Depicting History
In our latest visit to the Sonoran River Valley, which took place during the Día de San Lorenzo festivities last August, we had the opportunity to reconnect with our friend and Banámichi-born artist, Beatriz Corella.
By a stroke of luck we spotted her in the main street on our way back to our accommodations and she kindly invited us to see her latest ongoing project: a mural at the Banámichi Municipal Hall, where she already had painted two other murals years before.
She was very enthusiastic about our visit and she began to give us a tour and explained the story behind the work she had done to honor the town's rich history. She mentioned that in 2019, the Sonoran Cultural Institute (Instituto Sonorense de Cultura - ISC) launched a contest Murales en el Río Sonora, where she was awarded to paint the first mural of the Municipal Hall. She comes from a family proud of their Sonoran Valley roots, and her proposal depicts the landscape, wildlife, and economic activities (past and present) of the town, and was inspired by the book Banámichi, pedacito de sol that her mother, Beatriz Yescas de Corella and Dalia Figueroa del Cid, Banámichi chronicler, published back in 2001.
Later, she told us the story behind her second mural, where you can see an important civil tradition of the Desfile, the Independence day parade that turns into a week-long festivity every September. She told us a beautiful Ópata tale that has been passing through generations thanks to the oral history, and about the importance of the feast day of Nuestra Señora de Loreto, both portrayed in this mural.
We were lucky enough to witness her latest creation as she was working on that day, the third mural where she pays homage to the first inhabitants of this land. Through all her work you can see the symbolism of one of the town's most recognizable landmarks, la piedra histórica.
We want to thank Beatriz for this wonderful experience and for taking the time to share with Borderlandia her passion for this land that we cherish more each time we visit.