WHOS' BEHIND MAZATLAN'S INVASION OF THE GIANTS?
By Jackie Peterson

Visitors and residents alike, just everybody wants to know something more about the gigantic figures called monigotes (mo-nee-GOH-tays) that adorned Avenida del Mar and a couple of other spots around town. They’re the work of an amiable artist/artisan named Jorge Gonzalez Neri from the Universidad Tecnologico de Monterrey, otherwise known as Tec Monterrey. Sr. Gonzalez works for the university, sometimes gives classes in painting there, but more often than not designs sets for the univer-sity’s theatrical productions. This is the man who has copied in monumental proportions the figures in paintings of Mazatlan’s most famous artist, Antonio Lopez Saenz. Gonzalez has lifted them right off the canvas and blown them up to the dimensions you saw as you traveled down the malecón or encounterd by surprise in such locations as the Plazuela Machado. They caused a sensation the day they were erected on Avenida del Mar, evoking smiles for their whimsy as well as wonder for their size. Mazatlán, with more than 100 years of celebrating Carnaval in a big way, is used to seeing monigotes along the malecon. The fantasy figures usually appear about a week or so before Carnaval, the few days preceding Lent, when Ronan Catholic tradition has it that it you feast before you fast. But this? Familiar figures of Mazatlán’s own favorite painter pumped up to 6 ˝ meters of height? Not only banda Sinaloanse musicians but baseball players reminiscent of the beloved local champions called the Venados (Deer)? The first reaction of almost everyone who saw them was to smile with delight. Then feel pleased. Then hurry on down the avenue to look for more of them. No one was more amused and pleased than Antonio Lopez Saenz himself, said the creator of the monigotes. “He liked my reproductions, but he was surprised at their size.” Shortly after they were erected, Mazatlán experienced about a day and a half of light rainfall, and later a real downpour, prompting some people to think the figures would be ruined. The only person who was nonchalant about this turn of the weather

was Gonzalez. “They are ephemeral, yes,” he said, “but built for weather resistance with three coasts of lacquer. I’ve been more afraid of the wind, of losing a leg (off the outfielder near the aquarium) or an arm (off the drummer next to Valentino’s).” He said the figures were born more “from my head” than from sketches. Under his direction a crew began by making skeletons of half-inch pipe. Then they formed the torsos and limbs with heavy-duty wire, and covered them with cardboard and papier mache. The heads were of plastic foam and typically much smaller than the enormous bodies, with featureless faces in the unique Lopez Saenz style. Once the figures were put in place, Gonzalez Neri didn’t rest on his laurels. Having done his part to convey to all comers the enthusiasm of Mazatlán for its two major overlapping events — the 2005 Carnaval and the Caribbean Series baseball tournament — he went on to design 11 floats for the grand Carnaval 2005 parades. He calls his design style “minimalist,” which is apparent in his monigotes and also in his floats. No frills. If you saw the parade, you might remember his toucans, his Don Quijote, his mermaid. “I tried to put some figures of women on my floats,” he said with a grin, “to make up for the fact that all the monigotes were male, musicians and baseball players.” He added that he usually builds floats for Monterrey‘s parades at Christmas and Easter, and he always thinks big: fanciful constructions up to 12 meters long in some cases. If you’re wondering how a scenic designer from so far away happened to participate in the designs for this year’s baseball-carnaval celebrations, it all falls into place when you realize that the person in charge of both those events, Raul Rico, is a graduate of Tec Monterrey and since his student days has known Jorge Gonzalez. Gonzalez has worked for Carnaval Mazatlán before, in the years when Rico has been president of Codetur, the annual fiesta’s organizing committee. And he has another commission here. He is supposed to design the sets for “L’elisir d’Amore,” Donizetti’s comic opera, which is tentatively set for performance here in early April.

 

 

 

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