Mural artists build bridges between Lodi and Zacatlán, Mexico
Through his career as a travel writer and artist, retired realtor Dick Davis has developed a relationship with Zacatlán, Mexico, and has been able to bring three artists from the area to visit Lodi for the week to commemorate a banner featuring part of a mural the artist helped build in Mexico.
Davis first visited Zacatlán, in Puebla state, in 2008, where he met Mary Carmen Olvera, the director of tourism at the time. Olvera took Davis to see her family’s clock factory, as well as a nine-foot-tall clock in Downtown Zacatlán, featuring two faces operated by the same machine. The mechanical clock fascinated Davis so much that he purchased two clocks from Olvera’s family’s clock factory, one of which sits in the World of Wonder Science Museum in Lodi with the help of Paul Mertz, stockbroker and owner of The Mertz Company in Lodi.
“What impressed me was that mechanical clocks are still being made. I felt that, in the rise of electronics, more children should be exposed to mechanics. I had established a trust when I was a realtor, so I used that money to buy a different clock for the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I happened to be there when Paul Mertz came looking for exhibits for the WOW Museum, he asked about the clock, and I ended up donating a second clock to WOW,” Davis said.
To support the growth of Zacatlán’s artistic community, Davis helped fund a 10-foot-tall, 900foot-tall mosaic mural in the city, with Olvera as the project’s director. The mural, whose construction lasted from 2014 to 2016, spans three walls of the city’s cemetery, a place that had previously been covered in graffiti. Since the mural’s completion, however, no graffiti has been seen on the wall, according to Olvera, who said that by involving the community in the mural, which represents the heritage and history of the area, as well as contemporary life there, the community members are filled with a sense of pride and respect for the work of art.
A four-foot-tall, 120-foot long replica banner that was donated to Heritage Elementary School, now hangs along the fence of the school’s baseball field, which Principal Alberto Velarde hopes will have the same effect in a school where 81 percent of the students are of Hispanic descent, he said
“This type of art discourages graffiti, especially from gangs. Gang-affiliated people respect that, research shows that they treat it as neutral territory and leave it alone. We live in a community with gang differences, so this is a really positive thing for the community,” Velarde said.
Olvera also came to Lodi on Sunday, along with Manuel Aldana Zarate, an architect from Puebla City, Mexico and Miguel Diaz Guerrero, a painter from Popotohuilco Puebla, Mexico, two artists who contributed to the mural. The trio visited the elementary school on Monday and Tuesday, speaking about their culture, customs, artwork and the mural itself, with Zarate and Guerrero teaching a special art class after school on Tuesday.
“We worked for two years, all of us were volunteers, on three murals around the walls of the cemetery in Zacatlán. There were 14 artists, and 300 people put pieces on a mosaic. Children, old people, families, tourists, all the people collaborated. We even invited the people who do graffiti to ad pieces, and now they care about it,” Olvera said.
The wall behind the cemetery, overlooking a nearby gorge, features a three-dimensional depiction of Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent from Aztec mythology, while another features 11 Bible passages. The wall that was replicated on the banner hanging at Heritage Elementary School pays tribute to the city’s full name, “Zacatlán de Las Manzanas,” or, “Zacatlán of the Apples,” so named for the area’s history of apple production. The agricultural history is just one thing that Lodi shares with Zacatlán, according to Olvera.
“We grow apples to make cider, Lodi grows grapes to make wine. Both cities are growing at the same rate, and the weather is similar. I think we are going to talk with Dick Davis about asking the Lodi’s mayor about the possibility of Lodi and Zacatlán becoming sister cities, but we’re not sure yet,” Olvera said.
Besides the potential sister cities program, the group is also considering helping to create a mural in Lodi, as another way to for the two cities to learn about one another’s lives, cultures and customs.