Felix Lucero and the Gardens of Gethsemene
Located along the Santa Cruz Riverpark in Tucson, Arizona is one of the most sacred places in the city — Gethsemane Gardens. The Riverpark follows the winding serpentine banks of the arroyo. The paved pathways serve walkers, joggers, bicyclists, and rollerblade enthusiasts and Gethsemane Gardens provides sanctuary for many of these Riverpark enthusiasts.
Gethsemane Gardens can be found where the Santa Cruz River intersects the St. Mary’s Road on the north side of the pavement. Surrounded by a fenced enclosure and a tall stand of bamboo, this green garden is one of the best places in the city to sit, read, and listen to the choruses of birds harmonizing in the green foliage. Gethsemane Gardens is a shrine dedicated to the works of local sculptor Felix Lucero. His religious statues decorate the Park. Lucero possessed no academic or technical training yet his statues, including a life sized depiction of the Last Supper, the Virgin Mother, the Crucifixion, and various saints, are praised for technical precision and detail. For example, one can make out the outline of individual coins in the bag sitting beside Judas in the Last Supper sculpture.
The statues were the result of a battlefield promise made during World War I. As a young soldier, frightened and far from home, Felix Lucero was trapped in a no man's land on a French battlefield. All his superior officers had been killed and he had nearly given up hope. Then Lucero saw a vision of a forty-foot-tall Jesus forming in the smoke above the battlefield. He made a promise to God that if he survived he would dedicate his life to holy works. Lucero led himself and nine other soldiers to safety, receiving medals, honors, and commendations for his acts of bravery.
One time while bicycling along the Riverpark for some exercise, I paused to catch my breath, take a drink from a water fountain and partake of some solitude in Gethsemane Gardens. A craftsman was there that day repairing some heartless vandal damage to the statues. It seems the garden attracts the occasional crackpot who comes intent on damaging the statues and although they never attack in concert, they usually only destroy Christ’s extremities — smashing noses, toes, and fingers. While I was observing the craftsman as he was repairing Christ’s fingers, he explained to me how he had to be careful and precise. It is not just a matter of duplicating Lucero’s technical skills, but also his vision. The hands he told me, must hold so much strength, wisdom, love, joy, and forgiveness. The hands, he said, must hold the tenderness of heaven's embrace. He carefully crafted and resculpted the fingers, trying to get them just right.
After World War I when Felix Lucero returned to Tucson, he lived in a shack beneath the old Congress Street bridge. He kept the promise he made during the heat of the battle in France and built statues of sand in the river bottom. He meticulously carved life-sized statues of religious figures and scenes which would wash away during every monsoon or winter soaking. Felix Lucero would then leave his shack beneath the bridge and build some more sculptures.
He did this for decades, and as time passed, he became a neighborhood legend. There was the tale of a drunken man on horseback who was riding along the Santa Cruz River one day and came upon Lucero while he was working on some sand sculptures. The drunken man ridiculed the statues before trampling them beneath his horse’s hooves. According to the legend, further down the wash, a rattlesnake spooked the horse, causing it to rear up and toss the rider, breaking his neck.
Jim Griffith, the folklorist who told me that tale, said that such stories show what an integral part of the neighborhood and community identity Lucero and his statues had become. In the late 1940s when Lucero’s shack beneath the Congress Street bridge had burned down, the community showed just how important he was by raising funds to put Lucero and his wife into an apartment. They also contributed money to pay for the labor and materials for the statues which currently stand in the park. All the materials in Gethsemane Gardens were harvested from the Santa Cruz, from the sand for the plaster to the abandoned box spring mattress which comprises the table at the Last Supper sculpture. Even Judas’ thirty pieces of silver are made from scavenged coins discovered along the river bottom.
The garden is also a spot frequented by photographers. Some come to take pictures of the statues, birds, or even the soft interplay of light as it filters down through the thick branches of foliage. The last time I was shutter bugging there I lost myself in the lens and failed to notice a transient who entered the enclave. He stood beside my unlocked bicycle and book pack which contained my wallet, bank card, credit cards, and personal I.D. The transient nodded a polite hello and waited patiently for me to finish taking pictures. I had no idea how long he had been standing there but I imagined he could have stolen my things long before I noticed him. I finished up quickly and as I approached, he cleared his throat to speak with me, somewhat shyly, perhaps awed with a reverence for this place. Then he asked me for spare change.
Perhaps because he did not steal my things when he could have, or perhaps because the very nature of this place made me feel charitable, I gave him two dollars. As he thanked me and his trembling hands reached for the money, I was startled to realize that his hands had no fingers.