Sunday 1 June 2025
Woke up to a rainy Sunday morning with gunmetal gray clouds draping the horizon.
As we’ve done almost every Sunday morning for the past several years, Pati and I walk out for coffee or breakfast before doing our weekly grocery shopping. This morning, we ended up at Panio on Salida a Celaya, where they serve an excellent shakshuka.
In the afternoon, to stretch my legs and my spirit, I headed toward the nearby Guadiana neighborhood and beyond.
Back in the 1500s and 1600s, San Miguel el Grande was a layover point on the Royal Silver Road (el camino real de tierra adentro). Merchants and craftspeople set up shop in San Miguel, along with the industries supporting them. Many settlers were from the sheep herding regions of Spain and brought their knowledge with them. San Miguel developed a well-known textile industry to process the wool. The local serapes became known throughout the world.
In the 1700s, wealthy landowners began to settle in San Miguel. Many of the mansions in Centro date to this colonial era. With gentrification during this time, others were pushed out to surrounding neighborhoods like Ojo de Agua, Valle de Maize, Mexiquito, and Guadiana, among others. The Guadiana neighborhood of that period developed around the local church, shown below. The church remains an integral part of the neighborhood and plays a central role in the annual spring rituals to the Santa Cruz and the bringing of the summer rains.
One of the current jewels of the neighborhood is the small but charming Guadiana park:
A mix of scenes below, with the narrow sidewalks, occasional tree-lined streets, and blend of the older single-story working-class homes alongside contemporary gentrified multistory homes:
I like the images below where you can see an older but well-maintained tiny home next to the lavanderia and garage, all adjacent to the converted boutique hotel:
And the evening skies with sporadic rain surrounding us:
Meandering Family: Beyond the Nest 