Stop two was in the little town of Mart in McLennan County 20 miles outside of Waco to see the Mart Post Office mural. McLennan Looking for a Home by Jose Aceves features a buckskin clad Neil McLennan, a Scotsman who was born on the Isle of Skye who later found a home for his family on the Bosque River near present day Waco in 1845. All of us who were born west of the Mississippi are descendants of such brave pioneers who came from other places, whether it be Tennessee or Virginia or other parts of our country or from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, the Canary Islands and other parts of the world who embarked on a journey seeking a new way of life in the mid-1800s. This mural speaks to me and reminds me of the struggles and bravery of my ancestors in settling a new land, one far away from a life they once knew.
Aceves was born in Chihuahua, Mexico but came to our country during the Mexican Revolution and exhibited extensively in the El Paso region. He was paid $670 for this beautiful piece measuring 5 by 12 feet in 1939. Like so many of the post offices built in the 1930s, the light streaming in from upper windows as well as a fluorescent fixture immediately above the artwork made it difficult to photograph but I was able to burn in the lightened area to somewhat alleviate the blur which appeared in the lower left corner./
7 comments:
this mural is really wonderful.
I think it's incredible that people crossed our continent this way! This mural is very well done!
very nice mural. love the oxen, too.
I can't even imagine what it took to cross the land in a vehicle like that. Our ancestors were a hardy bunch.
Thanks for sharing your historic trip.
The mural depicts the brave pioneers you described. Lovely!
A particularly gorgeous post office mural! I have been reading some books about the west and all the hardships people faced...a novel, The Homesman, which I highly recommend, and Mari Sandoz's memoire of her very colorful father, Old Jules.
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