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New guide to San Miguel focuses on the irreverent and
unusual
Photograph by : CR Staff
Veteran journalist Joseph Harmes is at work making alterations and
corrections to his newly published guide book, ‘The Best of San Miguel
de Allende’ for a second edition in 2006.
Story by : Bob Kelly
If you’re planning a trip, or even a move, to San Miguel de Allende,
the national historic treasure known for both its colonial and
cosmopolitan charms, one of the first things you’ll want to find is a
chicken race.
The details are on page 133 of a new bilingual guidebook
by veteran journalist Joseph Harmes, “The Best of San Miguel de Allende,”
which combines thorough research, an obvious love for the place and
cheerful irreverence, to unveil a city that will surprise even long-time
residents.
“A lot of this book isn’t about where to find the best
enchilada but to educate,” said Harmes, who has worked in Mexico as a
journalist for most of the last 30 years. “Not just that there is a
holiday, but what it is that they’re celebrating.”
The 24-page history
section reflects his own interests, he added, and ranges from the story
behind the town’s oldest gas pumps to a warts-and-all portrait of
revolutionary leader Father Hidalgo to the pyramids being uncovered
nearby.
Harmes said he got the idea for his book when he brought his
partner Jackie Levy for her first visit to San Miguel in 2000.
“I
couldn’t find travel information in the local papers and the guide books
were terribly out of date. I thought then about coming back and writing
the book.”
He did come back, two years later, as the editor of
Atencion, an English-language newspaper. To take the job, he quit as
bureau chief of People magazine in Miami, where he was responsible for
covering Mexico and Latin America. He resigned from Atencion after less
than three weeks, reportedly because of differences with board members of
Biblioteca Publica, the paper’s publisher.
For the next two years,
Harms said, he visited hundreds of restaurants, hotels, stores and
attractions.
“Do I have anything going with these places?” he asked.
“Absolutely not. Nobody knew I was doing a book when I checked out each
place mentioned.”
All of the basics about where to stay, eat, shop and
sightsee are covered in a style that allows Harmes to balance his opinions
with humor ranging from broad to racy. Harmes includes topics not always
covered in guidebooks, such as the chicken race or where to find highly
personal massages. His stylistic technique is to group listings in nine
chapters in nearly 650 categories under headings that start with “Best” —
the best arts and crafts, the best public restrooms, the best colonial
buildings. This get-to-the point approach, Harmes said, “accelerates the
learning curve by directing readers to the best of the best in order to
make the most of a brief or even long-term visit.”
He decided on a
bilingual book because the Spanish-language guidebooks — among the 40 he
owns in both languages, dating to 1916— also didn’t provide the kind of
information he believes visitors and residents should have. Printing
separate versions, he added, would have been too costly.
The result is
a book that is shaped differently than most - 4 1/4 inches wide and 8 5/8
inches long, so it can slip into a bag or back pack.
The 192-page
English part has as its cover a painting of a street vendor at night
(Harmes recommends several such stands) and the book flips over to the
204-page Spanish version with the same cover. In between are 12 pages of
color photos that reinforce the guide’s fresh approach.
Designed and
printed in Guadalajara, the book is available for 200 pesos at the Quinta
Don Jose in Tlaqapaque, in addition to several locations in San Miguel.
Harmes is looking for an outlet in Lake Chapala so that Ajijic’s foreign
residents can find out what their San Miguel counterparts think of them
under the heading, Best Feud Between Ex-Pats (page 109). |
