Jo Mora Turns 150. His Greeting Has Stood in Our Courtyard Since 1928.
Every night at Little Napoli, two people greet each other in our courtyard and never finish. She curtsies. He bows. They have been at it since 1928, and they are the reason the building is called El Paseo.
Their sculptor, Jo Mora, Carmel’s most famous artist, was born 150 years ago this October, on October 22, 1876.
The Man Who Drew Carmel
Jo Mora was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and came to Carmel in 1921. Illustrator, sculptor, mapmaker, he was our own “Renaissance Man.”
You have met his work without knowing his name. His bronze and travertine cenotaph of Father Junípero Serra, dedicated in 1924, stands in the Memorial Chapel at the Carmel Mission: Serra in bronze, one friar at his head, another kneeling at his side. Serra may be controversial today, but he is a SAINT in our family’s Catholic church, and either way the cenotaph is a masterpiece.
Then there are the maps. Mora called them cartes: hand-lettered, packed edge to edge with figures, jokes, and local history. He drew the Monterey Peninsula in 1925, and later Carmel-by-the-Sea on its own. Here we admit a family grievance. The bakery on Ocean Avenue had been baking since 1899 when he drew that map, and it did not make the cut. We have forgiven him. Mostly.
The story goes he played too, in the Abalone League, the baseball league at Carmel Point where the village’s artists and writers played from 1921 on. He would have liked our Christian Pèpe, who tends bar at Vesuvio, plays softball and baseball every chance he gets, and coaches the Stevenson Pirates JV team in his spare time. In 1931 Mora moved to a new house in Pebble Beach. He died in 1947.
More Than Meets the Eye
The El Paseo Building went up on the corner of Dolores and 7th in 1928, and Mora’s sculpture went up with it. It is original to the building, and the building was named for it. Two glazed figures, a caballero and a señorita, meeting in the street.
Look a little longer and the piece gets more interesting. She is showing some leggggg. Her blouse is cut low. His bow is deep, and his eyes… where do you think they are looking? We love this juxtaposition of formality and flirtatiousness, it’s perfect for Little Napoli, don’t you think?
The other day a man walked into the courtyard to see the statue. He told us Jo Mora lived below his family in Pebble Beach when he was growing up. People come for the pasta and stay for the sculpture, or the other way around. Either order works for us.
See More of Mora This Fall
The Monterey History and Art Association has Jo Mora on view at its Stanton Center, 5 Custom House Plaza in Monterey, through the end of the year. Peter Hiller, consultant to the Jo Mora Trust, is the man to thank. Go. Then come stand in front of the statue he left us.
The courtyard is walk-in, and The Library, our private room with ten seats and a fireplace, looks out at the sculpture and takes reservations with no extra fee. Reserve a table at Little Napoli.
Happy 150th, Jo. Thank you for the company.
