They say never to start a story at the beginning, so with San Miguel de Allende’s Fábrica La Aurora, we’ll start in the present.
Whitewashed walls, bright artwork tucked behind dark industrial machines, traces of the building’s past and present tastefully blended together: this is the Cultural Center of Art and Design La Aurora, a shining example of adaptive reuse.
One can get lost wandering La Aurora, as the complex is referred to now. But that’s not a bad thing, because each studio and shop within the facility serves as eye candy to visitors, enticing them with bold Mexican designs and unusual decor items. There’s plenty to explore in La Aurora, from galleries and design studios to furniture and home goods shops with restaurants, a bookstore, exhibition spaces, and a coffee shop thrown in.
While most of La Aurora’s offerings are for a more refined, moneyed segment of the population to which I unfortunately do not belong, it’s still fun to visit the old factory and spend time at Geek & Coffee (hands down best coffee shop in SMA, especially for baby and dog mamas such as myself).
As for the rest of the story, the beginning, read on.
Since 1902, Fábrica La Aurora has always been an integral part of SMA’s identity. The facility opened to much fanfare over a hundred years ago, boasting modern machines from Europe, a happy community of workers (on weekends, families came to the grounds for picnics and holidays), and a reputation for producing the finest mantel fabric in the region. Success was kind to Fábrica La Aurora and the business grew over the decades, as evidenced through the filled-in arched facade and characteristically 1950s-era architecture expansion in the rear.
But success or not, the fábrica was helpless in the face of NAFTA, the 1990s trade act that flooded local markets with cheap fabric from China. The flimsy imported goods brought the factory’s machines to a halt; no, Fábrica La Aurora and its fine cotton products could not keep up with so many changes and challenges. The complex closed in 1991 and remained empty until 2004 when a group of largely foreign artists reopened it as Cultural Center of Art and Design La Aurora.
Which brings us to the end of the story. Or is it the beginning?
In however manner it’s told, the story of Fábrica La Aurora is a unique and lovely one.