Retired Art professor Esteban Villa remembers the late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna and his wife, Isabel Hernandez-Serna as a modern day Romeo and Juliet.

“Joe was born in Lodi, from poor farm worker parents, and Isabel was born in Spain,” Villa said. “They fell in love and got married.”

On Friday in Joe Serna Plaza, a fountain will be dedicated as a monument to the commitment of Joe and Isabel to the University and to each other.

Villa, a colleague and friend of the Sernas since the late ?60s, said that when Bob Arellanes, special assistant to the president, approached him to work on the fountain, it was an offer he couldn?t refuse.

“I didn?t want to turn down Joe Serna,” Villa said.

Serna started as a Sacramento State government and ethnic studies professor in the late ?60s and went on to become the mayor of Sacramento. He passed away on Nov. 7 of 1999.

Hernandez-Serna started teaching at Sac State in 1970.She taught ethnic studies, Spanish and teacher education. In 1994 she became the University?s assistant vice-president for academic affairs, educational equity and student retention. She passed away almost a year after her husband, on Sept. 19, 2000.

Villa designed the fountain with assistant Art Professor Ricardo Favela after consulting with Arellanes, Vice-President for Administration Ed Del Biaggo and President Donald Gerth and his wife, Beverly.

Gerth worked with the Sernas a lot over the years.

“Joe and Isabel were very special people in helping to build this university,” Gerth said.

The design of the fountain started around late April or early May, according to Villa.

“We went through a lot meetings were we discussed the design ? function and beauty,” Villa said. “It was a lot of re-inventing the design until we finally got it, but it was worth it.”

After the design was chosen from one of three models that Villa built, Favela and Larry Love, art department instructional support tech, spent the summer firing approximately 300 six inch square tiles, which depict the San Joaquin Valley, vineyards, farm fields and produce.

“They both did a nice job, they went at it four weeks nonstop. It was intense work and full of challenges,” Villa said. “But the intensity forced us to give ourselves a time, a completion date ? really focused, right on it on a daily basis.”

Favela, who was a student of Serna and classmate of Hernandez-Serna, quickly jumped aboard the project when he heard about it.

“We want people to have something because Joe and Isabel were so important,” Favela said.

In designing the fountain, Favela and Villa combined what they stood for and what they liked. The fountain, which is 10x 14 feet and seven feet high, is unique because it is symmetrical. “Everything that Joe has, Isabel has?” Favela said.

On the bench, which surrounds the fountain there is an open book and on each of the pages there is a poem for Joe and Isabel, in Spanish and English.

The San Joaquin valley, vineyards and farm fields represent the Sernas? commitment to migrant farm workers.

“Joe and Isabel were united in their farm working background,” Favela said. “He was very dedicated to the farm workers.”

“The books signify the fact that they were scholars and academic people,” Favela said.

Favela thinks that the Sernas would love the fountain if they were around to see it.

Favela said that although Serna was not an artist, he understood art.

“He couldn?t draw worth a lick, but he knew how to appreciate it and utilize it,” Favela said.

Villa said the fountain is not intended solely as a reminder of the Sernas, but that it serves a function.

“It?s a piece of art that people can touch,” Villa said. “I hope they sit on it, stick their hands in the water and cool off in the summer.”

The dedication ceremony for the Joe and Isabel Serna Memorial Fountain will be in Joe Serna Plaza, outside the eastern entrance of the University Union, this Friday at 4:30 pm.