Tlaquepaque Arts Village: Built Around the Trees
Near Sedona, Arizona
Beside Oak Creek, under the shade of tall sycamores, sits Tlaquepaque, an arts village that looks as though it was lifted whole from colonial Mexico. It was the dream of a Nevada businessman named Abe Miller, who began building it in nineteen seventy-one and opened it in nineteen seventy-three. Miller named it for the artisan district of Tlaquepaque in Guadalajara, Mexico, and before construction he sent his team south to photograph that city's old streets, then imported iron grillwork, carved doors, and handmade lanterns to match.
Most striking is what he refused to do. Rather than clear the mature sycamore trees that grew along the creek, Miller built the village around them, so today their branches shade the cobblestone courtyards and rise between the bell towers and fountains. The name itself, drawn from the Nahuatl language, is often translated locally as the best of everything, though scholars more soberly render it as place above clay land.
Miller later added a small wedding chapel with hand carved pews. Now home to dozens of galleries, shops, and restaurants, Tlaquepaque has become the artistic heart of a town that Hollywood and painters alike helped make.
