Zócalo Magazine - December 2019

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TUCSON ARTS, CULTURE, AND DESERT LIVING / DECEMBER 2019 / ISSUE NO. 113

Stephen Kimble Art Inc. Studio F Award winning sculptor, designer and steel fabricator.

“Wings” An eight piece public arts installation.

Size: 7' x 50'

Wednesday Dec. 11th 5-8pm Saturday December 21st 4-9pm

During the Metal Arts Village’s Full Moon Open Studio nights!

3230 n. Dodge blvd. Studio C

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Dodge

3230 N. Dodge Boulevard • Tucson, Arizona In the Ft. Lowell Furniture and Arts District

Ft. Lowell

Alvernon

• Dec 11 • Jan 10 • Feb 9 • Mar 9

4 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

inside December 2019

07. Community 12. Events 20. Shop Local 29. Culture 31. Arts 32. Galleries & Exhibits 35. Performances 37. Food 39. Downtown 43. Books 44. Tunes 46. Scene in Tucson

Zócalo Magazine is an independent, locally owned and locally printed publication that reflects the heart and soul of Tucson.

PUBLISHER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR David Olsen EDITOR Gregory McNamee CONTRIBUTORS Vanessa DeCardenas, Jim Lipson, Jamie Manser, Gregory McNamee, Janelle Montenegro, Jennifer Powers, Amanda Reed, LISTINGS Amanda Reed, amanda@z´óocalomagazine.com

CONTACT US: frontdesk@zocalotucson.com P.O. Box 1171, Tucson, AZ 85702-1171

SUBSCRIBE to Zocalo at www.zocalomagazine.com/subscriptions.

Zocalo is available free of charge at newsstands in Tucson, limited to one copy per reader. Zocalo may only be distributed by the magazine’s authorized independent contractors. No person may, without prior written permission of the publisher, take more than one copy of each issue. The entire contents of Zocalo Magazine are copyright © 2009-2019 by Media Zoócalo, LLC. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher. Zocalo is published 11 times per year.

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 5

photo: Manuel Ruiz Photography

community Z

A Conversation with Mayor Regina Romero

by Jamie Manser On December 2, 2019, Regina Romero made history when she was sworn in as Tucson’s first female and first Latina mayor. At the end of November, I spoke with her about her background and what led her to the mayor’s seat; political, gender and racial power structures; environmental issues; Tucson’s arts, culture, and history; and the city’s transportation concerns. Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

BORN IN YUMA and raised in Somerton, Arizona, Regina Romero has been a Tucsonan since 1992—drawn here by both siblings who moved to Tucson for education and economic opportunities and by her being accepted to study at the University of Arizona. While taking classes at UA and Pima Community College, Romero became inspired to get involved with politics after taking a Chicano studies class at Pima with Professor Lupe Castillo.

“We talked about Chicanismo, about the history of the land and MexicanAmericans living for many generations in the Southwest (pre-Gadsden Purchase), and activism. We also talked about policy and needs, and the lack of participation of women and people of color in our democratic process. That really sparked a nerve with me,” Romero recalls.

Through her studies, she became a student activist. In 1995, she was invited to get involved with the Ward One City Council race, help with voter registrations, and go door-to-door to talk to constituents about issues and ask for their votes. “I started getting involved with community, and that’s what started my passion for the political process, in electing women and people of color that would represent the needs that I felt were important to me,” she says.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 42.9 percent of Tucson’s populace identifies as Hispanic or Latina/o/x. Considering that Romero was Tucson’s first Chicana elected to the Tucson City Council in 2007 and is now the first Latina mayor, we discussed the power structures that keep women and people of color, and especially women of color, from running for and being elected to public office.

“It took a lot of years for me to even realize, ‘Oh, I could do this,’” Romero recalls. It took 12 years from becoming politically activated to her running for and winning her Ward One City Council seat in 2007. Through her deep involvement with community, when the position vacated, she was called upon to fill it.

“People started calling me saying, ‘Hey, you are the cofounder and the chair of Las Adelitas,’ a group that encourages political participation with Latinas and our families. So, they were saying, ‘Isn’t that the mission of your organization?’”

Romero heeded the call with some concerns, especially since she had an 18-month-old son at the time. Support of her husband and family was, and is, key, considering that city councilors are paid $24,000 and the mayor’s salary is $42,000—a wage that hasn’t changed since 1999. Again in this year’s election cycle, voters said no to raises, thereby directly affecting the ability of mayor and city councilors to concentrate full-time on Tucson, since they have to work outside of their elected positions to make ends meet. The current gross annual salary of a councilperson is equivalent to a full-time, minimum wage job in Tucson as of January 1, 2020—but at $12 an hour.

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December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 7

Historic & Unusual Homes TIM HAGYARD (520) 241-3123 • tim@timhagyard.com • timhagyard.com

community Z “That lack of living wages for elected officials—that’s both for the state green infrastructure plan that will help direct stormwater that collects along and for city mayor and council—has been an impediment for other women and Tucson’s streets into streetside basins. These efforts will provide water sources other workers of the community to step up and run,” says Romero. “What we’ve for planting and establishing trees in neighborhoods, which will help mitigate seen is that either independently wealthy males or retired males have been flooding and the heat island effect. ready and willing to not care about that pay to be able to serve. For me and my Tying into these climate issues is the problem of carbon emissions. According family, it’s been a struggle. to a 2017 study by the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation (cars, “In terms of why we see such lack of participation of women, especially trucks, ships, trains and planes) accounted for 28.9 percent of greenhouse gas women of color in our political processes, it’s because we continue emissions. Mayor Romero’s platform calls for transitioning the city’s vehicle perpetuating a cycle of racist systems that were not created for us. If you’re a and bus fleet to 90 percent electric by 2032, reducing single-occupant vehicle working person, if I were a single mom with my two kids, there’s no way I would commuters from 76.5 percent to 50 percent by 2035, and implementing a have ever been able to run. My transit system that is affordable husband is the breadwinner. I’ve and reliable. also had to work, and for the last “The City of Tucson hasn’t What do you love about Tucson, and its arts, culture, and history? three years, I’ve had an amazing seen a bus rapid transit system. job with Center for Biological Once one is implemented, it is I love that Tucson is surrounded by mountains. I love the desert. I Diversity as the director of Latino much less expensive than rail love the culture in Tucson. It feels like a small town, like everyone knows engagement, which has been very and as effective, and sometimes each other. Even if you don’t, people treat each other like they know flexible with me.” even more effective, because the each other. The food is amazing, and that’s why we’re a UNESCO City At the top of Romero’s platform most effective rapid transit, in of Gastronomy. The history is amazing and so rich. It has been Tohono is addressing environmental any city, has the fewest stops. You O’odham territory and Yaqui land. We were Spain once, then Mexico, concerns such as recycling, want to get people moved fast to then a U.S. territory. Tucson has always been very multicultural, with sustainability, and resiliency in where they need to go. And so the deep roots of Chinese, Mexican, Irish, and Jewish people. It’s a basin the face of climate change. She City of Tucson is thinking about of different cultures here. explains that it is important for a tapping into federal transitThe arts scene is so awesome. It has its own unique funk and vibe. the city to partner with entities oriented development funds.”

Tucson has a history of muralists and painters. We need to make sure such as the UA, local and national Last month, Romero that we follow and continue the tradition. What I’ve loved recently environmental nonprofits, and was in Washington, D.C., for was seeing those murals throughout the community, especially ASU on these issues. a conference and took the concentrated in downtown, become again an attraction to people.

“It is about finding solutions opportunity to set up meetings People love them. We should expand on that and expand on making together for the biggest problems with federal agencies and met sure that we’re inclusive in celebration in arts of both color and the that we have as a society and with the Federal Transportation representative communities. We could make art available and easy a city. We have to change our Administration Administrator to access for students and for working families throughout the city mentality from ‘I can consume K. Jane Williams to discuss of Tucson. We need to continue investing not only in that but also whatever I want and I can recycle rapid transit, what makes those arts programming in our parks; continue investing in the local talent it’ to ‘How do we reduce waste?’ systems work well, and what to that we have here and make art available and accessible, maybe by Reduce, reuse, recycle. We have include in Tucson’s application partnering with the school districts with their arts programs. to reeducate our community and for FTA funding.

And street art. Why not use art on the street? There’s a movement find a better way, because Trump “It was awesome to be able called tactical urbanism that promotes art on the street that actually is fighting with China, and China to have that conversation with provides safe spaces for bicycles and pedestrians to use. It’s really says, ‘No, we’re not going to take her,” Romero recalls. “It’s about cool. There are many, many ideas and concepts that we can push on to your trash.’” diversifying our transit and expand that investment that we do as a community in the arts.

While campaigning, Romero mobility choices in Tucson. And said that Tucsonans shared their as we look at the possibility of a climate change concerns, such as potential expansion of a streetcar, the rising temperature, the heat we can’t forget that there is bus island effect, and water resources. rapid transit that is successful “We need to continue making sure, first and foremost, that we have clean in other cities. We’re studying the highest-used transit lines in the city, and water and that our renewable resources are growing and our subterranean of course we’re going to get input from the community. It’s important to start water is increasing, so that we can use the renewable CAP (Central Arizona thinking as a jurisdiction about what makes sense and how to do it equitably, Project) water to continue surviving here in the desert,” she says. “It’s about to make sure that we do not displace families, that we create affordability and saving more water and creating resiliency. The tree-planting and water maintain affordability to those lines that we want to see happen. We have to harvesting that we do has to be equitable as well. That’s where I see pushing plan ahead and look holistically at how it’s going to affect the city of Tucson.” ourselves much more in saving rainwater.”

She adds, “We have to look beyond what we’ve traditionally done to move When it comes to water stewardship, Tucson Water has led the way in to the next level of progress.” n Arizona with its water-saving incentives such as offering rebates for residential rainwater and greywater harvesting systems, along with installing highefficiency toilets and clothes washers. This fall, mayor and council passed a December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 9

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Z events

Famed Filmmaker John Waters Brings His Christmas Cheer to Tucson

by Gregory McNamee

“Merry Christmas? How about an angry Christmas?”

So says John Waters, filmmaker, raconteur, writer, traveler, and bibliophile, who’s on his way to Tucson to deliver what he describes as “70 minutes of me talking about politics, culture, and everything that has to do with Christmas. How do you go back home when it’s a civil war out there? Some families are very tense, knocking over the Christmas tree— just like what happened in Female Trouble, only about Trump and not cha-cha.”

Waters is no stranger to Tucson, though it’s been a few years since he was last here. He’ll be presenting his show A John Waters Christmas at the Rialto Theatre on December 9 at 8:00 pm, fast on the heels of his new book Mr. KnowIt-All (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Always on the go, always in an airplane bound somewhere far away from his hometown of Baltimore, he writes there, “Sometimes I feel like a low-rent Oscar Wilde touring the coal-mining towns of America as he did in the 1880s.” One of those coal-mining towns is ours, just one of 16 to which Waters will bring his Christmas cheer over a period of three weeks. Tucson figures early in the tour because, Waters notes after years of hard experience on the road, you want to do your shows in cities where 12 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

the weather is likely to be rotten last—and that means the final stop is Chicago. But, no matter how clement the weather here, Waters isn’t likely to notice. “I go from the airport to the hotel to the theater to the hotel to the airport,” he says. “I’m almost never found in real life.”

The book is vintage Waters, a blend of his hallmark sardonic humor with reflections on his work as a filmmaker and guerrilla fighter in the culture wars. On one page he’s taking on Pope Francis, writing that when he becomes the first man to get pregnant, then he’ll be worth listening to on what women should do with their bodies: “Not until he’s given birth to a female transgender Christ child of a different color will we indulge him with a little queer mercy of our own.” On another he’s dissing Madonna for stealing Blondie’s shtick, though not without good cause: Dare rest for a minute on your laurels in show biz, and someone will come along to make it theirs. And on the matter of religion, ever a Christmas-worthy topic, he throws his lot in with the nonbelievers, though in no organized way: Put them in a room, and atheists will drink too much, he says. “Plus atheists dress badly, too. It’s unfortunate, but they are a dreary lot.”

photo: Greg Gorman

John Waters

The best parts of the book are his recollections of making his films, of which he names the littleseen Cecil B. Demented as his favorite. “I guess all directors have a soft spot for one of their films that did the worst at the box office,” he notes.

Even Serial Mom had its difficulties, he allows, while films like Cry-Baby and Hairspray have entered the mainstream, if improbably, while the films that earned him the sobriquet “The King of Puke” have been enshrined as cult classics, plate-licking, scratch-and-sniff horrors, and all.

On the mainstream front, he’s even become a spokesperson for Nike, which, he says, is “ludicrous and ironic.”

But, notes Waters, there are only so many theaters out there and only so many bookings, so in order to keep an act alive, you have to keep putting out new material. “This is a whole new show,” he says, talking with Zócalo a few weeks before the curtain goes up. “I’ve written about three-quarters of it, and I haven’t learned a bit of it yet. But it’s all new stuff—I try not to put anything in the show from the book, since if you’ve bought the book you already know it. I try hard to give you your money’s worth.” Angry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! n December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 13

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events Z

SOUTHERN SOLSTICE - A WINTER FIRE RITUAL IN THE SONORAN DESERT SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2019 AT 5:30PM

Tucson’s Cirque Roots is back again for its second year of a Winter Solstice

Brandi Fenton Park - 3482 E River Rd,

Catalina mountains. Share the experience of celebrating the Winter Solstice

www.cirqueroots.com/southern-solstice Sliding Scale Admission: $10 – $20 | Kids Under 10 Free | Doors Open at 5pm VIP Ticket: $50 | Includes reserved seating near a heat source.

experience with fire dancing, acrobatics, aerial, & stilt dance. This annual community-style event will take place during sunset overlooking the beautiful passage of the sun as it dips to its lowest point in the Sonoran Desert sky, the shortest day and longest night. Family-friendly, hot beverages available and patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets.

MERRY-ACHI CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 15 @ 4:00 PM Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress. Box Office - (520) 547-340. $24.50 - $49.50. https://foxtucson.com/event/merry-achi-christmas/ A proud fifth-generation mariachi musician, Maestro José Hernández and his platinumselling Sol de México have broken countless barriers in mariachi music, becoming the first mariachi ensemble to be nominated for a Grammy Award. Their original rhythms, fresh sounds and inspiring ideas have energized the world of mariachi for more than 30 years.

A graceful blend of classical, pop, jazz, swing and Broadway tunes, Hernández’s organic, irreverent renditions have become instant classics. This special performance includes treasured holiday favorites and selections from the mariachi songbook.

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 15

Z events

december THROUGH JANUARY 5

SAT 7

LIGHTS OF THE WORLD The largest light and

15TH

lantern festival in North America features an array of culture and international landmarks in over 6 million LED lights. Carnival rides and games and a Sea Lion show are included with general admission. Thurs to Sun, 5pm to 10pm. Tickets: $14.99 to $99. $6 parking. Kino Sports Complex, 2500 E. Ajo Way. Tucson.LightsoftheWorldUS.com

Celebrating the rich tastes, smells, and variation of tamales from the Southwest and Mexico. Tamale contest, live entertainment, food and farmer market vendors, artisan vendors, and family fun. 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

AVA Amphitheater at Casino Del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Rd. CasinoDelSol.com

SATURDAYS 7, 14, 21

2ND SATURDAYS DOWNTOWN A free, family

ENCHANTED SNOWFALL A unique desert style snowfall with a 28-foot holiday tree and local student music groups! Free admission. Snowfall at 6:00pm and 6:45pm. Main Courtyard in La Encanta. 520-276-3800.

LaEncantadaShoppingCenter.com

SUNDAYS 1, 8, 15, 22 HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

View indoor and outdoor toy train layouts decorated for the holidays. Free – Donations accepted. 12:30pm to 4:30 pm. Pacific Division Toy Train Museum, 3975 N. Miller Ave. 520-8882222. GPDTrains.org

FRI 6 - SUN 8 & FRI 13 - SUN 15 LUMINARIA NIGHTS

Gardens decorated with 3,500 candlelit luminarias and 24 Korean lanterns will enchant you this holiday season. New experiences include a Poinsettia Pavilion with a 10’ poinsettia tree, an enhanced Winter Wonderland, and a Garden Snowfall Experience, along with the Grinch and Santa’s Mailbox, and performances by local musicians. Tickets for members: $12 Adults / $6 children, Non-members: $18 Adults, $9 children. 5:30pm to 8:30 pm. Tucson Botanical Gardens, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. 520-3269686. TucsonBotanical.org

FRI 6 & SAT 7; FRI 13 & SAT 14; FRI 20 & SAT 21 HOLIDAY NIGHTS

Enjoy a stroll along paths glowing with a million twinkling lights while musicians and artists perform. Gaze at stars through telescopes, enjoy hot chocolate or a tasty treat, or visit with Santa in the Lomaki House. Tickets: $12 Members, $16 NonMembers, $5 for children ages 5-12, children under 5 no charge. 5:30pm to 8:30 pm at Tohono Chul Park, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. 520-742-6455. TohonoChulPark.org

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ANNUAL

TAMAL

SAT 14 FESTIVAL

friendly urban block party! Winter Hours: 2pm to 9pm.

Performances, vendors, food trucks, and more. Free family friendly movie at the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. Downtown Tucson. 2ndSaturdaysDowntown.com

CULTIVATE MARKET A local favorite, this holiday pop-up market include local artists and makers offering one of a kind, thoughtfully crafted goods. Food trucks and coffee will be available along with live music throughout the day. Part of the proceeds will benefit the nonprofit, Casa Alitas. Early Bird tickets: $15 in advance or $20 at the door (includes a tote). Open to the public from 10am to 5pm. One East Toole Ave. CultivateTucson.com

SUN 8 LA FIESTA DE GUADALUPE

This festival honors Mexico’s patron saint with music, dancing, and performances including youth mariachi bands and folklorico dancers. Pinatas hoisted hourly! Local food and art vendors. Free and open to the public. 10am to 4pm.

DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, 6300 N. Swan Rd. 520-2999191. DeGrazia.org

SOUNDS OF WINTER CONCERT

The Tucson Girls Chorus invites you to their annual concert, showcasing all five choirs, with a rich program of holiday themed choral music. 3:30 pm. Tickets: $10 - $42. Fox Tucson, 17 W. Congress St. 520-577-6064.

TucsonGirlsChorus.org

FRI 13 - SUN 15 FOURTH AVENUE WINTER STREET FAIR Celebrating 50 years, this popular art fair hosts artists from around the world, along with a variety of food offerings and local entertainment. Free admission. Pets not allowed. 10am to dusk. 316 N. Fourth Ave. 520-6245004. For more information visit: FourthAvenue.org

CHRISTMAS WORKSHOP

TREE

ORNAMENT

Create a Christmas ornament from nature using products like dried devil’s claw pods, okra pods or painted dipper gourds. All ages welcome. $5 suggested donation. 9am to Noon. Mission Garden, 946 W. Mission Lane. TucsonBirthPlace.org

SAT 14 TO SUN 29 WINTERHAVEN FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS Hosted each year by the residents of Winterhaven as a festive holiday celebration for all. Tour the neighborhood lights by foot, bike, bus trolley, hayride or a pedalpowered group bike! Begins at 6pm each day of the festival until 10pm. Free. For more information visit: WinterhavenFestival.org

SUN 15 HANUKKAH HOT CHOCOLATE RUN Start off the holidays with some festive exercise! Participate in a 10K, 5K or 1K Run/Walk. Register online or day of beginning at 6:30am. 10K begins at 7:45am. Registration $40 - $25 in advance; free for kids under 6 with a registered parent. Jewish Community Center, 3800 East River Road. TucsonJCC.org

FRI 20 - SUN 22 MERCADO DISTRICT HOLIDAY BAZAAR Making holiday shopping fun for all with local makers, artists, and collectors, along with gourmet food, coffee, and artisan cocktails. Look for the photo booth and the holiday puppet show. Hours: Fri & Sat 10am – 6pm, Sun 10am – 4pm. Mercado San Agustin, 100 Avenida Del Convento. 520-461-1107. MercadoDistrict.com

SAT 21 HOLIDAY EXPRESS Meet Santa and take pictures together in front of Locomotive 1673, sing holiday music, write a letter to Santa with the help of elves from the Tucson Postal History Museum’s or view the museum’s exhibits such as live action displays with operating model trains. Free. 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. 520-623-2223.

Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, 400 N. Toole.

TucsonHistoricDepot.org

photo: Andrew Brown, courtesy of Tohono Chul.

Holiday Nights at Tohono Chul

SAT 28 & SUN 29

ONGOING

THE NUTCRACKER Ballet Tucson presents this

MONDAYS

holiday favorite in a traditional Victorian production. Dec 28 at 2:00 pm & 7:30 pm, Dec 29 at 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Tucson Music Hall, 260 South Church Ave. 1-800745-3000. BalletTucson.org

TUES 31 ARIZONA BOWL Tucson’s official football festival returns to Arizona Stadium with teams from the Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences to be televised by CBS Sports Network. Tailgate Festival begins at 10:00 am featuring live entertainment and music. Kick off at 2:30 pm. Downtown New Year’s Eve Bash at 6:00 pm with fireworks, live performances, food vendors, a beer garden and more! NovaArizonaBowl.com

TUCSON’S TIMES SQUARE

Ring in the new decade with an indoor-outdoor Times Square extravaganza featuring two stages, live music, DJs, fireworks, and a midnight taco drop! General admission: $40, Upgraded: $70, VIP: $150. Doors open at 8:00 pm. Hotel Congress, 311 Congress St. 520-622-8848.

HotelCongress.com

MEET ME AT MAYNARDS

Southern Arizona Roadrunners’ Monday evening, non-competitive, social 3-mile run/walk, that begins and ends downtown at Hotel Congress, rain/shine/holidays included! Free. Check in suggested from 5:15pm to 6:00pm. Closing ceremony at 7:00pm. Maynards Market, 400 N. Toole. 520-991-0733.

MeetMeAtMaynards.com

TUESDAYS ROOFTOP YOGA HOUR

Stretch and sweat under the stars every Tuesday night on the rooftop of Playground. All levels welcome. Drink and food specials offered to attendees. $6. Bring your own mat. 7pm.

Playground Bar & Lounge Rooftop, 278 E. Congress St. YogaOasis.com/Rooftop-Yoga

FREE FIRST THURSDAYS On the first Thursday of every month the museum is open late with free admission from 5-8pm, featuring special performances, live music, lectures, cash bar, and food trucks. For more information see website. Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Avenue. 520-624-2333. TucsonMuseumofArt.org

SUNDAYS 5 POINTS FARMERS MARKET Every Sunday at Cesar Chavez Park. 10am to 2pm. 756 S. Stone Ave.

RILLITO PARK FARMERS MARKET

Find veggies, citrus, fresh eggs, pasta, coffee, locally made soaps and a variety of goods at this open-air market.

Open every Sunday from 9am to 1pm (Oct. – Mar.) and 8am to Noon (Apr. – Sep.) at the Rillito Park Race Track, 4502 N. 1st Ave. HeirloomFM.org n

THURSDAYS SANTA CRUZ RIVER FARMERS MARKET Locally grown foods and goods with live music. 4-7pm.

Mercado San Agustin, 100 S. Avenida Del Convento.

MercadoSanAgustin.com

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 17

Photos by Nieves Montano

Z shoplocal

Cultivate Tucson Holiday Market

by Jennifer Powers

CULTIVATE TUCSON is a pop-up event created to bring the community together through face-to-face interaction between local creators, makers, small businesses, nonprofits, and the public under one roof. The goal is to maintain a vibrant marketplace that helps support community initiatives and charitable organizations. A portion of sales at Cultivate events are donated to a local nonprofit. This year’s recipient is Casa Alitas Program & Welcome Center.

“Cultivate is a chance to celebrate some of the good things happening in our city,” says Kristen Tovar, co-founder of Cultivate Tucson. “Whether that’s a well-crafted piece of jewelry, a thoughtfully made perfume, a beautiful building full of history to learn from, or a nonprofit getting the opportunity to share about the important work they do in the community.”

Giving an original piece of art is among the most special gifts you can give.

Tucson is home to some extraordinary visual artists, many of whom will have work for sale at the event. Look for Marcy Ellis, who creates ink and watercolor images of flora and the female form, and joyously colorful gouache paintings exploring the female psyche from Cosmicweaver.

Images of our glorious Sonoran Desert are popular around the world. Aall Forms of Life will have giclée prints and cards of beautiful scientific illustrations of Sonoran flora and fauna, an adorable Desert Babies wildlife calendar, and hand-painted ornaments. Lovely reverse-glass paintings of Sonoran Desert cacti by Sonoran Witch Boy, pretty watercolor art of cacti and florals and handpainted signs from Selah & Bloom, and desert inspired bandanas from mural artist Jenna Tomasello will be treasured.

The art of preserving the moment is represented by photographer Nieves Montaño will have photographic prints, original collages, and cards exhibiting 20 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

her usually good eye for color and composition. Bookmaker BYNDbooks creates handsome butter-soft leather journals for the writers and chroniclers in your life.

Urban and graphic art makes a statement at this year’s market.

Alexclamation Ink will be selling individual prints and the book from her outstanding Tucson typography project, Abecedario del Sur, a new memory card game, Doble, and a card set of Sol y Luna designs. Magical realism and dark fantasy images by Sophie McTear Design, boldly designed and colored graffiti jackets by Ham Hero, and clean graphic designs of a broad range of images by Newjack connect with the audacious spirit.

Also available will be boho-chic shibori indigo dyed flour sack tea towels and napkins, handmade pottery dipping bowls, and cups from Agave Pantry; tea towels and hoops featuring delicate hand embroidered desert flora from KCo Designs; richly colored pottery from Marigold Fontana; and colorful kilim pillows from Handmade by Hazrati. Cactus print bags from Dusty Moon Studio include some inspired manipulated images turned into energetic designs to original effect.

Ursula Basinger Ceramics creates intriguing candleholders, wall hangings, refined tumblers, mugs and bowls. The elegantly crafted wood and concrete designs from MESA Shop are world class. Their concrete cactus and prickly hex tile perfectly capture the urbane essence of Tucson. Surround the modernist in your life with art and artifacts from Good Eye Living and pretend JFK is president.

There will be a lot of vintage goods from other eras and new clothing, too.

Southwest Vintage has clothing for women and men, along with silver and

continues on page 22

shoplocal Z

A look back at the Spring 2019 Cultivate Market. Photos by Nieves Montano.

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 21

Z shoplocal

Reveille MEN’S CHORUS

I WISH FOR ONE THING

L E O R I C H T H E AT R E DEC 6 7:30PM

DEC 7 2:00PM

DEC 7 7:30PM

DEC 8 2:00PM

A Cirque Roots Production

Southern

Solstice

A Winter Fire Ritual in the Sonoran Desert

Saturday, December 21st at 5:30pm A community experience with fire dancing, acrobatics, aerial, & stilt dance.

Brandi Fenton Park | 3482 E River Rd, Tucson, AZ 85718 Tickets $10 –20 | Kids 10 & Under Free | Doors Open at 5pm www.C irqueRoots.com | 520.261.4667

22 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

turquoise jewelry. Desert Abode warms the home with handcrafted and vintage pieces, evoking the presence of generations past. Batea Boutique serves up a collection of curated vintage women’s clothing, accessories and home décor.

Elana Bloom creates sustainable clothing at Solstice by using natural fibers and producing her line with as close to zero waste as possible. Bell Made makes hair scarves and men’s ties from printed patterns and colorful fabrics, and House of Hatters was founded on the concept of the perfect fedora and has evolved into two collections of handmade hats.

No one can have too much jewelry. Heliotrope’s expertly executed desert animals and insects are stunning and the designs from lumenrose are utterly enchanting. Little Toro surprises with colors and materials in impossible to resist combinations. The beaded and woven bracelets, earrings and necklaces from Willie’s Fort dress up blue jeans and a T-shirt with panache. YY S pieces are strikingly offbeat and Sigfús earrings are straight-up amazing.

Body products always spark joy. Buoyant Bath & Beauty’s soaps are good for the body and the senses. Sonoran Rosie produces an extensive line of gender-neutral organic desert herbals, while Spring & Vine pairs handmade soaps with pottery holders. Remedes + Richewels wildcrafts their products from Sonoran desert plants to smell like desert rain. The Mīkal Kristi product line is ethically sourced globally from nutrient rich plants to nourish skin.

Philandry is a complete skin care line with a simple regimen designed for men.

Award-winning artisan fragrance line La Curie is gender neutral and hand mixed by creator Lesli Wood. Nip Lips matches their lipstick to the color of your nipples to achieve a natural look. (It works!)

Look no further for the perfect stocking stuffers. LINUS Textiles specializes in “maximalist embroidery” on a variety of products: crop hoodies, pouches, eye pillows and an ample selection of iron-on patches. Whimsical and lighthearted cards, patches, stickers and pins from illustrator Emily Orzel are absolutely delightful. Hector the Loneliest Saguaro, Kathryn Humphrey’s first published book, is the wonderfully illustrated adventures of Hector, where valuable life lessons are learned along with facts about the desert eco-system. Kona + Loki makes gifts for dogs. Their playful bandanas, classy collars and healthy treats will set tails to wagging.

There are plenty of people treats, too. World class Monsoon Chocolate is expert in exotic flavors such as mezcal caramel, black pepper/rose petal, and fennel pollen dark chocolate. Arizona Baking Company’s Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix is a high-protein, gluten-free taste treat. Agave Pantry uses organic, non-GMO quality ingredients and will have culinary salts, lavender and rosemary cookies, and amaretti in assorted flavors. Desert Provisions sources ingredients from the desert for their all-natural chile powders and salts. Totally delicious [Popped] Artisan Popcorn comes in more than a dozen flavors including their signature flavor, Lemon Poppyseed. Yum. Santa Cause has some special gifts for environmentalists. EcoGro supports the aquaponics community with everything they need to raise fish and edible plants organically and economically. Cero is a vegan pop-up shop that sells low-waste lifestyle essentials such as dryer balls, metal straws, straw cleaners, bamboo toothbrushes, toothpaste tablets, and more.

Flowers are an ideal gift for holiday party hosts and hostesses. Bloom Maven offers plants and floral arrangements for all types of occasions and can send fabulous arrangements for delivery. Wyld Root’s floral designer is ready to hear your ideas and work with you to make your wedding be everything you dreamed. Those holiday photos will look extra fantastic with flowers in the picture.

Shopping for the perfect gift is an event in itself. Cultivate Tucson makes it festive while also supporting community and a good cause.

Cultivate Tucson Holiday Market will be held at 1 E. Toole Ave. on Saturday, December 7, 2019, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. See following pages for list of vendors. Ticketed event early bird hours are 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. For more information, visit www.cultivatetucson.com. n

image by Brittany PĂŠna

CULTIVATE TUCSON HOLIDAY AALL FORMS OF LIFE

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AGAVE PANTRY

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ALEXCLAMATION INK

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AZ BAKING COMPANY

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BATEA BOUTIQUE

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BELL MADE

etsy: bellmadehairscarves..............@bell.made

BLOOM MAVEN

bloommaven.com.....................@bloommaven

BUOYANT BATH AND BEAUTY

etsy:buoyantbathandbeauty.@buoyantshoppe

BYNDBOOKS

etsy: bynicoledeann......................@byndbooks

CERO. A LOW WASTE SHOP

cerotucson.com.............................@cerotucson

COSMICWEAVERS

.................................................@cosmicweavers

DESERT ABODE

etsy: desertabode........................@desertabode

DESERT PROVISIONS

desertprovisions.com.........@desertprovisions

DUSTY MOON STUDIO

dustymoonstudio.com....@dustymoon_studio

ECOGRO

ecogro.com.......................................@ecogrollc

EMILY ORZEL ILLUSTRATION

shop.emilyorzel.com.....................@emilyorzel

GOOD EYE LIVING

goodeyeliving.com...................@goodeyeliving

HAM HERO

........................................@hamsolo_roxaboxen

CULTIVATE TUCSON HOLIDAY 2019 MARKET • 12/7 • 10am-5pm • 1 E. TOOLE AVE. • CULTIVATETUCSON.COM

Y 2019 • VENDOR CATALOG HANDMADE BY HAZRATI

etsy: tucsonpillows....@handmade_by_hazrati

HECTOR THE LONELIEST SAGUARO

hectorthesaguaro.ecwid.com...@hector_the_saguaro

HELIOTROPE

heliotropemetal.com............@heliotropemetal

HOUSE OF HATTERS LLC

houseofhatters.com...............@houseofhatters

JENNA TOMASELLO

jennatomasello.com...................@isadoraditch

KCO DESIGNS

etsy: shopkco.................................@kcodesigns

KONA+LOKI

konaandloki.com..............................@kona.loki

LA CURIE

la-curie.com.......................................@la_curie

LINUS

linusbrandclothing.bigcartel.com..@yolkjammer

LITTLE TORO DESIGNS

littletorodesigns.com...........@littletorodesigns

LUMENROSE JEWELRY

lumenrosejewelry.com.....@lumenrosejewelry

MARCY ELLIS

marcyellis.com...............................@marcyellis

MARIGOLD FONTANA

marigoldfontana.com..........@marigoldfontana

MESA SHOP

shopatmesa.com..........................@shopatmesa

MIKEL KRISTI

mikelkristi.com...............@mikelkristiskincare

MONSOON CHOCOLATE

monsoonchocolate.com..@monsoonchocolate

NEWJACK

newjack.co...............................@newjackstudio

NIEVES MONTAÑO

nievesmontanocreative.com..@nievesmontano

VENDOR CATALOG PRESENTED BY CULTIVATE TUCSON & ZOCALO MAGAZINE

NIPLIPS™

niplips.com..............................@niplipsbeauty

PHILANDRY

philandry.men.......................@philandry.men

[POPPED] ARTISAN POPCORN poppedartisan.com...............@poppedartisan

REMEDES + RICHEWELS

shopremedesandrichewels.com.@remedes_richewels

SELAH&BLOOM

SIGFUS

sigfusdesigns.com...................@sigfusdesigns

SOLSTICE

thesolsticestudio.com..@the_solstice_studio

SONORAN ROSIE

etsy: sonoranrosie........@sonoranrosieherbal

SONORAN WITCH BOY

sonoranwitchboy.com......@sonoranwitchboy

SOPHIE MCTEAR DESIGN

etsy: selahandbloom............@selahandbloom

sophiemctear.bigcartel.com.@sophiemcteardesign

FOOD + DRINKS

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Enjoyabowls Presta Coffee Roasters Purple Tree Food Truck Txoko Sonoran Basque Food

MUSIC Early Bird Hours: Gabriel Naïm Amor 10am-12pm: Seanloui 12:30-2:30pm: Adam Townsend 3:30-5pm: Young MacDonald

SOUTHWEST VINTAGE

etsy: southwestvintage.................@swvintage

SPRING + VINE

springandvinestudios.com...@springandvine

URSULA BASINGER CERAMICS

ursulabasinger.com..............@ursulabasinger

WILLIE’S FORT

williesfort.com..............................@williesfort

WYLD ROOT

..........................................................@wyldroot

YY S

Buffalo Exchange Downtown Tucson Partnership Rio Nuevo Central Barrio Development Hotel McCoy Susan Denis

yuyushiratori.com................@yuyu_shiratori

SPOTLIGHT NON-PROFIT:

CASA ALITAS PROGRAM

CULTIVATE TUCSON HOLIDAY 2019 MARKET • 12/7 • 10am-5pm • 1 E. TOOLE AVE. • CULTIVATETUCSON.COM

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THE FACES OF AUDIOLOGY IN TUCSON

5625 E. Grant Rd.

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December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 27

Moonlite Creations Gallery & Studio 101 W. 6th Street

at the Steinfeld Warehouse

Cactus Wren Artisans Gallery

Tucson

Open Wed ~ Sun 12 to 6pm and during Art Walks, 6-9pm

The gallery features local artisans and craftsman whose unique work is in various mediums; Art, Jewelry, Ceramics, Photography, Woodwork, Textile, Glass and so much more!

hummingbirdmarket.com

Broad-billed illlustration by George West

The Finest Hummingbird Nectar

Available in Tucson at 40+ STORES:

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Open 7 days a week, 9 to 4

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2740 S. Kinney Rd. (520) 437-9103

Made in Tucson

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70 Local & Arizona Artists www.cactuswrenartisans.net facebook.com/CactusWrenArtisans/ Enjoy breakfast or lunch @ Coyote Pause Cafe

Cactus Wren Art Gallery

Tubac

Cactus Wren Art Gallery

Open 7 days a week, 10 to 4 19 Tubac Rd. Suite 600 (520) 437-3988 Representing 45 Southwest Artists www.cactuswrenart.gallery facebook.com/CactusWrenArtGallery

28 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

culture Z

The DeGrazia Galley in the Sun Celebrates the Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe

by Vanessa DeCardenas KNOWN AROUND THESE PARTS as Ted, Ettore DeGrazia is something of a local legend. Born in Morenci to Italian immigrants, DeGrazia spent a few years in Italy as a child, moved to Tucson to study at the University of Arizona, played trumpet in a big band, had his early paintings published in Arizona Highways, apprenticed with Diego Rivera, and famously set 100 of his paintings ablaze as an act of tax protest near the end of his life. Those who knew him remember how passionate he was about the Southwest, its people and the land. Much of DeGrazia’s work features depictions of the indigenous people of the Southwest, as well as the flora and fauna of the region.

DeGrazia spent a lot of time with the indigenous communities in Mexico along with the people of the Southwest, who cherished and venerated La Virgen de Guadalupe. Although he was not a churchgoing man himself, he wanted to find a way to honor the people in the communities of which he spent so much time. Adding architect and builder to his list of job titles, DeGrazia set out to design and build a gallery for his own art, a home for him and his wife Marion and a special adobe mission that he would build from the ground up.

Influenced by the life and work of Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, who built the San Xavier Mission three centuries earlier, DeGrazia erected the mission in his honor, then dedicated it to La Virgen de Guadalupe. DeGrazia’s vision for the mission was that it would be a place for anyone to come and pray and worship, or simply just sit in peace in a place that was devoted to a dark Madonna. That mission would come to be known as the Mission in the Sun.

La Virgen de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, appeared to Juan Diego in early December of 1531. She appeared to him three more times, then instructed Juan Diego to go to the top of Tepeyac Hill to gather some Castilian roses. She then arranged these roses on the inside of his cloak, which, when he opened it before the archbishop of Mexico City, fell out, leaving the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe on the cloth. She became a national symbol, uniting the cultures and religions of Mexico, and she is celebrated in Mexico and all over the world on December 12 with churchservices, special feasts, live music, parades, and fireworks.

Here in Tucson, we can celebrate La Virgen de Guadalupe at the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, where the annual Fiesta de Guadalupe has taken place for many years. This year’s La Fiesta de Guadalupe will take place on Sunday, December 8. The event will open with a special mass by Father Joseph Saba to celebrate the reopening of the Mission in the Sun after two years of renovation following a fire. The festivities to follow will begin at 10:00 a.m. and continue until 4:00 p.m. Admission to the event is free, as is admission to the gallery all day. Activities will span the entirety of the gallery grounds, with a stage for live music, booths for art vendors, and food trucks. This year, La Fiesta de Guadalupe hosts local mariachi band Corazón de Tucson, Ballet Folklórico Tapatío, jazz flamenco musician Ismael Barajas, and Yaqui Deer Dancers. With such a diverse schedule of events, participants, and attendees, this cultural melting pot of people and traditions honors La Virgen de Guadalupe, Ted DeGrazia’s affinity for the people of the Old Pueblo, and his vision of togetherness despite our differences. n December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 29

TUCSON HELICOPTER TOURS Experience breathtaking views of Gates Pass, Downtown Tucson, The Catalina Foothills, Mt. Lemmon, or The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan.

Call 520.917.0337 to book! volarehelicopters.com @volarehelicopters #flyvolareheli 30 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

artwork by Rudy Flores

arts Z

Rudy Flores Explores the Golden Past of Childhood

by Gregory McNamee A YOUNG BOY and his grandfather stop beside the Santa Cruz to enjoy a raspado, the shaved-ice treat that helps us endure a fact of life out this way: It’s a dry heat, but a fiery heat all the same, one that begs to be quenched.

Come the Fourth of July, and “A” Mountain will be on fire, the saguaros raising their arms in surrender. Downtown, a giant snake swallows up passers-by, while back down along the river La Llorona, looking like a cross between a moppet and a zombie, looks for wayward children. The good ones are tucked away in the kitchen making tamales (see the article in this issue) with their folks, and if nona sometimes takes a swat with a chancla, she’s more likely to reward her young descendants with a tortilla slathered in butter.

Born in 1975, Tucson artist Rudy Flores is not far enough away from childhood to have forgotten its pleasures and terrors, while he’s also been around long enough to remember bygone hotels and woebegone experiments like the multicolored downtown complex called La Placita. As a Tucsonan, places like the Rillito and Santa Cruz and Gates Pass are in his DNA, and he’s seen more than a few cars stuck in monsoon floodwaters under the Stone Avenue railroad crossing, the place old-timers call Lake Elmira. Add to the mix a fondness for yipping songdogs and Sonoran hotdogs, and you’ve got all the makings for a life appropriately lived in this always surprising place.

All these themes turn up in Flores’s latest art project, a 24-painting series called A Little Tucson Book, patterned on the Golden Books of childhood. The pieces are playful and right on point. They speak to Flores’s own childhood— “I remember my grandfather taking me for raspados down by the river,” he says, “and because we lived nearby, behind the Carrillo School, which has a lot of ghosts, I was always on the lookout for La Llorona.” Just so, his print “Best Friends” calls up a shimmering moment from anyone’s past, this one

commemorating his first dog, a German shepherd, and the love a dog brings to a kid at just the right time.

The series began as just four paintings, the first of them a too-hot-to-touch print bearing the old-saw legend “But it’s a dry heat.” Flores allows he didn’t really know what to do with them at first. “Then the library downtown got in touch,” he says, “and offered me the chance to put up a show.” It was all the incentive he needed, and soon a suite of affectionate portraits to his hometown were in place, visual histories of a childhood that, though personal, is also universal, allowing for a few substitutions. There aren’t many places besides ours, that is to say, where a “snorin’ hotdog” copping some midnight zees will elicit a knowing smile. Anyone who’s been for a late-night walk along the Rillito, disregarding the chance of an encounter with the scary ghost woman of legend, will smile as well at Flores’s evocation of what he calls a “Rillito River ensemble”—a coyote howling, a javelina snuffling, a rattlesnake coiling, and a turtle perambulating under a starry sky and a full moon.

The 24-image suite is just the right number to allow a viewer to go through the set without seeing either to little or too much, and Rudy Flores covers just about all the bases of what it means to be a Tucsonan. “I did this for myself at first,” he says, “but then when I decided to build the series, I set a goal that seemed appropriate. I hadn’t thought much about these things as an adult, and it was fun to go back and look at this place through the eyes of a child.” Fun it is—and the series makes an affectionate and affecting evocation of our pueblo.

Prints of the Little Tucson Book series are available for $10 each—though only $50 for the entire set—at www.alittletucsonbook.com. n December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 31

Z art galleries & exhibits

december ABSOLUTELY ART GALLERY & GIFTS Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-3pm. 16701 N. Oracle Rd Suite 145, Catalina, AZ. 520-818-1242.

AbsolutelyArtGallery.com

ARIZONA

HISTORY MUSEUM Current exhibits include: Stories of Resilience: Overcoming Adversity in Arizona History. Permanent Exhibits include: History Lab, Mining Hall, and Treasures of the Arizona History Museum. Hours: Mon & Fri 9am-6pm; Tues-Thurs 9am-4pm; Sat & Sun 11am-4pm. 949 E. 2nd Street. 520628-5774. ArizonaHistoricalSociety.org

Wilde Meyer Gallery “Holiday Party” on December 20. Artwork by Judy Choate, Four Winds, 6” x 20”, acrylic on canvas.

ARIZONA STATE MUSEUM

Pahko’ora / Pahko’ola: Mayo and Yaqui Masks from the James S. Griffith Collection is on view through Januaury 23, 2021. Sorting Out Race: Examining Racial Identity and Sterotypes in Thrift Store Donations is on view through February 29. The Resiliency of Hopi Agriculture: 2000 Years of Planting closes January 6. Long term exhibitions include Woven Through Time; The Pottery Project; Paths of Life. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm. 520-621-6302. 1013 E. University Blvd. StateMuseum.Arizona.Edu

CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY Contreras Gallery presents Milagros opening December 7.

The Qualities of LIGHT: The Story of a Pioneering New York City Photography Gallery is on view December 14 through May 9. David Benjamin Sherry: American Monuments Artist Talk is December 16 from 6pm to 7:30pm. David Hume Kennerly: Witness to History is on view through March 11 in the UA Old Main Building. Hours: Tue-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat 1-4pm. 1030 N. Olive Rd. 520-621-7968.

CreativePhotography.org

CONTRERAS

GALLERY Milagros opens December 7 with a reception from 6pm to 9pm and continues through January 31. Hours: TuesSat 10am-3:30pm. 110 E. 6th St. 520-398-6557.

ContrerasHouseFineArt.com DAVIS DOMINGUEZ GALLERY Four Women Artists is on view to January 4. Phenomenon opens January 10 and is on view through February 23. Hours: Tues-Fri 11am-5pm; Sat 11am-4pm. 154 E. 6th St. 520629-9759. DavisDominguez.com

DEGRAZIA GALLERY IN THE SUN Arizona Davis Dominguez Gallery presents Four Women Artists, on view to January 4. Artwork: Juniper oil on canvas by Susan Conaway.

32 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

Highways and Ted DeGrazia will be on display through January 29. Hours: Daily 10am-4pm. 6300 N. Swan Rd. 520-299-9191. DeGrazia.org

DESERT ARTISANS GALLERY Tucson, Gem of the Desert is on view in December. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 10am-1:30pm. 6536 E. Tanque Verde Rd. 520-722-4412. DesertArtisansGallery.com

art galleries & exhibits Z

THE DRAWING STUDIO

MINI TIME MACHINE Mario Patino’s Ravished

ETHERTON GALLERY

Expecting to Fly: Kate Breakey, Susan Burnstine, Keith Carter and Pentti Sammallahti is on view through January 11. Hours: TuesSat 11am-5pm or by appointment. 135 S. 6th Ave. 520624-7370. EthertonGallery.com

Landscapes and Rundown Interiors is on view through December 15. Miniature Paintings on Clayboard and Coins: Lee Beach and Bryanna Marie is on view December 17 to April 26. Behold the Big Top: Jean LeRoy’s Circus Parade is on view February 4 through May 10. Miniature Silver: The Helen Goodman Luria Collection continues through May 21. Tues-Sat 9am-4pm and Sun 12-4pm. 4455 E. Camp Lowell Dr. 520-881-0606.

TheMiniTimeMachine.org

IRONWOOD GALLERY Connecting Our Natural

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

On Home is on view through December 12. Hours: Mon-Thurs 9am-4pm. 2760 N. Tucson Blvd. 520-620-0947.

TheDrawingStudioTDS.org

Worlds is on view through January 5. International Exhibit of Nature in Art is on view January 18 through March 29 with an opening reception January 25. Hours: MonSun 10am-4pm. 2021 N. Kinney Rd. 520-883-3024.

DesertMuseum.org

JEWISH HISTORY MUSEUM

Asylum / Asilo is currently on view in the Allen and Marianne Langer Contemporary Human Rights Gallery. Hours: Fri 12-3pm; Sat & Sun 1-5pm. 564 S. Stone Ave. 520-670-9073.

JewishHistoryMuseum.org

JOSEPH GROSS GALLERY

The Snake Eats Its Tail is on view through January 23 with a reception January 23 from 5pm to 6:30pm. Papay Soloman | African for the First Time is on view January 30 through March 11 with a reception January 30 from 5pm to 6:30pm. Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm. 1031 N. Olive Rd. 520-626-4215.

CFA.arizona.edu/galleries

LIONEL

ROMBACH GALLERY 2019 BFA Capstone Illustration & Design Class Senior Undergraduate Thesis Show is on view to December 5. Talking Bodies: (de) Colonized Bodies - Eli Burke and Harrison Orr is on view January 7 to 16. Matriarchs: Erin Scott is on view January 21 to 30 with a reception January 29 from 3:30pm to 4:30pm. Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm.

1031 N. Olive Rd. 520-624-4215. CFA.arizona.edu/galleries LOUIS CARLOS BERNAL GALLERY

Take Nothing for Granted is on view through December 6.

Hours: Mon-Thurs 10am-5pm and Fri 10am-3pm. Pima Community College, 2202 West Anklam Rd. 520-2066942. Pima.Edu

MADARAS GALLERY Holiday & Bird Month is on view December 1 - 31. Hours: Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm. 3035 N. Swan Rd. 520-615-3001. Madaras.com

MARK SUBLETTE MEDICINE MAN GALLERY New Works Show is on view through December 13. Francis Livingston – Sun Lands opens December 6 with a reception from 5pm to 7pm and is on view through January 10. 6872 E. Sunrise Dr. Suite 130.

520-722-7798. MedicineManGallery.com

Ali Silverstein: The Fantastical Reconstruction of the Epine GY7 Chapter 1: The Fragments; Caroline Wells Chandler: Close Encounters; Rachel Frank: Thresholds; and Lilly McElroy: So Long are on view through December 29.

Hours: Weds-Sun 12-5pm. 265 S. Church Ave. 520-6245019. MOCA-Tucson.org

PHILABAUM GLASS GALLERY & STUDIO Fresh Views will be on display through January 25. Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-4pm. 711 S. 6th Ave. 520-884-7404.

PhilabaumGlass.com

PORTER HALL GALLERY

Pearls of Eden – Wil Taylor is on view through January 5. Hours: Daily 8:30am-4:30pm. 2150 N. Alvernon Way. 520-326-9686.

TucsonBotanical.org

RAICES TALLER 222 GALLERY Small Works continues through January 4. Hours: Fri & Sat 1-5pm and by appointment. 218 E. 6thStreet. 520-881-5335.

RaicesTaller222.com

SO ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM Dinner in the Diner is currently on display featuring original china and silver service from the named first class Pullman trains. 414 N. Toole Ave. 520-623-2223.

TucsonHistoricDepot.org

SOUTHERN ARIZONA WATERCOLOR GUILD Holiday Show is on view December 3 to January 5 with a reception December 5 from 5pm to 7pm. Signature Members Show is on view January 7 to February 2 with a reception January 16 from 5pm to 7pm. Hours: Tues-Sun 11am-4pm. Williams Centre 5420 East Broadway Blvd #240. 520-299-7294. SouthernAZWatercolorGuild.com

TOHONO CHUL PARK

In the Main Gallery, Rancho Linda Vista is on view through February 5.

Jim Waid: The Rancho Linda Vista Drawings is on view through February 5 in the Welcome Gallery.10 x 10 is on view through December 22 in the Entry Gallery. Hours: Daily 9am-5pm. 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. 520-7426455. TohonoChulPark.org

TUCSON DESERT ART MUSEUM

Delilah Montoya, Sed, the Trail of Thirst is on view through February 2. Ongoing exhibitions include: Desert Hollywood, Sacred Walls: Native American Muralism.

Hours: Weds-Sun 10am-4pm. 7000 E Tanque Verde Rd. 520-202-3888. TucsonDArt.org

TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART

The Western Sublime: Majestic Landscapes of the American West and Harry Brorby: The Strength of a Cold Line are on view through February 9. Dwayne Manuel: Landslice is on view through June 30, 2020. Oazacan Folk Art from the Shepard Barbash and Vicki Ragan Collection is on view through August 9, 2020. I’m Every Woman: Representations of Women on Paper is on view through September 6, 2020. Ongoing exhibits include Ralph Gibson: Photographs; Art of the American West; Latin American Folk Art; J. Knox Corbett House, and the La Casa Cordova. Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm. 140 N. Main Ave. 520-624-2333. TucsonMuseumofArt.org

UA MUSEUM OF ART American Art Gallery: 1925 to 1945 is on view through May 2020. Crafting My Story: Experience of Loss, Grief and Spiritual Life is on view through January 12. The University of Arizona School of Art Faculty Exhibition is on display through January 5.

Shades of Subalternity is on view through December 12.

Ongoing exhibitions include, Highlights of the Permanent Collection and The Altarpiece From Ciudad Rodrigo.

Hours: Tues-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat 9am-5pm; Sun 12-5pm.

1031 N. Olive Rd. 520-621-7567. ArtMuseum.Arizona.Edu

UA POETRY CENTER

A World on Paper: Broadsides opens December 3 and is on view through February 15. Hours: Mon & Thurs 9am-8pm; Tues, Weds, Fri 9am-5pm. 1508 E. Helen St. 520-626-3765. Poetry.

Arizona.Edu

WILDE MEYER GALLERY

On December 20, The Holiday Party is from 5pm to 7pm. Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5:30pm; Thurs 10am-7pm; Sat 10am-6pm; Sun 12-5pm. 2890 E. Skyline Dr. Suite 170. 520-615-5222.

WildeMeyer.com

WOMANKRAFT ART GALLERY The Holiday Bazaar is on view through December 18 with a reception December 7 from 7pm to 10pm. Getting Into Shapes is February 2 to March 30 with receptions February 2 and March 2 from 7pm to 9pm. Hours: Weds-Sat 1-5pm. 388 S. Stone Ave. 520-629-9976. WomanKraft.org. n

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 33

Open Daily Bar + Bottleshop at the MSA Annex 267 S. AVENIDA DEL CONVENTO

34 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

performances Z

Azúl Galindo as Celestina, Marc Pinate as Aníbal in Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre’s Cloud Tectonics.

Photo by Tim Fuller.

191 TOOLE Comedians Ian Harris & Jamie Kilstein (featuring Ron Swallow), December 15, 8:00 pm. 191 E. Toole. 520-445-6425. 191Toole.com

ARIZONA FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC Takacs Quartet, December 4, 7:30pm. Leo Rich Theater, 260 South Church Ave. 520-577-3769.

ArizonaChamberMusic.org

ARIZONA OPERA

La Boheme, February 1 & 2.

Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 520-2934336. AZOpera.org

ARIZONA REPERTORY THEATRE

The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe, February 8 to 23. Tornabene Theatre, 1025 N. Olive Rd. 520-621-1162. Theatre.

Arizona.edu

ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY

Cabaret, through December 29. Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 520-884-8210. ArizonaTheatre.org

BALLET TUCSON The Nutcracker, December 28 & 29. Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. 520-9013194. BalletTucson.org

BROADWAY IN TUCSON Jesus Christ Superstar, December 3 to 8. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. 520-903-2929. BroadwayinTucson.com

CARNIVAL OF ILLUSION

Tucson Grand Parlour, December 7, 4:30 pm & 7:30 pm. Scottish Rite Cathedral Grand Parlor, 160 S. Scott Ave. 520-615-5299.

CarnivalOfIllusion.com

CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF TUCSON Variations Plus, December 7 at 3:00pm at Valley Presbyterian Church and December 8 at 3:00 pm. Christ Church United Methodist, 665 N. Craycroft Rd. 520-730-3371.

COTMusic.org

FOX TUCSON

Mercury: A Celebration of Freddie Mercury’s Life and Music, December 1, 7:00pm; Kip Moore Room to Spare Acoustic Tour, December 5, 8:00pm; An Irish Christmas, December 6, 7:30pm; Tucson Girls Chorus: Sounds of Winter, December 8, 3:30pm; Asleep at the Wheel: Merry Texas Christmas Y’all, December 10, 7:30pm; Jesus Christ Superstar with Stars Ted Neely & Yvonne Elliman, December 11, 7:00pm; Lightwire Theater: A Very Electric Christmas, December 13, 6:30pm; Merry-Achi Christmas, December 15, 4:00pm; It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), December 19. 7:30pm; In the Christmas Mood: A Holiday Music Spectacular, December 20, 7:30pm; David Broza & Friends, December 21, 7:30pm; Voctave – The Spirit of the Season, December 22, 6:30pm; It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), December 23, 2:00pm; The Polar Express (2004) December 23, 10:00am & 6:00pm. Fox Theatre, 17 W Congress St. 520-547-3040. FoxTucson.com

THE GASLIGHT THEATRE

The Secret Santa, through January 5. 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. 520-8869428. TheGaslightTheatre.com

INVISIBLE THEATRE

Vivian’s Music, 1969, January 18 & 19. 1400 N. First Ave. 520-882-9721.

InvisibleTheatre.com

LAFFS COMEDY CAFFE Geoff Asmus, December 6 & 7; Still Standing Up! Featuring Dave Fitzsimmons, December 8, 6:00pm. 2900 E. Broadway. 520-32-Funny.

LaffsTucson.com

LIVE

THEATRE WORKSHOP Tilly The Trickster by Molly Shannon, through December 29. The Norwegians, January 9 through February 15. 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. 520-327-4242. LiveTheatreWorkshop.org PIMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DANCE Signature Selections, December 13 at 7:30pm and December 14 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. PCC Center for the Arts, West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Rd. 520-206-6986.

Pima.Edu

ODYSSEY STORYTELLING SERIES

Chill, December 5, doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm, The Sea of Glass Center for the Arts, 330 E. 7th St. 520-730-4112.

OdysseyStorytelling.com

ROGUE THEATRE Moby Dick, January 9 to 26. The Beauty Queen of Leenane, February 27 to March 15. 300 East University Blvd. 520-551-2053. RogueTheatre.org

SCOUNDREL AND SCAMP THEATRE Cloud Tectonics, through December 8. 738 N 5th Ave. 520-448-3300. ScoundrelandScamp.org

SOUTHERN ARIZONA PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY Hot Mikado, January 17 to 26 at the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre. 520-261-0915.

SAPACTucson.org

SOUTHERN ARIZONA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Die Fledermaus, January 18, 7:00 pm and January 19 at 2:00 pm. Rincon High School, 421 N. Arcadia Ave. 520-308-6226. SASOMusic.org

TUCSON REPERTORY ORCHESTRA Family Concert, 1:30 pm & Music of the Masters XVI, 3:00 pm, December 28. Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. TucsonRepertoryOrchestra.org

TUCSON

SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA

Beethoven’s Fifth, December 6, 7:30 pm. Messiah & Bach, December 14, 4:00 pm. The Texas Tenors: Deep In The Heart of Christmas, December 21, 7:30 pm. See website for locations. 520-882-8585. TucsonSymphony.org

UA PRESENTS Jesus Christ Superstar (Presented

by Broadway in Tucson) December 3 to 8. Broadway Princess (HOLIDAY) Party, December 15. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. 520-621-3364. UAPresents.org

UNSCREWED THEATER Family friendly shows every Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 pm. 3244 E. Speedway Blvd. 520-289-8076. UnscrewedTheater.org

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 35

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE DIAMOND CENTER Tickets available at the Rewards Center or online at Startickets.com

TUESDAY

DEC. 31 SATURDAY

JAN. 11 FRIDAY

JAN. 24

Sahuarita An Enterprise of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

photo: Andrea De la Parra

food Z

Tamales

There Is Power in the Masa

by Gregory McNamee THERE’S AN OLD JOKE that used to be current around this time of year: “A dozen friends are coming over, and I only made 50,000 tamales.” There’s reason for the chiste: Though a staple of the Sonoran table year-round, tamales take pride of place around Christmas, especially red chile and the delicately flavored green corn tamales that, about which the Tucson Tamale Company proclaims, “If Tucson had only one tamale, this would be it.”

Tamales aren’t terribly hard to make, but no two tamaleros seem to agree on exactly what goes into them, and secret family recipes often figure into the intrigue. Does a tamale properly contain potato? In many hands, yes, in others no. How about an olive—and should it be pitted or unpitted? What’s the best kind of chile to tuck inside one? How much masa to how much water, and how long do you work it? Freshly hulled corn kernels, or frozen?

Just as you can put just about anything into a corn tortilla and call it a taco, so the tamale accommodates a generous range of interpretations. After the arrival of Europeans onto the continent, tamales were traditionally made with pork or beef—for chicken tends to dry up when entombed in masa. Farther south in Mexico banana leaves take the place of corn husks, and mole negro—a blend of bitter chocolate and pepper—takes the place of salsa, but it’s unsafe to generalize much beyond that. In Acapulco, for instance, you might find a tamale filled with shrimp, but so might you in Houston. In Santa Fe the tamale might be made with blue corn. In Tucson, as noted, the green corn tamale has long been a specialty, made of masa studded with moist kernels of corn and filled with chiles, usually on the mild side, and white cheese.

Outside of Mexico, tamales were a very strictly Southwestern thing until the twentieth century. Go north and east of Texas and its cultural outposts, and

you were not likely to encounter one by that name anywhere else. One such outpost was western Arkansas, where a teenage girl named Mattie Ross, the protagonist of Charles Portis’s great novel True Grit, encounters one in 1875: “A noisy boy was going through the crowd selling parched peanuts and fudge.

Another one was selling ‘hot tamales’ out of a bucket. This is a cornmeal tube filled with spicy meat that they eat in Old Mexico. They are not bad.” Writing in 1897, a transplant to California named Corinne Updegraff tried to describe one of the things for magazine readers back East, but, having exalted in the “steaming corn husks wrapped around a mixture of meal and butter and chicken and olives and red peppers, with special reference to the red peppers,” she concluded, “a tamale cannot be described, it has to be appreciated.”

That’s so, and for all that storied history, you’ve got to do a lot of field research before coming to any conclusions about the cornmeal tube in question. (Still, butter? No: lard, baby, lard!) Artist Rudy Flores (see the profile in this issue) remembers buying tamales from vendors outside Food City on Country Club and 22nd Street, while for many years my go-to purveyor was a nona who stood outside the Safeway on Kino Boulevard and Broadway with a shopping cart full of tamales that, no matter how late in the day you bought them, still steamed as if they’d come straight out of the kitchen.

The street vendors seem fewer these days than in the past, but you can find good tamales at many emporia. Field research is one thing, but deciding which are the best is quite another. For the minute, in no particular order, my favorites are from Tanias 33 (614 N. Grande Ave.), St. Mary’s Mexican Food (1030 W. St. Mary’s Rd.), and La Estrella Bakery (120 S. Avenida del Convento). But there’s always more research to do… ¡Buen provecho! n December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 37

downtown Z

The (Re)Birth of Downtown Revisiting Steve Farley’s Broadway Tile Murals, 20 Years On

by Gregory McNamee

T

photo: Andrea Smith

here’s not much in our city’s history that can be pinned down with a from the Tucson Pima Arts Council. Four walls, the call announced, were going precise date—not the time the first O’odham people settled here, not to be made available for public art at the new terminus of the Aviation Corridor the week when someone thought it might be nice to build an adobe with Broadway at the underpass under the Southern Pacific railroad bridge, hut within sight of the Santa Cruz, not the hour when a bureaucrat the eastern gateway to downtown. Farley’s idea was to use that space to erect a released the funds to destroy the barrios that lay under what’s now tile mural highlighting the street photography of the sort he had seen in Gilbert the community center. But it is possible to put a date to the day when, for better Jimenez’s album. He set about writing a proposal detailing that vision and the or worse, a long-declining, somnolent downtown took the first step toward processes he would use to print the photographs, a process he calls “more being reborn: May 1, 1999. biological than technical.”

To understand that claim, we need to step back a couple of years before “There were a lot of entries,” says downtown art gallery owner Terry then. Steve Farley, a native of California, was fairly new to Tucson, a transplant Etherton, who was on the advisory board of TPAC at the time. “We narrowed from his native Southern it down to five. I didn’t know who California by way of a stint in the Steve was, only that he was new Bay Area, where he’d worked to town and that he’d never done for a few years for the weekly any public art before. But his San Francisco Bay Guardian and proposal was so well grounded then started his own graphic in history that it seemed like design business. He wanted to he’d been here all the time, and get back to drier, hotter country, it was so well thought through, but Southern California was down to the tiniest detail and expensive and crowded. Enter the last penny. Really, it was the Tucson, a welcoming community smartest proposal I’d ever seen, for an artist—and Farley was and nothing honored Tucson’s soon right at home here, doing history like his did. I supported art photographic and graphic the project from the get-go. design.

Twenty years later, I’m glad I did.”

Somewhere along the The other judges for the way, not long after he arrived, competition were unanimous opportunity came knocking. in agreeing with Etherton, and Farley and his then-wife, Regina they awarded Farley $171,000 Kelly, were working on a public to complete the project—a sum history project with teenagers that sounds comfortable until Steve Farley at the mural dedication in 1999. on the west side, immersing you calculate the costs of making themselves in local lore. Hearing of the project, a resident, Gilbert Jimenez, the art and spread it out over the number of hours required to make that art, at came to a meeting with a stack of photo albums dating back half a century. The which point Farley might have done better to take a straight job. first image Farley and Kelly saw was of a young, purposeful-looking Jimenez He didn’t, but the race was on: From the time he started in earnest until striding along Scott Avenue, a pile of books riding on his right hip, headed the unveiling wasn’t much more than a year, and in the meanwhile there were toward school. Other photographs followed, taking from an angle low enough photographs to find and tiles to make. The word went out that Farley and Kelly that the subjects of the portraits appeared to be superheroes out of a comic were on the hunt for street images from downtown’s golden age, back when book, men, women, and children on their way to meet destiny. Jimenez was all the city’s barrios were alive and the city center was where you had to come one, the future his. The pose was much in the vein of the social realist art of the to buy shoes or a soda and see a film. Images began to turn up. One photo of time, but in the half-century since it had fallen out of fashion—and now here it an impossibly thin, impeccably dressed young man, a young god whose shoes was, with numerous examples to point to. gleamed whiter than the sun, turned out to be beloved musician Eduardo Farley, who about that time had come up with a new process for printing “Lalo” Guerrero. He joined in the cause, performing at a benefit concert at photographs on ceramic tiles, resolved that one day he was going to figure out which Linda Ronstadt made an appearance. Consciousness raised, the word a way to incorporate those images into some project or another. Opportunity out, people from all over the community began to turn up with images, and knocked again, just a few weeks later, when a “call to artists” arrived in the mail where there had been a desert before there was now a flood.

continues on page 41

December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 39

downtown Z

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The Finest Hummingbird Nectar Broad-billed illlustration by George West

Meanwhile, Farley, Kelly, and the budding researchers with whom they were working began to find out more about the street photographers themselves, who freelanced for a downtown druggist with a charmingly simple operation: They’d snap a photo of an approaching pedestrian, give that person a card with a number and an address at which to pick up the shot, then develop the film and deliver it. A package of eight prints went for a buck and a quarter. The work was artful, capturing downtowners and visitors in midstride as they went about their day. The ploy worked, too. The photographers took as many as a thousand shots a day of the people whom Farley called “heroes and neighbors,” doing a thriving business until downtown slowly began to board up in the late 1950s and early ’60s, as shops moved to new centers such as El Con and Casas Adobes and the north and east sides exploded.

Anyone who’s listened to Steve Farley make a political pitch in the years since knows that he knows that the devil truly is in the details—and that he’s a detail man par excellence. Finding those street images was a monumental undertaking in itself, one fraught with difficulties, for, as Farley says, “There’s always a risk of putting real people in public art.” No one ever complained, he adds, and as it turned out, it was just as difficult to narrow the number of images down once a mountain of them had been assembled as it had been to find and identify them.

In any event, rounding up all those images involved coordinating the efforts of many people and reaching out to many more, making cold calls, knocking on doors, talking and talking, fundraising, meeting, planning, delivering—in short, doing politics. Farley completed the project on time and under budget, but, as he says, “the bug had bit.” It wasn’t too long before he was running for public office, serving as a state representative and later senator, mounting runs for governor of Arizona and, this year, mayor of Tucson.

Working with longtime partners Rick Young and Tom Galloway, Farley has since gone on to do public art projects in cities all over the country. (See www. tilography.com for more on them.) Fifteen years after the Broadway Underpass mural project, the modern streetcar came onto the scene in Tucson, something that he’d been promoting—and scrapping for in the legislature—for years. That added a whole new layer to the downtown he envisioned as a newcomer, one that, at least in its better manifestations, is the one we have today.

As for the murals themselves, Farley points out that, unlike most available surfaces in this town, they’ve never been seriously vandalized. That might be the luck of the draw, but more likely it’s a sign of the respect that everyone in the community has for the army of ghosts and elders who inhabit those walls.

A few tiles have been damaged here and there, and the city hasn’t done much to correct it, about the only downside that Farley finds in the whole project.

The city, he says, has long since fallen down on its contractual obligation to maintain the project, a matter of some caulk and a few hundred dollars.

That would be money wisely spent, for the Broadway Underpass mural project is among the best known and most heavily visited sites of public art in the state, framed by Simon Donovan’s striking Rattlesnake Bridge on one side and a growing, constantly evolving downtown on the other. Great-grandchildren come to see their great-grandparents enshrined in tile, standing ten feet tall.

Their great-grandparents oblige, looking like demigods—more than ordinary mortals, at least—in their crisp new blue jeans, their Stetsons and fedoras, their nearly pressed wool dresses and brilliant white shirts. Abuelas look at themselves as young girls, old men as boys out for a lark on a hot Saturday afternoon. Developers walk alongside artisans, cotton farmers, and window shoppers, lost and now refound in time. As Farley said in his speech marking the opening of the mural, “we have enough monuments to lizards and ocotillos.

We have too few celebrating the everyday Tucsonans who built Tucson.”

Call it May 1, 1999, then, the day when Tucson, with a wall of art 18 feet tall by 158 feet long, took a giant step toward remaking a moribund downtown into the space it is today. “The murals were an intentional way of reminding people that downtown was and can be the heart of the community,” says Farley, 20 years on. “And they honor a past that we should always remember.” n

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books Z

The Role of the Saints An Excerpt from Legendary Folklorist James S. Griffith’s New Book Saints, Statues, and Stories

I met Jim Griffith, known to one and all as Big Jim, in 1974, the year before I moved to Tucson. Lured by Linda Ronstadt and the promise of the desert, I found him to be the closing argument in the case to split from the East Coast and go someplace more civilized. In the decades since, everything I’ve heard from him—even the puns and bad jokes—and read by him has helped me be a better citizen of the Sonoran Desert and the Pimería Alta, and I’m far from alone in that.

In his new book, Saints, Statues, and Stories (University of Arizona Press), Jim looks south of the border at folk religious traditions, manifestations of which can be found everywhere you look in the Old Pueblo. —Gregory McNamee

photo: Gregory McNamee

The role of the saints is to intercede with God on behalf of the petitioner— to act as his or her advocates. In popular belief, if one asks for a saint’s help and the desired result ensues, there is little reason to doubt that a miracle has occurred. After all, to assume otherwise would be to doubt the power of God. The saints can be asked that a family member’s health be improved, or that the petitioner be rescued from a disastrous marriage or some other unpleasant situation. Candles and other offerings placed in front of the relevant image attract the saint’s attention and act as a sign of the petitioner’s willingness to fulfill the conditions of whatever promise is being made once the request is granted. Because the smoke and flame of a candle rise directly toward heaven, and because candles must be purchased, the candle can serve as both a prayer and a small sacrifice.

If a prayer appears to have been answered, it is customary for the petitioner to do something in gratitude.

Sometimes this can involve an act such as wearing the saint’s habit over the petitioner’s clothing for a specified time, making a pilgrimage, or purchasing a thanks offering of some sort and placing it by the saint’s image. These offerings, called ex-votos, from a Latin phrase meaning “from a vow,” can take several forms. They may be plaques, paintings, or even

pieces of paper bearing the names of the saint and the petitioner and the date and often the nature of the miracle. In the past, some ex-voto paintings were commissioned from local artists, and might include a depiction of the incident involved. More commonly today, ex-votos take the form of small metal representations indicating the nature of the miracle. These tiny objects, locally called milagros, can represent parts of the body, useful animals, and even cars and houses. Although most are mass produced and available from stores selling religious articles, some milagros are specially ordered from jewelers and may even be of precious metals.

Some popular saints’ images accumulate quantities of ex-votos. A huge roadside mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Highway 15 between Hermosillo and Guaymas, painted as an ex-voto and labeled as such, stands surrounded by hundreds of ex-votos, ranging from tiny nichos to signs and paintings. This site deserves serious documentation; its contents could provide material for an illustrated essay on mid-twentieth-century Sonoran devotional art.

Sometimes one hears of the holy personage acting directly to put things right. Once, when I was standing beside a statue of the Santo Niño de Atocha (Holy Child of Atocha) in Santa Ana Viejo, a small town just west of the junction city of Santa Ana, I was told that a few years previously, a family had been driving through the desert on Highway 15 between Santa Ana and Hermosillo.

When they stopped to picnic beside the road, their little boy wandered off and could not be found. After a long and futile search, the child wandered back to the car, well fed, rested, and happy. He told his parents he had been scared until he found another little boy, who played with him, gave him food from a basket and water from a gourd, and led him back to his family. The tellers had no doubt that the other boy was the Santo Niño, who is usually shown carrying a basket and a water gourd. This is not the only occasion I have been told of when the Santo Niño helped lost travelers in our Sonoran Desert. n

Votive statues in the chapel of San Xavier del Bac. December 2019|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 43

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Let me admit this publicly: I never did care for the Sidewinders/Sand Rubies or most of the other bands playing in and around Club Congress (311 E. Congress) in the mid- to late 1980s. This list would also include the Phantom Limbs, Giant Sandworms/Giant Sand, and any number of other groups of that ilk. (I did like the River Roses and had an appreciation for Al Perry.) Generally, these bands seemed long on volume and short on melody, all of which made it difficult to fully appreciate whatever the lyrics were trying to convey. But David Slutes and Rich Hopkins, the creative brain trust behind the Sidewinders, are such genuinely nice guys and good people, it was easy to get caught up in all the hoopla surrounding the 30-year anniversary show for their breakthrough album and major label (RCA Records) release, Witch Doctor.

The vibe inside Club Congress on the night of November 22 was electric with anticipation, and I could not imagine wanting to be anywhere else as the band went on stage. Aside from enjoying the show, however, the bigger upside was in getting a chance to revisit Hopkins’s most recent CD, Back to the Garden. This album, released late last spring under the Rich Hopkins and the Luminarios moniker, is also a collaboration with his wife, Lisa Novak, and it’s a delight. With an abundance of melody and thoughtful and often heartfelt lyrics, these tunes reminded me of groups like The Band, Tom Petty, The Byrds, and in one case, when I actually forgot who I was listening to, Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Mostly, however, experiencing this CD was a great lesson in being reminded how everything is not always how or what we expect it to be. As a bonus, opening that show was the recently transplanted husband-and-wife duo Birds and Arrows. With an electric guitar and full drum kit (no bass), they filled the room with great energy, singing, and playing.

Usually I am also loath to promote Christmas/holiday fare, but there are three upcoming shows I wouldn’t miss. On December 7, Arizona Daily Star editorial cartoonist and general mischiefmaker David Fitzsimmons will present his annual Arroyo Café Holiday Radio Show. Think Prairie Home Companion with a decidedly local twist, performed, in the afternoon, at the Rialto Theatre (318 E. Congress), and recorded for a Christmas Eve broadcast on KUAZ/KUAT public radio. With a cast of many whom he’s worked with over the years, this year’s show will feature special guest Mark Russell. Famous for his many PBS specials featuring political satire from behind the piano, Russel has long been idolized by Fitz. Two peas in seemingly disconnected pods, Russell is actually coming out of semiretirement for this gig. Proceeds will benefit a number of groups serving immigrants and refugees.

Contrast this with filmmaker John Waters reprising his John Waters Christmas Show, also at the Rialto, on December 9. (See the feature article in this issue.) Do not expect a family-friendly show from the writer/director of the infamous cult classic Pink Flamingos as well as the unimaginably successful Hairspray franchise. But do expect clever, outrageous, adult-oriented fun. He is one complex character.

tunes Z

Xylouris White, Friday, December 13, at El Crisol Bar

photo: Puspa Lohmeyer

Musically speaking, Asleep at the Wheel, an eight-piece band from Texas that for many years has been turning generations of young and old onto their brand of western swing, has developed a holiday-themed show, Merry Texas Christmas Y’All. Fans will love this show, which takes place on December 10 at 7:30 at the Fox Theatre (17 W. Congress).

Finally, as reported in these pages last month, blues guitarist extraordinaire Bryan Dean, recovering from a badly broken leg, did indeed make his return to the Rockabilly Grill (3700 N. Oracle Ave.) on November 25. A packed-tobursting house included many if not most of the musicians who sat in with and for Bryan Dean Trio members Ralph Gilmore and Koko Matsumoto. Some might attribute the success of this no-cover Monday night gig to Dean’s astute use of Facebook to promote his brand. But mostly it’s because everything he gives comes from the heart, and that’s what folks both on and off the stage respond to.

More Stuff . . .

Kim Wilson’s Blues All Stars, December 6, El Casino Ballroom (437 E. 26th St.). Wilson is best known as the leader of the long-running Fabulous Thunderbirds and is one of the premier blues singers and harmonica players in the world, having graced the albums by Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and James Cotton, to name a few.

The Great Cover Up, December 12–14, 191 Toole/Club Congress. I don’t know if they are still involved, but I will always associate this show with former Tucson Weekly music columnist Stephen Siegel, Mel Mason, and Curtis McCrary, who helps run the Rialto. Their past dedication to sustaining this great event throughout the years deserves kudos, whether they are still involved or not.

The premise is wonderfully simple. Bands who play mostly original music get to do 20-minute sets covering folks who for the most part they would never cover in their shows. Some groups come in costume, while others will look to imitate in various ways designed to flatter. My only issue is how the organizers, who promote the names of performers along with artists being covered, make it a point to keep secret who is covering whom until they actually hit the stage.

Personally, I’d be more excited if I knew exactly who was covering whom.

Absent that, this show, which spans three consecutive evenings (191 Toole on Thursday and Saturday, Club Congress on Friday), features a diverse mix of covered artists including Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, and Squeeze (Thursday), Jeff Buckley, Lana Del Rey, Cream, the Pixies, and Al Green (Friday), and Tom Waits, The Clash, Dolly Parton, and R.E.M. (Saturday). And that’s only the half of it. With too many local bands to mention, and not knowing who they will cover, it’s a musical potluck and always great fun. This year’s proceeds benefit KXCI Community Radio.

Xylouris White & Kyklo, Friday, December 13, El Crisol Bar (403 N. 6th Ave) Playing Cretan music of original and traditional composition, Xylouris White consists of Georgios Xylouris on Cretan laouto and vocals and Jim White on drums. Xylouris is known and loved by Cretans and Greeks at home and abroad and has been playing professionally since he was 12 years old. Jim White is an Australian drummer known and loved throughout the world as the drummer of Dirty Three, Venom P Stinger, and Bill Callahan.

Kyklo plays music of the mountain villages, ancient islands, hashish dens, cafés, harems, pubs, dance halls, cloisters, and prisons of the old world, musical traditions living and dead.

A Night for Amy, December 20, 191 Toole. Tom Walbank, Katie Haverly, Naim Amor, Ben Nisbet, and others headline a night of music by Amy Winehouse. Proceeds benefit the Southern AZ Aids Foundation.

Gabrielle Pietrangelo, December 21, Club Congress. Many will remember her as one of the three stellar voices of Silver Thread Trio. Others might recall seeing her on stage at the Tucson Folk Festival or the Scottish Rites Temple conducting and arranging her multivoiced chorale groups Sister Solace or, before that, Old Soul Sisters. But Gabby is also a songwriter, and this return to those roots will be a showcase for tunes from her new CD, On My Way Back Home. Although billed as a solo show, expect special guests for a special night. n

Gabrielle Pietrangelo, December 21, at Club Congress.

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Z sceneintucson

Cowboys on a quest to find some “critters” (cattle) on a local ranch.

46 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|December 2019

Coming Soon!

Rare opportunity to purchase one or all three of the historic buildings known as the “Amado Block�, each zoned HC-3. Call for private tour of these properties.

443 S. Stone - The original 1880s Amado house, currently used as a music school, 5039 sf.

Live/work space, retail, studio/art gallery, offices. Look into all of the possibilities! 699k.

24 E. 15th St - Lovely fully restored two-story Victorian, built in 1905, also zoned HC-3, 2782 sf, currently used as an antiques shop, but begs to be an elegant residence again. 795k.

16 E. 15th - 1920s bungalow with inviting front porch, open floorplan, original fireplace and built-ins, 1051 sf. Will be priced between 250k and 299k.

Happy Holidays!

SUSAN DENIS 520.977.8503 susan.denis@gmail.com