01/31/2019
EL CALLEJON DEL BESO, Guanajuato, GTO.
Legend has it that the beautiful young Doña Carmen was the only daughter of a greedy and uncompromising father. Like many parents of that time, he looked for a rich and powerful suitor to give the hand of his daughter in matrimony. Therefore, he jealously watched her every move to prevent her from meeting the common and ordinary men in the poor mining town. But as it very often happens, love breaks down all barriers, however strong they may be.
Doña Carmen met Don Luis, a poor miner whom she would meet at a church near her home, unbeknownst to her father. One fateful day she was discovered when the young miner was courting the beautiful maiden. Furious her father locked her away at home and threatened to marry her to a rich old Spanish nobleman. The beautiful and submissive girl sadly lived her confinement.
At first, the young lover didn’t know what to do since he was not allowed to talk to his beloved, but passing near her house, he noticed that her bedroom window faced exactly toward the window of the house next door and that they were scarcely a few inches apart. This gave him the possibility of staying in touch with his beloved if he bought the house next door, which he did.
When he looked out the window he discovered that by extending his hand he could touch his beloved’s bedroom window with his knuckles. Doña Carmen’s surprise was also great when, leaning over her balcony; she found the man of her dreams at such a short distance.
They swore eternal love and saw each other nightly from the adjacent balconies.
One evening while the lovers– wrapped in a passionate kiss– were distracted, the father saw his daughter kissing the miserable miner. He took a dagger and in a single stroke, drove it into his daughter’s chest.
Knowing that his love was dead, Don Luis gave her one last, tender kiss on the smooth, pale, and now lifeless hand…
The young man could not bear to live without his beloved Carmen and in desperation committed su***de by jumping from the wall of the main shaft of La Mina de la Valenciana, The Valentian Mine.
Callejon del Beso still exists in the beautiful city of Guanajuato; it’s located in the historic area in the foothills of Cerro del Gallo, a town that has existed since the 18th Century and is without a doubt one of the most famous streets of the city.
This alley has the peculiarity of measuring only 27 inches wide and its balconies are almost joined to each other, at a fateful distance of “just a kiss”.
