Mexico Guide
Northern Jalisco and Michoacán
Instituto Cultural-Hospicio Cabañas
Opening time: Tues– Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 10am–3pm
Price: M$10, free on Sun, M$10 to bring in a camera
Beyond the sculptures, the Instituto Cultural-Hospicio Cabañas was founded as an orphanage by Bishop Juan Cabañas y Crespo in 1805 and took nearly fifty years to complete. Designed by Spanish architect Manuel Tolsá, the Hospicio is a huge, beautiful and tranquil building, with no fewer than 23 separate patios surrounded by schools of art, music and dance; an art cinema/theatre; various government offices; and a small cafeteria. The chapel, the Capilla Tolsa, is a plain and ancient-looking structure in the form of a cross, situated in the central patio right at the heart of the building. Orozco's murals, in keeping with their setting, are more spiritual than those in the government palace, but you certainly couldn't call them Christian: the conquistadors are depicted as the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, trampling the native population beneath them. The Man of Fire – who leads the people from their dehumanizing, mechanized oppression – has a symbolic role as liberator, which is clearly the same as that of Hidalgo in the palace murals. In this case, he is a strange synthesis of Christian and Mexican deities, a Christ-Quetzalcoatl figure. There are benches on which you can lie back to appreciate the murals, and also a small museum dedicated to Orozco, with sketches, cartoons and details of the artist's life.