"This section has been given a different environment from that of the Mesoamerican area, a homelike atmosphere to sensitize and connect with the visitor through the warmth of a house of the 19th century in Puebla. Because that is what this house where my family lived was, home for straightforward men and women who worked hard to achieve a better Mexico for their descendants."
Ángeles Espinosa Yglesias Rugarcía, 1992
This house preserves the distribution and characteristics of a dwelling of the time, where different of the Espinosa family lived, among them Vicente Espinosa Bandini, Manuel Espinosa Yglesias’ grandfather, and Ernesto Espinosa Bravo, his father, who offered his legal and medical services in the ground floor spaces of the building, as can be seen in the plaque kept in the main entrance.
When crossing the threshold of the front door, we are received by the patio with a fountain, on the left, the staircase provides the access to the family home. The cellar, the rooms of the service staff, the stables, and the washing basins were behind, in the backyard.
On the second floor, overlooking Calle 2 Sur, we find the living room; known today as the Salón Mexicano, altogether with the former bedrooms with ceiling decorations, the library, the oratory, the dining room decorated in the epoch’s French style, and the kitchen, covered with talavera tiles on floor and walls, with its original stove and water pile.
These spaces shelter the Viceregal and 19th Century Art Collection, integrated by pieces created during Mexico’s Viceregal (1521-1821) and Independent periods (until 1900). Selected by Ángeles Espinosa Yglesias Rugarcía, these objects display the artistic diversity of this territory: furniture, silverware, porcelain and textiles, oils on canvas and metallic plates, ivory carvings and polychromed wood sculptures; all created for a wide array of purposes and intentions, from religious fervor, social connections, to everyday use.
