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While the Dominican andCar melite friars were thefirst to benefit from the priv -

ileged conditions of San Angel in thesixteenth century, others soon discov-ered the advantages of this little town soclose to the city. With the bustle of the

A Walk by Summer Chalets And Cultural VenuesJaime Abundis*

* Mexican architect, researcher at the NationalMuseum of Anthropology and History.

The White House, San Angel. Photography:

Luis

A. A

guila

r

town’s Carmelite college in the seven-teenth cen tury, the number of visitorsincreased. A few well-off gentlefolkacquired land there to build summerhouses surrounded by large gardens andorchards.The area’s attractions were myriad:mountains covered with thick forests, glenscrossed by crystalline streams, water fallsand cascades everywhere, more refresh-ing temperatures than in the city, nopools of water to bring mosquitos; trees,flowers and the majestic scenery of theValley of Mexico with the city on oneside and the volcanoes on the other,sprinkled with a multitude of hamlets inthe most transparent air imaginable.The English Dominican Friar ThomasGage and the Carmelite Friar Isidoro dela Asunción, resident in the San AngelCollege, left us their impressions fromthe seventeenth century. However, thebest descriptions of these promenadesand clearings are found in the romanticwritings of people who lived in the nine-teenth century like Frances ErskineCalderón de la Barca,1 Manuel Payno2

and Justo Sierra.3 The short junkets fromSan Angel to nearby towns, the religiousand popular fiestas with their processions,jaripeos or Mexican rodeos and dancesthese writers describe give us an idea ofthe charms that attracted outsiders to thetown. These customs were witnessedand described by Hans Lenz Hauser,4

probably the last of San Angel’s illustri-ous chroniclers.The yearly arrival of the city folk to SanAngel as summer neared was quite anoccasion. They made all the preparationsfor the move from their homes in thecity: the journey in the local stage andcarts included servants, furniture, vict-

uals and animals; and the fiestas, so cialevenings and walks or horseback rides inthe environs were eagerly awaited. TheCabrío waterfall on the Magdalena Rivernext to the La Hormiga factory was a“must” meeting place for all the summervisitors.

Let us take a look at the most impor-tant houses that remain to us, a testimo-ny to a gentler time.On the street that goes up to the westfrom the Licenciados Plaza is the build-ing called the White House, consideredthe oldest in San Angel, said to date from

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Oil painting of the Cabrío Falls on the Magdalena River, as painted by José María Velasco.

The San Angel Cultural Center.

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the seventeenth century. In the eigh-teenth century it belonged to an infantrycolonel, Don Diego de Arce y Chacón,count of the Valley of Oploca. Above themain entrance, in fact, is a slightly worncoat-of-arms said to be his family crest.Surrounding the house were vast gar-

dens and orchards that bordered on theGoicoechea hacienda.On the corner of what are now Hidal -go and Reyna Streets is another summerhouse of a noble family, the marquises ofSelva Nevada. Don Manuel Rodríguez dePinillos, the first marquis of his line, man-

aged the interests of the marquisate ofthe Valley of Oaxaca in Coyoacán at sometime during the eighteenth century. Itshould be remembered that when he died,his wife decided to retire to the ReginaCoeli nunnery in Mexico City, where sheasked no less a personage than Manuel

The summer house of the marquises of Selva Nevada.

The Licenciados Plaza, named after the lawyers who lived in the area. The entrance to the White House.

Many of these houses have niches on the outside.

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House of Bishop Madrid y Canal. The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio-House Museum.

Corner Niche, house of Bishop Madrid. The Archangels Plaza.

The House of the Bishop, first owned by Joaquín Fer nán dez Madrid y Canal,

canon of the Mexico City cathedral and later bishop of Tana gra, has a beautiful central patio.

Its facade is fortunate in its mortar coats-of-arms and monograms,

the ironwork of its windows, the railings’ inverted arches and pinnacles

and the corner niche with the sculpture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

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Tolsá to design her cell.5 The baroqueniche with its sculpture of Saint Anneand the Child Virgin in her arms on thehouse’s exterior corner is of note.Another house was built on the land

that was part of the San Jacinto Domi ni -cans’ orchard and vegetable garden untilthe eighteenth century, though no con-struction was erected on the corner itself,leav ing room for the little LicenciadosPlaza, named after the lawyers who lived inthe area. One of the lawyers was RafaelMar tínez de la Torre, who owned thehouse in the nineteenth century and be -came notorious for his unfortunate defenseof Emperor Maximilian in Querétaro. Inthe twentieth century, the house wasbought by Luis Montes de Oca, a cabinetmin ister under Lázaro Cárdenas, who addedto its main entrance the primitive por tal tothe chapel of the Saint Joseph of theNatural Hospital, retrieved from the build-ing when it was demol ished in the 1930s.Where Juárez, Aureliano Rivera and

Amargura Streets cross is a triangular lot

where the so-called House of the Bishopstands, first owned by Joaquín Fer nán dezMadrid y Canal, canon of the MexicoCity cathedral and later bishop of Tana -gra. This one-story building has a beautifulcentral patio. Its facade is fortunate in itsmortar coats of arms and monograms, theironwork of its windows, the rail ings’inverted arches and pinnacles and thecorner niche with the sculpture of OurLady of Guadalupe topped with a flower-festooned stone cross.Few visitors really look at the house

that hosts the famous Saturday Bazaar atone corner of the San Jacinto Plaza. Somesay it was owned by Don Antonio Lópezde Santa Anna during the nineteenthcentury,6 although this should be takenwith a grain of salt. What is not in ques-tion, however, is the house’s eighteenth-century origins, as testified to by its win-dow jambs, extended to the cornice overthe lintels.A few steps from this house, also on

the San Jacinto Plaza, is the Risco House,

dating from the seventeenth century,with modifications from a century later.Outstanding features of this building areits door with the baroque niche orna-mented with a stone sculpture of OurLady of Loreto; the look-out used by offi-cers in both the Mexican and U.S.armies during the events of 1847; thepatio; and most of all the crag-shapedfountain made of New Spain Majolica,Asian and European porcelain and seashells topped with a sculpture of Her cu -les or Sampson fighting a lion. The Agredafamily owned this house in the nine-teenth century; it passed to the Payrófamily in the twentieth century and wasthen bought by Isidro Fabela7 to live in.He filled it with great works of art andantiques that he later donated to thepeople of Mexico.Another important house in San Angel

was that of Don Francisco Fagoaga, themarquis of Apartado. This house has hadmany owners, some of whom used it as astation for the stages that ran the regular

The exquisite Porfirian architecture of the home of the Misses Coudurier captivate the observer. The home of the Misses Coudurier.

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route between Mexico City and San Angelbefore the advent of the steam engine andthe railroad. The house had ample groundswhere, when sold, five houses fit comfort-ably, in addition to the picturesqueAmargura Alleyway. The house seems todate from the eighteenth century, althoughit was remodeled in the nineteenth centu-ry with balustrades and clay urns. At the Amargura Street corner ofPlaza del Carmen stands the house thatbelonged to the descendants of Tristánde Luna y Arellano who undertook theconquest of Florida in 1565, embarking

from San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz, forwhose services the Crown gave him thetitle of Marshall of Castile. The house’smain points of interest are the facade’slace-like plaster relief and the gargoyleson cherubim brackets.To the left is another magnificenthouse, for many years inhabited by theMisses Coudurier, sisters known fortheir close friendship with Porfirio Díaz.Despite its current state of disrepair, itstill catches the eye: the fine design andcareful proportions, and the ala bas tercapitals that top the portico columns.

Unfortunately, many houses weretorn down to make way for what peoplethought was modernity; among them,the so-called House of Dynamite and thehome of Don Ignacio Cumplido.8

But not everything in San Angel isnostalgia for things past; it has other, morethan alive, up-to-date attractions, partic-ularly cultural venues.You just have to cross RevolutionAvenue from the El Carmen Museum toenjoy lectures, exhibitions, concerts,courses and more in the San AngelCultural Center.

The house of lawyer Rafael Martínez de la Torre who became notorious for his unfortunate defense of Emperor Maximilian in Querétaro.

A few steps away is the Jaime SabinesHouse, which also offers cultural activities.It is a shame that the old Carmelite cisternhas been defaced, but just west of it is theportico built for the Car me lites’ spiritualconversations, for years used as the concerthall of pianist Pedro Luis Ogazón andtoday the dining room of a day care center.In the San Jacinto Plaza, besides theRisco House, is the Isidro Fabela Cul -tural Center with its library specializedin international law.On the corner of Revolution Avenueand Altavista is a modern building thathouses the Alvar and Teresa Carrillo GilArt Museum, whose painting and sculp-ture exhibitions make it well worth a visit. On Altavista itself, across from whatwas the main house of the other Goicoe -chea hacienda, today used as a restau-rant, is the house Juan O’Gorman9 builtfor Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, nowdubbed the Diego Rivera and FridaKahlo Studio-House Museum,10 with itsexcellent permanent collection and tem-porary exhibits.

In what was once the Loreto paper mill,at the corner of Revolution and MagdalenaRiver Avenues is a shopping mall that hous-es the Soumaya Museum, with outstand-ing pieces in its permanent collec tion,including sculptures by Auguste Rodin.We cannot leave out the Mexico Con -dumex Historical Studies Center on theFederico Gamboa Plaza (also known asChimalistac Plaza), that boasts one of thebest specialized libraries in the countryand offers history lectures to the public.But we must not leave San Angel beforewandering though and enjoying its tree-filled corners like the Archangels and Li -cen ciados Plazas, the River Walk with itsbridges built by the Carmelites, the littlewinding streets of Chimalistac with its“Secret Chamber,” its La Fonte Plaza andits modified open chapel. And we mustmake time to walk through the Tagle, Bom - billa, San Jacinto and Art Garden Parks.The San Angel of remembrance andevocation still appeals to the visitors oftoday who know how to discover what isnot always visible at first glance.

NOTES

1 Scots wife of the first Spanish ambassador toMexico, who wrote Life in Mexico, in which shedescribes the country’s nineteenth-century land-scape and customs.

2 Mexican politician and intellectual who loved SanAngel, where he died.

3 Founder of the National University and a cabinetminister to Porfirio Díaz, Justo Sierra was an assid-uous visitor to San Angel.

4 Hauser was the last owner of the Loreto paper fac-tory before it was converted to a shopping mall.

5 Tolsá was the director of sculpture of the SanCarlos Royal Academy, the sculptor of the eques-trian statue of Carlos IV, known in Mexico as ElCaballito, and designer of the Royal College ofMines building, masterpieces of the New Spainneoclassical period.

6 Santa Anna was president of Mexico 11 timesbetween 1833 and 1854 and is infamous for beingresponsible for the loss of a vast stretch of Mexicanterritory (Texas, Arizona, Colorado and California)to the United States.

7 Politician and diplomat from the first half of thetwentieth century.

8 The first editor of the most famous newspaper ofthe time, El siglo XIX.

9 Juan O’Gorman was also an internationally recog-nized painter.

10 Read about the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Stu -dio-House Museum in Voices of Mexico, no. 39.

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Facade of the Risco House, built in theseventeenth century.

The house's fountain, made of Majolica, porcelain and shells.