Tucson: From Aztec art to space rocks

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Jen Rose Smith

THE WASHINGTON POST – In Tucson, a fresh air destination beloved for the winter sun, the old school is new again: bird watching is big, hiking is trendy, and parks are teeming with nature-seeking tourists. And ancient artifacts shine in the Tucson Museum of Art. In July 2020, the museum opened the new Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art with thousands of works from more than 3,000 years.

Seeing Aztec and Mayan antiquities alongside contemporary pieces by Latin American artists is a revelation, said Kristopher Driggers, Schmidt curator of Latin American art at the museum.

“These ancient works are not just distant remnants of a long-gone civilization,” said Driggers. “We have contemporary artists who look back on these old traditions and reinterpret them.”

Driggers quoted the Mexican-born American artist Enrique Chagoya, who in his satirical guide “Illegal Alien’s Guide to the Theory of Everything” recalls Mayan codices – folded books with colorful glyphs. On the 10-foot-wide mixed-media painting Paradise Lost, Los Angeles artist Patrick Martinez places a figure from Mexico’s archaeological site at Cacaxtla on the graffiti-covered stucco facade of a Los Angeles market.

The Museum Wing is part of a series of new – or renewed – Tucson destinations that are now open to tourists. They are a welcome boost for an industry that is still booming.

“Arizona said 50 percent of the people employed in tourism lost their jobs at the darkest point of the pandemic,” said Dan Gibson, senior director of communications for Visit Tucson. This year, Gibson added, he was pleasantly surprised by the numbers. Hotel occupancy has increased, averaging 78 percent of the 2019 level, according to STR, a global hotel data and analytics company.

The roof of the Graduate Tucson. Nature is the main draw in this Arizona city, but impressive new museum offerings can tempt indoor visitors. PHOTO: THE WASHINGTON POST

Just blocks from the Tucson Museum of Art is the new home of the Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum, which reopened this July in the 1929 Spanish colonial style Pima County Courthouse.

Arizona has a rich mining history, and Tucson has long been a pilgrimage destination for rock hounds and gemologists, who flock to the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show from around the world. (It’s canceled this year, but it’s running for 2022.) At the new museum, people can admire a 410-pound silver nugget found outside of Globe, Arizona, or search meteorites that have been traveling through the atmosphere Size were burned.

And in the 98-acre Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a new bird of prey program puts visitors face to face – beak to nose perhaps – with the Great Horned Owl and the iron falcon native to Sonora. In muggy summer weather, the practical birds of prey program takes place indoors, but winter sends birds and visitors alike into the milder warmth of the desert landscape.

Tucson has also welcomed an increase in housing options. The Tuxon Hotel opened in July 2020 in a renovated motel from 1969. Cabanas flank the original boomerang-shaped pool, and the hotel’s 112 rooms have been updated with southwestern accents. Guests can borrow a set of bikes from the hotel’s free bike fleet and explore the Chuck Huckelberry Loop, a 131-mile network of shared trails (for people on foot, bikes, skates, and horses). The system connects parks, outdoor art exhibitions, bus routes, hiking and biking trails, as well as schools and business parks.

Opened in October on the University of Arizona campus, the 164-room Graduate Tucson features a rooftop pool, fire pits, and views of Mount Lemmon. The hotel’s oversized cacti and woven blankets are desert-themed, and guest rooms have retro UFO lamps.

With the Santa Catalina Mountains as a dramatic backdrop, the Hilton El Conquistador Tucson shares the difference between downtown and desert. In October, the hotel added a spa with treatments ranging from classic massages and facials to a $ 160 singing bowl therapy session that promises to harness your body’s “vibration and material properties”.

Speaking of flavors: In 2015, UNESCO named Tucson the creative city of gastronomy, making it the first city in the United States to receive this award. The tourist board prides itself on having the best 37km of Mexican cuisine north of the southern border.

Creative openings continued during the pandemic, notably Barrio Charro, a casual collaboration between Tucson baker Don Guerra and cook Carlotta Flores, and the chic market and restaurant Flora’s Market Run.

Enduring foodie highlights prove that not everything can be reinvented in Tucson. If you’re dying to try the city’s Sonoran hot dogs, still head to BK Tacos or the James Beard Award-winning El Güero Canelo.

That won’t change anytime soon. “Open a new Sonoran hot dog place?” Asked Gibson of Visit Tucson. “It would seem kind of strange.”

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