Arroyo transformation completed with mural dedication
On Aug. 1, a dozen large-scale murals were dedicated along 90 meters of the Las Cachinches Arroyo, one of four principal waterways flowing through the city's municipal center from Parque Landeta to the Presa Allende reservoir. The artwork now graces the arroyo just west of Calzada de la Aurora, across from Fábrica La Aurora.
The mural corridor, coordinated by Audubon de México, transforms a previously neglected area into an open-air gallery celebrating the arroyo's history and ecology. The municipality is home to 165 bird species, representing 45% of the 366 species found in Guanajuato state and about 16% of Mexico's approximately 1,060 bird species.
"A lot of people don't even know it's there. It will be a lovely green place for people to walk."said Audubon de México President April Gaydos.
Gaydos noted that murals serve as a deterrent to graffiti tagging.
"There have been studies done on this. It's educational as much as creating a place people want to visit."
Parallel cleanup efforts continue along the arroyo, with volunteers spending Saturdays removing garbage between Calzada de la Aurora and Canción de India. The work is organized by Colectiva Ecología en la Montaña, coordinated by Gabriel González and Juanita Nolasco.
Botanical sculptures blend nature and recycled materials
Former landscape designer Matt Wilson has launched "Rooted in Rust," an artistic project combining reclaimed iron relics, wood and succulent plants into permanent botanical sculptures.
"For 1,000 years, you've seen a single plant in a pot. Mine is a single composition with color, with a filler plant, and everything that hangs out of the pot is called the spiller. Those make up the criteria, and they're very attractive, and nobody else is doing that in San Miguel."Wilson explained.
Wilson, who moved to the Los López area south of San Miguel 3.5 years ago after living in San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Costa Rica, began creating the sculptures last year. His first piece transformed a rusted metal suitcase into a thriving succulent display.
"I saw there was something there, and it really engaged my creative side,"he said. Wilson has since expanded to incorporate old rusted inner spring mattresses, tricycles and Coca-Cola coolers into his work.
Rare partial lunar eclipse approaches
A partial lunar eclipse beginning Thursday night and ending early Friday morning will be visible from San Miguel, offering residents a chance to witness an exceptional astronomical event.
The penumbral eclipse begins at approximately 7:23 p.m. Thursday in the east-southeast, reaching maximum eclipse around 10:12 p.m. At greatest eclipse (4:13 UTC), 96.3% of the Moon's disk will be covered by Earth's umbra, with an umbral magnitude of 0.9319, creating a reddish-orange "almost blood moon" effect. This will be the best lunar eclipse visible anywhere on Earth until New Year's Eve 2028.
The eclipse is part of Saros series 138, with eclipses in this series separated by 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours. The previous eclipse in this series occurred on Aug. 16, 2008, and the next will take place on Sept. 7, 2044.
Close to 1 billion people in South and North America will be able to fully see the eclipse, while more than 3 billion should be able to view part of the five-hour event.
Viral aura farming phenomenon arrives Sunday
An "Aura Farming Battle" will take place Sunday at 3 p.m. at Parque Juarez on the small basketball courts, with a 500-peso prize for the winner.
The social phenomenon, which started on TikTok and Instagram, consists of participants—predominantly young people aged 14 to 20—silently making moves designed to appear confident and cool through gestures, poses and recreations of recognizable internet memes and viral videos. The battles have no formal criteria, judges or rules, with the audience's response deciding the winner.
The trend gained broader mainstream attention in 2025 following an Indonesian boy named Rayyan Arkan Dikha, whose calm dance performance on the bow of a traditional racing boat during the Pacu Jalur festival went viral internationally.
Aura farming battles have spread across Latin America in August 2026, with organized events in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. In Mexico City, events on Aug. 22-23 offered prizes worth up to 3,000 pesos, with one recent winner receiving 2,000 pesos.
Writers' Conference registration discount ending
The San Miguel Writers' Conference and Literary Festival is offering $95 off registration packages until Aug. 31, before regular prices take effect Sept. 1.
The conference, first held in 2006 with 26 local residents, has grown dramatically. In 2025, it attracted approximately 3,000 attendees from the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. Over 19 years, more than 5,000 writers have participated in workshops and over 40,000 seats have been filled for keynote presentations.
Scheduled for Feb. 10-14, 2027, at the Hotel Real de Minas, the conference will feature keynote speakers including:
- U.S. author Amor Towles, whose novels have collectively sold more than eight million copies and been translated into over 40 languages. Towles is known for bestselling works including "Rules of Civility" (2011), "A Gentleman in Moscow" (2016) and "The Lincoln Highway," with his latest book "Table for Two" published in April 2024.
- Canadian author Jennifer Finney Boylan
- Canadian author Michelle Good
- Mexican author Martha Bátiz
The conference will feature literary presentations, workshops and bilingual programming, along with free community events.
