Church in Etla, Oaxaca - 11x14 oil
Atop a small hill on the edge of Etla in the state of Oaxaca, sits this beautiful little church. We saw it in the distance from the center of town. As we approached we could see that it was perched in a good position to see the whole valley. As we painted two young boys came up to watch. After a time, they were brave enough to speak to us. My Spanish isn’t very good so I let my painting companion, Dan Rueffert, who is fluent in Spanish, do most of the talking. From the two boys we learned this church was actually built on top of an ancient pyramid. They went on to tell us a small cave once existed right at the spot where we stood. One could crawl through the opening to enter into large chambers within the pyramid. With great interest we asked the boys where is the entrance to this cave now? “Right there,” they declared while pointing at a new sidewalk installed last year by the government. “They covered it up!” Not sure if any of this were true, after we finish painting we walked around to survey the area. Seeing the contours of the churchyard, it became obvious this church was indeed sitting atop a pyramid. I thought it interesting that we had been attracted to paint a 300 or 400 year-old church only to learn we were standing on a 2000 year-old pyramid.