Culture Meets an Architectural Gem at Guanajuato’s 36th Cervantino Festival

Guanajuato, capital of the central state of the same name, is a highly cultural city with marvelous architecture and lots of history and traditions, making it a proper home to a celebration of the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote”, a founding work of modern literature.

This event has grown into the most important artistic and cultural event in Latin America: the Cervantino International Festival (Festival Internacional Cervantino), an annual two-week event. Last year, 2,500 musicians, artists, and performers from all over the world joined half a million visitors from different countries attending the Festival.

During the Festival, Guanajuato becomes a living theater and museum with avant-garde and traditional artistic performances. You can enjoy classic music, jazz, and electronic music, along with folkloric and contemporary dance, as well as plays and multimedia shows, cinema, visual arts, puppets, workshops and poetry readings and hundreds of activities that represent the very best of international arts.

This year, the 36th edition of this event, held annually since 1972, will take place from October 8th to 26th, with the Spanish Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the Mexican State of Campeche as guests of honor.

As if it that isn’t enough, Guanajuato, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988, is a walking paradise with hundred of cobblestone alleyways, and dozens of plazas and fountains that gave it the flavor of a medieval European town.
Founded in 1544, the city of Guanajuato is nestled in the Sierra Guanajuato Mountains, 6,580 feet (2,000 meters) above sea level. The Spanish found in Guanajuato rich veins of silver and produced a fortune from them. The Valenciana mine located in Guanajuato was one of the richest silver finds in history. During the 18th century, this one mine alone accounted for two-thirds of the world's silver production. This silver produced vast fortunes that helped build a magnificent city with an opulent theatre and gorgeous churches.
The 1903-built Teatro Juarez, considered one of the most beautiful in Mexico, is an opulent building with four floors of carved and sculpted box seats, an upstairs lobby with glass floors and skylight and a Greco-Roman Doric portico adorned with bronze lions and lanterns, as well as an art nouveau foyer.
The Museo Casa de Diego Rivera showcases the family home and furnishings of the celebrated painter who was married to the world-famous Frida Kahlo.
The Cervantino Festival is a unique world class rendezvous for lovers of any kind of artistic expression.