Alfonso Reyes Cultural Center & El Pípila Park

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The Casa de Cultura Alfonso Reyes is an important cultural center in the Vista Alegre neighborhood. On the edge of the Parque El Pípila, the cultural center is housed in a 1952 building that was later adapted as a community center.

With an average monthly visitation of around 450 guests, it’s been active since 1988. The Foro El Pípila holds frequent events in the park. The center also maintains nine workshop rooms, exhibition galleries and facilities for dance and music.

• Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (1889-1959) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on five occasions. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges referred to Reyes as “the best prose writer in the Spanish language of all times”.
• El Pípila, for whom the park and cultural forum are named, was a hero of the War of Mexican Independence. Juan José de los Reyes Martínez Amaro (1782-1863), was a miner from Guanajuato. He was famous for an act of heroism near the beginning of the war in 1810. The Spaniards had barricaded themselves into a grain warehouse, a fortress with high stone walls. With a long, flat stone tied behind his back to protect him from Spanish muskets, Pípila set fire to the door with burning tar. The insurgents stormed inside and dealt an early blow to the Royalists. Pípila remains a national hero, especially in Guanajuato.

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 9 am to 8 pm.