Guanajuato’s unknown, quirky, historic museum you won’t want to miss

Foreign and Mexican tourists alike sojourn the metropolis of Guanajuato for its beauty, past and charm. Captivated by the downtown center, they often miss the quirky, storied Gene Byron depository and assemblage housed successful an 18th-century ex-hacienda, tucked distant successful the suburb of Marfil. 

The depository is named for Gene Byron, a Canadian creator (related by commencement to the British Romantic writer Lord Byron), who bought the erstwhile metallic and golden hacienda successful 1962 with her Spanish husband, Virgilio Fernández.

Who was Gene Byron?

The pistillate for whom the depository is named: Canadian creator and “Renaissance woman” Gene Byron, who passed distant successful 1987. (Casa Museo Gene Byron)

Gene Byron was a Renaissance pistillate — primitively a palmy Broadway histrion and vigor performer, she aboriginal became a painter. Influenced by Mexico’s muralists, she moved to Mexico successful the 1940s, visiting divers parts of the state similar Veracruz, Guerrero, Chiapas, Yucatán, Campeche and Oaxaca. 

In Mexico, she continued to paint, but added plan and restoration enactment to her repertoire. She specialized successful mid-century modern design, creating distinctive tin and copper lighting, partition sconces and decorative items, often incorporating hand-painted tiles. Her artwork was exhibited successful museums successful Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, New York and Mexico City.

Meanwhile, Fernández, calved successful Morocco, became a Communist astatine a young property and was moving arsenic a caregiver successful Madrid erstwhile the Spanish Civil War broke retired successful 1936. He spent overmuch of the warfare arsenic a medic connected the beforehand lines of Madrid and Guadalajara, Spain, participating successful immoderate of the astir decisive battles of the Civil War alongside volunteers from crossed Europe and America. 

How Gene Byron and Virgilio Fernández met

In 1938, Fernández was captured by Nationalist forces and interned successful a attraction campy successful France. He aboriginal escaped and was exiled to Mexico, where, on with implicit 25,000 different Spanish refugees, helium was welcomed. He spent the remainder of his beingness successful exile successful Mexico.

Fernández studied pediatrics successful Monterrey, wherever helium met Byron. They moved to Guanajuato successful 1958, buying the erstwhile Santa Ana hacienda, which they restored, transforming it into some their location and a gathering spot for artists and creatives. 

Byron decorated and furnished the ex-hacienda with galore of her ain designs. The mates lived determination unneurotic until she died successful 1987. Today, it is inactive afloat of her furniture, paintings and adjacent the airy fixtures and different metallic accessories that she designed. 

Byron’s location becomes a museum

In 1997, Fernández and his 2nd wife, Estela Cordero, decided to person the location into a museum. This was nary tiny task due to the fact that the spot was an immueble catalogado (listed connected Mexico’s historical register) and they had to get lengthy permissions for immoderate changes, adjacent insignificant ones, from INAH, the national section that protects and preserves Mexico’s archeological and humanities structures.

Today, the spot encompasses a museum, gardens, a restaurant, a acquisition store and the flat wherever depository manager Estela Cordero present lives, and wherever she and Fernández lived until helium died successful 2019. One of the past surviving members of the International Brigades warring the Spanish Civil War, Fernández passed distant successful 2019 astatine property 100.

The depository maintains a imperishable postulation of Byron’s enactment but besides offers visiting exhibitions, literate presentations, publication talks, creation workshops and play classical euphony and jazz concerts. With its extended gardens and courtyard, the depository is besides a fashionable venue for ample functions. 

A fashionable venue for creation exhibitions and peculiar events

The restaurant, located connected the grounds with a presumption of trees, offers Mexican cuisine with European influences, and is unfastened from 8:30 to 1 p.m. and past reopens from 2 to 6 p.m. The acquisition store sells artisanal products, designs by Gene Byron — specified arsenic lamps, mirrors, and ashtrays — and rebozos and different fabrics.

In her relation arsenic the depository director, Estela Cordero selects Mexican and planetary artists to show their enactment there. Currently, determination are shows by the Canadian lipid creator and part-time Guanajuato nonmigratory Martine Bilodeau, arsenic good arsenic 2 Spanish artists, Luis González and Miguel Sánchez de San Bernardo. 

Speaking with Cordero, she said she sees respective trends successful modern Mexican art: the fusion of pre-Hispanic and people creation with modern techniques and perspectives; creation arsenic a societal commentary connected taste issues specified arsenic violence, machismo, inequality, migration, gender, feminism and identity; and the mixing of accepted creation forms with experimental, immersive techniques similar multimedia, integer art, videos and show art.

The spot has go fashionable for peculiar events specified arsenic weddings. (Casa Museo Gene Byron)

Only a 10-minute taxi thrust from Guanajuato’s center, the depository is good worthy a visit. And portion you’re successful Marfil, you tin bask 2 different section assets: Stroll on the adjacent tree-lined Camino Antiguo (Historic Walk) and sojourn different ex-hacienda, San Gabriel de Barrera, which contains 17 themed gardens. 

Louisa Rogers and her hubby Barry Evans disagreement their lives betwixt Guanajuato and Eureka, connected California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays astir expat life, Mexico, travel, carnal and intelligence health, status and spirituality. Her caller articles are disposable connected her website, authory.com/LouisaRogers