from “le détroit” · the strait
Five life-size animal sculptures built from car parts went up along Bagley Street on Friday, the new centerpiece of Mexicantown's redesigned streetscape.
Five life-size animal sculptures went up along Bagley Street on Friday, the new centerpiece of Mexicantown's redesigned streetscape. The City of Detroit announced the installation that day, calling the figures a tribute to the Latino families who shaped the neighborhood and the city's auto industry.
The sculptures are the work of Elton Monroy Durán, a Detroit-based visual artist who has spent years painting murals across Southwest Detroit. Each one is built from cut and welded car parts, a nod to the community's long ties to the Motor City.
Each is an alebrije, the brightly painted folk figure rooted in Mexican craft and Aztec spirit-creature traditions. The five animals are a big cat at about six feet tall, a giraffe just over seven, plus a donkey, a dog, and a wolf, per the city. They line the stretch of Bagley between 24th Street and the I-75 Service Drive, the same block the city rebuilt in 2019 as a curb-less shared street that can flip between traffic and an event plaza.
"Alebrijes to me are a reflection of us, contemporary Mexicans," Durán said in the city's announcement. "We come from an ancient culture that was once fragmented but that we pieced back together, incorporating elements from other cultures giving shape to our own, unique cheerful identity. These Alebrijes are made from different car parts tying up our relationship with Detroit and our long-time contributions as a Latino community to the Motor City."
The city put the project's cost at roughly $104,000. The Knight Foundation covered $67,000 for materials and the Gilbert Family Foundation added $37,000 toward the sculptures' bases, according to the announcement. The Southwest Detroit Business Association will maintain the work going forward.
José Maldonado, the association's Mexicantown Main Street director, framed the figures as more than public art. "They represent the hard work, dreams and resilience of the families who call Detroit home," he said in the city's release.
District 6 City Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who represents the area, called the artwork a sign of what public and private partners can build together in the neighborhood.
The sculptures sit along Bagley Street between 24th Street and the I-75 Service Drive in Southwest Detroit, on permanent public view.
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