The only thing that depressed Glenda Lacy after she moved into her home on the upper Ajijic street of San Juan de las Colinas was the sight of acres of weeds choking the empty lots that studded her new neighborhood.
In a recent interview, the peppy senior, whose home was one of the first completed in the area, commented, “For a while I looked on the scene with disgust and wondered when someone was going to do something about all those weeds. Then, one day I realized I could be that someone and could at least start trying to make it look better.”
That was seven years ago. Several times a week during all of that time Lacy has headed out to the street to pull and cut away weeds. “It really didn’t take long for the street to start to look better,” she said. “Each year I was able to clear another foot or two. Then, to keep it looking good, I began to plant cactus and succulents.”
Lacy began by creating a cactus garden across the street from her own home. To do some of the heavier work, planting, and to move the large rocks that stud the area, she contacted Enrique Hernandez, a local handyman on whom she depends for many small jobs.“Hernandez is a really good guy,” said Lacy. “He has hired a team of younger boys who need something to occupy their time. They can make a little money, and he keeps a close eye on them and is helping them develop into good men.”
It wasn’t long before Lacy noticed that the young work crew was clearing the weeds from the open areas and had spontaneously started to balance rock upon rock, forming interesting shapes and textures, and creating sculptural images.
“The stacked stones remind those of us who have driven in Canada of the roadside monuments made by the Inuits made of unworked stones,” Lacy said. “When I looked them up I discovered that they’re called inukshuk and are are said to mean, ‘someone was here’ or ‘you are on the right path.’ I’m sure these boys have never heard of the Inuits or the inukshuk and I’m fascinated that they instinctively wanted to make these rock forms amidst the cactus they had planted bordering our street.”
John Cawood, another resident on San Juan de las Colinas added, “It was a wonderful thing to see. This simple manual work presented an opportunity for the young workers to develop and demonstrate a skill which surprised and fascinated the more imaginative of the foreign spectators. This simple project has changed the look and feel of the whole street, and I suspect given them a bit of confidence and pride.”
“The whole affair took on a festive feeling,” added Cawood. “It gave us all a moment of happiness and a sense of achievement, which somehow went far deeper than the stacked rock images seemed to have warranted.”
Louise Pedroza and Richard DiCastri live in two of the street’s handful of houses. Both are artists and the excitement of the project triggered their imaginations.
They began to see that this stack of rocks looked a bit like an old man and that another stacked stone bore the amazing profile of an Aztec. Armed with paints and brushes they took a turn at creating more art among the rocks in reclaimed roadside spaces. A half-round rock became a turtle, another was formed in the shape of a small blue bird.
“Hernandez and his young workers were openly excited by this cooperative interest the foreign artists were showing in their stacks of rocks,” said Lacy. “Not only did they seem to take additional pride in their project, they planned a surprise for me. One day when I returned, I discovered they had made a lovely rock path through my cactus garden. Then they arranged the turtle rock on the path in the shade and perched the blue bird among the branches. I was just so moved.”
Cawood summed it all up nicely when he added, “This is truly a story of the heart which reaches across the expat/Mexican divide. It’s a good reminder for us all that we don’t have to create enormous fundraisers or take on giant projects. Sometimes these small works give everyone the opportunity to reveal big hearts.”