After graduating from art school in 1971, Jorge Monroy was looking for a steady job and income. When the director of Guadalajara’s El Informador newspaper was impressed by his work on display at an exhibit, he was thrilled to be hired to paint one watercolor a week.
Monroy rode by bus to every corner of the country hunting for scenes, and in the process became one of the most recognizable chroniclers of Mexico’s luminous landscapes, architecture and daily life.
His collaborations with El Informador turned Monroy into a household name in Guadalajara. In 2008, he was asked to paint a mural for the foyer of the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce. The result was a masterpiece called “The Origins of Guadalajara,” which mesmerizes everyone who walks into the building. Since then, he’s created at least eight more murals, establishing him as a major contributor to Mexico’s artistic patrimony.
I sat down with Monroy recently in his mile-high studio overlooking the Primavera Forest, primarily to find out what he considers his favorite places in Mexico, or “sitios maravillosos,” as he describes them.
Cuetzalan
“One place I would certainly call maravilloso is Cuetzalan,” Monroy said without hesitation. “A Pueblo Mágico in the state of Puebla, it’s located high in the Sierra Madre Oriental where it picks up lots of humidity from the Gulf of Mexico. So the town is always under a blanket of fog. In fact, I was never able to paint the steeple of the church because I couldn’t see it!
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“Apart from the beauty of the town and the fantastic archaeological ruins nearby, a big attraction is their tianguis or traditional market. It’s one of the few places left in Mexico where trueque (bartering) is still practiced. Nahua and Totonac people come there on Sunday from communities in the surrounding mountains. They bring mushrooms, gourds, pottery, hand-embroidered blouses, woolen rebozos dyed with natural cochineal and bundles of vanilla pods. When I first saw all this, I felt like Hernán Cortés when he walked into the great market of Tlatelolco and was shocked by the sheer scale, order, and noise of the marketplace.
A coffee lover’s paradise
Monroy’s second choice was Coatepec, Veracruz, another high-altitude Pueblo Mágico, also often shrouded in fog.
“It’s truly beautiful and surrounded by coffee plantations,” he told me. “As you walk around its big main plaza, all you can smell is coffee. Lovely coffee shops with little tables everywhere, and all smelling delicious.”
Monroy added that Xico, another Pueblo Mágico of extraordinary beauty, is just nine kilometers from Coatepec. “Here, there’s a delightful waterfall called La Cascada de Texolo. It’s blanketed in misty cloud and exuberant tropical vegetation. You have to see it!”
La Paz, Baja California
Monroy’s third choice is the city of La Paz, which means peace, something “you feel the moment you arrive there,” he said. “People are incredibly courteous: the drivers actually stop for you when you try to cross the street!”
Apart from its amiable population, he goes on, “La Paz is surrounded by incomparable beauty. For example, Balandra Beach is Mexico’s most beautiful beach and one of the ten most beautiful in the world. It is huge, and the water is utterly transparent. You can go walking, walking and walking toward the horizon and the water never gets more than a meter deep.”
You’ll never run out of beaches at La Paz, Monroy said. “Just in front of the town you have the island of Espiritu Santo. Nobody lives there, only sea lions, pelicans and such — but that long island is indented with countless gorgeous beaches, all with crystal-clear water. Without a doubt, this is Mexico’s most beautiful island.”
The painter also highlighted Hierve el Agua in Oaxaca, even though it’s not a town. The name means The Water Boils. It’s a set of 90-meter-tall petrified waterfalls, Monroy told me, made of calcium carbonate, formed over thousands of years by mineral-rich springs.
“The frozen waterfalls are otherworldly, and on top there are shimmering white infinity pools with an incredible view. It’s like something out of a dream: Mexico’s answer to Pamukkale in Turkey. The water is not hot at all, but a perfect temperature for bathing. Rather than boiling, it bubbles up from underground springs.”
If you’re keen to see more of Monroy’s watercolors, you’ll find 40 of his works (of sites near Lake Chapala) on display in Guadalajara at the Universidad Panamericana’s Edificio Central until the end of November.