The legend behind the famous Kiss Alley in Guanajuato

After three days, Guanajuato authorities reopened Kiss Alley. This Saturday morning, the municipal president, Alejandro Navarro "reopened" the iconic street and removed the boards that prevented tourists from passing through since last Wednesday.

When Alejandro Navarro arrived at Kiss Alley, several neighbors reproached him for having closed the emblematic passageway, as well as for having perforated the floor and reduced the pedestrian walkway to place a bench without first notifying the residents.

The mayor responded that it is a temporary base that will be removed later, adding that he was there to reopen Kiss Alley, assuring that it was a bad decision.

"The Alley has reopened again for the enjoyment of all the people who come to Guanajuato capital, thousands of tourists and visitors who come every day and who were deprived of giving each other a kiss to have many years of good luck or failing that if the kiss was not given seven years of bad luck," said Alejandro Navarro.

Regarding the conflict between the owners of the balconies and photographers, the mayor assured that he has to respect the law because "we don't want people hitting each other".

Later, the municipal president shared photos of the reopening through his Twitter account, where he urged people to visit Guanajuato's capital and stop by the famous Callejón del Beso. "Come and enjoy the new view that Kiss Alley has. It already looks more beautiful than before and its balconies are now 100% ready to give each other soap opera kisses."

Why did they close Kiss Alley in Guanajuato?

The municipal president indicated that the closure of Kiss Alley was due to maintenance work. He explained that painting works were carried out, facades were rehabilitated, and some telephone booths and garbage cans were removed. Some elements that appeared in the Callejón del Beso are there temporarily. Some totems will have a QR code for tourists to know the legend of the place.

"There are some elements that are temporary, some totems that we decided to put, where through a QR code, tourists and visitors to Guanajuato capital can take a picture of the QR and see the legend of the Kiss Alley of Ana and Carlos, and right here comes the photo of the photographers who are authorized, which are three photographers, come the costs of the photographs, both at the bottom and on the balconies," he said.

Contrary to what thousands of lovers think when they visit Kiss Alley, the story behind it not only involves tragic events that occurred during the Spanish occupation in the area, but it involves two young people in love.

The Legend of the Kissing Alley in Guanajuato

Kissing Alley, besides having very beautiful colonial architecture, is also magical. This is due to a very special legend that took place in that alley. This story refers to Carmen, who was the only daughter of a hard and violent man who forbade her to love Luis, a handsome young miner from the town.

While Carmen was being courted by Luis in a church close to her home, he offered her to drink holy water from his hand (this was a very intimate act for those times), and when Carmen's father discovered it, he subjected her to the worst punishment for a loving heart: imprisonment and with it the threat of sending her to a convent and then marrying her in Spain to an old and rich nobleman, known to her father, who, besides ensuring the future of his daughter, would increase her wealth.

Miss Carmen and her lady-in-waiting Doña Brígida wept and implored together for mercy for such an abominable fate, a marriage arranged by a stranger. However, Carmen's father did not give them any respite, and before leaving, Carmen and Brigida agreed that the latter would take a letter to Don Luis in which he explained to Carmen how great his love was, his sorrow, and the decisions made by his father.

The young man in love tried to find a way out of this unfortunate destiny, but as everyone knows, destiny is drawn by oneself, so Luis visited the street where Carmen's house was located, and fortunately for him, her window looked out onto a narrow alley so narrow that it was possible to look out of the window and touch the wall in front of it.

But there was a great inconvenience; he had to access the house across the street to see and talk to his beloved and thus find a solution to their problem. Without wasting any more time, Luis gathered his savings and rented the house (although the cost of the house was very high for his economy, the lover thought that love was priceless, therefore the simple fact of being able to be near his beloved was worth it), and it was thus that his life took a different direction.

Carmen was serving her punishment locked up in her room and leaning out on her balcony when suddenly she saw Luis, who was standing in front of her at such a short distance that he could touch her hand.

When the lovers saw each other, they did not hesitate to show each other all the love they felt and they kissed from balcony to balcony. Suddenly, in the distance, they heard an annoying cry of anger, and it was when they looked that they realized that it was Carmen's father who was fighting with Brigida, who was doing the impossible to prevent her master from entering his wife's bedroom.

Carmen's father, blinded by anger, threw Brigida to the ground and ran to the balcony, where he saw with bitterness the scene of love between Carmen and Luis. Such was the impulse with which he charged his daughter that, with a dagger in his hand and a single blow, he tried to stop him from reaching Luis.

Luis was speechless because the warm hand of his beloved was still in his hands, and he noticed how little by little the woman he adored was losing her life in front of him without being able to do anything. In the face of the inevitable, Luis left a tender kiss on that smooth and pale hand, now lifeless.

Since then, legend has it that every couple that visits the Alley of the Kiss in Guanajuato must kiss each other, specifically on the third step of the narrowest part, which will multiply by 15 years the love and prosperity between them. Otherwise, a curse could fall on both of them for seven years. This makes Kissing Alley a wonderful and mystical place in Guanajuato that you cannot miss.