Not embarrassed to admit that I really like San Miguel de Allende.
The popular thing these days is to crap on San Miguel de Allende. This is now my 10th time going to SMA (my mother lives there) and I have to admit that I always look forward to my visits.
This wasn’t always the case. Back in 2013, I also crapped on San Miguel. It was my first time in Mexico and we had been to Mexico City, Queretaro and Guanajuato before coming to SMA. Suddenly I saw all these Americans everywhere. Even then the city was gentrified. Although pretty, it struck me as totally unlike any of the other Mexican cities I had visited on that trip. I wrote about my thoughts at the time, calling SMA an ¨American enclave in Mexico¨ and ¨Mexico-lite¨.
Since that first visit 10 years ago, I´ve visited Mexico every year and have spent months at a time visiting different regions, often in places very much off-the-beaten-path. It always amazes me that once you leave San Miguel you see very few white faces, that prices are much, much cheaper, and that you won’t see the kind of over-the-top gentrification you’ll see in SMA. If anything, it’s only confirmed my initial impressions of the city.
Despite that, I’ve found myself getting more attached to San Miguel every year. Objectively, what’s there not to love? It’s a very pretty city, it’s clean, it has tons of nice restaurants and cafés, it feels safe and as a white face you’re not an anomaly. Coming back to visit my mother every year, it’s come to feel like a 2nd home.
The above doesn’t negate anything I’ve ever said about San Miguel. More than ever, it is an ¨American enclave in Mexico¨. And more than ever, it IS ¨Mexico-lite¨. And the gentrification and pricing has risen to absurd levels. Even the long-term expats complain now about the new expats who come in to spend and invest their big bucks.
Last year, on my 9th visit to San Miguel, I brought my wife Lissette and showed her around the city. It was part of a 2-month trip around Mexico that saw us travel up and down the country from Zacatecas to Oaxaca. I took her to my favorite breakfast place, we visited the library (which she really liked), we sat at the Jardin and enjoyed the views of the Parroquia. We walked around the center and I showed her the most picturesque streets (including calle Aldama). We took the city bus to the mirador and then came back to the center, descending Callejon del Chorro to Parque Benito Juarez.
I somehow thought she’d be very impressed by San Miguel. So I was a bit disappointed when she said something along the lines of ¨it’s very nice, but it’s not anymore special than other places we’ve seen on this trip. And there sure seem to be a lot of Americans around…¨. It actually bothered me a bit and I found myself, for the first time, defending San Miguel. ¨You don’t find it that special?! You don’t find it pretty?¨. She responded that she did, she just wasn’t blown away.
Towards the end of our 2-month trip I asked her again on her thoughts. I wondered if she would have a different perspective after all the other Mexican towns and cities we had visited. Again, she took me off guard, this time saying that she’s not surprised that Americans would love San Miguel. ¨I get it. A lot of people want to move somewhere where they’ll feel comfortable, that’s not too different, where there’s community. San Miguel has that¨. She talked again about the library, about Bellas Artes and about the Instituto Allende. ¨It’s not somewhere that I would want to live all my life but I get the attraction. I could spend time there if ever it came to that¨.
Most of her (and my) perspective also come from our last 4 years of living in Spain. We like Spain, but finding ¨home¨ has been difficult. Although we both speak Spanish, we haven’t felt part of any community in the 3 places we’ve lived. We feel very much not integrated in Spain, it’s a place where we’re just living right now. I think that experience and perspective is maybe part of the reason both of us can see the benefits of a place like San Miguel de Allende. It doesn’t take away all the ugliness associated with gentrification and the displacement of locals due to the influx of foreigners…but at the same time it makes us understand the reasons why people may be attracted to a place such as San Miguel.
It doesn’t take much for people to crap on you.
A few years ago I wrote about The Best Cafés in San Miguel de Allende. Some people crapped on me for including Starbucks. Never mind that I included 9 other cafés serving real coffee, the fact that I would include Starbucks brought a lot of crappiness my way (once in a while, not very often, I get a craving for a Caramel macchiato. That doesn’t mean I also don’t like real coffee).
I’ve gotten crapped on for saying that I’ve enjoyed a good hamburger or pizza in Thailand. Never mind that we’ve spent 6 months + on end in Thailand eating nothing but Thai food every day. If I had to settle for any cuisine for the rest of my life it would be Thai. But no matter how much you love Thai that doesn’t mean you can’t crave the occasional hamburger or pizza.
My point? It’s all about perspective. San Miguel de Allende is different than 99% of places in Mexico. It’s not the ¨real¨ Mexico, it has a lot of expats, it’s totally gentrified. But despite all that I’ve gotten to like it, just because it is different. And I’m not embarrassed to admit it.
Related: A roadtrip through 10 of Mexico’s most Beautiful towns and cities
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