Natasha Moraga facts for kids

Natasha Moraga is an amazing artist from Mexico and the United States. She is famous for her special way of making art using broken tiles, called trencadis. Natasha has created many beautiful murals in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She is currently working on a huge project called "Parque de los Azulejos." This project aims to cover an entire park, Lázaro Cárdenas Park, with colorful tiles!

What makes Natasha's work extra special is that she involves the community. She started an organization called Mosayko Vallarta. This group helps organize volunteers to join her art projects. It's a fun way for everyone to help make their city more beautiful.

About Natasha Moraga

Natasha Moraga was born in La Mirada, California, in the United States. Her mother was from Mexico, and her father was from Chile. Because of her parents, Natasha has citizenship in both America and Mexico.

Moving to Mexico

When Natasha was eight years old, her family moved to Mexico. Her parents wanted her and her siblings to learn more about Latin American culture. They first lived on a ranch near Guadalajara. Later, they moved to Puerto Vallarta. Natasha has said that she didn't like Mexico much at first. But now, she is glad her parents made that choice. She doesn't plan to move back to the United States.

Discovering Tile Art

When Natasha was 15, she left home and traveled a lot. She lived with different friends for a while. During this time, she visited Germany and then Barcelona, Spain, in 2005. In Barcelona, she saw the incredible tile work of an artist named Antoni Gaudí. This was a big moment for Natasha. She had always wanted to be an artist. The colorful, textured tile art really caught her eye.

She returned to Puerto Vallarta and got a chance to learn more about mosaic art. In 2009, she received a scholarship to train with a famous mosaic artist, Isaiah Zagar, in Philadelphia. Even after this training, she didn't start her art career right away. Her father, who was a businessman, convinced her to open a restaurant. She ran the restaurant for two years. But in 2010, she realized it wasn't what she wanted to do. So, she closed it down to follow her dream of becoming an artist.

Natasha's Art Projects

Natasha Moraga is the main artist behind many public artworks in Puerto Vallarta. You can find her mosaics on benches, stairs, and other public places. This type of mosaic art was new to Puerto Vallarta. It is also not very common in other parts of Mexico. Natasha calls her work "community-based" and "street art" because it involves people and is out in the open.

First Murals

Natasha created her very first tile mural on a wall in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood. This wall was next to a public kindergarten. It used to be covered in graffiti. Natasha got permission to put her tile mural there. She worked on it from October 2011 to February 2012. She named this finished mural Episodio 1.

During this project, a woman offered Natasha $100 to put her name on one of the tiles. This gave Natasha an idea. She realized that people might want to help pay for her projects. After finishing Episodio 1, Natasha made a list of ten more places where she wanted to add mosaic art.

Her second big project was in the Marina Vallarta neighborhood. This mural, called Episodio 2, was created from 2013 to 2015. It is over 500 square meters (about 5,380 square feet) in size. It is the second-largest mosaic mural in all of Mexico!

Natasha also worked on the giant letters that spell "Puerto Vallarta." These letters face the highway as you drive into the city from the north. She faced some challenges with government groups. But with help from local businesses, she finished this project too.

Besides these large public works, Natasha has also made smaller mosaics. These can be found in local hotels, restaurants, and homes. She also completed smaller public projects, like the colorful benches on Francisco Rodriguez Street.

Parque de los Azulejos

Natasha's earlier projects were mostly done by herself or with help from friends and family. But her next big project, Parque de Azulejos, needed more planning and money.

The Parque de Azulejos (which means "Tile Park") project started in 2017. This was also the 100th anniversary of Puerto Vallarta's founding. The park is located at Lázaro Cárdenas Park. Natasha said she always saw the park looking dark and needing color. She presented her idea for the park three times to the local neighborhood group before they approved it. At first, there was no money for the project. So, Natasha started using leftover materials from her past works.

This is Natasha's biggest project so far. Her goal is to cover everything in Lázaro Cárdenas Park with tile mosaics. This includes the 66 benches around the gazebo, the parking areas, walls, and flowerpots. The first part of the project focused on the amphitheater columns. When it's finished, the park will have so many tiles and mirror pieces that they would stretch over 1,000 meters (about 3,280 feet) if laid out in a line!

Natasha explains that "all the colors and figures have meaning." They are not just placed randomly. Many designs show things special to Puerto Vallarta. Some designs are even more personal, like those based on Natasha's own tattoos.

This huge project is paid for by private donations. To get money, Natasha sells special "patronage tiles." People can buy a tile and have their name or a message put on it. Other donations are also collected through the project's website.

Most of the work in the park is done by volunteers. Natasha teaches them in three-day workshops, similar to how she learned. Anyone can join, including children, teenagers, adults, and senior citizens. As of 2019, the Parque de Azulejos was about 70% finished. The exact completion date has not been announced.

This park project has become very popular with both locals and tourists. It has also helped improve the area around the park.

Mozayko Vallarta

The Parque de Azulejos project changed how Natasha works. It made her projects more focused on the community. This new way of working is based on Mozayko Vallarta. The name "Mozayko" is a fun play on the Spanish word for tile, "mosaico."

Through Mozayko Vallarta, Natasha organizes three-day workshops. By January 2019, over 300 people had been trained in these workshops. Money for the projects is raised through donations. These donations come from a Facebook page, and also from selling t-shirts and other items.

Natasha has been asked to speak about Mozayko Vallarta and its positive effects on the community. She has given talks in both Mexico and the United States. In 2019, a group called the Asociación Mexicana de Mujeres Empresarias recognized her for her great contributions to the community.

See also

In Spanish: Natasha Moraga para niños