Fresco by Santa Fe artist to be dedicated Aug. 11

ALBURQUERQUE, SPAIN — I recently discovered that New Mexico artist Frederico Vigil is a local hero in this small town for creating a fresco in the Town Hall as part of the Sister Cities relationship with our Albuquerque.

It will be dedicated Aug. 11 before the town’s 23rd Medieval Festival (Aug. 12-14), which includes live music, dancing and artisans and is centered on the town’s famous Luna Castle, and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry and his wife, Maria, will attend.

They are paying their own airfare, Berry spokeswoman Rhiannon Samuel said by email. Albuquerque business leaders and University of New Mexico officials are also expected to attend, along with Vigil.

The artist suggested the fresco about 18 months ago to the Hispano Chamber of Commerce International Trade Committee, said then-committee chairman and current co-chairman of Albuquerque/Alburquerque Sister Cities Committee, Fred Mondragon. “Mayor Berry was thrilled” with the idea, Vigil said.

The fresco idea supports the Sister Cities mission “to promote friendship and cultural exchanges between the two cities,” Mondragon said.

Because of the population difference (about 5,800 versus 550,000) the cities did not qualify for the sister cities designation until Sister Cities International authorized it in 1993, in an effort spearheaded by Mondragon.

About two years ago, Vigil, 70, took part in the annual Catholic pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela.

“It was one of the best things I have done in my life,” he said.

Work on the fresco began in July 2015 and was finished in December, funded by $25,000 from the city of Albuquerque — $6,000 from Berry’s office and $35,000 from the private sector — according to Mondragon.

In Spain, Vigil was provided with an assistant, raw materials and housing.

Vigil, who studied in California under assistants who worked with Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, said his work depicts “an intermingling of what the people from Extremadura, (a region of Spain that includes Alburquerque), brought over (to New Mexico) and what they brought back.”

The conquistadors brought fruit trees, adobe construction and animals and took back corn, squash, chiles and beans.

The fresco also shows Albuquerque’s International Balloon Fiesta, Native American kivas, petroglyphs and the Camino Real.

The fresco has added to the bond between the two places, Mondragon said.

“Frederico is like a God there; he’s like a hero for delivering this wonderful cultural message,” Mondragon said.