Gabino Lopez: Passion for Stone

I’m a little envious of Gabino Lopez. While many of us are searching for our calling, Gabino’s found his: it’s building with stone. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Edlyn Clevenger, Gabino traveled to Mallorca in 2016 to study ancient dry stone masonry techniques and brought these techniques back to Kings Canyon National Park. In doing so, he’s helped introduce a dynamic style of rockwork to a park that has traditionally built stone walls in the linear, static fashion. Trailwork, so steeped in tradition, rarely sees innovations in technique like those Gabino is spearheading.

Rewind a decade, however, and Gabino would have been an unlikely candidate to drive innovation in the National Park Service. In fact, he didn’t even know what the National Park Service was…

Joe: Tell me about how you got into working in parks in the first place, I know that’s a pretty incredible story.

Gabino: Back in 2013, I was 18 and I was working for this Mexican joint called Mama’s Hot Tamales in Los Angeles. I was doing everything, from waiting to dishwashing to prep cooking. It was December; I was waiting this lady's table and she had on a uniform. So, I complimented her uniform: ‘Oh, I like it. What is it?’ She told me it was for the National Park Service.

We started talking and she told me about this internship through Santa Monica [Mountains National Recreation Area]. I filled out an application—it was after the deadline, already, too. I lucked out, she took me in, and that's kind of how it started.

We would host trips with youth and talk about wildlife and nature and stuff. We went to Manzanar, Alcatraz, and Crissy Field in San Francisco. We went to Yosemite and we met some trail workers and I was like, ‘Cool. That's what I wanna do, I want to get more into that.’ It sparked a light, and I reached out for it.

A couple months later, I met this kid named Emerson Castillo. We were at the skate park and we were taking the same bus home. He had just done the CCC Backcountry Trails Program. He told me all about it, and I thought, ‘Oh, cool. I wanna do that too.’

At this point, Gabino made a common error—he applied to the regular California Conservation Corps (CCC), thinking he had applied to the CCC Backcountry Trails program.

G: So I went to a center which was in Greenwood, California. It was like middle of nowhere, like shit into the boonies. I stayed there for eight months and then I joined the Backcountry Trails program here in Kings Canyon in 2016.

Joe: You traveled to Mallorca to study their stone masonry techniques. Tell me about that.

G: A lady here [at Kings Canyon], Edlyn Clevenger, had gone to Mallorca to study masonry. She taught a rock school for a whole week and was trying to incorporate what she had learned in Mallorca at Kings Canyon. That’s what got the ball rolling for me. I kept bugging her, like, ‘Hey, can I do this internship?’

She finally got me in touch with Lluc Mir.

Lluc Mir is a master “marger,” or wallbuilder from Mallorca, Spain. He is a member of The Stone Foundation, a New Mexico-based non-profit that promotes the preservation of traditional dry stone masonry techniques.

G: He was really nice. He hosted me and he showed me around. I look at his stone work and I try to incorporate what I've learned from him here in Kings Canyon.

I've slowly started catching myself creating my own style, which is cool. As long as you lay strong, it could work. Anything works. And that's the beauty about stonework. You can make something out of your hands, and if you build it right, then it's everlasting.

And that's one of the things I love about it. You can collaborate with someone and make something last for a long time. Just the sound of a rock when it fits into the proper hole is so rewarding.

The hardest part about stonework is having mental stamina to see the project through. People give up pretty easily. You just have to see it through. And you eventually do it.

But it's one of the hardest things about it. People give up and get the Fuck-Its and just put whatever in. But I always try to take my time.

In the Mallorcan style, you don't have to build in a linear fashion. It’s a very dynamic style. It's meant to have pressure from multiple angles.

For example, if you build a wall like a traditional linear wall, it's only meant to get pressure downwards from gravity. So, if you take one rock out of the wall, the whole wall collapses.

With the dynamic style, it can get pressure from any side or angles. You take one rock out and everything will hold because not one rock is relying on everything. If you pay attention to the structures, they're arches. You take one rock out and everything else stays. That’s the Mallorcan style.

A dry-laid wall constructed by Gabino Lopez, in the Mallorcan dynamic style.

Photo courtesy of Gabino Lopez

This dry-laid wall, constructed by Alex St. Clair in Grand Teton National Park, illustrates the traditional linear, more static style of building.

Photo courtesy of Alex St. Clair and Grand Teton National Park Foundation

G: That's how I fell in love with it. It's a way of expressing myself. I’m in my own little zone and can just go and forget about everything else. I enjoy it. I feel free and I feel like no one's gonna bother me there.

There’s an art to it, you know? It’s sad that, at some point, my body won't be able to do it anymore, so I'm trying to transition over to something else. But still touch stone. Like sculpting or something, just something with stone.

I think it'd be interesting to reach out to the stone community and tell them, ‘Hey, you don't have to just do landscaping or work at someone's house for stonework.’ There's another world in trailwork. And you do a lot of rugged backcountry work. Not many people know about that.

Gabino and a wall he constructed in Kings Canyon National Park

Photo courtesy of Gabino Lopez

J: And now this winter, you’re going off to be part of a new trails program in Santa Monica Mountains?

G: Yeah, it would be cool to try to incorporate stonework there, as well. But, since the program is so new, I'm just gonna feel it out and see where I can come in.

That’s where it all started for me, there in Santa Monica. My goal is to give back and to reach out to inner city kids and say, ‘Hey, you can come here, we have a park for you, and this is yours. It's your land. Use it.’

And then teach them trails, too. ‘If you like doing this, maybe try trail work. Try working for a national park.’

I was always used to backcountry, you know? I've spent most of my time in Kings Canyon. And I think it would be good to change. I had my fun. Maybe it's time to actually settle and be a normal person. Contribute to society instead of just like being out here all the time.

J: You don’t feel like you’re contributing to society out here?

G: Yeah, I guess. It gets really hard once you're in the backcountry. For myself, I always felt like I need to be doing something more. Not just be out here.

I need to help people out. At some point in the season, I start feeling like I gotta get out and do something else. Maybe I'm just getting over it or something.

J: Do you have any other thoughts, comments, hot takes you want to add to the record?

G: I guess just follow your heart. Be passionate about what you do. For me it's just stonework. I love it. I want more of it. And I'm gonna try to get more of it.

But it's good to get asked questions and to hear my own answers. Like, oh fuck, you do love it. You know? Don't lose love for it. It's okay to be away for a while and not do it, but you know that you love it, so just don't forget.

For example, in LA, there's not a lot of stone work. There's this small stone structure by my house; when I walk my dog, I always take that same route just so I can see the structure. I pay attention to it. I like the work and how they built it. Smaller things like that keep fueling the fire.