The day Queen Isabel II ate tlacoyos in a market in Guanajuato

This Thursday, April 21, Queen Elizabeth II of England celebrates her 96th birthday; Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was crowned Queen of Great Britain in 1953 for which has been on the throne for 69 years. During her reign, the British monarch has visited different nations around the world, including Mexico as one of the destinations of interest to strengthen diplomatic relations.

In this way, Queen Elizabeth II set foot on Aztec soil twice, the first being in 1975 under the administration of former President Luis Echeverria and later in 1983 in the six-year period that he served as leader of the Executive Miguel de la Madrid. On both visits, the sovereign of England visited different states of the Mexican Republic, highlighting her tour of Guanajuato.

During their first visit, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip the Duke of Edinburgh first arrived in Cozumel, and later moved to the capital of Mexico where, between ceremonies, events and engagements, they spent around 36 hours. Then they took a train to the state of Guanajuato where they enjoyed admiring the peculiar architecture, as well as the gastronomy and all the cultural elements characteristic of the entity.

It was through a chronicle that reporters from the newspaper El Universal narrated the visit of the sovereign of England to the state of Guanajuato. This document detailed that after the stay of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in the Mexican capital, the royal couple boarded a train at Buenavista station that took them to the state known to be the cradle of the independence from Mexico.

The railway that took the English monarchs to the state consisted of 11 cars and three locomotives, while the convoy had four presidential cars, two officers, two dining rooms and three bedrooms. The journey that Queen Elizabeth II and her entourage undertook to Guanajuato happened during the night, so the train did not travel more than 70 kilometers per hour.

Once they arrived in Guanajuato, the English sovereign, accompanied by her husband Felipe and his team, visited the most emblematic sites of the city , including the monument of El Pípila, the mines of La Valenciana, the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the University of Guanajuato, the Juárez Theater and the market Hidalgo.

The testimonies of different people who lived through the historic moment when the sovereign of England visited Guanajuato, relate that during her visit to the Hidalgo market, Queen Elizabeth II tasted the gastronomy of the region, at the same time that citizens gave him tlacoyos, charamuscas, strawberries, cheeses, biznagas and all kinds of handicrafts, which his companions kept in a basket.

At the Teatro Juárez, Queen Isabel II was able to enjoy the staging of the play “Homero” and, in the same way, attended a meal organized by the authorities of the entity at the Hacienda de San Gabriel Barrera.

The visit of Queen Isabel II to the state of Guanajuato caused great euphoria among the inhabitants of the region, so much so that there were at least 5,000 people who gathered in the streets of the state capital to see, even from afar, the English monarch.

A peculiar anecdote is even told in which a street dog, noticing all the stir caused by the presence of the sovereign, sought a way to approach her. Queen Isabel II was visiting the University of Guanajuato when the canine crossed between her legs to stand next to her, after cautiously smelling her shoes, the animal retired.

After her stay in Guanajuato, Queen Elizabeth II continued her activities in the states of Oaxaca and Yucatan and later returned to England. Eight years later, the English monarch returned to Aztec land to visit Guerrero, Michoacán, Jalisco and Baja California, this being the last time she visited Mexico.

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