My name is Roberto Antonio Mengual Cabeza. I am the youngest of 6 siblings. My father had four wives. My father, Jose Domingo Mengual, and my mother, Maria Magdalena Cabeza.
My father painted advertising signs. He worked at Vallas Colombianas. Later in Santa Marta, he started his own business near the Santa Marta Theater. He was the first to create signs and billboards in Santa Marta, and later came Ditta and Posada. He worked in partnership with Ditta; they signed as Mengual and Ditta. Unfortunately, Ditta had a fatal accident while riding a high-powered motorcycle. My father worked until he was 79 years old, and he has been gone for about 15 or 20 years now. I was very close to him.
First, my eldest brother replaced my father. He left, and he told me, ‘Take my name and move it forward, just as I did. Take the name Mengual; everyone knows it. This is our father’s legacy.’
I have two daughters, and I am a widower. My wife died of pneumonia, which was aggravated by exposure to paint fumes. She also smoked cigarettes. I got married to her at the age of 15, and she passed away when she was around 16 or 17. She died young.
I was born in 1955. I’m almost 60, but I take good care of myself. I’m missing a couple of teeth. Now, I live in Los Fundadores, and I have my own house. I also have my workshop. I have several locations. I’ve built my life on the foundation laid by my father. I’m not exactly like my father, but I follow his method. Everyone knows me as Mr. Mengual, and I owe it to my father.
Everyone knows Mengual Avisos. Roberto Antonio Mengual Cabezas, the heir.
AVISOS MENGUAL
3017278345
When I was around 12 years old, I remember that every day on my way back from school, we used to pass by this wall that blocked the traffic on Avenida del Rio in La Cuarta. I remember, during three elections, the billboards for Chico Zúñiga, the Mayor. During non-political times, there was a mural that said something like ‘Give a Hand to the River,’ an announcement that seemed to be taken from an episode of Captain Planet but that nobody ever paid attention to. Countless advertisements for Vallenato singers were displayed, all signed by Mengual Avisos.
This wall has its history; for many years, it interfered with the completion of Avenida del Rio until, through expropriation, Mayor Carlos Caicedo took charge of tearing it down in an event that looked like the second fall of the Berlin Wall, it was called the ‘Wall of Lamentations.’ The working class overthrowing the Samarian oligarchy, straight out of Che Guevara’s manual, with Roger Waters as a guest artist.
For many years, Mengual was synonymous with signs in Santa Marta. The father, the brother, and now Roberto Antonio, together might have more than 50 years of making scribbles on the walls of Samaria. They are all Mengual and none of them is Mengual. Mengual is the legacy, and we don’t know if there will be another successor or if this is the end of the dynasty.
When I returned to Santa Marta, I wanted to create a sign for my uncle’s carpentry business. My uncle told me, ‘Go find Mengual.’ To my surprise, unlike the Wall of Lamentations, this Mengual was still around.
Text and photography by Rafael Zúñiga // @pase_bonito.
