Twenty-three stone masons from all over Mexico have been chipping away at blocks of rock for the past two weeks in a bid to land one of the prizes on offer in the Concurso Nacional de Labrado en Cantera y Lapidaria.
This is the 25th year the competition has filled Guadalajara’s Plaza de la Liberacion during the Fiestas de Octubre. This year, 400,000 pesos in prize money is up for grabs in several categories. All the pieces must be created from scratch and chiseled by hand, without the help of electrical devices. A separate category provides prizes for pieces sculpted from obsidian, onyx, marble and other materials. The finished works will be displayed in the plaza through the coming week and prizes are awarded on November 1.