A WWI Vet sculpts Garden of Gethsemane in Tucson

As he lay gravely wounded in a trench in France during World War I, Felix Lucero, a native of Trinidad, CO had a vision of the Virgin Mary. He promised her that if he survived he would dedicate the rest of his life to creating religious sculptures.

Lucero lived. While little is known of his life between the end of WWI in 1918 and the mid 1930s when he ended up living in Tucson, he kept his word in at least two places: both Yarnell and Tucson, Arizona have Lucero sculptures.

In Yarnell, Lucero created the Stations of the Cross sited among huge boulders on a mountainside. Called the “Shrine of St. Joseph of the Mountains” it is definitely off the beaten path. (Yarnell isn’t even a town–just a census designation!) As a footnote: The shrine is not affiliated with the Catholic Church. It is maintained by a local volunteer organization. There is no fee for admission.

Here in Tucson, he is honored with a small park near downtown where his “Garden of Gethsemane’ sculptures now stand. And the story behind these sculptures is amazing!

Creating sculpture in a river bed

The park is near where Lucero was living under a bridge in the depths of the Great Depression in 1938 when he sculpted the lifesize figures from the soil in the Santa Cruz river bottom. At first his work went unnoticed, but a local businessman did notice and came up with sufficient money to hire an artist to work with Lucero to restore the art works by making them of concrete, rather than river clay covered with plaster. While some classify him as a “folk artist” his work is definitely not as primitive as some folk artists. The term “self-taught sculptor” seems more applicable.

In keeping with his promise, he built this shrine for the Virgin Mary.

The Lucero sculpture of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus in the Santa Cruz River Park.

The Lucero works now are in a walled and gated park near the Santa Cruz River at Congress Drive. Maintained by the City of Tucson, this group of sculptures is frequented by people who bring flowers and prayers and cameras. It is open to the public and there is no admission charge.

Felix Lucero passed away in 1951.

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