The violent storms Oaxaca experienced in mid April brought down 30+ trees in the city, including one of her beloved old Indian laurels in Llano Park. And, when a tree falls in Oaxaca…
Talented artist, Heriberto Castro López, grabbed his chainsaw and chisel and, with the blessings of the powers that be, turned the fallen tree into a public work of art, a language lesson, and a plea for help.
A monkey, a jaguar, an eagle, a rabbit, an iguana, and there’s a snake in there somewhere — all animals iconic to Oaxaca — emerged.
The animals seem appropriate, as Parque el Llano (aka, Paseo Juárez, El Llano de Guadalupe, and Alameda de Nezahualcoyotl) housed a zoo from 1945 to 1971 (dates not verified) — hence the gold painted lions at the four main entrances to the park.
However, this time the animals aren’t confined to cages — they are free and calling on us to save this planet we all call home before it’s too late.
Many thanks to Heriberto Castro López for his “Llamado de Auxilio” gift to Oaxaca.
Mexican Peso Converter
View From Casita Colibrí 
Wow – Heriberto Castro López!!
Yes, he is SO talented!
Wow, he’s really sensitive to the animal forms.
And, to their movement!
Yes. I went to his Facebook page (shown on your last photo) and saw quite a few more large animal carvings. Very curiously, I noticed some parts of the page were intermittently written in Hindi. His profile indicates he’s a digital creator living in Oaxaca and working at Facebook. Interesting.
I enjoyed this article and the photos. Thank you!
You’re very welcome. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment.
Great post. I have often wondered why our Morro Bay,CA golf course didn’t do this when our trees started dying of beetle problems.
Oaxaca has also lost many of her heritage Indian laurel trees over the past 10+ years and I wish this had also been done with some of them.