Watsonville artist Kathleen Crocetti has created two mosaic medallions for the City of Watsonville, which were installed recently at Memorial Park, located at the confluence of Freedom Boulevard and Main Street.
One depicts a dragon, and is a modern play written by Watsonville’s Steve Spike Wong, “White Sky, Falling Dragon.” The play explores the roles of Chinese/American bombardiers who flew in the U.S military in World War II.
The other is a farmworker with a tool over his shoulder to recognize the Filipino riots of the 1930s in Watsonville, when mobs of hundreds of people attacked Filipino farmworkers after Filipino men were seen dancing with white women at a dance hall.
That piece is part of “Watsonville is in the Heart,” an organization that promotes Filipino history and culture.
Crocetti’s studio—Muzzio Mosaic Arts Center—also installed numerous other medallions along Main Street depicting art, history and agriculture of the Pajaro Valley.
The title of that collection is “Celebrating the Diversity of Labor,” Crocetti said.
“They represent the diverse culture of Wasonville, and the work they did when they arrived,” she said. “Every immigrant community that has come to Watsonville has started out in agriculture. This is celebrating the work we have all done to make the community what it is.”
There are three more mosaic medallions waiting to be installed at the entrance of Ramsay Park, Crocetti said.
