A storm knocked down the cross that protected the sacred place.
The symbolic cross fell after a strong storm, now only the base can be seen. Photo: Gilberto Padilla.
Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).- A strong storm on June 9 knocked down the legendary Cross of San Miguel Hill in Chapala. Legend says if this happens, there will be no protection to keep the dragon asleep.
For hundreds of years, the locals considered San Miguel hill, across from the municipal capital’s main plaza, a place where evil hides. Rubén Pulido Hernández, author of the book “Chapala entre las Fábulas y Leyendas” (Chapala’s Fables and Legends), says that’s why there are traces of ancient civilization only at the foot of the hill itself, not at the top.
According to Pulido, the ancient natives and the first Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the Chapala area around 1524, sometimes saw flames on the hill. That prompted numerous legends.
Hundreds of years later, Pulido said, a geologist discovered minerals and gasses on the hill that are flammable when in contact with oxygen. That’s what caused the fires to be visible at night.
According to the legend, the greatest friar of the Franciscan order decided to go up the hill and fight this fire-breathing demon. Upon reaching the top of the hill, which is not very high, the missionary built a hermitage just above where gasses or minerals came out. This somehow managed to prevent the fire from “appearing” out of nowhere. To honor this father who “defeated the devil” and lived to tell the tale, the first cross was placed on the hill of San Miguel, probably made of wood.
The date of its construction has not yet been determined. Local inhabitants estimate that it was between 1920 and 1930, made of stone and cement. It fell before it was a hundred years old.
Over time that belief became the legend of the sleeping dragon. Some believe that the hill is hollow, and a river of thermal water flows at the bottom of its entrails. Others think it is a volcano that never erupted. But what they all share is that the cross symbolizes protection.
The shape of the Dragon
Sailors on Lake Chapala used the hills as a reference and began to say that it has the shape of a dragon. The tip of San Miguel Hill is the head and the body continues between what is now the area of Riberas del Pilar and the Ajijic Highway.
The cross symbolized a sword stuck in the head of the beast, which kept it still so that it could not harm the people. “The interesting thing is to know what is going to happen now,” asked Rubén Pulido.
Translated by Mike Rogers
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