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, but no name. The style is like that of Efrén Gonzales, who often favors placid village scenes. I own a similar painting that now 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.Tatu.Dalter.TT

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 de 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