T H E S P L E N D O R O F M E X I C O

TaxcoCapital of the Spirit

Miguel Alejandro Reina Gómez Maganda*

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Walking down the cobbled colonialstreets, you feel that you lose your-self little by little along that fine

line between reality and fantasy. The whitefacades of the red-tiled houses climb perfect-ly synchronized up the green “Atachi” Hill(meaning “Lord of the Waters” in Nahuatl),creating a dream city, perpetually protected byseven hills, like seven Aztec warriors guardingtheir dam sel. One of these hills is split in twoby a water fall, a silver serpen-tine, like the silver that fills thebowels of Taxco. A beloved citythat allows itself to be loved evenmore in me mory: truly the capitalof the spirit. A labyrinth be tweenthe moun tains that invites you tolose your self in it to possess it. I arrive at its center, the pla -

za framing the magnificence ofthe Santa Prisca Church, a ba -ro que glory that will enchant themost pagan visitor. This feelingthat grows with the aroma ofbread and fresh vegetables com-ing from the market, with the re -frain of its artisans’ voices offer-ing their colorful products and withthe warm, friendly smiles of thelocals, produ ces an atmospherethat ma kes it impossible to do any -thing but let yourself go and enjoy the place.A foreigner next to me asks a peasant the

name of the city; the peasant answers sweet-ly, “It is colonial Taxco.”Taxco de Alarcón is located in the central

part of the state of Guerrero. Its name comesfrom the name of the ancient pre-Hispanic cityTlachco, meaning “place of the ball game” inNahuatl. Tlachco was one of the many townsof the great Aztec empire. Its particularity wasthat, in contrast to the others, this town paidtribute to Moctezuma in gold and silver.

Until 1528, Taxco was nothing more thana mining camp. This changed in 1534 whenthe first veins of gold and silver were discov-ered and mined; by 1570, Taxco was the mostimportant mining center in New Spain.Climbing hills and digging tunnels, Real de

Minas was in its heyday during the viceroyalty.By the end of the sixteenth century, the city’soriginal site, now known as “Old Taxco”, wouldmove 10 kilometers to the south. There, the

Spaniards set up residence andgave the place the name Realde Minas de Tetel cin go. Thelocals, for their part, conti n uedto re side in Tlach co tecapan andAcayotla, today the San Mi -guel and Gua da lupe neighbor -hoods.They say that among the

miners numbered black slaveswho carried out one of the firstrebellions against the ex ploi -tation they suffered duringthe colonial period. Many ofthe rebels fled to the coast,where their descendants livetoday.The city of Taxco grew

with out any concerted urbanplanning. Winding up the hill,white-walled, clay-tiled hou s -

es, little cobbled streets with disquietingly un -de fined destinations and plazas adorned withmulticolored flowers and vines sprang up, every -thing that would later turn Taxco into a WorldHeritage Treasure.Throughout its history, Taxco has been vis-

ited by world-famous, historic figures and haseven given birth to some of them. Perhaps themost important was renowned dramatist JuanRuiz de Alarcón y Mendoza, one of our literarytreasures and, besides the great Sor Juana Inésde la Cruz, the only other person born in theWesternHemisphere to be part of the plethora ofwriters of the Golden Century of Spanish li te r -ature, along with giants like Mi guel de Cer van -

* Script writer born in Guerrero.

Photos on this and the previous page by Elsie Montiel.

Statue of Juan Ruiz de Alarcónoutside the Spratling Museum.

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The white facades of the red-tiled houses climb perfectly synchronized up the green “Atachi” Hill creating a dream city,

perpetually protected by seven hills.

tes Saavedra, Tirso de Molina, Luis de Gón gora yArgote and Francisco de Que vedo, among others.Juan Ruiz de Alarcón saw the light of day

for the first time in 1580. His legacy is not onlyhis works of literary genius, but also his exam-ple of untiring, tenacious struggle, since hisbeing born with a hunchback meant that humanmisery marginalized him and put obstacles inhis path all his life.In homage to this, since 1987, every year

Taxco becomes the scene of the meeting ofthe sixteenth century and our time. Art of allkind throughout the city, and voices invoking

a single man, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, constitutethe celebrated “Alarconian Days” created byGuerrero government decree.Another name inseparable from the city is

Don José de la Borda, who in 1716 took up re s -idence in Taxco. Known as “The phoenix of therich miners in the Americas,” he would fostermining in the region, simultaneously becom-ing the city’s main benefactor. His nicknamereferred to the many times he lost and remadehis fortune, which he used to a great extent toerect buildings that ennoble his name. The mainexample of this is the magnificent Santa Prisca

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Church, an imposing presence on the city’smain plaza, which is named for him in recog-nition of his legacy.Work on this church, considered one of

Mex ico’s most important examples of colonialarchitecture, began in February 1751 and cul-minated seven years later. It was consecratedto the Purísima Concepción, with Prisca andSebas tián, third-century Christian martyrs, aspatron saints. The first mass was officiated byFather Manuel de la Borda, Don José’s son. San -ta Prisca is the result of joint work by ge niu sesof the viceroyalty: Cayetano de Sigüenza wasthe architect; the altar pieces, carved in puregold leaf, were done by Vicente and Luis deBalbás; but perhaps the most widely recognizedwas Miguel Cabrera, an indigenous artist whodid the paintings.

Cabrera is the only artist of the time whodared to challenge all the cannons establishedby the church, painting portraits of a PregnantMary, The Circumcision of Jesus and The Deathof Mary.Considered by historian Elisa Vargas Lugo

“the pearl of eighteenth-century baroque,”Santa Prisca is one of those monuments thatachieves such a symbiosis with the city that itwould seem that the entire urban area hadbeen erected just to surround it. The visitorcannot but raise his eyes and admire the mar-velous facade, which on his first visit there Ar -gentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges called “themost obvious symbol of perplexity.” One night in April 1803, the celebrated Ger -

man traveler Baron Alexander von Humboldtarrived in the city; he classified Taxco’s climate

Santa Prisca achieves such a symbiosis with the city that it would seem that the entire urban area had been

erected just to surround it.

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as the best in the world. The house where hestayed bears his name to this day and is hometo the Vi ceregal Art Museum, whose 14 roomshold Mex ico’s most important pieces of sacred,viceregal art.Another emblematic figure in Taxco’s past

was the American William Spratling, a vision-ary and great designer who fostered the geniusof Taxco residents, today known as creators ofunique pieces of fine metal work.In 1931, he opened the first silver-working

workshop called “Las Delicias.” He developeda school of silver and goldsmiths and jewelersthat has become world famous. In 1932, Sprat -l ing celebrated the first anniversary of his work -shop and instituted “Silversmiths’ Day.” Theevent became so famous that in 1953, on theinitiative of Guerrero state Governor AlejandroGómez Ma ganda, Mexican President AdolfoRuiz Cortines decreed the National Silver Fairand the In ternational Silver Competition.Every year, Taxco opens its doors to the

world so people can admire its astonishing

pieces of silver combining the pre-Hispanicheritage with contemporary design. These ac ti -vities are flanked by cultural and artistic eventsto delight visitors.Among Taxco’s other contributions to the

world, we must mention the internationalsym bol for Christmas, the poinsettia, native tothe area and discovered by Fernando dePoinsett.It is nighttime in Taxco. Seated on a balcony

of one of the picturesque bars that look out ontothe Borda Plaza, we can gaze at the imposingfacade of Santa Prisca and admire the moon, sooften described metaphorically as made of sil-ver. Looking at it like this, it becomes clear thatit must have been born here.Looking at the sky, more beautiful than ever,

full of stars; breathing in history and witness-ing the gentle life of the city’s inhabitants, wordsfail me to describe it. The only thing left to sayis that no one should leave this Earth, no oneshould die without having seen Taxco de Alar -cón, Guerrero.

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