LATICRETE is key player in Watsonville parking garage restoration 

Many cultures have called Watsonville, Calif., home. Today, its composition is more than 80% Mexican heritage with a significant migrant labor force. The town celebrates cultures past and present. Inspired by an artistic residency in Spain and Morocco, local artist and teacher Kathleen Crocetti set out to capture this sentiment on something prominent: a parking garage.

A mural honoring the cultures that call—or have called—Watsonville home was planned on the façade of the Civic Plaza Parking Garage, at 260 Rodriguez Street. Crocetti organized efforts with Community Arts & Empowerment, a community group she oversees. With approval from the city and partnering business support, the Watsonville Brillante project was born. 

For previous murals, Crocetti and her students sourced tile from the scraps of nearby Rinaldi Tile & Marble. But Watsonville Brillante would need much more tile. CEO Rick Rinaldi introduced Crocetti to Fireclay Tile, a local manufacturer, who donated additional materials to the cause. Meanwhile, Rinaldi provided installation assistance when it became apparent that the mural would need more labor.

The installation itself would rely on LATICRETE^® products. “LATICRETE is Rinaldi’s favorite supplier,” said Susanne Roberts-Breubeck, project manager at Rinaldi, and close friend of Crocetti. “We use a lot of their installation materials. We like their service and like what we get back.”

Preparation was necessary to facilitate proper tile adhesion. After the city contributed by power washing the garage, scaffolding was assembled, and installation began.

“LATICRETE was privileged to be a part of Watsonville Brillante,” said Bernadette Anderson, northern California regional sales manager at LATICRETE. “Everyone has been proud to be a part of this. It’s obvious [the community] is happy to be represented. I get teary eyed because it’s such an honor to take part.”

Planning and building 

Watsonville Brillante’s canvas was unconventional. The six-story, 500-stall parking garage was not designed for this purpose. Nevertheless, Roberts-Breubeck knew Rinaldi had the appropriate LATICRETE tools. 

“We used NXT^® Patch to fix any spots on the walls,” she said. “We then rolled on HYDRO BAN^® liquid waterproofing, followed by 253 GOLD^™ thinset, PERMACOLOR^® Select Grout in ‘Raven,’ and then sealed with STONETECH^® Heavy Duty Exterior Sealer.”

The chosen LATICRETE solutions formed a fully warrantied system, and Rinaldi’s expertise helped support proper artwork installation that would withstand several considerations. 

Watsonville is prone to earthquakes, sitting atop a smaller fissure between the notorious San Andreas and San Gregorio faults. Moreover, the garage is almost constantly in motion thanks to dynamic loads of vehicles moving throughout. Products specified needed to accommodate accordingly: 

• NXT^® Patch is a premium, fast-drying underlayment patch designed for use over most substrates. The easy-to-apply, cement-based formula is engineered for deep fills and strong bonds, making it ideal for preparing the garage’s exterior.

• HYDRO BAN^® is a thin, load-bearing waterproofing/crack-isolation membrane that does not require fabric use in the field, coves, or corners. Moisture intrusion and seismic activity are mitigated thanks to the single-component self-curing liquid rubber polymer, which forms a flexible and protective waterproofing membrane with crack isolation properties.

• 253 GOLD^™ is a high-quality polymer-modified cementitious thin-set adhesive mortar with enhanced performance for thin-bed tile installations—an ideal choice for the garage’s exterior adhesion.

• PERMACOLOR^® Select is an advanced grout system offering the industry’s first dispersible dry pigment solution. Endless color options with optimum performance are afforded for even the most demanding exterior or interior applications.

* STONETECH^® Heavy Duty Exterior Sealer is a solvent based, penetrating sealer with advanced stain protection and weather resistance, which Rinaldi Tile counts on to beautify and protect natural stone, masonry, and grout surfaces. 

Cultural heritages expressed

An extensive demographic survey identified a total of 90 individual cultures in Watsonville, including Native American and international countries alike. Each culture was given unique mosaics along the garage’s horizontal elements, as was each Mexican state.

Crocetti encouraged students to develop and nurture each design uniquely rather than simply making mosaic flags.

“[These were] horizontal images that would become mosaic panels, representing their own cultures,” she said. Crocetti asked students to create patterns for the panels derived from cultural artifacts that they might have at home, like textiles or pottery. 

In total, 125 artists designed 185 horizontal custom mosaic panels that measured 8’ wide by 3’ tall. In addition, four massive, vertically-oriented murals adorned the ground-to-roof wall elements.

On the building’s northwest side, a Japanese woman stands behind yellow roses. Behind her are vines that subtly form “9066,” a reference to the 1942 executive order that resulted in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

“It is a really ugly period of history in our country,” said Crocetti. “It’s important to acknowledge that we did this to our own citizens, and to honor them in this way.”

Similar homages are found on the garage’s southeast side in “The Strawberry Picker” and “The Apple Picker,” both nods to the contemporary and past laborers—often immigrants—who have made up the region’s agricultural workforce. The former depicts a border dividing a field laborer beneath an Aztec warrior, a reference to indigenous Mexican civilizations.

“There’s a barbed wire fence above The Strawberry Picker,” said Crocetti. “And that fence represents a border—whether that border is physical, emotional, mental; it’s however you want to interpret [it].”

The largest mural, “Hermanita,” clocks in at 2,400 sq. ft.—double the size of the other vertical works. The indigenous woman portrait has dual meaning, with Crocetti noting it as “emblematic of the struggle of both women’s and cultural rights.”

A community effort 

“Community” is synonymous with Watsonville Brillante. Students and volunteers performed much of the work. Even when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress, Crocetti brought the project to the people—transporting a mobile workstation to homeless populations housed in area hotels.

“Most of the black and white swirls in the background of ‘Hermanita’ were put together by those folks,” said Crocetti. 

And the project will not stop when the final phase is completed in fall 2024. Impressive funding efforts allow Community Arts & Empowerment to hire local students as youth interns. 

Like the spirit of those who took part and are represented in Watsonville Brillante, the mosaics themselves are poised to endure thanks to the suite of LATICRETE products used. Each individual piece is solidified in time, offering a fitting and enduring tribute to the town’s rich cultural tapestry.