Mexico 2025, Part One
December 4–11 · Road Scholar’s The Best of Central Mexico: Magical Towns and Bustling Cities
In 2024 and 2025, I took Road Scholar trips to Mexico. Both trips gave me a deeper understanding of Mexico’s history. This enriches my understanding of California’s relationship with Mexico through my archival work and studies of California history. In Mexico, the country’s revolutions and upheavals are celebrated alongside the wonders of pre-colonial civilizations. In December, church altars celebrate an Indigenous representation of the Virgin Mary with a riot of flowers and colors.
I currently work at Old Mission Santa Inés, helping with the archives and museum. Mexico is full of Franciscan convents and churches. Many are connected to Franciscans from the early Spanish colonial period in what is now Mexico and parts of the United States.
Old Mission Santa Inés is overseen by Franciscans. Reading books is helpful. I recently finished Engelhardt’s Missions and Missionaries of California, as well as more modern books on the same subject. However, visiting actual places and seeing the museums, churches, cities, and people adds depth and meaning. I found the church altars and works from pre-Hispanic periods especially beautiful. The reverence for Mexico’s history and political struggles, expressed in its art museums and monuments, can be felt much more deeply by being there than by simply reading about it. I went to Spain in 2015, which also helped me understand California’s non-Indigenous roots. I still have photographs from that trip to review.
I am glad that being semi-retired has given me time to travel, study, post my Mexico photographs, and freshen up my website and photo albums.
December 4, 2025 — From Santa Barbara to Mexico City with a transfer in San Francisco
December 5, 2025 — Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City Cathedral and Plaza
December 6, 2025 — Zócalo Rally, Xochimilco Boat Ride and views of nursery businesses, Frida Kahlo Museum, Palacio de Bellas Artes
December 7, 2025 — Secretariat of Public Education (Diego Rivera Murals), Leaving Mexico City heading to Morelia in the state of Michoacán, passing through the skyscrapers of Santa Fe, mountains, and countryside.
December 8, 2025 — Capula, with Catrina statue and cemetery weeks after the late-October Day of the Dead rituals; a study of dried flowers, including marigolds that held their color; Juan Torres Art Workshop and Garden in or near Capula; the Metropolitan Cathedral of Morelia, Spanish: Catedral Metropolitana de Morelia (San Salvador); Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Salud; marketplace; Azteca dancers; and the plaza at Pátzcuaro.
December 9, 2025 — Morelia Balcony Views, Morelia Aqueduct, Santuario de Guadalupe (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe), pilgrims on the Virgen de Guadalupe walkway, and Colegio Primitivo y Nacional de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. Morelia to Guanajuato, including countryside and an overview of Guanajuato.
December 10, 2025 — La Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, University of Guanajuato, Iglesia de San Diego, and walking around the city; Peace Plaza; Jardín de la Unión; Basílica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato (Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato); and the marketplace and Jardín de la Unión (Union Garden).
December 11, 2025 — From Guanajuato to Plaza y Edificio del Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramírez y Cuartel Militar in San Miguel de Allende; San Miguel de Allende; La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel; Templo de San Francisco de Asís; and then on to Santiago de Querétaro.