Oaxaca Art Glass Studio Tour: Recycled Beauty Makeover
It’s definitely ugly out there at the industrial park in Magdalena Apasco Etla, Oaxaca, where the experimental glass studio Xaquixe is located. A mound of empty bottles — clear, brown and green — sits at the far end of the property, waiting to be broken up, melted and shaped. There’s a two-story metal silo where […]
Sleek, Functional Contemporary Oaxaca Pottery with Classical Influences: Innovating Tradition
Oaxaca’s cultural identity is defined, in part, by her ceramic arts. For thousands of years before the Spanish conquest, indigenous artisans were giving shape to local clay to form functional cooking and eating vessels, images of dieties for worship and jewelry for personal adornment. Now, after six years of operating from various temporary locations, La Tiendita […]
Puech Ikots (Words of Our People) Collective Brings Economic Hope to Oaxaca’s Remote Highlands
Jenny Smith and I bumped into each other online. Virtual worlds connecting, so to speak. There was a strange name linked to hers: “Puech Ikots.” It peaked my curiosity and I discovered this artisans collective making alebrijes (fanciful carved and painted wood figures) in the remote mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur. That presented […]
Teotitlan Women’s Project: A Letter From Annie Burns
I have asked Annie if she would give me permission to publish her letter, which she did, happily. I am sharing it with you. ******** Dear Friends and Family, Well, this was a blessed Christmas in Teotitlan del Valle. Your donations rang up to nearly a thousand dollars, which comes to about 11,000 pesos. That […]
Questions About Future Zapotec Life
Augustin Ruiz Gutierrez is writing his thesis in preparation for graduation from the University of Oaxaca. He is 24 years old, just like Eric Chavez Santiago, and they were school mates during their growing up years in Teotitlan and is one of a few who went on to high school and then college. We […]