The Tucson Presidio reborn from a parking lot

Following the advice of a local newspaper I went to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson in search of Dia del los Muertos altars. There was only one altar and it was a small, very nicely built one.

What I found instead was the Presidio itself which is a recent re-creation of the original built right downtown, surrounded by high rises. It opened its doors in 2008.

The docent guide told me the site was formerly a parking lot…but I think that at the edges there may have been remnants of the old Presidio, which had, in fact, been located on that site.

Two seemingly very old pieces of construction may be a tip-off that the entire original building was not lost.

1)The first was a wood post wall at the edge of the property.

2) The second hint are the bricks on the lower wall in the photo below: they look very much older and actually appear to be worn adobe clay, while the newer bricks are a mix of adobe and concrete and have crisper edges.

One of the most amazing things about the Presidio is the panoramic, very life-like mural painted along one wall to recreate part of the missing sections of this Spanish fort. The artist, Bill Singleton, painted it in 2007. The original fort was 4 times the size of the current one. To see how very large the historic Spanish forts were, go to this one I photographed in San Antonio. Huge!

Part of the reconstruction includes sleeping quarters for soldiers and an cooking area complete with a native American cook.

So while I didn’t find as many many altars for Day of the Dead as I photographed in the past in Los Angeles, I did find the dead world of New Spain brought back to life in 21st Century Tucson.