Union Garden

The triangle of paths before the façade of the Church of San Diego grew out of a square where people traded, held city celebrations, and sometimes watched bullfighting. When the city needed a place for evening strolls in the center, trees were planted here, paths laid out, benches set in place, and oil lamps lit; the garden soon became too cramped for everyone who wanted to use it. The name Union remained after the victory of supporters of secular reforms in the civil war, and the kiosk was installed for orchestras. Today mariachi musicians and student ensembles play beneath its roof, and musical walks set out from here into the alleys.

At the end of November eighteen ten, the Franciscan José María de Jesús Belaunzarán went out onto this square to meet a column of royal soldiers. He served at the neighboring Monastery of San Diego and was trying to save the townspeople who had remained in their homes.

Almost two months earlier, insurgents had taken the Alhóndiga de Granaditas. Now the royal army had retaken Guanajuato City, and its commanders, Félix María Calleja and Manuel Flon, Count of la Cadena, decided to avenge the Spaniards killed in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas. Flon ordered the degüello sounded. This military signal meant there would be no mercy: soldiers could kill people they met along the way, whether they had taken part in the uprising or not.

The streets before Flon's column emptied, and the doors of houses were locked. When the soldiers came out onto Plaza de San Diego—the present-day Union Garden was then called that—Belaunzarán knelt before the commander with a crucifix in his hand. Historians relay his argument this way: the guilty had already fled to the mountains; the people remaining in the city had done no harm. The priest demanded that the order be revoked and reminded Flon that he would have to answer before Christ for the blood that was spilled.

Flon revoked the order. The reprisals did not end there: people suspected of taking part in the uprising were arrested and executed, and Calleja published a general pardon edict only on November twenty-ninth. But the extrajudicial killing of everyone the soldiers might meet in the streets stopped after the conversation in this square.

There was no garden here yet. The square before the monastery served as a market, a place for city celebrations, and was sometimes adapted for bullfighting. The first trees were planted in eighteen thirty-six. In October eighteen sixty-one, city officials laid out paths, installed benches and oil lamps: Guanajuato City lacked a convenient place for evening strolls in the center. The municipal chronicle soon complained of the opposite—the new garden sometimes could not hold everyone who wanted to use it.

The name “Union,” meaning “Alliance,” became attached to the garden after the victory of supporters of secular reforms in the civil Reform War that had ended. The kiosk was added later for orchestra performances. It still serves as a stage, with mariachi musicians and student ensembles gathering nearby, and musical walks through the alleys beginning here.

From the old Plaza de San Diego, the spatial connection with the Church of San Diego remains. Before its façade, where Belaunzarán stopped Flon's column, the paths of the triangular garden now lie, and the music kiosk stands.