The murals of Ajijic Part 7: Calle Encarnación Rosas from Emiliano Zapata to 16 de Septiembre

 

Mural of a lovely lady. This image covers the garage door of a house on the corner of Calle Emiliano Zapata that formerly contained a beauty parlor. It may have originally been intended as an advertisement. The artist is a young man named Orlando Solano Alvarez, who started out with graffiti, but later turned to commissioned murals and other forms of art, including tattoos. His work has appeared previously in this series (see Part 5) and will be shown again in future parts. In this posting, I will show some of the art works that appear along Calle Encarnación Rosas between Calles Emiliano Zapata and 16 de Septiembre.

This tile mural is on the corner of Encarnación Rosas and Calle Constitution. A painted ceramic vase is filled with calla lilies and what may be marigolds. Both kinds of flowers have deep symbolic meanings in Mexcio. Calla lillies are perennials that blossom around Easter and are therefore associated with death, rebirth, and new beginnings. Marigolds are closely associated with death, particularly during the fiesta called Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Marigolds are placed along paths leading to family altars for deceased family members. The fragrance guides them on their long journey home for a visit.

Surrounding the pot of flowers is a border of painted tiles in a style called Talavera. Such tiles have a long history in Mexico. In the 16th century, craftsmen of the Spanish town of Talavera had become famous for their beautiful tile work. In 1571, Spanish friars began  construction on Convento de Santo Domingo in the recently founded city of Puebla (east of Mexico City). The friars wanted to decorate the Convento's church with painted tiles, so they recruited craftsmen from Talavera to come and teach the indigenous people how to make them. Puebla has been producing Talavera tiles ever since. 

Three children of different ethnicities joyfully clutch at butterflies. This is the first of nine murals arranged in a side-by-side series along Encarnación Rosas where it intersects with 16 de Septiembre. They are painted on a line of plywood barriers that was put up to mask construction work on a new condominium called Lago Lindo. Covering the barriers with beautiful murals was the idea of Linda Jeschofnig, the developer. Once the condo project is completed, the panels will be sold to help fund local art programs for children. 

The murals were created by art teachers and their students as well as professional artists. The panel above was painted by David Balan. He was born in Antiqua, Guatemala and graduated with a degree in business administration from a university in that country. However, he chose to follow his passion for art, which combines technical mastery with story-telling. David Balan relocated to Chapala in 2024 and has been participating in the Lakeside art community ever since.

A colorful alebrije peers over its shoulder at its fluffy tail.  Alebrijes are fantastical creatures that have become a very popular form of Mexican folk art. The muralist is a professional artist named Jane Slaton whose art career has spanned 40+ years. She is responsible for a number of Ajijic's murals. She is very active in the Lakeside art scene, and volunteers at a local art program for children. 

Collaborating with her on the mural were a teacher from the art program and two of the students. Eréndira Elizabeth Diaz Castillón not only teaches art but is an art therapist. She enlisted two of her students to help. Quetzalli Aragón Castellanos is twelve years old and has already begun exhibiting her work and winning awards. The other student, seventeen-year-old Renata Lopez Valencia, specializes in water colors and mixed media. Slaton and her group also created another mural in the Lago Linda series.

A huge peacock peers out from the next mural. Karol del Toro is the signature on the work, but she is identified elsewhere as Viviana Carolina del Toro Pullido. She also painted another bird, a toucan, which appears later in this posting. Karol del Toro's career spans more than thirty years, starting when she was only ten years old. Specializing in painting, drawing, and portraiture, she has represented Mexico in an international art event in Colombia. She is also a make-up artist who does professional work for regional artistic performances. 

The image presented here represents the unity of humanity and nature. The artists Mario Ramirez and Itzel Montion collaborated on this mural, as well as a later one in this posting. Mario Ramirez was raised in the agave fields of Tequila and his work often focuses on local folk traditions, including Ajijic's fiestas (see Part 1). Itzel Montión is a painter and sculptor who was born in Itzlahuacan de Membrillos and graduated from the Universidad de Guadalajara. She has exhibited her work all over Mexico. 

Another alebrije created by Jane Slaton's group. A multi-colored creature resembling a fox peers over its shoulder at a fluttering butterfly. The fox is surrounded by "birds of paradise" flowers. Alebrijes were the product of hallucinations experienced by the artist Pedro Linares when he became severely ill in 1936 in Mexico City. His fever produced dreams of imaginary beasts that were vividly colorful. The creatures screamed the nonsense word "alebrije!" (al-ay-bree-hay!) at him. After his recovery, he began to recreate his dream creatures in paper maché and decided to name them after their strange cry.

The famous artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo discovered his work and commissioned more of it, catapulting Linares to national fame. The alebrije concept was picked up by artists in Oaxaca, some of whom began to fashion the creatures in carved wood. The Zapotec people of Oaxaca believe in spirit animals called tonas and nahuales. Soon,  alebrijes began to appear in those forms. Today, alebrijes have become wildly popular and craftspeople all over Mexico create them.

Back-to-back images of Tlaloc, the Rain God, form the center of the mural series. Tlaloc can be identified by his goggle eyes and the fangs that droop down from his mouth. He was one of the most important of the pre-hispanic deities, especially following the appearance of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. The designs on either side of the Tlaloc faces mimic a style common in Aztec art. Swoxe Perez, whose full name is Bernardo Raul Pérez Alcala, was born in Chapala. Educated at the Universidad de Guadalajara, he specializes in the fusion of art forms. More of his murals will appear in future postings.

The bird appearing in the next mural was painted by Karol del Toro. She painted the peacock seen previously in this posting. The bird is a toucan, a Neotropical avian in the family Ramphastidae. They are known for their large, brightly-colored bills, which are sometimes used to fence with rival toucans in struggles for dominance.

Hands with various skin hues caress a human heart. This is another collaboration by Mario Ramirez and Itzel Montión Notice the nopal cactus on the left, with red tunas along the edges. This variety of cactus is edible, nutritious, and was harvested in the wild by pre-hispanic people as an important part of their diet. It is still widely consumed in Mexico and can be purchased at street markets.

After the sharp needle-like spines are scraped off, the green nopal "paddles" can be sliced up and eaten raw, or cooked in a variety of ways. The tunas are harvested as a tasty fruit. Notice also the small hummingbird on the right. At least five different species can be found in Ajijic. Pre-hispanic people believed that hummingbirds were divine messengers, symbols of the sun, and reincarnations of fallen warriors.

David Balan painted the final mural. It is similar, but not identical, to the first mural in this posting. When I studied the two murals, I noticed that the curves of the trees form the two ends of a parenthesis. They create a beginning and end to the mural series. Each of the children in the two murals is of a different race or ethnicity. The children of the murals seem to be sending a message with their hands, but I am not certain of its meaning.  For the full story about how this amazing mural project came together, along with more about the artists, check out this video.

This completes Part 7 of my series on Ajijic's murals. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please remember to include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim

Murals of Ajijic Part 6: From Calle 16 de Septiembre to the Lake

Mural showing some of the Mexicans and expats who have made Ajijic what it is. Its location is on the side of La Spezia restaurant at the southeast corner of Calle Colon and Calle 16 de Septiembre. I decided to show this complex work in three sections. The section above is in the center, including the Ajijic Plaza's quiosco ("bandstand") and an image of Nuestra Señora del Rosario ("Our Lady of the Rosary"). There are also images of of local expats and Mexicans, an array of their pets, and some historical figures.

This posting will focus on the murals along Colon from 16 de Septiembre to the muelle (pier) that juts out into Lake Chapala. Many of these murals display scenes of everyday life in Ajijic. Another major theme is Lake Chapala, which is so important to the people who live along its shores. The two photos that follow contain more of the mural's images.

Diego Rivera, his wife Frida Kahlo, and a Catrina occupy the left section. This scene is clearly a reference to one of Diego Rivera's most famous murals: "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park".  Rivera, Kahlo, and a Catrina also appear in that work, along with a host of other figures, including some that are historical. Above, Frida Kahlo holds a disk with the sign of the Tao, just as she does in Rivera's famous mural.

This section of the Ajijic mural also contains images of expats who lived in the pueblo when it was painted. Along with some of their cats and dogs are the names of some of the organizations that sponsored the mural. These include the Lake Chapala Shrine Club and the Ajijic Book Club.

Pedro Loco and his white burro are prominently pictured on the right section. He was a local character who passed away several years ago. I was fortunate to meet him several years before he died. Pedro Loco ("Crazy Peter") had been a criminal lawyer in Canada. He gave all that up for a colorful but rustic life in Mexico. Pedro was a sight to behold as he and his burro slowly ambled down our cobblestone streets. He always wore huge sombreros adorned with feathers, flowers, and ribbons and often carried a large Mexican flag. One of Ajijic's classic oddball characters, Pedro was beloved by Mexicans and expats alike. 

The overall mural contains many more people. Just behind Pedro's sombrero are Jerry and Lori Brown, dear friends of ours. Jerry retired from running a small landscaping business in Hawaii. Now, he produces a Youtube series about their adventures entitled "Jerry Brown Travels".  Lori is a sweetheart and a wonderful cook. She is always cheerful and upbeat, even though she is a Cambodian refugee who published a book entitled "Don't Lose Hope: My Escape From The Killing Fields Of Cambodia." A truly remarkable couple. 

Mural showing La Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary is a local landmark that can be found on the northwest corner of the Ajijic Plaza. The current chapel dates back to the 18th century. However, an adobe-and-thatch chapel was constructed in the same location in 1531. Franciscan evangelists built it shortly after they arrived following the fall of the Aztec Empire. This painting appears on the wall of La Flor de la Laguna ("The Flower of the Lake"), which is located across Colon from the mural shown in the previous three photos. There is no artist's signature or date. 

Scenes of daily life in the pueblo of Ajijic. This mural can be found on the wall of Ajijic Tango restaurant. The mural shows women selling baskets and clay pots while a man across the street reaches into his ice cream cart to produce a treat for a child. The church in the background is modeled on the Parroquia de San Andrés near Ajijic Plaza. The muralist is José Duran, an artist and jeweler who sells his work at a stand in the Artists' Alley which leads from Calle Castellanos to the Plaza. He painted several other Ajijic murals, including the one of a band of roosters playing mariachi music (Part 3).

An eerie group of faces decorates the wall next to a store entrance. It feels like a vision drifting through a nightmare. This mural can be found across the street from the one painted by José Duran. It is located just to the right of the stairs leading to the entrance of a store selling broad-brimmed hats and other clothing. I could find no artist's signature or date.  

More murals are on the wall to the left of Ajijic Tango's entrance. Along the top are scenes of the birds found along the shore of the Lake. These include White Pelicans and Great White Egrets. The lower half of the wall contains a long sculptural mural of fish, manatees, and vegetation under the Lake's surface. The top half was painted by Javier Zaragoza in 2016. I am unclear about the creator of the sculptural mural, but it may have also been done by Zaragoza. A similar sculptural mural surrounds the base of the quiosco in the Ajijic Plaza. The next two photos show details from the top and bottom murals. 

A Great White Egret stretches out its long neck as it looks for prey. These birds can often be sighted along the shore of Lake Chapala. They often fish alongside their cousins, the Snowy Egrets, who are smaller and shorter-necked. Great White Egrets (Ardea alba) are members of the heron family. They can be found in Asia, Africa, and Europe as well as the Americas. Great Whites stand up to 1m (3ft 3in) tall and weigh an average of 1000 gr (35oz). Their wingspan is 131-170 cm (52-67 inches). This enables them to glide along the shore as they hunt for small fish, reptiles, and amphibians.

A female manatee cradles her baby. Lake Chapala briefly had a small population of manatees. They were released into the Lake as a means to control the invasive lirio ("water hyacinth") that has long plagued Lake Chapala. It was thought that these herbivorous animals would quickly devour the lirio, but the experiment failed. According to the story, three manatees were released into the Lake, but one became entangled in a fishing net and drowned. Another was killed by a fisherman who feared he was being attacked. The third was shot to death. The lirio, on the other hand, has continued to survive and thrive.

Manatees were thought to be mermaids when sailors first caught sight of them in earlier times. That is why the three known species of manatees fall within the order Sirenia. They are solitary animals, except when a mother is raising her young or when a male is pursuing a female. Manatees can grow quite large, with some attaining a length of 4m (13ft) and weighing as much as 590 kg (1,300 lbs). Despite their size, they are gentle beasts who graze on underwater plants and pose no threat to humans. In fact, the greatest threat to manatees are humans. 

A huge mural covers the north end of a restaurant on the lakeshore pier. The title of the mural is "Gaucho y Catrina". The green-skinned gaucho (Argentine cowboy) moodily sips a drink through a straw. The rose-crowned catrina gives a toothy grin, but her intense stare is a bit unnerving. One of Lake Chapala's vivid sunsets forms the background. The artist, Kahuil Vega, moved to the Puerto Vallarta area after he completed this mural.  Barrio de Quilmes (known locally as "Q"), on which the mural is painted, is an up-scale Argentine restaurant/bar that runs the length of the pier at the south end of Calle Colon.

This completes Part 6 of my Ajijic murals series. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please remember to include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim

The murals of Ajijic Part 5: Calle Colon from Calle Hidalgo to Calle 16 de Septiembre

 

Ice cream, anyone? A flower-bedecked skeleton holds a mask in front of its face while another sports a bird among the marigolds on its head. This mural covers the front and side of the ice cream shop on the southwest corner of Calle Colon and Calle Hidalgo. The shop is directly across the street from the two-story mural decorating the south wall of Ajijic's Delegación office, seen in Part 4.

In Part 5 of my series, I will focus on the murals along the two blocks of Colon between Hidalgo and Calle 16 de Septiembre. These art works celebrate different aspects of Mexican culture as it is expressed in the area around Lake Chapala. Orlando Solano Álvarez was the artist who painted the ice cream shop mural. Part 2 of this series contains another of his murals. That one features a huge blue bird ridden by a motion picture camera crew. This guy has quite an imagination. 

A crouching deer-man shoots sparkles from his hands. This mural is located on the east side of Colon south of the ice cream shop. It decorates the front of a local restaurant called Petra a la Leña. The deer-man's image is in the style of a tribe of indigenous people often called Huicholes. However, Wixsárika is the name they use for themselves. They make and sell beautiful jewelry and statues using tiny colorful beads. My posting, "Maestros de Arte: Lake Chapala's folk art fair", contains a photo of one of their craftsman wearing his native costume. The artist of Petra a la Leña's mural was a young woman named Kenia Mireles.  

The stairwell of Petra de la Leña contains more of the mural. A slice of pizza beckons you inside with a smile and a wink, while a deer and an eagle cavort in the background. The deer and the eagle are both sacred animals in the Wixárika's cosmology. The sacred territory of the Wixárika is called Wirikuta and was once centered around a shallow lake near Magdalena, northwest of Lake Chapala. However, the native people fled into the mountains to avoid the Conquest and Wirikuta was taken over by the Spanish and later by the Mexicans. 

Wirikuta is represented by a double-headed deer and eagle. The deer (Kauyumari "Our Elder Brother") represents the heart and intuition and is considered a spiritual guide. The eagle (Tatei Werika Wimari "Our Mother of the Sky") brings the breath of life and forms a connection with the sun. The two animals work together in tandem, representing the earth and the heavens. I have always been impressed by the tenacity with which the Wixárika have clung to their cultural traditions and how they have resisted centuries of attempts by outsiders to force them to change. 

Looking south toward the Lake down an Ajijic street . This scene captures the feel of Ajijic before the streets became crowded with autos and other motor vehicles. The mural can be found to the right of the doorway of Galeria Weber, down the street from Petra de la Leña. The artist left a symbol in the lower right corner and the date 2020, but no name. The style is like that of Efrén Gonzales, who often favors village scenes. I own a similar painting by him that hangs on a wall in my home. However I'm not positive that this is his work. If anyone can confirm who created this mural, please let me know in the Comments section.

A wall of mermaids. This photo, along with the two that follow, forms a mural painted by Miguel Angel Marquez. It is located across from the mural of the pueblo street and stretches for some distance along the west side of Colon. There is no sign over any of the doors, so I assume that it decorates a private residence. Along with the mermaids are plants, flowers, and fruit of various kinds. The mural appears to celebrate the great abundance of Lake Chapala and its shoreline. I have to admit that, in my 20 years of living here, I have yet to see any actual mermaids. I keep my camera handy, though.

A mermaid cradles a baby. This is a very loving scene, but I did notice an odd detail. While the mermaid (La Sirena in Spanish) clearly has the tail of a fish, the baby has very human legs, complete with feet and toes. Perhaps she is just babysitting? Maybe someone abandoned the baby on the lakeshore and she adopted it? Behind her, four very ripe papayas look like they are about to drop down on her head. 

Two more sirenas lounge and swim, surrounded by a school of fish. To the right are large slices of a tasty-looking melon. In the bottom corners on the right and left are three small clay containers called ollitas. These were used by the pre-hispanic people to hold offerings to Michicihuali, the Goddess of the Lake. Over the course of many centuries, thousands of ollitas were thrown into the Lake. When the water level drops below normal, ollitas can still occasionally be found along the shore.

A masked and bearded Sayaco decorates the corner of Colon and Calle Ocampo. The mural is painted on a restaurant called Merendero Lake Burgers. Sayacos, along with the female version called Sayacas, appear during Carnaval (known as Mardi Gras in New Orleans). Sayacos are always portrayed as old men with long white beards. Sayacas are also men, but dressed as very buxom women, using balloons to mimic breasts. During their parades they dance and throw handfulls of flour on hapless spectators. The artist signed his work Noe.Tattu.Dalter.TT  I have been unable to make any further identification.

If you dare, you can reach into the mouth of this fierce jaguar to get a stiff drink. The mouth is actually the window of a bar called Mezcaleria Yolok. When the window is open, you can buy a drink of mezcal while standing right on the sidewalk. Mezcal is a powerful alcoholic drink and is similar to tequila. They both originated in Mexico and both are made using the same process.

The difference between the two drinks is primarily geography and the type of agave used. While mezcal can be distilled anywhere in Mexico from a variety of agave plants, tequila is made only with blue agave in specific areas of Jalisco, primarily around the small city of Tequila (hence the name). Like the first photo in this posting, the artist of this mural was Orlando Solano Álvarez.

This completes Part 5 of my series on Ajijic's colorful murals. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below. If you leave a question, please remember to include your email so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

Ajijic's murals and muralists Part 4: Calle Colon from Zaragoza to Hidalgo

A pre-hispanic warrior with a skeletal face stands beside a snarling jaguar. The warrior wears a quetzal feather penacho (head dress) and is adorned with jewelry in his ears and around his neck and upper arms. His left hand is a torch and he blows a stream of smoke from his mouth. This mural is on Calle Zaragoza a few metes from its intersection with Calle Colon. The mural's symbolic images were important to pre-hispanic people, including skeletons, quetzal feathers, and tigres (jaguars). The last two are associated with pre-hispanic royalty, while skulls and other images of death were ubiquitous in ancient Mexico.

In this part of my series, I will show some of the murals that are visible while walking south along Colon between Zaragoza and Calle Hidalgo. The images in these murals celebrate Mexico's culture and history, both ancient and modern. The next posting (Part 5) of the series will continue down Colon, from Hidalgo to the lakeshore pier. 

The Virgin of Guadalupe appears in a mural next to the warrior. Both murals are actually on Zaragoza, but are easily visible from Colon. I was unable to find a signature or date on either one. The Virgen de Guadalupe image has most of the classic elements, including her pose, the golden halo around her, the color of her clothes, the roses at her feet, and the Mexican flag. The meaning and history of all of these elements were explained in a previous post. The inclusion of the American flag may be a nod to the historic (although somewhat rocky) relationship between the two countries. 

A huge piña decorates the northeast corner of Colon and Zaragoza. The piña (pineapple) is a fruit that originated in the Western Hemisphere, probably in the region between Brazil and Paraguay. It arrived in Mexico thousands of years ago through ancient trade routes. The fruit was carefully cultivated and soon became an important pre-hispanic agricultural product. Europeans first encountered piñas when the Spanish conquered the Taino people of the Caribbean islands. After conquering Mexico, the Spanish began large-scale cultivation of piñas for export to Europe. I could find no artist's signature or date on the mural.

A pre-hispanic woman juggles green crystals on the wall of Galeria Lobo. She wears a mollusk shell head dress, topped by the head of a fox. Because of their color, green stones were considered to represent the Water God Tlaloc. The spiraling shells of mollusks represented the cyclical nature of the cosmos, fertility and renewal. They also represented the Wind God Ehecatl, whose temples were built in spiral shapes, rather than as pyramids. Pre-hispanic people admired foxes because of their cunning ability to avoid hunters. The muralist, Kenia Paoce, painted the image on Galeria Lobo's wall in 2024. 

A peaceful river scene appears over the doorway of a Vietnamese restaurant. "Let's Pho" is on the west side of Colon, a few doors south of Galeria Lobo. There are a number of good Asian restaurants here, including at least one other Vietnamese called "Chopsticks". There are also several Thai, and some Chinese. I have not yet tried this one, but it looks interesting and I do like Vietnamese food.

Plaza de Ajijic, cerca 1929-30, viewed from its northwest corner. This scene was painted from an historical photo, taken just after the three-year conflict known as the Cristero War (1926-29). There was considerably less vegetation in the Plaza at that time than there is today. Close observers will note that the Parroquia church in the background has no clock next to the steeple. The clock we see today was installed some time in the 1940s. Ajijic was a far sleepier pueblo in this scene than the one we experience today. Instead of four people, today you are more likely to encounter scores or even hundreds.

The mural was painted by Javier Lopez Vega, one of Lake Chapala's foremost artists and muralists. He is a talented and prolific artist who uses the legends, myths, and symbolism of pre- and post-hispanic Mexico as the basis for this work. He is also a great guy and a personal friend of mine. He has recently begun painting murals using iconic photos of local scenes like the one above. Another of his photo-murals can be seen in Part 2 of this series and more of his murals will appear in later postings. 

A mural titled "Sangrias de Mayo" covers the south side of the Delegación de Ajijic. Located on the southwest corner of Colon and Hidalgo, it covers the whole wall of the two-story building. The Delegación is the local Ajijic office of the Municipio de Chapala. A municipio is the equivalent of a U.S. county. The artist, Javier Zaragoza, provided an explanation of this extraordinary mural at its bottom. It translates as follows:

"During the spring days of May, all the small villages along the bank of the Lake gathered in order to celebrate the greatest vigil of the year and to invoke Tlaloc, Lord of the Celestial Waters, and Chalchihuitlicue, the Lady of Jade and Turquoise Who Scatters the Waters, and Michihuali, the female Goddess of Fish who is guardian of our Mother Lake of Ajijic. The ceremony reinforced the alliance with the gods, thanked them for the annual agricultural cycle, and asked for it to continue." The next six photos will be details of this mural.

A couple of drummers provides some of the music for the ceremony. A window was used to portray a tlalpanhuehuetl (large, standing drum), with a well-muscled man pounding out a rhythm on it. A smaller man looks reverently to the sky as he slaps the playing surface of his huehuetl (a smaller drum). A young woman extends her hands, palm up, in a prayerful gesture for rain. The mural's scene is set in 1472, almost 50 years before Hernán Cortéz first led his his conquistadores ashore on the Gulf Coast Mexico. 

Javier Zaragoza is another of Ajijic's prominent artists and muralists. He apparently used living people as models for the main figures in this mural. The mural was originally painted in May 2008 and then restored and repainted in August 2013. Many of Ajijic's murals have had to undergo this process because of fading paint. Another cause is salitre (potassium nitrate), which leaches up from the ground into the cement walls and causes the plaster to blister and fall off.

Three young women pray for a good planting season. They stand behind various offerings, including flowers, squash, nopal cactus, and a pot burning a substance which is probably copal incense.  The women are dressed in clothing typical of that worn by pre-hispanic women when the Spanish first arrived. Their white tops are sleeveless garments called huiples, decorated by colorful embroidery. From the waist to the ankles, they are covered by what are called iztac cuétl ("white skirts"). Garments such as these were woven from cotton on back-strap looms.

Two other men appeal to the gods. The man on the right wears a cotton loin cloth called a maxtlatl, and ankle rattles called ayayotes coyoleras. The rattles were seed pods filled with small pebbles and attached to pieces of leather strapped around the ankles. The pebbles make the rhythmic rattling sound. The man in the middle is wearing an elite garment called a tilmátli. This was a cotton cape, worn over the loincloth, and knotted over the left shoulder. The fact that he is the only man wearing a timátli suggests that he is an important figure. In the background, a crowd of indigenous people looks on respectfully. 

Behind the foreground group, a circle of people dances on the shore of Lake Chapala. Dust rises as their feet strike the ground in time with the beat of the drummer sitting on the left. Some of the dancers wear ankle rattles, while others carry hand rattles. The whole scene looks very upbeat and energetic.

At the top right of the mural, above the celebration, is Tlaloc. The God of the Celestial Waters was viewed as both beneficial and dangerous. He provided rain, which was vital for the crops which sustained the life of the people. However, he could also wreak havoc with lightning, wild storms, and floods. Staying on his good side was therefore extremely important. He had four celestial assistants called Tlaloque, who represented the Four Cardinal Directions. These sub-gods attended to large clay pots containing water for rain. Thunder was created when they broke the pots to release the rain from the sky.

Chalchihuitlicue appears at the top left side of the mural. She was Tlaloc's wife/consort, but was an important goddess in her own right. Chalchihuitlicue was the deity of running water, lakes, rivers, fertility, and the patron of childbirth. Above, she pours seeds from her hands the seeds to create plants. Like the figures at the bottom of the mural, both Tlaloc and Chalchihuitlicue appear to have been modeled on real people.

This completes Part 4 of my Ajijic Murals series. I hope you have enjoyed it, If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please remember to include your email address so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim