Spiritual oasis

A.E. Araiza / Staff
The cool serenity of the Garden of Gethsemane is chiefly the work of Felix Lucero, who died in 1951. It features life-size images of Jesus on the cross and the Last Supper.

Above, Rosemarie Sayer of Seattle looks up at the cross. Below is a detail of the crucifixion of Jesus. INRI are the Latin initials for Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. If you go º What: Garden of Gethsemane/Felix Lucero Park º Where: Congress Street and Bonita Avenue (see map) º When: Open 6 a.m.-10:30 p.m. daily. º Parking: A few spaces in a small, tidy, shady lot steps away from the garden. º Admission: Free. º Information: To hold weddings or other events at the site, call the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department, 791-4873.

Felix Lucero Park provides calm in the midst of an urban storm

These days, an awful lot of people work hard to find serenity. Or they pay a visit to Garden of Gethsemane/Felix Lucero Park.

Located on the western bank of the Santa Cruz riverbed, the tiny park — a walled sculpture garden, really — is an unexpected oasis just outside the daytime hustle and bustle of downtown.

Shaded by palm, pepper, mesquite and other trees, it showcases the life’s work of a man driven by a promise made to God in a moment of desperation.

It contains several white religious statues, each formed from concrete and sand from the Santa Cruz riverbed and covered with a smooth plaster coating.

The life-size sculptures include the figure of Jesus, displayed on a wooden cross; the Holy Family; the body of Christ in his tomb; and a reproduction of the Last Supper.

“I sit down and think and pray,” said Juan Cota, 31, who stopped by for a visit on a warm afternoon. “It’s mellow and quiet.”

Only minutes before, Ramon Alvarez stopped by to light a veladora, a large religious candle in a tall, glass holder.

He lighted the white-wax candle with a scrap of dried palm frond and set it with10 other candles already there.

In Spanish, he said he came to pray for help with work.

The Garden of Gethsemane (geth-SEHM-uh-nee) is the name of the garden where Christians believe Jesus prayed on the night before his arrest and crucifixion.

Tucson’s park features the work of Felix Lucero, an untrained artist who spent years molding the riverbed statues.

Lucero died in 1951, at the age of 56.

In 1947, he told a Star reporter that his work was the result of a promise he made to God while lying wounded on a French battlefield during World War I.

After moving to Tucson in 1938, Lucero began molding his religious statues from damp riverbed sand. He lived in a cardboard-and-plywood shack beneath the then two-lane Congress Street bridge.

“His work was more visible than he was,” said Matt Perri, 62, who grew up about a block away from where the sculpture park is now.

Townspeople would visit the site, he remembered, to pray, light candles and leave a few coins behind as a donation.

“It’s changed a lot,” said Perri. “Now, it’s like a park. Then it was a time to mediate and be away.

“If you found the place, it was just like part of the terrain,” he said.

These days, the park is bathed in the sounds of the outside world: rumbling trucks on nearby Interstate 10, police sirens, trains and cars speeding across the Congress Street bridge over the Santa Cruz. But the blanket of sound only serves to reinforce the quiet within the park.

Perri, who visited the original site a few times as a kid, remembered Lucero as a mild soul: gentle, meek and self-effacing.

The sculptor’s life of poverty beneath the bridge made an impression on him.

“At that time, as a kid, we used to go down there” to the river area, Perri said. “When I passed, I realized we weren’t so poor. I really appreciated that.”

Over the years, Lucero’s sculptures were battered by nature and man alike.

In the 1940s, a flood washed away his sand sculptures. He rebuilt them higher on the bank.

In the early 1970s, the now-concrete sculptures were moved to permit the widening of the Congress Street bridge to four lanes.

In 1982, they were moved again, this time to allow for a flood-control project that stabilized the banks of the Santa Cruz with concrete. Garden of Gethsemane/Felix Lucero Park itself was redone after the heavy flooding of 1983.

Over the decades, the statues have had to contend with more than floods and relocations. Vandals have attacked the statues repeatedly. They have bashed in their heads, smashed their hands, dumped them over, and tried to set them afire.

Each time, members of the community have rallied to repair and rebuild the statues, said Glenn Dixon of the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department.

In addition to local businesses and individuals, groups like the Tucson Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees and the Knights of Columbus have worked to repaint and otherwise maintain the statues.

The Department of Parks and Recreation helps maintain the park’s lush, neatly clipped landscaping.

The park is the site of numerous quinceñeras and weddings, as well as daytime visits by people just seeking a quiet spot.

“It’s just a peaceful place to come and get my thoughts together,” said Juan Cota. “It’s good for the soul.”