NEWS & REPORTS

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Feb 18, 2005
“50 Years of Foreigners in San Miguel”
Talk by César Árias

by Holly Yasui

The topic “50 Years of Americans in San Miguel” drew record crowds to the lecture sponsored by the Center for Global Justice on Wednesday, February 9 – over 200 people attended the talk given by César Arias, native-born Sanmiguelense and activist director of the Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden and El Recreo Cultural Center.

Arias perhaps surprised some by starting his talk with a brief overview of immigration to San Miguel from Europe (Spanish refugees and exiles of the fascist regime of the 30s) and South America (in the person of Peruvian Felipe Cossío del Pomar, visionary founder of the first art school in San Miguel with northamerican Stirling Dickinson). He then discussed the “golden age” of the 1950s-70s, when hundreds of young people from the U.S. and Canada came to San Miguel with their GI bills to study and work at Cossío y Dickinson’s art school.

“… a period of artistic activity gave a certain renown to San Miguel within and outside of the country … waves of students coming from the north attended courses … accredited by their universities in the United States. The first art gallery in the city was inaugurated … and a new multinational generation of artists came together in San Miguel.” (César Arias, San Miguel de Allende: Guia del Visitante, p. 87

	above: German sculptor, Lothar Kestenbaum
	left: Filipino painter, Romeo Tabuena both photos by Peter Olwyler, courtesy of the San Miguel Archives project

During that period of time, many interactions and exchanges took place between the foreign community and the people of San Miguel, including marriages, the strongest indicators a high level of cultural integration. Arias recalled that as a child, he and his sister counted over 100 mixed couples among the parents of his friends. He then noted that starting in the 1980s, more and more tourists, retirees, and businesspeople came to San Miguel, attracted by promotions in commercial U.S. media touting the “quiet, picturesque” town as an ideal place to visit, retire and invest.

“The whole artistic and cultural atmosphere which has prospered during more than half a century in San Miguel has formed a unique society quite different from other populations in the country … however, it has been a bit diluted in recent years … due to the accelerated urban grown and the increasing presence of new social groups, national and foreign, attracted by tourism, business and real-estate development.” (Guia del Visitante, p. 90)

By the end of the century, the foreign community began to coalesce into an increasingly isolated English-only enclave, and San Miguel’s reputation as an artistic-cultural center was becoming eclipsed by its fame as an “American colony” with inflated prices, “chic” bars and boutiques and runaway development.

Arias’ conclusion, that the growing division between the foreign community and Mexicans of San Miguel is unhealthy, prompted a variety of comments from the audience. Some noted that the language barrier is particularly difficult for older people, while others insisted that this problem is a matter of effort, not age. Among solutions proposed were a suggestion that there be a tax on real-estate transactions by foreigners, and that the foreign community work together with Mexicans on issues of common concern, like water conservation, which affect all of San Miguel.

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