When human works survive their creator and endure beyond their death, they become a testament to that person’s existence.
It is human beings who announce their passage through the world by leaving their mark through actions and experiences whose value lies in being intense and fleeting in the time of our lives, yet beautiful and enduring in universal time. They also possess the power to be appreciated by others, who in turn are influenced by what they see, hear and feel, and who pass it on and transform it into what we call History.
This is the proclamation of the life of a singular city, intense and rich in people and experiences: Pátzcuaro.
The present work draws on stories, reflections, memories, ideas and maxims of my own, as well as those of thinkers, philosophers, friends, ordinary people and popular tradition, which I have gathered throughout my life and made my own.
I will not always cite the sources from which I have taken them, because in many cases I no longer remember them.
Many are personal ideas, while others have become so through the years I have lived with them.
Nevertheless, I wish to acknowledge all those, known or anonymous, who in some way influenced me in undertaking this simple yet laborious work, and to offer a humble tribute to one of the greatest cultures to emerge from Mexico, a culture that deserves to be rescued from oblivion.
Arturo Pimentel Ramos
(1929 – 2002)
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