word of mouth

THE PEOPLE, PLACES & IDEAS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW

- MICHAEL SNYDER

MAKING A SCENE

A tight-knit community of artists and entrepreneurs is reinvigorating the historic Mexican city of Querétaro

THE BEST ART SPACE in the central Mexican city of Querétaro can be found in the minuscule bathroom of the buzzy diner El Reinita: Antonio Avila Sagaz, its founder and owner, likes to call it the Smallest Gallery on Earth. If the artists on display were any less talented, or the diner's high-minded stoner food was any less delicious (dishes include wings in a kiwi-habañero sauce and shrimp aguachile with peaches), it might seem like a social media stunt. But El Reinita and the gallery it contains exude an easy sincerity, driven by its unselfconscious commitment to the changing city around it and the close-knit creative community that calls it home.

When Avila Sagaz was a child, Querétaro, 135 miles north of Mexico City and an hour from the tourist town of San Miguel de Allende, was a quiet provincial capital known for its pretty historic center and traditional way of life. But by 2020, when Avila Sagaz opened El Reinita, it had changed dramatically; during the previous decade, Querétaro had become Mexico's fastest-growing metropolitan area, as migrants from across Mexico flocked here in search of work and a more peaceful way of life, increasing its population by more than 30 percent.