Locations > Mexico (other) > Guanajuato
The opposition of Guanajuato (an attractive city, some two hour north of Mexico City) and Paríán was, for both Lowry and the Consul, an opposition of life and death.
"Guanajuato is sited in a beautiful circus of steepy hills ... you will not believe me, how she can lie there, like the old golden jewel on the breast of our grandmother." – UTV, 146-47.
"Repellent," the Consul said. "Isn't Guanajuato the place where they bury everybody standing up?" – UTV, 147.

One of the unique tourist attractions of Guanajuato is its collection of mummies ("las Momias"): a ghoulish exhibition of corpses lining the wall of a rather narrow passage-way. Because of the dryness of the air and soil corpses tend not to decompose, and if the bodies are not claimed by relatives for proper burial they may end up on public display.