The legacy of Dr. Aureliano Urrutia extends far past the boundaries of Miraflores, his once-private Twenties sculpture backyard now a part of Brackenridge Park. Urrutia, a famous Mexican surgeon who relocated to San Antonio throughout the Mexican Revolution, introduced together with him an artist whose title resounds all through San Antonio’s previous and current: Dionicio Rodríguez.
Rodríguez is understood regionally for an in depth legacy of fake bois artworks — the time period means “imitation wooden,” although Rodriguez most well-liked the broader time period “trabajo rústico,” that means “rustic work” — stationed all through the town, from a footbridge in Brackenridge Park and a Broadway Avenue bus cease to a fantastic fence round what was as soon as the Alamo Cement Firm that way back provided the artist along with his signature materials.
Rodríguez’s legacy additionally extends to different artists and artisans, some well-known, comparable to his colleague Máximo Cortés, and Máximo’s son Carlos Cortés and lots of others unknown, all through the town, state, and in a number of states past Texas borders.
Authors Patsy Pittman Mild and Kent Rush observe Rodriguez’s important affect in a brand new quantity, Artisans of Trabajo Rústico: The Legacy of Dionicio Rodríguez, printed final November by Texas A&M College Press. The guide follows Mild’s 2008 guide Capturing Nature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodríguez.
Whereas Rodríguez and Cortés are essentially the most distinguished artisans of trabajo rústico in and round San Antonio, Mild and Rush discover present works by a gallery of artisans together with Basilio Aguilar, Antonio Lopez, Sam Murray, Frank Ramos, Rene Romero, Dionicio Rosales, and Beatrice and Pedro Ximénez. Carlos Cortés, who operates Studio Cortés within the King William neighborhood, stays distinguished in San Antonio, with maybe his grandest work represented within the elaborate River Stroll grotto on the Museum Attain.
Profitable recognition
Mild traces the emergence of fake bois from its origins in mid-1800s France, by means of its use by famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, its look later in Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Panama, Mexico, after which San Antonio with the arrival of Mexican emigres Rodríguez and Cortés. Examples of the work will be discovered all through Texas and in different states together with Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, and most notably Arkansas, the place Rodríguez was acknowledged within the early Nineteen Eighties as a “Mexican-American folks sculptor.”
In 1984, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program received Nationwide Register of Historic Locations recognition for Rodríguez’s sculptures within the state, principally in Little Rock and Sizzling Springs.
Mild achieved the identical outcome for his Texas sculptures in 2004, however works by Rodríguez in Beaumont, Corpus Christi, and close to Floresville had already been destroyed, proof that recognition for the creative worth of trabajo rústico sculptures was a lot tougher received in Texas.
Mild mentioned throughout her analysis within the early 2000s, she discovered that in San Antonio Rodríguez’s work was uncared for or largely dismissed as being made by “some little Mexican man,” or at finest as “a person named Rodríguez about 1930” within the stock of the Spanish Governor’s Palace, the place the artist made a number of works that also exist. And when the College of the Incarnate Phrase acquired the Miraflores property in 2001 it deliberate to raze the grounds — which maintain a number of works by Rodriguez — to construct a car parking zone. That effort was halted when the property was transferred to the Metropolis of San Antonio two years later.
Mary King, board president of the Castroville Conservation Society and a member of the Medina County Historic Fee, is working to assist win the county’s recognition for the Rodríguez grotto on the grounds of the Moye Retreat Middle, within the care of the Sisters of Divine Windfall. The grotto is uncommon as a result of Rodríguez used Edwards Plateau honeycomb limestone to assemble it, much like his elaborate grotto and stations of the cross on the St. Anthony de Padua Catholic Church in northeast San Antonio, however few different such examples exist.
If King and cohort are profitable at reaching Medina County recognition, a historic plaque will probably be mounted on the web site someday in 2023.
A fragile existence
Nevertheless, the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations designation applies solely to Rodríguez’s work, and a current incident involving a big spherical planter signed by Máximo Cortés close to the Moye Middle highlights the fragility of different examples of this folks artwork custom.
In her 2008 quantity on Rodríguez, Mild mentions the planter and means that as a frequent collaborator with Rodríguez, Cortés may need helped construct the Castroville grotto. Nevertheless, the planter now not exists, destroyed in January by a enterprise proprietor who changed it with a car parking zone.
Castroville Conservation Society member Meg Conner had taken pictures of the planter in September as a part of her effort to win recognition for Rodriguez’s work and examples of trabajo rústico in Castroville. Conner lamented the lack of the piece. “I believed it was one thing we should always defend and protect,” identical to the grotto, she mentioned.
King mentioned she’s identified of the piece since transferring to Castroville in 2008, however she assumes that like many residents, she didn’t understand its historic significance.
“That’s why we in all probability have to make individuals extra conscious of what’s right here round city that’s of historic significance, that folks would respect. And sadly, that piece is gone now,” she mentioned.
For now, Mild and Rush’s guide stands as a testomony to the prevalence of the trabajo rústico folks artwork custom and its native origins, and the 2 books collectively function a information to these all for seeing present works in particular person.
Other than the Torii Gate of the Japanese Tea Backyard, maybe the best instance for an up-close view of Rodríguez’s work is on the Ida Claire restaurant simply north of the Quarry Market. The restaurant occupies what was as soon as the Alamo Cement Firm’s foremost workplace, and its elaborate fence nonetheless survives, as does an elaborate, faux-palapa roofed fountain.
The restaurant’s web site mentions the “timeless attraction of Southern hospitality,” however doesn’t title Rodríguez. Diners armed with Mild’s and Rush’s data will respect what she referred to as “the multitude and number of textures and surfaces” that “pique our consideration and preserve us fascinated with the data, ability, and creativity of the artisan.”
Each Artisans of Trabajo Rústico: The Legacy of Dionicio Rodríguez and Capturing Nature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodríguez can be found at native bookstores (right here and right here) and thru Texas A&M Press.