Experts say that you cannot know Zacatecas, or any of the other Mexican colonial cities, if you have not “lived” them. And to “live” them means to sing and dance to the cadence of the barreteros, a metallic and rhythmic sound produced by the couples of miners that worked inside the entrails of the mountains, one sustaining the barreta (a small iron bar) and the other one hitting it with the marro (mallet). These rhythmic sounds, that go back to the golden era of this central zone of Mexico, in the 17th Century, have given rise to one of the most traditional festivals where many cultures live together.

In Zacatecas they are called andanzas or tamborazo, in Guanajuato they are callejoneadas and in Oaxaca tuna de Antequera, but basically they are the same: a festive itinerary centered around a band of eight to ten musicians, which takes place at night through streets and alleys of the center of town and where songs are combined with music and dances of different types, with frequent stops to taste a shot of miner’s mezcal. So nothing hinders the enjoyment of the revelers, a small jar is hung from the neck where the liquor is poured into at each one of the frequent stops.

At its origins, the tamborazo was a man’s only activity and only the miners participated on Saturday afternoons after receiving their weekly journey’s pay. Their wives had instructions to go find them in jail if they did not get home on time. The wife used the money available to cover the weekly food expenses and to pay for the fine. After being released from jail, the miner would pawn his best suit to replace the money used to pay the fine. Come next Saturday, he would rescue his suit from the pawnshop and the festival through the streets would begin anew.

Nowadays, little of it remains. The majority of the mines have closed and the miners have emigrated and looked for other jobs, but the tradition and the “fiesta” live on. And the setting for its performance is still intact. Zacatecas, which, as well as Guanajuato, Querétaro and Morelia, is part of UNESCO’s World Heritage, is a perfect symbiosis between Spanish city and native character, of Creole beauty and mestizo pride.

The Spaniards arrived here in 1531, although their development started fifteen years later when important silver deposits where found. In 1585 Phillip II granted the city the title of “Ciudad de Nuestra Señora de los Zacatecas” (City of our Lady of the Zacatecans), and soon after declared it noble and granted it a coat of arms. During the colonial time various begging orders established themselves there (Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, Jesuits, juaninos and mercedarios), and constructed great monasteries and temples that came to compete in luxury and riches with the regal mansions of the rich “silver aristocrats”.

A marvelous irregularity

The religious and lay heritage of its times of splendor can be felt when walking its streets, paths and squares. Like all mining cities that grew in those areas where metal deposits were found, frequently in mountainous or hilly zones, Zacatecas, like Taxco or Guanajuato, lacks the grid organization of most cities, but in exchange has hugely attractive vistas and variety, full of surprises. Its irregularity becomes an esthetic advantage, undoubtedly.

Pink stone constructions that paint the sun filled squares in this color, the iron filigree of its balconies, capricious alleys and straight stone paved streets polished by time, outline its stately face. The gorge in which the city grows generates a fabric of irregular streets, which suddenly widen to form a square, like the main square, whose limits were never ascertained by its founders, mixed into the widened street, where its more important buildings are located. There is the cathedral, whose ornamented façade renders speechless those who see it for the first time. This building was started around 1730 as a parish and its design is attributed to the architect Domingo Ximénez Hernández. The grand façade was finished in 1745, and it rises like a giant altarpiece fitted between the bases of the towers. The ornamental columns are profusely worked, in a strong relief (sometimes 10 cm deep). Thirteen niches lodge Christ and the twelve apostles. Other
iconographic elements represent the Immaculate Conception, the Trinity and the Eucharist, symbolized by bunches of grapes and angels with musical instruments.

The cathedral is witness to the prosperity of Zacatecan mining in the mid 17th Century, and the majority of the important colonial buildings in the city date from this period. Another building that merits mentioning is the San Agustín temple, whose side entrance shows two enormous stipites (upside down truncated pyramids) in tight churrigueresco style. The temple of Santo Domingo dates from the 17th Century, and keeps in its interior eight beautiful altarpieces of gold covered wood. The Calderón Theatre, which was built in the 19th Century, exhibits a sober neo-classical style, and still has inside decorations made of cast iron and sculpted precious woods, typical
of the golden era of the city.

Zacatecas has several excellent museums: the Pedro Coronel Museum, lodged in the old college of San Luis Gonzaga, has the best collection of universal art pieces formed by the famous Zacatecan painter Pedro Coronel; the Francisco Goitia Museum; the Rafael Coronel Museum that shows an extensive collection of 5,000 masks from primitive Mexican, African and Australian peoples, as well as architectural drawings made by Diego Rivera; in addition, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Rafael Coronel.

To visit the interior of the mine El Edén is a pleasing experience. A little train with narrow carriages, similar to the ones that in the Hispanic era transported the precious minerals, takes the visitors through narrow and difficult places from where it is possible to admire the brilliant colors of the metal veins. Upon exiting, one can take the cable car that crosses the air over the city until it reaches the Cerro de la Bufa.

Colonial Treasures

Zacatecas can also be the starting point for a wide itinerary through the Mexican colonial treasures, a net of cities stemming from the Spanish conquest and that today are authentic architectural jewels, many declared as part of the World Heritage by UNIESCO. In the first ten years of the Spanish conquest, the following cities were founded: Mexico City (1521), Oaxaca (1521), Puebla (1531), Villa Real, nowadays San Cristóbal de las Casas (1528), Querétaro (1532), Pátzcuaro (1534), Valladolid, nowadays Morelia (1541) and Mérida (1542). Other establishments resulted from the new economic order; in this manner the mining cities were born, like Taxco (1534), Zacatecas (1548) and Guanajuato (1557). The coastal cities, like Veracruz and Campeche, were natural consequences of the need for maritime communication with Spain, and of Spain with the Orient, through the Pacific to the Philippines, which implied developing ports, like Acapulco.

One of the cities closest to Zacatecas is Aguascalientes, founded in 1575 to give shelter, refuge and protection to the travelers during their transit through the old pathways of the Silver Route. A walk through the historic center of the city lets you discover beautiful architectural jewels and numerous historical vestiges that reflect its valuable past. For example, the Basílica Cathedral in salomonic baroque style, where the Sanctuary Chapel and its paintings collection stand out. As its name indicates, the city also offers the prestigious thermal baths.

Not very far is Guanajuato, whose name means “frog hill”, and was founded in 1552. It is located in a narrow valley protected by arid mountains. Under a transparent and blue sky, its houses, streets and hidden places are molded to its rough topography. The city grew a little at random, with balconies, squares and alleys here and there that after a while met at the markets and churches. Guanajuato is a beautiful and welcoming city, the design of its streets forms surprising little places like the famous alley of Kiss, which owes its name to a romantic colonial legend. Two buildings were you would see the churrigueresco style, are the Jesuit temples of San Diego and San Cayetano, from the 18th Century. On the other hand, notable buildings stand out like the Juárez Theater, the Alhondiga de Granaditas, the University and the mansion of the Conde Rul, amongst others.

The neighboring state is Querétaro, whose capital, of the same name, reached an important economic prosperity in the 18th Century, which has given the city its characteristic profile that lasts to this day: churches, convents, squares that were cut in a pink, soft and smooth stone. One of the most admirable lay works of America, built in the 18th Century, is the imposing aqueduct which is 1,280 m long, with monumental arches that reach up to 23 m in height. Some buildings are real colonial jewels, among the more notable of churrigueresco art are: the Augustinian convent, the temple and convent of San Francisco, the churches of Santo Domingo, of the Congregation, of Santa Clara and of Santa Rosa; the building of the present Government Palace, built in the 18th Century, whose façade shows railings of cast iron. Fresh gardens and public parks, like the Hidalgo Walk and the Independence Plaza, invite to rest contemplating the beautiful architecture surrounding them.

Morelia, capital of the state of Michoacán, is a city of singular beauty, with a pleasing student environment and magnificent colonial constructions. Among the various buildings worth mentioning is the Cathedral in baroque style, with a façade in the shape of a triptych, a lesson in stately beauty; the Government Palace, which dates from the 18th Century; the Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, whose founder was Vasco de Quiroga; and the Clavijero Palace, an old Jesuit convent, among others. Several museums shelter treasures from the viceroyalty era; among them stand out the Colonial Arte Museum, which shows a collection of Christ statues made from corn paste, from the 16th and 19th Centuries, and the Michoacan Museum, that exhibits archeological pieces.

The quick itinerary through Mexican colonial treasures ends in San Luis de Potosi, called the “city of the gardens” for its numerous squares; the state capital extends through an arid plain, with a checkered street design, stone buildings and sober houses with balconies and noble proportions. Among its abundant monuments, the city shelters one of the more valuable examples of the churrigueresco art: the chapel of Aránzazu from the ex Franciscan convent, today occupied by the
Potosino Regional Museum. In the Plaza Mayor rises the Cathedral of San Luis Rey, which dates to the 17th Century, on its façade stand out the figures of the twelve apostles sculpted in stone, a copy of the ones made by Bernini in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. One of the more beautiful squares in San Luis houses the temple of the ex convent of Carmen, built in the mid 18th Century, whose entrance is in churrigueresco baroque style. The temple of San Francisco, built in the 17th Century, presents a capricious baroque façade in which several Franciscan saint