Man carrying landscaping stones, San Miguel de Allende
Unable to even lift one of these bags off the ground on my own, our friend here at the local vivero, hoisted these two without hesitation. One cannot help but be reminded of the statue at the entrance to San Miguel of Juan José de los Reyes MartÃnez, El Pipila, who in 1810 carried a paving stone on his back to shield himself from the Spanish guns as he approached the door of the Guanajuato granary and set it afire so that Allende’s troops could fight their way in. Unfortunately, the statue of El Pipila here features a paving slab of such exaggerated dimensions and thickness that I was confused when I first visited as to why a statue of a man with a queen-size mattress on his back should welcome visitors to the City.