Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
For our third stop we will travel to the city of San Miguel de Allende, which is located
in Guanajuato Mexico. The dominat ethnicity consists of Mexican of Spanish Decent. The
main language is Spanish and the main religion is catholic. La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel
is the local perish church towering over every other building in the town. Its Neo- Gothic
facade is said to be influenced by Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. The church was
built in the 17th century with a traditional Mexican Facade, but due to deterioration,
it was reconstructed by Zeferino Gutierrez who was a self taught architect and indigenous
brick layer. The interior of the church still has the original designs since the 17th century,
most of the original interior and decorations have been looted throughout the years. It
is opened only once a year for the public, which is on November 2nd. This is considered
the day of the dead. It is located right in front Plaza Allende and it has become emblematic
to the town by symbolizing the preservation of culture and its colonial character, as
you can see in this picture. For the fourth and final stop we will travel to the Peten
Basin which is located in Northern Guatemala. The Tikal Temple 1, also known as the temple
of the Great Jaguar, is a Peten styled limestone pyramid. It measures 154ft in height and it
is part of a variety of Mayan pyramid temples found within the Peten Basin Region. The temple
was used as a tomb for Jasaw Chan K'awiil, who ruled from 682 to 734 AD. The main language
during his rule was Yucatec, which is still a language used in small regions of the Peten
Basin. The tomb was filled with jewelry, ceramics, jaguar skins, shells, pearls and anything
else that Jasaw wanted to bring to his afterlife. While the temple itself was discovered in
the 1800's, his tomb was disvovered barely in 1962. The Tikal Temple 2, which has the
same design and is also a limestone pyramid, was dedicated to his wife, it was a burial
place for his wife. Next to Tikal Temple 2 we can see la pira de los sacrificios, which
is where prisoners of war were often sacrificed to the main gods: Itzamna, Kukulcan, and Chac
and they were sacrificed for prosperity.