Among the university heritage assets of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, protected in MUSAC, stands out the mural work, Tierra Fértil de Guatemala, donated in 1981 to the USAC by the Guatemalan artist, Rina Melanie Lazo Wasem.

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The donation implied for the institution the detachment of the work from the original wall, located in Club Italiano de Guatemala, zone 10. Move it to the Antiguo Edificio Universitario, zone 1. Submit it to a restoration process, in which in the final stage, the artist joined the team of assistants to integrate color into the mural. It was placed at the entrance of the Main Hall of MUSAC, where it was valued in 1989 and admired until today.

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It took a decade to recover the mural work. The muralist lived in Mexico but traveled to Guatemala for cultural events and to share with her family members; this was the case until her physical departure in November 2019.

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In her visits to MUSAC she always expressed interest in the preservation of the mural, very conscious of the historical and aesthetic transcendence of the only mural she painted in her native country in 1954.

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When she returned to Guatemala, she made trips to the interior that she took advantage of to make quick notes in notebooks or small watercolors with landscape themes, capturing the color of the atmosphere in different times, volcanoes, clouds, skies and nature. Many of which he shared between his sister and nieces.

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On the other hand, in her parent’s house, from her student days with youthful works remained: pencil and ink sketches, watercolor paintings and oil paintings with landscape, still life, and portraits themes. When Dr. Arturo Lazo Midense, the artist’s father, passed away, these paintings were handed over to Olga Lazo de Montano, the muralist’s sister.

Many years later, that part of Rina Lazo's artistic legacy, in a family shelter on Guatemalan territory, was expanded with more works that she gave them as gifts and others purchased by her nieces.

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Thus, upon the death of Olga Lazo, the artist's only sister, the family estate was divided into three collections, one for each daughter: Coralia, María Olga, and Patricia Montano Lazo.

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There is another indirect branch, the one of Ana Cecilia and María Isabel Castillo Montano, who have Rina Lazo’s legacy and add it to the present tribute.

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At this point it is necessary to establish that the collections of this registry are not the only heritage of Rina Lazo in the country. There are more works that are known, but it will be necessary to do other similar exercises to continue recording work that is in other parental branches, the ones with friends and people who like art in galleries and other museums. It is a pending matter.  This is the starting point.