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Winter visitors flock to see the 'White Dove of the Desert' south of Tucson. During the winter months is also when restoration work takes place at San Xavier Mission. The church is nearly 230 years old, and is now undergoing significant restoration of its facade.
Timothy Lewis and his wife, Matilde Rubio, have been doing restoration work on the church since the 1990s.Timothy grew up on Tohono O'odham Nation, going to Mass at San Xavier.Right now, the facade is covered in scaffolding, as they painstakingly remove concrete used in the 1950s to seal it. Unfortunately, the concrete did more harm than good. 'A lot of the bricks that we found underneath were just powder,' Lewis said, adding, 'If we do not remove the cement, it will be much worse.'Matilde, Timothy and their crew have spent the winter removing the old concrete to expose the original decorative facade of the church. 'Just to save it,' Timothy said. 'Just to save what was left in here.'This is yet another phase in a long-term project funded by the nonprofit Patronato San Xavier. Timothy and Matilde recently gave a tour to KGUN 9, starting at the top of the facade. When the concrete is removed, the restoration begins. 'We're just using lime plaster to redo it like they did in the old days; how it was done originally,' Timothy said. 'Trying to get back to the basics and the original layer if we see any. There's a color underneath in some areas that we can actually see.'The pinkish color of San Xavier in recent decades isn't going to be that way anymore.'It was never that color,' Timothy said. 'It was just how they did it in the '50s.'Instead, the facade will look more white and gray, with a small bit of color showing through like on the statues found closer to the ground. Timothy also shows the cat and the mouse on the facade up close.Legend says if the cat ever catches the mouse, it's the end of the world. The original artisans used nails for the eyes of the mouse.Restoration work includes filling in any holes or cracks with lime, sand and plaster.'But I don't think there's anything left of the original,' Timothy said. Back at the top of the facade is what was once a statue of St. Francis. It's now often called the blobOld photos show them what it should look like under the thick layer of concrete. 'I would like to see it completely redone,' Timothy said. 'It's not normally what we do. But, like I said, it's the face of the church. You'd rather see something better than this.'Timothy and Maltide hope to wrap up this phase of the project by Easter. But they still have two more years of work on the facade, while only working outside in the winter months.
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