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Every September, San Miguel de Allende is host to an event that can only
be compared to Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Spring Break in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Begun in 1973, San Miguel de Allende's Pamplonada
(named after Pamplona, Spain, where the running of the bulls originated),
it is also known as the Sanmiguelada,
and is usually the held the third Saturday of
September, on the weekend falling between the celebration of Mexico's
Independence Day, El Grito, (September 16th) and the
festival for the city's patron saint,
San Miguel el Arcángel (September 29th). The annual event attracts more than
20,000 participants from all over Mexico, and the world, for what is a
weekend-long party of drinking and danger.
At 12 noon Saturday, hundreds of brave individuals wearing white shirts
and red bandannas go within the barricaded areas of San Miguel's town square
where usually a dozen or more specially raised bulls have been set loose, while many more
hundreds of spectators look on, safely behind the metal barricades.
Many of San Miguel's restaurants and bars lucky enough to have a vantage point charge admission to
see the event in their more comfortable surroundings. Mexican national
television also broadcasts the event live.
Chasing whoever they may, the bulls are not at all tame, and usually not
very happy to be there. Every year there are hundreds of injuries, and,
unfortunately, deaths are not unusual.
For most however, the attraction is not necessarily running with the bulls, but the wild three day party surrounding it.
Though very few young women actually enter the barricades to run with the bulls,
many, many of them are on the sidelines to cheer on their boyfriends or to
perhaps to meet their future love. At the Pamplonada in San Miguel, like the
Fort Lauderdale at spring break, many of the 'rules' are thrown aside, and the
boy-girl alchemy is running at its peak.
With Sunday, comes a deluxe
traffic jam as the exodus begins, and the bleary-eyed participants, some of them
nursing broken bones, many more nursing broken hearts, make their way home. |
(click images for larger version)
(click images for larger version)
Pamplonada photos courtesy of
Jo Brenzo, www.acdphoto.com
all photos here © Jo Brenzo
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