them American, looking for a new venue—or a new life.

"Stirling Dickinson is without doubt the person most responsible for San Miguel de Allende becoming an international art center," says John Virtue, author of Model American Abroad, a biography of Dickinson. Although only an amateur painter himself, Dickinson became co-founder and director of the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes, an art institute that he opened in a former convent only a few months after his arrival.

During World War II, Dickinson served with U.S. Naval Intelligence in Washington and the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA) in Italy. Returning to San Miguel after the war, he recruited hundreds of young American veterans to study at Bellas Artes on the G.I. Bill of Rights.

In the postwar years, non-artists and retirees, as well as painters and sculptors, were drawn to the city from its neighbor to the north; today, some 8,000 Americans—one out of ten residents—live there. Eighty percent or so are retirees; the others oversee businesses, from cafés and guesthouses to galleries and clothing stores. Most of these expats—some of whom have Mexican spouses—volunteer at more than 100 nonprofit organizations in San Miguel, including the library and health care clinics.

"This mestizaje—cultural mixing—has profoundly changed and benefited both sides," says Luis Alberto Villarreal, a former mayor of San Miguel who is currently one of two senators from the state of Guanajuato, in which the town is located. "We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Stirling Dickinson for helping this come about and for raising San Miguel's profile in the world." Walking the cobblestone streets flanked by stucco houses painted vivid shades of ocher, paprika and vermilion, one passes lively squares full of street musicians and vendors hawking tacos. In the distance rises the Sierra de Guanajuato. In 2008, San Miguel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, in large measure because of its intact 17th- and 18th-century center.


In 1937, after several months spent traveling through Mexico, a gangly, 27-year-old Chicago native named Stirling Dickinson, who had been somewhat at loose ends since graduating from Princeton, got off a train in San Miguel de Allende, an arid, down-on-its-luck mountain town 166 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Taken from the ramshackle train station by a horse-drawn cart, he was dropped off at the town's leafy main square, El Jardín. It was dawn, and the trees were erupting with the songs of a thousand birds. At the eastern side of the square stood the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, an outsize, pink-sandstone church with neo-Gothic spires, quite unlike Mexico's traditional domed ecclesiastical buildings. The first rays of the sun glowed over mountain ridges to the east. "There was just enough light for me to see the parish church sticking out of the mist," Dickinson would later recall. "I thought, My God, what a sight! What a place! I said to myself at that moment, I'm going to stay here."

Founded in 1542, the settlement of San Miguel had grown rich from nearby silver mines during centuries of Spanish rule, then fell on hard times as the ore was depleted. By the time Dickinson got there, the War of Independence from Spain (1810-21) and the even bloodier Mexican Revolution (1910-21) had further reduced the town to 7,000 inhabitants—less than a quarter of its population in the mid-1700s. Houses languished in disrepair, with shattered tile roofs and crumbling, faded walls.

Dickinson made his home in a former tannery on San Miguel's higher reaches and soon became a familiar sight, riding around town on a burro. For the next six decades, until his death in 1998, he would lead a renaissance that would transform tiny San Miguel into one of Latin America's most magnetic destinations for artists and expatriates, most of them American, looking for a new venue—or a new life.

"Stirling Dickinson is without doubt the person most responsible for San Miguel de Allende becoming an international art center," says John Virtue, author of Model American Abroad, a biography of Dickinson. Although only an amateur painter himself, Dickinson became co-founder and director of the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes, an art institute that he opened in a former convent only a few months after his arrival.

During World War II, Dickinson served with U.S. Naval Intelligence in Washington and the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA) in Italy. Returning to San Miguel after the war, he recruited hundreds of young American veterans to study at Bellas Artes on the G.I. Bill of Rights.

In the postwar years, non-artists and retirees, as well as painters and sculptors, were drawn to the city from its neighbor to the north; today, some 8,000 Americans—one out of ten residents—live there. Eighty percent or so are retirees; the others oversee businesses, from cafés and guesthouses to galleries and clothing stores. Most of these expats—some of whom have Mexican spouses—volunteer at more than 100 nonprofit organizations in San Miguel, including the library and health care clinics.

"This mestizaje—cultural mixing—has profoundly changed and benefited both sides," says Luis Alberto Villarreal, a former mayor of San Miguel who is currently one of two senators from the state of Guanajuato, in which the town is located. "We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Stirling Dickinson for helping this come about and for raising San Miguel's profile in the world." Walking the cobblestone streets flanked by stucco houses painted vivid shades of ocher, paprika and vermilion, one passes lively squares full of street musicians and vendors hawking tacos. In the distance rises the Sierra de Guanajuato. In 2008, San Miguel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, in large measure because of its intact 17th- and 18th-century center.

While mass murder and kidnapping linked to narcotics gangs have overtaken parts of Mexico, the region around San Miguel has thus far been spared. "The cartels' violence often centers on ports of entry into the U.S. and involves consolidation of contested border areas," says Rusty Payne, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. "San Miguel does not fit these criteria."

Dorothy Birk—today Dotty Vidargas—was among the first of the young Americans to answer Dickinson's call, in 1947. Six decades later, at age 85, she oversees a real estate agency and furnishings store across from an 18th-century church.

Vidargas grew up in Chicago, a block away from Dickinson. She says he had three passions: art, baseball and orchids. At Bellas Artes, she recalls, he formed a baseball team that won 84 games in a row and captured several regional amateur championships in the 1950s. He traveled throughout Mexico and the world to collect wild orchids, breaking three ribs in a fall during a 1960s expedition to southern Mexico's Chiapas highlands. An orchid he discovered there in 1971 was named after him—Encyclia dickinsoniana.

In 1942, in her sophomore year at Wellesley College, Vidargas left academia to enlist in the war effort, eventually serving as a Navy recruiter and, later, as an air controller for the Army Air Forces outside Detroit. After the war, she enrolled at the American Academy, an art institute in Chicago. But in 1947 she decided to spend her G.I. Bill subsidies in San Miguel. "My mother knew Stirling and figured it would be all right for me to go," she says.

She was one of 55 veterans accepted at Bellas Artes that year. More than 6,000 veterans would apply to the school after the January 1948 issue of Life magazine called it a "G.I. Paradise," where "veterans go...to study art, live cheaply and have a good time."

But Vidargas' first impression was well this side of paradise. Arriving by train in the pre-dawn darkness, she checked into a hotel where electricity and running water were sporadic. Many of the surrounding buildings were near ruins. Burros outnumbered cars; the stench of manure and raw sewage was overpowering. "I was cold, miserable and ready to board the next train home," she recalls. But she soon found more comfortable student lodging and began her Bellas Artes course work. Between school terms, she traveled with fellow students and Dickinson throughout Mexico.

She even joined the local bullfighting circuit as a picador, or horseback-mounted lancer. "It was after a few drinks, on a dare," Vidargas recalls. Soon "la gringa loca" ("the crazy Yank"), as she was becoming known, was spending her weekends at dusty bullrings, where her equestrian prowess made her a minor celebrity.

Meanwhile, some members of the town's conservative upper class were outraged by the American students' carousing. The Rev. José Mercadillo, the parish priest, denounced the hiring of nude models for art classes and warned that the Americans were spreading Protestantism—even godless Communism.

In fact, in 1948, Dickinson recruited the celebrated painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, a Communist Party member, to teach at Bellas Artes. There he lashed out at his critics, far exceeded his modest art-class budget and eventually resigned. Siqueiros left behind an unfinished mural depicting the life of local independence leader Ignacio Allende, whose last name had been appended to San Miguel in 1826 to commemorate his heroism in the war. The mural still graces the premises, which today is occupied by a cultural center.

Apparently convinced that Communists had indeed infested Bellas Artes, Walter Thurston, then the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, blocked the school's efforts to gain the accreditation necessary for its students to qualify for G.I. Bill stipends. Most of the veterans returned home; some were deported. Dickinson himself was expelled from Mexico on August 12, 1950, although he was allowed back a week later. "It was the low point in relations between Americans and the locals," recalls Vidargas. "But my situation was different, because I got married."

José Vidargas, a local businessman, who today is 95, had met his future bride at a bowling alley, one of many postwar fads to invade Mexico from the United States. Some of his relatives wondered about his plans to marry a gringa. "Suddenly, I had to become a very proper Mexican wife to be accepted by the good society families," recalls Dorothy. The couple had five children in seven years, and Dorothy still found time to open the first store in San Miguel to sell pasteurized milk; the real estate agency came later. Today, three sons live in San Miguel; a daughter lives in nearby León; one child died in infancy.

By 1951, the various controversies had closed down Bellas Artes, and Dickinson became director of a new art school, the Instituto Allende, which soon became accredited and began granting Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. Today, the nonprofit school, attended by several hundred students annually, encompasses a fine-arts degree program, a Spanish-language institute and traditional handicraft workshops.

In 1960, Jack Kerouac, the novelist who had catapulted to fame three years earlier with the publication of On the Road, went to San Miguel with pals Allen Ginsburg and Neal Cassady. Ginsburg read his poetry at the Instituto Allende, while Kerouac and Cassady spent most of their time downing tequilas at La Cucaracha, a traditional Mexican cantina that remains popular to this day. The trio remained only a few days, but in 1968, Cassady returned to San Miguel, where he died at age 41 from the effects of alcohol, drugs and exposure.

The plaintive recordings of Pedro Infante, still Mexico's most popular country singer more than a half century after his death, can be heard most mornings at San Miguel's largest traditional food market, the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez. Vendors display varieties of chile, red and green prickly pears, black and green avocados, orange and yellow melons, tropical fruits including mamey, with its pumpkin-hued flesh, and guayaba, whose texture resembles a white peach. Nopales (cactus leaves shorn of spines) are stacked alongside Mexican herbs, including epazote, used to flavor black beans, and dark red achiote seeds, an ingredient in pork and chicken marinades.

"I love the presentation of the food stands," says Donnie Masterton, 41, chef and co-owner of the Restaurant, arguably San Miguel's top culinary establishment. He is shopping at the market for that evening's eclectic menu: a chilled cauliflower soup with lemon grass and shrimp; duck with mole negro (a complex sauce based on chiles and herbs) and handmade tortillas; churros (a pencil-length fried-dough pastry) with dark Mexican chocolate pot-de-crème (a creamy custard). More than half the diners will be residents—Mexican, American and Canadian; the rest will be foreign or Mexican visitors. "It definitely won't be the same food they will get back in New York or Los Angeles," Masterton promises.

A Los Angeles native, Masterton settled in San Miguel six years ago, drawn by its beauty and the opportunity to own his own restaurant. The Restaurant occupies an inner courtyard under a retractable glass roof. "I wanted a seasonal menu with as many locally grown ingredients as possible," says Masterton. To meet his own standards, he purchased a quarter acre inside an organic farm outside San Miguel, where farmers harvest produce grown from seed: Swiss chard, bok choy, mache and arugula. His biggest complaint is the lack of fresh fish. "The quality is inconsistent," says Masterton. "I'm exploring the idea of phoning a fishing boat off the Pacific coast to order the fresh catch of the day."

Cheryl Finnegan came to San Miguel in 2000 from San Francisco, where she had spent 14 years in the marketing department of Levi Strauss, the jeans and casual wear manufacturer. "One day I woke up and asked—Where is my passion? I had no passion," she recalls. "So I just dropped everything—my marriage, job, home, box seats at the opera—and moved down here."

A chance occurrence launched her new career. A decade ago, she was vacationing in the Mexican village of Sayulita, some 35 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast, during the annual December 12 celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (The festival commemorates the day in 1531 when the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared on the outskirts of Mexico City.) As Finnegan strolled the town's central square, a fragment of fireworks hit her in the throat. A local doctor told her she would be permanently scarred. "The wound was shaped in the silhouette of [Our Lady of] Guadalupe, and when I walked around Sayulita, the villagers said it was a sign that I was her chosen one," says Finnegan. "Two weeks later, the wound disappeared without a scar—the doctor couldn't believe it!"

What remained was an obsession with the Virgin of Guadalupe. Finnegan began designing key chains, cameos, rings and belt buckles with the Virgin Mother's image, coated in resin and decorated with crystals. In 2004, paparazzi in the United States photographed pop singer Britney Spears wearing one of Finnegan's belts. "It put me on the map," says Finnegan. Other singers—Tim McGraw and Shakira—have sported Finnegan buckles.

Today she employs ten women to help run her jewelry and clothing accessories firm, housed in a restored 18th-century residence near the town center. Her designs, bearing tags with New Age slogans—"Everybody needs a miracle once in a while"—are sold throughout the United States, Europe and Asia under the name Virgins, Saints & Angels.

Jorge Almada, 37, is the grandson of Plutarco Elías Calles, a revolutionary general who served as president of Mexico in the 1920s. Almada and his French-American wife, Anne-Marie Midy, 38, met in New York City. After traveling across Mexico in search of artisan-made furnishings, the couple settled in San Miguel in 200o and began designing furniture to export to the United States and Europe under the Casamidy brand. "There is great artistry throughout Mexico," says Almada. "But we found San Miguel artisans to be the most open-minded and receptive to designer suggestions."

Refugio Rico García, 64, an ironsmith, is among the artisans employed by the couple. He lives and works in the same house in which he was born. The residence, a warren of rooms and tiny patios verdant with potted plants, scales a steep hillside. Photographs of his grandparents, faded to sepia, greet visitors in the foyer. "My grandfather was a potter—[he produced] pots and also sewage pipes, which used to be made of clay," says García. "He was the one who got me interested in becoming an artisan." (García's sons reject the life of an artisan as too lonely and demanding. The elder boy is a migrant worker in Arizona; the younger is a student.)

García labors up to 14 hours a day. The walls and ceiling of his workshop are blackened from the charcoal fires that fuel his forge. Near the furnace stands a heavy wooden table fitted with an iron plate; here he hammers half-molten metal into various shapes. García produces headboards for beds, chandeliers, and chairs and tables fitted with glass tops for Almada and Midy.

The Hotel Oasis, a restored 18th-century house with four guest rooms, features Casamidy tables and chairs in an interior designed by Hong Kong-born Leslie Tung, a San Miguel decorator, and hotel owner Nancy Hooper. A native New Yorker and former Texas resident, Hooper acquired the property in 2006.

Widowed in the 1990s, Hooper decided to spend a summer in San Miguel with her teenage daughter, Tessa. "I wanted her to feel that life goes on and to give her a sense of new adventure," she says. In 2000, Hooper moved to San Miguel from Texas. She was intrigued by an abandoned house and a spacious room she could see through a window as she walked by. "It just wouldn't leave me alone—I knew I wanted to turn it into a hotel," says Hooper, who had no experience as an innkeeper. "From the beginning, I envisioned an oasis—a place where visitors to San Miguel could get away from the bustling outside."

By the early 1980s, Dickinson had begun to distance himself from the growing number of Americans. "Stirling must have shuddered the day he saw the first tourist bus arrive in San Miguel and disgorge tourists wearing shorts," wrote biographer Virtue. "These were exactly the type of people he railed against in his own travels abroad." In 1983, Dickinson resigned as director of the Instituto Allende, where, during his 32-year tenure, some 40,000 students, mainly Americans, had matriculated. Increasingly involved with the Mexican community, he oversaw a rural library program that donated volumes from San Miguel residents to village schools. He also began to support financially the Patronato Pro Niños—the Pro-Children Foundation—an organization providing free medical service and shoes for impoverished rural youngsters.

On the night of October 27, 1998, the 87-year-old Dickinson was killed in a freak accident. As he prepared to drive away from a Patronato Pro Niños meeting held at a hillside house, he accidentally stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake. His vehicle plunged down a steep embankment; Dickinson died instantly. More than 400 mourners, including foreigners and Mexicans from the countryside, attended his funeral. He was buried in the foreigners' section of Our Lady of Guadalupe Cemetery, just west of San Miguel's center. Today, a bronze bust of Dickinson stands on a street bearing his name.

The Guadalupe Cemetery attracts huge throngs on November 2, the Day of the Dead, when families of the deceased carry food and other gifts to their relatives' graves. "One brings what the dead liked best in life—liquor, cigarettes, especially a favorite food," says Dehmian Barrales, a local anthropologist. "It's a bit like a birthday party, and the family is saying to the dead: 'Here are your presents; we are here to keep you company.' The idea is to leave the food long enough for its essence to be consumed by the dead; its material form can be eaten by the living."

On a sunny November morning at the Guadalupe Cemetery, crowds shuffled through the white-walled entrance. Graves were festooned with orange cempasúchil blossoms, cut only on the Day of the Dead. Photographs of loved ones were propped against headstones. At one grave, a priest hired by relatives led prayers and psalms. At another, a mariachi band belted out the deceased's favorite Pedro Infante ballads, while relatives feasted on barbecued pork tacos and glasses of tequila that the dead had "left over."

The foreigners' section of the cemetery was empty of visitors, except for a small contingent of Mexicans and elderly Americans who clustered around a memorial fountain dedicated to Dickinson. The fountain, near his burial site, commands a view of the other graves. "He is watching over them," said Jorge Antonio Ramírez, 80, a retired Bellas Artes employee and former Dickinson baseball player, who had brought a cempasúchil bouquet to commemorate his friend. "Just like he always did in life."

Jonathan Kandell lives in New York City. Photographer Ann Summa is based in San Miguel de Allende and Los Angeles.


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Comments (40)

The Smithsonian article of December 2010, "Under the Spell of San Miguel de Allende' enraptured many, including me! Only just today, as I go through thousands of Peter Olwyler's photographs in order to archive them, did I find among his hundreds and hundreds of contact sheets the photo of Stirling Dickinson that was used in this article (page 77 in the magazine edition). Others, like the one of Dotty Vidargas jumping her horse used in the online version of additional photographs, was also Peter's work. I'm sure that Smithsonian does everything possible to give credit where it's due, however, they missed giving Peter credit for these photos. So, I thought I'd share with you that I'm excited to find that his work is recognized by other artists and even international magazines for the quality of his work. He never sought much recognition during his life; he was too humble for that. The value of his photography is a record for the Mexican people, a record of a significant turning point when modernization was accelerating change in the Indian and mestizo culture of the Bajio of central Mexico. A record of the expatriates who lived in San Miguel in the late 1950s and on to Peter's death in 1999 in the town he called home for 44 years. I hope you all enjoyed the article, and that you'll remember Peter's amazing ability to capture light through the lens!

Posted by Michael Olwyler on January 10,2013 | 11:53 PM

An article in the April issue of the SUNSET magazine by Peter Fish quotes Fish as saying, "San Miguel can seem almost unbearably beautiful." Personally, I not only bear it, I embrace it. When I enter the Jardin I feel as if I am walking into a Norman Rockwell painting from a 50's LIFE magazine cover. I am a photographer and when I head back to Montana from SMA I especially miss the colors. Color is everywhere. Art is everywhere. It's a must-see! The photos on my website are all San Miguel shots.

Posted by Sharon Lasher on September 6,2011 | 06:43 PM

Great article . I have been in Mexico a few times. I was surprise that in the article was missing the name of CARL PAPPE, a great painter and sculpture more or less he probably arrive to Taxco at the same time or maybe early to Mr. Dicksinson. I have in my house beautiful things from Carl. He had one of the most interesting life, he was a good friend of the best painter from that era.
I know a person that you can contact if you are interesting in knowing more about his life. Patricia Lyon

Posted by patricia lyon on July 27,2011 | 12:01 PM

San Miguel de Allende is a truly magnificent location, and is becoming a locale of choice for American and Canadian expats. There is a highly developed infrastructure that supports a very large and sophisticated English speaking community here. Culture abounds, and there is extremely active social calendar. There are easily forty or more art galleries in town. The climate is among the best, with warm, dry temperatures year round. Real estate here is among the most beautiful in the world, and your dollar can buy you so much more house than in North America. I lead exciting home buyer trips to San Miguel. Join me on one of these exciting tours to view and buy real estate in San Miguel.

http://www.livinginsanmiguel.com

Posted by David on May 28,2011 | 12:14 PM

I have spent time in San Miguel on 5-6 different occasions and fall in love with it all over again every time. The last time I was there was Nov./Dec. 2010 for 5 weeks. I will return again some time within the next year as it is a lovely place. An artist worth visiting and buying is Toller Cranston. He is a former Olympic Skating star and has wonderfully colorful paintings. I have purchased several and when home in Seattle, the lively colors help me make it through the dark, rainy, days. His studio is such a worthwhile visiting place. The people are warm and friendly and all the great restaurants and markets make this a fabulous place to visit and perhaps I may want to live there sometime soon!

Posted by Esther Davis on February 25,2011 | 03:43 PM

It's good to read such a lovely, positive article about Mexico. I, too, feel an attachment to San Miguel de Allende as do so many other people who have lived or visited here. Near perfect weather, color everywhere, music in the air, beautiful flowers, friendly people...it's hard not to like. I occasionally write about San Miguel de Allende on my blog and always add photos. A great time to visit is spring when the jacaranda trees are in bloom. http://katiepickardfawcett.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/mornings-in-san-miguel-de-allende-with-the-jacarandas-in-bloom/

Posted by Katie Pickard Fawcett on January 22,2011 | 11:03 PM

I was born and raised in San Miguel de Allende. My dad was a WWII veteran that retired and went to live in San Miguel. There is an orchid garden at Dickinson's house. The town is safe and amazing. I get to go there every summer and holiday vacations. It is an awesome town to live in.

Posted by Astrid Burke on January 15,2011 | 09:13 PM

Great article on a wonderful place. Here nis another slide show of 50 photos of San Miguel.

http://douglaspeebles.photoshelter.com/gallery/San-Miguel-de-Allende/G0000TNMGWdqApjo/P0000IN4ISjtLhWU

Posted by Douglas Peebles on December 26,2010 | 01:45 PM

As the author of a biography of the Mexican artist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Siqueiros, Biography of a Revolutionary Artist (Create Space, 2009), and a sometime visitor to San Miguel, I enjoyed reading about the town's history. I also had the privilege to meet and interview Sterling Dickinson, not only for my researach for the book on Siqueiros, but also for another project on American expatriates in Mexico in the 1920s-1940s. He must have been in his 80s then and was still very active in the children's relief and the library services, not to mention his orchid collection, which he donated to the people of Mexico and San Miguel, I recall. He also told me that he started the first little league baseball team in San Miguel, and perhaps, in all of Mexico.

Another outstanding artist and long time resident of San Miguel de Allende was the Canadian artist Leonard Brooks.

Tony, alias D. Anthony White, Ph.D.

Posted by D. Anthony White on December 17,2010 | 03:28 PM

We have been spending our winters in San Miguel for quite a while. I have been a photographer for a good number of years photographing people in their environment doing what the normally do. The basic theme is "Tell me a Story".

In 2004 I exhibited 40 photographs at the Instituto Gallery in an exhibition entitled "Face and Faces of San Miguel". The photographs are intended to tell a story about the people of San Miguel. I would be happy to share some of the images with anyone who would like to see them.

Richard

Posted by Richard Wolfeld on December 15,2010 | 05:16 PM

It is good to read and learn about San Miguel de Allende. I have visited Mexico several times with much appreciation and enjoyment but never to San Miguel. Now that I have learned about another wonderful place enhanced by a friend and her family, I am eager to look forward to the opportunity to visit there hopefully sometime in the near future. Anyone reading this comment should know that I am a ninety year old blessed with health enough to make the journey!

Posted by Richard Smith on December 13,2010 | 04:55 PM

Having spent 60 years in Mexico, I was delighted to read an article by someone like Jonathan Kandell who obviously knows Mexico well. (And who can write.) Jonathan and his family were neighbors back in the 1960s when we lived next door to each other in Polanco. I interviewed his mother some time back for a book of my own, "A Gathering of Fugitives..." Was delighted to learn what he's up to now. Warmest wishes, Diana Zykofsky Anhalt

Posted by Diana Anhalt on December 9,2010 | 04:23 PM

I felt that the article by Mr. Kandell was lightly researched and read more like a piece from a travel magazine.As wonderful as Stirling Dickinson and his contributions were, he was not "the person most responsible for San Miguel's becoming an international art center" Nor was he "co-founder of the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes," nor did 'he' open it only a few months after his arrival in San Miguel" He did't hire Siquieros.The infamous Campanela(who purchased the Universitaria de Bellas Artes from Cossio del Pomar) hired Siquieros.

Dickinson was of enormous support to Felipe Cossio del Pomar, the Peruvian intellectial, artist, art critic, University professor, political activist.However it was Cossio del Pomar who had the dream of opening an art school.It was he who had the vision, passion,and drive, the intellectial and artistic talent, the political and social connections,the financial resources as well as the support of a few others[Stirling Dickinson being the most consistantly valuable]to whom he is careful to give credit.His contacts with some of the prominent artists of the day, some of whom signed on to give classes or lectures, were invaluable promotional additions.Stirling Dickinson provided the essential public relations role of outreach to the community outside Mexico, recruiting students to study at the Bellas Artes and later to the Instituto Allende (where Cossio "invited Stirling to become director under conditions I found acceptable".

As Carlos Alberto Montaner wrote in the second edition of Cossio's memoirs, "Cossio del Pomar en San Miguel de Allende", The direction of San Miguel de Allende's slow tread forward through time was radically altered when Cossio del Pomar arrived ...to detour its destiny, unwittingly changing forever the face of that beautiful Mexican Hillside town,".. an opinion seconded by the last remaining artist from those early days of the Universitaria de Bellas Artes, Leonard Brooks.

Posted by Maline McCalla on December 7,2010 | 12:59 PM

Would you like to see more photos from San Miguel?

Check out:

http://casa-del-campo.smugmug.com/Street-Scenes

Enjoy!

Posted by Joyce Morrell on December 7,2010 | 12:01 PM

Thank you for this article and thanks especially for the pictures! My family and I used to live in San Miguel in 1977-78. My father attended the Art Institudo Allende and my mom was a figure model there. I was quite a young child (around 7 yrs old) but I still retain many extremely fond memories from living there. I cannot even begin to tell of all my memories - it would take too long. Suffice it to say, San Miguel, has truly captured my heart and one day I intend to return!

Posted by david glick on December 6,2010 | 04:56 PM

Nopales, the young leaves of cactus plants, are delicious, nourishing and healing. This article about the artistic, cultural and spiritual treasures still available to us on Planet Earth is delicious, nourishing and healing. And all persons of good sense will avoid consuming the thorns. Thank you!

Posted by David Pennington on December 6,2010 | 10:44 AM

I am Dotty's nephew and I'd like to thank Mr. Kandell and the Smithsonian for so wonderfully capturing her story, and San Miguel's. Her story continues (my own telling and that of the Chicago Sun-Times: http://tinyurl.com/2cvnwql and http://tinyurl.com/3xrevua), but this yours is the lasting tribute. Thank you again.

Posted by Robin Washington on December 5,2010 | 11:01 AM

I have lived in San Miguel for 51 years and so far in my travels I have not found any place else I would want to live. I was married to a Mexican, have 5 children and have had a Real Estate business for 29 years.
The town's beauty,security,friendly Mexicans and Expats add even more to it's unique charm.
This article is beautifully writen and I also agree that it is a truely a magical place.

Posted by Peggy Taylor(Zavala) on December 3,2010 | 02:36 PM

I lived a short time in SMA 1980. While there I visited the American village and saw how well the retired Americans live.
Now, many of them are getting old and might want to return to the USA. I feel strongly that the "Americanized" illegal Mexicans living for many years in the USA should return to Mexico. Perhaps there could be an exchange system between the two. After all, the Americanized Mexicans can never go back to living with dirt floors in small mud houses. Mexicans deserve to have a better life in their own country. If millions of Americanized Mexicans returned to Mexico it wouldn't be long before things would automatically change in their own government. Mexico is a rich country capable of giving jobs with good pay to their people. It seems Mexico is still a two class country, rich and poor.
The richest man in the world is a Mexican, richer than Bill Gates. Mexico is rich in gold, oil, farm produce, arts, tourism and more. Mexicans deserve a piece of this pie!

Posted by Jeanne Wolf on December 3,2010 | 08:48 AM

Neal Cassady died outside of San Miguel in 1968. This is a proven fact.

Posted by Chamo on November 29,2010 | 07:03 PM

A wonderful article about my adopted home, San Miguel de Allende. There is something about living here that changes a person's perspective on life, on art and on the small joys that come when least expected. Its magical, this place! Also, Thank you for including Dottie Vidaragas in your story. She was one of San Miguel's great ladies. May she rest in peace. She will be missed.

Posted by Stephen Forte on November 29,2010 | 06:58 PM

Just wanted to post this sad update: Dotty Vidargas, who was featured so prominently in this article, died this morning in San Miguel, Nov 27th. She did have a chance to see the article...and it's a fitting tribute to an amazing woman whom we were honored to have known.

Posted by Annie Reutinger on November 27,2010 | 01:32 PM

As a grateful 31 year resident of San Miguel, I'm also glad to see a positive article on Mexico, though, it focuses a little too much on the foreigner's perspective, it will help Americans to appreciate, more, their neighbors, south of the that dividing, border fence. Mexico and the people, generously, offer us a beautiful breath of richness and freedom.

Posted by Tom Frazee on November 25,2010 | 10:10 AM

It is a magical town and we met each other there. We are fortunate to call SMA our home.

Posted by Rhonda and Al Lerner on November 25,2010 | 04:05 AM

So nice to read a story about the many beautiful places in mexico instead of all the bad only being in the news about the borders and its problems. Mexico is a big beautiful country! I live and run a recuperation villa spa retreat for post surgery patients since 1994. I love living here it is a magical place!

Posted by Melinda Marino on November 24,2010 | 04:20 PM

Your SMA article is like a balm of tranquility. In 1996 my wife and I rented Betty Kempe's casita up on Calle Chorro. Betty was a vibrant spirit and pioneer of modern SMA. Early mornings I would sit on the roof garden, 'coffee up' and watch white egrets glide by on their way to a distant reservoir. To cap off a day of indulgence, a walk to the biblioteca to sip cappuccino, sample a 'dulce' and listen to the tinkling of the fountain. Que milagro.
Thank you for rekindling all those wonderful memories.
Ron Walker, Smith Valley, NV

Posted by Ron Walker on November 24,2010 | 02:15 PM

A good friend who lives in SMA after retirement sent me this great article about SMA. Now, I think we are going to have to find an opportunity to visit him!

Posted by Rudy Mueller on November 23,2010 | 10:58 PM

After reading this article I can't help but comment on what is missing, hoping that by doing so the cultural history of a town does not get written through hearsay or plain misinformation.
I am a painter and resident of San Miguel now 8 years and have had the pleasure to speak with long time residents of this town from both the American and Mexican communities. I have also read the cultural history of this town and those involved in its making.
Sterling Dickinson is certainly one of those individuals but not the protagonist he has been made out to be. Dickinson was instrumental in making a connection with the foreign community in the establishment of the two art schools in town, Bellas Artes and later the Instituto Allende. What this article fails to mention is the key founder of these institutions namely, Felipe Cossio del Pomar, a Peruvian Intellectual and true renaissance man (see Iridiscencias, his book on San Miguel). It was Cossio who brought Siqueiros and many other intellectuals to town and hired Dickinson as a personal secretary to establish Bellas Artes in the 30's. Cossio was bestowed the building by President Lazaro Cardenas, a personal friend. He later co-founded the Instituto Allende with Lic. Enrique Fernandez Martinez and wife Nell who ran the school with Dickinson's assistance.

It is also not possible to talk about this town's cultural history and omit Carmen Masip, who directed Bellas Artes for 30 years; opened the first bookshop in 1959; co-founded and directed the Chamber Music Festival and was a tireless defender of the town's architecture and history, co-founder of the Public Library with Helen Wail, founded of the first Spanish language school in 1959 and salvaged and then managed the Teatro Angela Peralta from 1968 to 1979 bringing many cultural events including the Festival Cervantino.

Respectfully,

Edgar Soberon

Posted by Edgar Soberon on November 23,2010 | 08:46 PM

As a long time resident of San Miguel de Allende, and one who knows Dotty and was familiar with Stirling Dickinson and his generous contributions to our community, I throughly appreciate this article. I will keep and treasure it for a long, long time.

Posted by Joanne Rockett on November 22,2010 | 05:22 PM

My thanks to Jonathan Kandell for a fine and flawless article about San Miguel de Allende. I have lived in this amazing place for fifteen years, published four books about it, and must have read every newspaper and magazine article written about it. Kandell's piece is the first, ever, to contain no errors (although I would argue 6,000 vs 8,000 expats living here), and get it all "right." Please congratulate him.
Robert de Gast

Posted by Robert de Gast on November 22,2010 | 05:12 PM

I am one of the frequent visitors to this charming pueblito. The people who visit are interesting, have great stories to tell and are ready for an adventure. They don't try to compare this lovely place to "back home". Viva San Miguel!

Posted by Corina einzig on November 22,2010 | 04:05 PM

What a lovely commentary and quick history of the gringo migration to San Miguel de Allende. Americans and other foreigners changed the future of this Mexican pueblito and made it what it is today. Now there are tour buses arriving in our town to view the streets lined with colorful homes, to eat in upscale restaurants or street stands, to shop for Mexican art, and to enjoy the ambiance of this beautiful colonial town. While I could live without the tourists, they have helped San Miguel survive these tough economic times. One bone of contention with a statement you made: The Restaurant, while it caters to the "elite" and survives on hype, leaves a lot to be desired regarding both food and service.

Posted by Liz Seabrook on November 22,2010 | 11:46 AM

Thank you for providing such a marvelous overview of our beloved town. We have had a home here for 17 years and find San Miguel to be our sanctuary from the busy life of Dallas. It is lovely to read an article so positive about the experience of living and doing business in Mexico. It is unfortunate that we are constantly bombarded with negativity and fear in the press. I appreciate you offsetting that some with this very informative and beautifully written article.

Posted by Dawn Simmons on November 22,2010 | 11:23 AM

Was blown away by your article --makes me want to move there--chances are nil--more later as I am preparing for the Thanksgiving Holiday--love you--missyou--Natalie

Posted by Natalie Glovsky on November 22,2010 | 09:24 AM

While San Miguel de Allende has become increasingly gentrified in recent years, at least superficially, it still maintains much of the subterranean madness and surreality I describe in my recent book set there in the 1980s, "San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Memoir of a Sensual Quest for Spiritual Healing."

As to the above mentioned muralist David Alfaro Siquieros, I first went to San Miguel at the suggestion of my colleague, the late photographer and novelist William Bornefeld, a former comrade of Siquieros in San Miguel. Bill told me that the artist was more than a theoretical Communist, but in fact had a cache of arms in San Miguel that he hoped to use to foment a rebellion.

Posted by Rick Skwiot on November 22,2010 | 06:27 AM

I live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This was a great primer for anyone desiring the brief historical perspective of the the town; and of its unique features among towns of similar size. It is a place unto itself with no peers.Thank the author for not lapping into the traditional tourista presentation of the town.

PS: I am the principal owner of a San Miguel real estate company associated with Sotheby`s International Realty, named www.sanmiguelluxuryhomes.com, which also specializes in historic Mexican Haciendas located throughout the country.

Gracias a todos de la revista, Raymond Leslie Dugan

Posted by Raymond Leslie Dugan on November 21,2010 | 06:33 PM

A NICE PIECE BUT IT'S A SHAME THE FACTS ARE A BIT OFF. NEVERTHELESS, IT'S A GREAT PLACE--LIKE BEING IN HEAVEN WITHOUT HAVING TO DIE. G TELDON

Posted by GERRY TELDON on November 20,2010 | 11:30 PM

Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were never in San Miguel together

It’s a simple test: remove any one of the three Beats from the equation and the story comes tumbling down. Let’s look at each Beat's timeline.

Neal Cassady was released from prison on June 3, 1960. A condition of his three-year parole was he could not leave the county. In a December 7, 2007 email to me, Carolyn Cassady confirmed that “Neal on his parole couldn’t even leave the county, much less the country; he couldn’t have been in Mexico in 1960.”

Neal Cassady was not in Mexico in 1960

During the spring and early summer of 1960, Kerouac wrote letters from Northport to his agent Sterling Lord, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and others. In a June 20 letter to Ginsberg, he wrote, “I never go anywhere or do anything. My last run to New York was so awful, a month ago, I haven’t been back.”

Ferlinghetti wrote Kerouac the first week of July, offering him the use of his Bixby Canyon cabin on Big Sur. He responded to Ferlinghetti in a July 8 letter, saying he would be there July 22. Kerouac visited the Cassadys in Los Gatos in late July. By mid-September, Kerouac was back in Northport after suffering a nervous breakdown in Ferlinghetti’s cabin.

In his September 14, 1960 letter to Ferlinghetti, he commented on where he had been in the three years since Road came out: “You will notice that since I made money and have had the chance to travel anywhere, I’ve only taken two trips and both of ‘em to California!”

Jack Kerouac was not in Mexico any time in 1960

During 1960, Allen Ginsberg was finalizing his Kaddish manuscript while visiting Chile and Peru. After more than six months in Chile and Peru, he returned to NYC, broke.

Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky left on the S.S. America bound for France. They were gone for two years and visited Europe, Tangiers, Greece, Africa and India.

Allen Ginsberg was not in Mexico in 1960

Posted by Harry Burrus on November 20,2010 | 08:05 PM

Excellent article.
My suggestion: Page 2, Paragraph 3, should clarify who "he" is.
It reads "Vidargas grew up in Chicago, a block away from Dickinson. She says he had three passions: ..."
I was led to understand that "he" was either a mistake (for "she") or that "he" meant a certain Mr. Vidargas.
I think it would be better if it read: "Dotty Vidargas grew up in Chicago, a block away from Dickinson. She says he (Stirling) had three passions: ..."
Sincerely,

Posted by William K Boone on November 20,2010 | 02:32 PM

I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written and well researched story. I love San Miguel dearly and know it well, yet I learned so much more this morning thanks to Kandell's well balanced portrayal of the history and the people who made and make San Miguel what it is. And the photos are fabulous, both Ana Summa's recent shots and the oldies. Just brilliant all around; thank you.

Posted by Betsy McNair on November 20,2010 | 09:43 AM




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