On a recent tour in Cholula, near Puebla, I had just finished exploring a labyrinth of tunnels in a Mesoamerican pyramid. Much like the tunnels underneath San Miguel, or the mines in Pozos, pyramid tunnels weren’t constructed with the height and width of present day folks in the design phase so the exploration was more fun in theory.
Anyway, once back in the light, I noticed a plaque dedicated to Saint Homobono. Homobono was a saint? I had read in a local book written in English (always an indication to verify information within) that the street, Homobono, that leads from the market up to the botanical gardens were named for a Colonial era family.
Since I had a group of 15, all born and raised in San Miguel, I didn’t wish to express my surprise at learning there was a Saint Homobono. There’s rarely a need to announce your own ignorance when there are normally others about to it for you. So imagine my surprise when back in the van, Martin announced “Did anyone see the plaque to St. Homobono? I didn’t know that was a saint’s name.” Well, it turned out that no one in the van did. Who is this mystery saint whose image I’ve never seen in town?
He was an Italian back in the late 1100’s that had the quickest canonization to sainthood I’ve ever heard of, little more than a year. He was a tailor and is the patron of cloth workers which makes a certain local sense. Homobono, the street, intersects the multiple named street of Nunez/Presa/Barranca/Chorro where the factories were located making scarves and table linens.
St. Homobono (meaning ‘good man’) is also the patron saint of business people propelling a micro-market of statues corporate folks place on their desks for good fortune in negotiations. He even has a digital marketing company named for him, started by a former priest.
I remember the first time I walked up to the botanical gardens I memorized the street I was to turn onto by remembering Cher’s daughter, Chastity Bono, was gay. Hence the name – Homobono. Now that Chastity is a lad, and no longer technically gay since he likes the ladies, my convoluted technique to memorize the street name is no longer necessary. Plus, those in know, realize Homobono, the street, isn’t about Cher but rather, the home of 1970’s Hollywood Squares’ favorite, John Davidson.
Homobono is named for the saint that when not busy helping linen vendors in the Artists’ Market can help you with your next PowerPoint presentation!
Joseph Toone is the Historical Society’s short-story award winning author of the SMA Secrets book series. All books in the series are Amazon bestsellers in Mexican Travel and Holidays. Toone is SMA’s expert and TripAdvisor’s top ranked historical tour guide telling the stories behind what we do in today’s SMA. Visit HistoryAndCultureWalkin