[Interview: Man & Roy Blair]
In between '86 and '88, I'd say I had to do more than a dozen pieces
Yeah
At least twelve to fifteen pieces of my own
Man, I would- I would go throughout the 90's, that's when it saw it's climax right there because by that time everybody was really strong
Well a couple months later, the Mexican men that arrived there to start paying the Mayan ball game, the ancient game of xcaret
When I saw that, well all of a sudden I showed up to Belmont and us riders started hearing that
"Hey, these Mexican men, they're playing this handball game right there"
What? And I had to go see for myself!
And I was like, this is like being in the ancient temples of the Aztecs and the Mayans look at all the artworks, the hieroglyphics, and here's the men playing the ball game
It's because of that! Because of the game showing up that Belmont's life extends a little more, you know?
So now it's not just an area that you can go paint, but now it's more of an open park and there's life and vitality there
There's people selling corn right there, and the riders - for the first time start, hm, really connected to the place, looking forward to go paint there and, and-
The things that we do, you know?
To hold on to what's dear to us
And you know, we didn't know what was gonna happen with the Belmont, there was talks of them developing it and stuff like that, you know?
And by that time - 2002/2003 I think they were moving towards bulldozing it and there was even a whole movement to stop it, yeah
You know? And yeah, Belmont had given so much, so much! You Know?
And I'm amazed it got that far!
You know, so we're talking about late '70s, through the '80s, through the- it's all there, at least over twenty five years of- of work, couple extra from 2000's and-
There was this one kid who stood in front of the bulldozers, that they came to, uh, bulldoze it up
Yeah, Belmont offered a lot of possibilities, you know?
And people would go to great lengths to- to protect it
Gotta tell some of these stories man, gotta pass these things on, you know? So that- so that they're remembered, man
Gives validation to what we put in, you know? Makes it all worth while, man, you know?
I don't know about you Roy, but for me? Again, you know?
My family was like "what the hell are you doing?" You know?
They did support me, but they were like- they didn't know what to do!
Yeah
"So, you're on your own kid!"
Yeah
Okay, fuck it, I'm on my own, and I went to go find, uh, like-minded people at a place like Belmont, you know?
Place like Belmont, you can take it with you - look all this?
All these pieces here, it's- it's because of Belmont, you know?
The fact that people took the initiative. to take these places, you know?
That's Belmont energy, you know?
This last piece, I'll show you - you'll understand!