A Busy Sunday

Our friend, Andrea, who recommended Puebla to us a couple of years ago, mentioned that she used to love going to a library/restaurant called Profética, or prophetic. We decided to give it a try.

Located in a beautifully restored 16th-century house in the historic center, it is known as "Casa de la Lectura" (House of Reading). It was founded in 2003 and serves as a vibrant cultural hub, offering:
A public library with about 13,000 titles, especially in literature and the humanities.
A specialized bookstore.
A café and bar serving Mexican cuisine.
Space for cultural events, book presentations, and workshops, making it a gathering point for literature and arts lovers.

We can see why Andrea loved it. We loved eating our breakfast in the courtyard of the huge library that surrounded us. There were lots of little reading and cozy working niches in the library.

After breakfast, we met up with Richard and Martha (our apartment neighbours) and went to the Casa de la Cultura to see the free Sunday orchestra and singers concert. We went early as seats are taken quickly! The traditional music was chosen to celebrate Puebla’s musical roots.
At the end of the concert, people were invited to get up and dance and many people did just that. It was nice to see.

Following the concert, we spent the afternoon in two museums. Museum entry is free on Sundays so we wanted to take advantage of this deal.

The first building, Casa de los Hermanos Serdan, is the home where the Mexican Revolution began on November 18, 1910. Bullet holes remain on the outside wall of the house as well in the front living room. The exhibits on the second floor document the family's sacrifice against the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship.

Touring the 26 rooms is a fascinating experience.

There were at least ten rooms on the ground floor apartment that showed the daily life and furnishings of a family in 1910.

The upper floors have about 16 themed rooms that gave us a better idea of the Porfiriato period, the anti-reelection movement, and the dramatic events of November 18 and 19, 1910 in Puebla, and thereafter in the entire country.

Visiting the house, gave us a much better understanding of what life was like under Porfirio Diaz. Good for the rich and bad for the poor. It’s a complicated period in Mexico’s history.

Then on to the Alfeñique House Museum that houses a collection of approximately fifteen hundred pieces in 16 exhibition halls that show the daily life of a wealthy family in the 18th and 19th Century. It also has a display of Pueblas famous blue and white Talavera ceramics.

It has been called the Casa de Alfeñique since 1790 because of its richly decorated facade that seems to be made from sugarcane paste (like marzipan), egg white and almonds. Many Day of the Dead candy skulls are made from this paste and are called alfeñiques.

Another great day!Read more