San Miguel de Allende is the seat of the municipality of Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, a historic town founded in 1542 that has become an attractive tourist destination for wealthy Mexico City residents and has a large American and Canadian expatriate community composed primarily of retirees.

During the final week of July, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Guanajuato, are co-hosts to the Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, Mexico’s largest competitive film festival and the most prestigious of its kind in Latin America. The internationally renowned festival is free to the public and screens over 400 films from 10am until 4am each day in 16 venues, which include such unusual locations as San Miguel's Jardín Principal (or main square), the subterranean streets and tunnels of Guanajuato, the Guanajuato Mummy Museum and both city's municipal graveyards (Panteones).

The fact that this festival uses the city graveyard as a venue is seen as a completely inappropriate abuse by those who have their families and loved ones buried there. Most of the approvals and event management are carried out by those who are not native to San Miguel and are at best vaguely aware there is some public dismay of this event's (more gory and frightened) take on death, vs. the Mexican style of reverence and ceremony of loving spirits.

San Miguel de Allende was also named a Pueblo Mágico in 2002. In 2008, San Miguel was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. This despite the fact that UNICEF has been concerned about the lack of sewage management flowing past schools housing thousands of children at the San Juan de Dios neighborhood. There were several ineffective city administrations and self-proclaimed committees vying for the UNICEF funds which then dropped the project until recent commitments to put sewage into one big pipe. See UNICEF on YouTube.