PROGRAM NOTES:  Nuestro Pueblo

I. Rodia's Journey
II.  Along The Tracks
III.  107th Street Waltz
​IV.  Towers Reborn

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The title Nuestro Pueblo takes it's name from the magnificent Watts Tower built by Simon Rodia. Nuestro Pueblo , or "our town" is what Rodia called his work of art. For 33 years, from 1921 to 1954, Rodia worked alone constructing the towers. He worked with only tile setter's tools, and no blue prints, scaffolding, bolts or welding. He used pieces of broken glass and pottery that neighborhood children brought to him as well as 7-Up, Canada Dry and milk of magnesium bottles to creat his mosaics. Most of the rebar and scrap metal was collected walking along the nearby railway tracks. In 1955, he gave the property to a neighbor, and moved to Matinez, Caifornia, never to see his masterpiece again. Rodia died in 1965 at the age of 90.

--- Peter Senchuk