photo: Jamie Manser
A decade ago, the once-neglected corner of Barrio Viejo was officially reclaimed, and along with it, Tucson’s Mexican-American history. La Pilita was born.
The museum – located at 420 S. Main St., just south of Cushing Street – is dedicated to restoring and maintaining that corner and to keeping alive the spirit of Arizona’s oldest Mexican-American barrio, much of it razed or eroded by redevelopment.
This year’s exhibits highlight the decade’s worth of work by the museum’s two staff members, Executive Director Carol Cribbet-Bell and Program/Development Director Joan Daniels, and their committed crew of student docents. The team have archived 150 oral histories from neighborhood residents, compiled photos and stories of some of Tucson’s firsts, and engaged hundreds of children from third to fifth grades directly in the history of their city.
“We’re the little museum that could,” said Daniels, noting that even the two staff members don’t receive salaries on a regular basis. “This whole place runs with volunteers. That’s the only reason we can stay open.”
Daniels and Cribbet-Bell showed uncommon passion from the beginning. Tasked by a coalition of neighborhood residents, teachers and parents of students at adjacent Carrillo Intermediate Magnet School, then-librarian Cribbet-Bell led the charge to turn the vacant family-home-turned-menudo joint into the cozy display space it now is.
The building was built in 1945 and escaped demolition twice. In the 1960s, its location just south of the convention center site saved it, and it the 1970s, neighborhood residents passionately opposed a planned expressway through the area.
By the time the newly formed nonprofit took over day-to-day control of the building from the city, it had been vacant a decade.
“There was 10-year-old food still in the fridge,” Cribbet-Bell said. The food was cleared out; a new roof was installed, along with heat and air conditioning and plumbing. The fountain marking El Ojito spring, Tucson’s original life source, was soon running again.
A new transition has been taking place. This summer, concrete was poured as a foundation to the museum’s building, which was beginning to crumble. With the building was hoisted on car jacks for the procedure, the beloved mural on its south wall cracked. The same week, another cherished feature fell – the tree that once shaded the museum’s garden.
Now, thanks to $58,000 from the city’s Historic Preservation Office, the building and El Tiradito shrine next door are shored up. The city has offered more funds to either hire Martin Moreno, who originally painted the mural, to repaint it or to pay another artist. Negotiations with Moreno hit an impasse over the budget, Cribbet-Bell said. A tree will also be planted to replace the fallen one.
The museum is now featuring an exhibit on “Esperanza Means Hope,” a children’s book written by former Arizona Historical Society Education Director Gwen Harvey about Tucson life in the 1800s. The book’s illustrations, by Guy Porfirio, as well as drawings by students of St. Micheal’s Academy, will be displayed through Dec 18. The museum will spotlight its collection of oral histories beginning Jan. 4.
La Pilita is open 11am to 2pm Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call 882-7454 or go to LaPilita.com.
