24 Facts About Jo Mora

Joseph Jacinto Mora was a Uruguayan-born American cowboy, photographer, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, and historian who lived with the Hopi and wrote about his experiences in California.

Jo Mora has been called the "Renaissance Man of the West".

Jo Mora was born on October 22,1876 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Jo Mora's father was the Catalan sculptor, Domingo Mora, and his mother was Laura Gaillard Mora, an intellectual born in the Bordeaux region of France.

Jo Mora studied art at the Art Students League of New York and the Cowles Art School in Boston.

Jo Mora worked as a cartoonist for the Boston Evening Traveller, and later, the Boston Herald.

Jo Mora made plans to travel to the Southwest to paint and photograph the Hopi.

Jo Mora spent time at the Mission Santa Ines; those photographs are now maintained by the Smithsonian Institution.

Jo Mora visited many Spanish missions in California that summer by horseback.

Jo Mora followed the "Mission Trail", called the "Kings Highway".

Later, in 1904, to 1906, Jo Mora lived with the Hopi and Navajo near Oraibi, Arizona.

Jo Mora took photographs, painted and otherwise recorded the daily life of these Native Americans, including the Hopi Snake Dance.

Jo Mora learned the Native languages and made detailed drawings of what he observed.

In 1907, Jo Mora returned to California and married Grace Needham.

In 1921, the Jo Mora family relocated to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, the largest art colony on the West Coast, making it their primary residence.

Jo Mora constructed a Craftsman-style home, which is located on the west side of San Carlos Street, the third house south of 1st Avenue.

Jo Mora received a commission for the bronze and travertine Cenotaph, for Father Junipero Serra in the Memorial Chapel at the west end of Mission Carmel.

Jo Mora served on the board of directors of the Carmel Art Association, where his sculptures were exhibited between 1927 and 1934.

Jo Mora co-established Carmel's first private art gallery which was operated by resident artists.

On July 22,1922, for the opening day of the Carmel Woods subdivision, Jo Mora had carved and painted a wooded statue of Padre Junipero Serra, which was installed within a small wooden shrine, surrounded by plants and a pair of wooden benches at the entrance to the development, at the intersection of Camino del Monte and Alta Avenue.

In 1928, Jo Mora made the "El Paseo" sculpture in the courtyard of the El Paseo Building on Dolores Street and 7th Avenue in Carmel.

Jo Mora made three large interior dairy murals above a soda fountain and a sculptured a metal lamp in the shape of a cowbell that still hangs above the buildings front door.

Jo Mora showed animal figures dressed as humans, many recognizable as local Carmel residents.

Jo Mora designed the menus, Christmas cards, and milk bottles, with these animal characterizations, and a cow that served as the logo.