Artesana main street, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
A computer rendering – or the real thing? Sadly, the real thing. This is Artesana, a new upscale development in San Miguel, which might as well be in any movie backlot or theme park anywhere in the World. A pristine, fictionalized, soul-less version of San Miguel where all those inconvenient things like real down-to-earth San Miguelans have been dispensed with. Few figures are ever likely to stroll down these streets, as the whole pastiche is serviced by a subterranean road right underneath here. This means no nasty dirt in which to grow nasty trees with annoying leaves. You can park your car and enter your ultra-secure environment from below without ever brushing shoulders with the hoi-poloi. Whether a result of rampant paranoia, or simply an inability to be prepared to wrestle with or rejoice in reality, this is apparently the dismal gated dream of how some folks now view home. The sky is real however.