A gift statue goes looking for a proper home in Minneapolis

When a Mexican governor donated a statue of Emiliano Zapata to the city of Minneapolis during a festive ceremony in August, enthusiastic crowds assumed the revolutionary leader would quickly find a prominent home.

But the 6-foot bronze figure of Zapata -- a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910 -- is currently standing guard in a money transfer business on Lake Street. Plans to display the statue in Powderhorn Park have been put on hold as city officials and neighbors grapple with whether the statue, holding a rifle and festooned with ammunition belts, is suitable for a city park.

"It's kind of depressing," said Eduardo Salgado, president of Club Morelos, a Twin Cities fraternal group from the Mexican state that donated the statue. "All this work to get the statue here and then to have it just holding a door. It's just not fair."

The statue isn't really holding a door, but it stands in a lonely corner of the Los Gallos money transfer business on E. Lake Street. The Mexican Consulate in St. Paul and Club Morelos now are reviewing Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board guidelines for placing "public art" in parks, park officials say. It's a process that may leave the likeness of Zapata stuck in its temporary home for months.

Mexican-American leaders did not realize that it's a lot more complicated to erect a statue in a park in Minneapolis than it is back home, said Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff, who has been looking for a site for the statue as well.

"It was a gift to the city of Minneapolis, but the only property that the city owns in the Lake Street area is the Minneapolis Police Department Third Precinct building," said Schiff. "I don't think anyone wants it there."

So the city turned to its park system, he said, which has its own rules for public art. It needs to meet certain structural standards, size requirements, public safety requirements and be "vandal resistant," said Dawn Sommers, spokeswoman for the Park Board.

Also, there needs to be a publicly advertised meeting, with the work of art present, she said.

To complicate matters, some Powderhorn Park neighbors who had caught wind of the statue's fate started complaining that a figure with a rifle had no business standing in a city park wrestling with crime.

"We've had Latino gang wars in the park this summer, and a statue with a rifle at its side doesn't seem right," said Leigh Combs, who lives near the park. "How do we explain to the kids, 'This person is a hero. And yes, he has a gun and bullets.'"

More important, said Combs, anyone who wants to put art in the park must go through the proper process. That wasn't being done, she said.

Tina Tavera, a liaison with the Latino community at the Corcoran Neighborhood Center, said she is puzzled by the thought that the statue could appear menacing. It shows a life-size Zapata standing with a benign expression on his face, holding a sombrero in one hand. His other hand is clutching the barrel of a rifle standing upright on the ground, using it somewhat like a cane. His chest is draped with rounds of ammunition.

To Salgado, the argument that the rifle is unsuitable for a park doesn't ring true. He thinks some people just don't want the figure of a Mexican in their park.

Salgado said one critic suggested that he organize a "discreet" unveiling of the statute so as not to call attention to it. "But we Mexicans are not discreet," he said. "We are family people, community people, party people. Discreet is not our thing."

Zapata holds a special place in the hearts of people from Morelos, home of the largest immigrant group from Mexico in the Twin Cities, he said. Zapata was born in Morelos and fought to redistribute land to peasants there, Salgado said.

Mexican immigrants had hoped -- and continue to hope -- to place the statue in a public setting where it could be a centerpiece for community events, said Salgado.

"But for now, everything is idle," he said. "He's in the same building where he was unveiled."

Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4511

Jean Hopfensperger • hopfen@startribune.com