By Natalie Taylor
Anyone who has walked through the interior of the Parroquia, cannot miss the many murals on the walls. The first one is at the entrance, to your left, in the baptistery. The area is shielded from entry by a wrought iron grate and locked gate. But a peek within, shows two murals on each of the lateral walls. One of them depicts Adam and Eve.
As you go deeper into the church and allow your eye to go up, you discover mural after mural on the upper walls. These are not the great works of an accomplished muralist, not someone of the caliber of Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros or Cantu. The works are rather crude attempts at imitating those great artists. What distinguishes them is that there are so many! And all done by one man—an incredibly prolific parish priest, whose compulsive urge to produce earned him the moniker of “father unstoppable.”
Jose Miranda Mercadillo arrived in San Miguel de Allende in 1933; a young priest from Irapuato. He remained here for the next decades, became parish priest, self-styled artist, and died in 1983. In the early 1940s he took private lessons in muralism from Federico Cantu, a renowned Mexican artist who was teaching at the School of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes), started by Cossio del Pomar and Stirling Dickinson. They developed a teacher-student relationship, and even a friendship. Later, this friendship suffered greatly because Mercadillo damaged Cantu’s mural in the Parroquia.
Mercadillo decided that he was a good enough muralist, and for many years took it upon himself to paint murals along the interior upper walls of the Parroquia. These murals are impossible not to see, because they cover so much of the space. Even if they are not competently done, one has to appreciate his dedication to the art. Imagine the time and effort needed to climb to the ledges, and the countless hours applying images, and color to the walls.
Many are biblical scenes, but there are two diverse themes that are rather interesting. The first, you will find if you stand with your back to the altar, and look up toward the right. The scene is a recreation of the legendary events of the transportation of the large Jesus figure, called El Señor de la Conquista—the Lord of the Conquest. In 1574 the work was commissioned from Patzcuaro, and it was brought in by a small party headed by two friars—Francisco Doncel and Pedro de Burgos. Nearing San Miguel, they were attacked by a group of Chichimeca warriors, who killed several of the accompanying solders, and the two friars. One wounded soldier reached San Miguel, but collapsed and died after relating the story, and requesting help. Like Mercadillo, the two friars are buried in the Santa Escuela.
The second mural, which can only be called “interesting,” is found in the ante-sacristy, behind the white doors of the Meditation chapel. Here, on one of the walls, is a giant mural; the dimensions some fifteen by ten feet, again painted by Mercadillo. It is a puzzling, strange piece. The scene is the square of St Peter in Rome, with the church of the Vatican in the background. The pope in the center is Pope Pius XII; it’s easy to see the resemblance. There are many other church figures, some of whom have been identified for me by the current parish priest—one of them is the Bishop of Leon of that period. Mercadillo’s own face appears in the crowd, just beneath the pope’s right hand. But the odd, unexplainable portion of the mural is on the lower, left side, where the faces of Communist leaders are depicted. Mercadillo was known for hating Communists (and anyone who was not conservative), so why would he depict Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, and Mao in his mural in the church? I was told that he depicted them with unhappy faces, as if to show his disdain toward them. But if you look at the faces of everyone else in the mural, they all look just as grim and unhappy as the Communist leaders. Another puzzle that will probably never be solved.
Whatever our opinion of these multiple murals, they are there; and my understanding is that they may not be painted over. They are protected by law. Among the multiple examples of great art that will remain in our city forever, we have mediocrity represented on a large scale, and safely preserved for posterity.
Natalie Taylor: BA in English Lit and Journalism, Loyola University, Chicago, 1995. MFA in Creative Writing, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT, 1999. Published writer, editor, journalist. Spanish teacher in the US, English teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Translator. www.natalietaylor.org Contact: tangonata@gmail.com
*Editor´s Note: José Mercadillo was also responsible for the damage repainting with oil based colorful saturation pueril paint over the authentic mural paintings of XVIII century in the main church navel above the de main altar at the Sanctuary of Jesus of Nazareth , at Atotonilco, Guanajuato, World Heritage by UNESCO, original by the mexican painter Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre. Restoration of this work of art has taken more than 25 years of work by Atotonilco Santuario de la Patria, A.C.
