Many people living in Benicia may have never met “Mr. Atlantes”, but he has been living here since 1981!  He flew in on a plane to Fresno, then traveled by truck to Benicia.    Standing 15 feet tall, he doesn’t get a chance to get out much.  If he does travel around town, he needs to do it lying down in a very big truck, otherwise he might collide with power lines and telephone cables!  

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He lives at the Benicia Corporate Yard and spends most of his time inside. He is made of resin and fiberglass, and weighs about 175 lbs. 

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Mr.  Atlantes does emerge from the Corporate Yard from time to time, when delegates from Tula arrive to visit Benicia.   Mr.  Atlantes first came to Benicia as a special envoy from Tula in 1981, sent by then Mayor of Tula, Esteban Sanchez Rojo, to express gratitude and hopes for strengthening international friendship between the Sister Cities of Benicia and Tula.  

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‘Mr. Atlantes” is a life size, molded replica of one of the many Basalt-stone carved Atlantean Warriors atop Pyramid B in Tula. This Pyramid is also called Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl or The Morning Star.

 

“Tula, also known as Tollan, (or place of the Reeds) was considered an ancestral place of origin for many of the civilizations of Mexico, and the capital city of the Toltec people. The Toltec were revered for their sophisticated culture and artistry” according to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

   

As noted in Wikipedia, “The Toltec culture was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo Mexico, during the Epi-classic and early Post Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE.”

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The article goes on to say “The later Aztec culture considered the Toltec to be their intellectual and cultural predecessors and described Toltec culture emanating from Tollan as ‘the epitome of civilization’.”

 

The Ancient language of the Toltecs was Nahuatl (NAH-wa-tl), which is still spoken in the region today.    ‘Tollan’ is the Nahuatl word for Tula.

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We all had a chance to enjoy meeting and taking photos with Mr. Atlantes at the annual Torchlight Parade on July 3rd, 2025, when the Benicia-Tula Sister Cities association participated in the parade along with delegates from Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. 

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Mr. Atlantes journeyed from Corporate Yard this July  to give a special welcome to the new current Mayor of Tula de Allende, the honorable Cristhian Evanivaldo Martinez Resendiz.

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This was Mayor Cristhian Martinez's first trip to Benicia.    

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