This Spring 2025 season, the “Dialogues of Our History” program, sponsored by the Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlan, featured Cuban artist Henry Wilson Albuernes, who shared with the public his captivating career as a renowned sculptor and creator of floats and puppets for the Mazatlán International Carnaval.
Henry Wilson, a 1998 graduate of the “El Alba” Academy of Arts in Holguín, Cuba, and renowned creator of prolific works of monumental sculpture, arrived in Mazatlán in 2007 at the invitation of Bishop Mario Espinoza. His initial mission was to create the mural “The Creation” in the Chapel of the Montuosa Colony, a sacred-style work that marked the beginning of his professional career in this port.
That same year, Wilson had the opportunity to attend Mazatlán International Carnaval, and was deeply impressed by the floats of the great Rigo Lewis.
“I hope I have the chance to do something like this one day!” he thought at the time. In 2010, engineer Jorge Osuna invited him to collaborate on a joint project to create five illuminated floats, a collaboration that extended until 2020.
That same year, Wilson received the trust of Raúl Rico González, General Director of the Instituto de Cultura de Mazatlan, to create the floats and manigotes. To this day, Henry Wilson expresses his satisfaction at not having disappointed the Mazatlán public, which he considers the most demanding in these areas.
“There’s an entire orchestra working behind the scenes to put together what you already see as the final result. It’s days and nights of effort for the entire team and the family, and that’s part of what all audiences deserve,” said Henry Wilson, the creator of admired works for the Carnaval.
Referring to his beginnings in the creation of manigotes, Wilson commented: “My first manigote was in 2020. I’ve made up to four of them. Mr. Jorge González, the NINOTS handcraft workshop led by Architect José Ángel Trujillo, and Mr. Juan José Boronat, as deputy director, have set the standard in the field of puppets ever since. We must keep in mind that there are very special people, Rigoberto Lewis and Jorge González Neri, who were men born for Carnaval. I can modestly say that no one has yet filled those masters’ shoes. Anyone who says: ‘I’m just like Rigo Lewis! Knock him down, he’s made of cardboard!'” Henry Wilson emphasized with conviction.
When asked about the essential knowledge young artists must acquire to create works that captivate and generate recognition, Wilson responded: “Modern art sometimes suffers from the academy. The academy is good drawing, good painting, and good sculpture. And here at the Municipal Arts Center, there are very good professors, excellent sculptors and painters who are well on their way to teaching the visual arts to achieve excellence in this field.”
“The study of the academic, the study of the landscape and the human figure, and the study of composition. These are essential to defining something as iconographic as a float or a stick figure. If you don’t have a certain degree of specialization, I don’t think you’ll be able to carry out, as a student or as a professional, a work of this type and scale. And here at the Municipal Arts Center, there are very good professors, excellent sculptors and painters who are well on their way to teaching the visual arts,” stated the artist, whose creations continue to enrich and bring life to Mazatlán International Carnaval.
