THIS SPIRITUAL DON QUIXOTE:

Restoring Churches, Rekindling His Faith (Kate Murphy, January 14, 2003, NY Times)

Mr. Esparza started his business restoring the art in these
unusual churches in 1994 after a 20-year career as a hairdresser in Austin.
Known back then as Fast Eddie, he had clients like the golfer Lee Trevino;
Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on the television series "Gilligan's
Island"; and John Connally, the former Texas governor. Now 53, Mr. Esparza
said he sold his chain of three hair salons because he was not happy. "I
was living a little too fast, you know what I mean?" he said. "And it was
all make-believe stuff--your hair, how you look."

In an effort to change, he turned to church restoration. Even when he was a
wayward hairdresser, Mr. Esparza painted religious art. His salons were
decorated with the mystical images of Mary and Jesus that he started
painting while attending Catholic grade school. Religious publishers printed
some of his works on prayer cards and sold them in Catholic bookstores.

Mr. Esparza has also helped his older brother, Genaro, do metal work for
churches, like restoring tabernacles and chalices. During those jobs, Mr.
Esparza would sometimes offer to touch up the church's crucifix or maybe
replace the gold leaf that had worn off Mary's halo.

"That's how the whole thing got started," Mr. Esparza said of Sacrada
Familia, his Austin-based ecclesiastical restoration and design business.
His
commissions come mainly by word of mouth, and he has specifically sought
jobs restoring the richly painted churches in the south and central parts of
Texas. "Those churches are forgotten treasures," he said. "I want to be a
link with the past, to restore them and to do something that is
everlasting."

Ernesto Hernandez, director of the 1907 Chapel of the Incarnate Word in San
Antonio, where Mr. Esparza has restored wall paintings and sculpture,
said, "He's like this spiritual Don Quixote, traveling dusty country roads,
taking care of old chapels."

Mr. Esparza is hired despite his lack of formal training. "I study a lot and
call museums and universities to get their opinion," he said.

Though the Texas Historical Commission works only with degreed conservators
on its projects, the agency's director of architecture, Stanley O.
Graves, said: "There's a validity in continuing the folk art tradition in
those old churches. I see no reason why they shouldn't be maintained by
individuals in the community if they read up and know what they're doing."

But Mr. Esparza has a loftier goal than mere historic preservation. "When
they see the beauty of the church and 3-D figures looking at them--clutching
their chest, giving emotion--maybe they'll see the light," he said. After
all, it happened to him.

Somehow it seems like being called a "wayward hairdresser" should be actionable. Posted by Stephen Judd at January 17, 2003 8:16 AM