How the Owner of Hotel Amparo's Abuela Inspired the Look and Feel of the Hotel
When Amparo Mariana Barran Goodall was growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, she loved spending long afternoons at her grandparents' home. For one, the house was filled with all sorts of unusual treasures—a delicate, hand-painted tobacco leaf from China, for example, or a shiny piece of steel from a factory in Colombia. Her grandmother, Amparo Josefina Trevi?o Santos, was an avid traveler and painter, so “there was always something to look at; everything had a story,” she says. Plus, her grandmother never failed to indulge Goodall’s sweet tooth. “She’d let us squiggle Hershey’s syrup right out of the bottle and into our glasses for chocolate milk,” she recalls.
But what Goodall loved most about those visits was that nothing in the house was off-limits—even her grandmother’s fanciest possessions. Her grandmother would give the kids the same silver as the adults; she’d let them bang away on her prized piano. And that chocolate milk? She served it to them in crystal glasses. “Everything was meant for living; things were meant to be used,” Goodall explains. It was the kind of home that while well curated and gorgeously textural also felt comfortable. Nothing was too precious; everyone could relax. As Goodall puts it: “I always took the best naps there.”
It was that sense of homeyness that stayed with Goodall. So much so, in 2017, she opened a mini-hotel in the picturesque town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to share that same feeling. Named Hotel Amparo—Amparo not only means “shelter” in Spanish but also is the first name of each first-born woman on the family’s maternal side—the five-room hotel is housed in a historic mansion and filled with the same kinds of personal touches you’d expect to find in any well-traveled abuela’s (grandmother's) or eccentric tia’s (aunt's) home. And just as in those homes, no two rooms at the hotel are exactly alike; there may be a hand-carved wooden bed frame in one room and a refurbished metal poster frame in the next. The textiles and art are culled from all over Mexico, and even the hand-embroidered pillowcases, napkins, and towels come from Goodall’s Hibiscus Linens line. “You won’t find your boring old industrial white napkin or towel,” she says with a laugh.
But perhaps the best part of a stay at Hotel Amparo is the tasty treats taken directly from her abuela's repertoire: the dark pink hibiscus drinks served to guests at check-in and the sweet homemade gorditas placed by each bed during turndown service.
All in all, “it's a translation of my point of view, of how I was raised and grew up,” says Goodall of the effect. “It’s the idea of treating everybody as extended family in a place that feels like home.” Or as the matchbooks at Hotel Amparo’s front desk say, it’s about creating “a small piece of paradise in the world's most charming city.”
This story was created as part of From Our Abuelas in partnership with Lexus. From Our Abuelas is a series running across Hearst Magazines to honor and preserve generations of wisdom within Latinx and Hispanic communities. Go to oprahdaily.com/fromourabuelas for the complete portfolio.
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