Great Mosa­ic Wall of Zacat­lan, Mex­i­co
by Thad­deus Tripp Ressler

Gath­ered under tarps for the inevitable after­noon rain show­er, artists break, form, and place a vari­ety of tiles that have been bought and donat­ed to the project. Tourists slow­ly mean­der by, pay­ing com­pli­ments to the artists. The word heard most often is “feli­ci­dades” or con­grat­u­la­tions. Most times either Mary Car­men Olvera Tre­jo or Trish Met­zn­er, the two artis­tic and orga­niz­ing pow­er­hous­es behind the entire project, will inter­cept them with a big hel­lo before they even say any­thing. When there are no tourists though, the artists, includ­ing many fine Mex­i­can painters like Miguel Díaz-Guer­erro, are laser focused, hold­ing odd­ly shaped pieces up to the hole they’re try­ing to fill, turn­ing it to see if the new angle might afford them a bet­ter shape in the left­over space. Search­ing for match­ing col­ors or tex­tures can some­times prove to be a sport of aggra­vat­ing pro­por­tion and cause the occa­sion­al har­rumph. Every­one stays in good spir­its though, and the friend­ly peo­ple of Zacat­lan make it easy. Their cheer and bright smiles make it a plea­sure to work on the mur­al or just walk down the street.