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Sunday, December 7, 2003
Mexican Village Crafts Prosperity One Ceramic at a Time
By Autumn Gray
Of the Journal
If the potholes, rocks and washboard ridges pockmarking the road to Mata Ortiz aren't enough to make a person rethink the wisdom of this trip, the unexpected orange signs might do the trick: "Desviación"— deviation, detour. Like wide clown mouths laughing through the dust at the wary traveler, they taunt periodically over the last crumbly 12 miles.
This is Mexico, after all. Nothing is straight. Most roads are narrow. And yet, there is significance even amid the rubble. In a single word, the signs tell the story of this rural village, population 2,000. The village has been taking a detour of historic proportions for the last 30 years because of one man and his pots.
Juan Quezada was 12 when he unknowingly set his impoverished village down a new, prosperous path. While walking in the nearby mountains gathering wood and other materials he could sell to help the family get by, he discovered pre-Columbian pottery shards circa A.D. 1200-1450. The ceramic bits from the area's ancient culture, known as Casas Grandes, may as well have cast a spell on Juan. He became intent on learning how the prehistoric people made vessels of such beauty and quality.
For 16 years, he experimented with the land's clays and natural pigments, until he not only rediscovered the methods of the pueblo people but also surpassed their firing and painting skills. He made his first pot in 1971.
Later, when the village saw that pottery brought in more money than running scraggly cattle in the mountains, or picking fruit or working the sawmill, they wanted to learn the craft.
One by one, family by family, day laborers turned into artists, and life forever changed in this one-mile stretch of dilapidated barrios.
Had Juan never existed, "the town would be a ghost town today because it had no viable means of support," says Spencer MacCallum, a social anthropologist in Tonopah, Nev., who discovered Juan's art in 1976. "It was an economically depressed town, even by Mexican standards. Many houses didn't even have dug latrines. You would just go down among the bushes by the river and find your spot."
As pots sold, trucks replaced the horse and buggy, and families moved from two-room adobes to houses with multiple bedrooms.
Today, between 400 and 500 residents of Mata Ortiz, or 25 percent of the village, are potters. They also have indoor plumbing.
Still, no shops or formal galleries exist. Some pot makers, known as "roadrunners," peddle in the streets. The more established artists make and sell pots from their homes, each marked at its wrought-iron gate by a roughly painted wooden sign that says simply, "pots sold here" beneath the family name— Ortiz, Ortega, Quezada, Lopez, Gallegos.
Knock on the door and ceramics are brought to the potential buyer from back bedrooms, dresser drawers, living room tabletops.
Prices range from $6 to several thousand, and some artists have hit such success that they work by commission only.
Art by instinct
"The traders pretty much set the standard. Juan also sets the standard. But a pot is not truly a Mata Ortiz pot if (the artist has) used a kiln and a wheel," says Penelope Flack, a regular trader in Mata Ortiz pottery and owner of Walking Rain gallery in Alpine, Texas.
Pots are shaped by hand and then sanded, washed and polished, usually with a small stone. Between three and 12 strands of children's hair are then used to apply paint. Once the pot is dry, it is fired over burning cow chips, cottonwood or dry corn husks, and covered with something like a flower pot or washbasin.
On a recent fall morning, potter Baudel López Corona fired four black and red pots painted inside and out. These "inny-outies," as they may be called, reflect a style unique to him.
"How long before they're ready?"
He shrugs and shakes his head. "When it turns white," he says in Spanish. He means when the tinder becomes ash. That turns out to be about 30 minutes.
"How hot is the makeshift oven?"
Again, he doesn't know.
Measurements don't apply to this craft; pots are born, or broken, on the instinct and experimentation of their creators. Though the pots, called ollas (pronounced oyas), were inspired by the Casas Grandes culture, most of today's pieces resemble the puebloan pots in material and technical quality only, not style.
"The Mata Ortiz potter wants to develop his own style that would not be confused with anyone else in the village," MacCallum said, explaining the infinite variety and constant change in the look of the pottery— red pots etched with lizards; ivory pots, surfaces swimming with multicolored fish; polychromatic bowls swirled with geometric designs; coal black pots shined with graphite; a wedding vase with a rattlesnake handle.
"It's really gone beyond Juan," says Bill Gilbert, professor of ceramics at the University of New Mexico. "There's other people who are getting their own identification (as potters), ... and their level of sophistication of the world has increased."
The once insulated Northern Chihuahua desert village now has about 20 artists exhibiting their work in cities such as Chicago, New York, Phoenix and Albuquerque.
They will come
And there is tourism.
In addition to the regular influx of dealers from galleries in the Southwest states, visitors roll in from as far away as Germany and Japan.
The village is located about 200 miles southwest of El Paso, about a 3 1/2- to four-hour drive if all goes well.
"If you're going to come to Mexico, you need to be patient. Roll with the punches, and keep your expectations low," advises Flack.
Any of the following could result in a lengthier road trip: a delay at the border; a stop, and possible vehicle search, at a military checkpoint (there could be between zero and five as their number and location changes in an effort to confuse drug runners); an overturned produce truck in the middle of the road; or a flat tire.
Shattered glass glistens like cheap desert diamonds along both Highway 2 south from the border at Palomas and Highway 10 into Nuevo Casas Grandes. That's the nearest city to Mata Ortiz.
Between apple and pecan orchards, and alfalfa and cotton fields, lies desert ranchland, where dust devils corkscrew themselves into the size of small skyscrapers. Moving cattle kick up their own brown haze.
This is free-range country, so toro crossing signs appear with frequency. Some may be turned upside down by pranksters as a signal for motorists to watch for dead cattle in the roadway.
Offerings of beads, coins and pictures adorn freshly painted shrines to the Virgin and to other saints crouched in rock niches atop the hillsides or at the edge of the asphalt. Crosses mark too many roadside graves.
Between the Catholic iconography and Mennonite cheese stands, driving to Mata Ortiz is like riding the Holy Highway.
And if you arrive after dark, which is not advisable, you will even see a yellow halo of light on the approach into the village. Street lights went up about seven years ago, illuminating the main road where trucks and cars now cruise at night.
Those inside their homes may be cooking dinner using microwaves and electric stoves, taking a warm bath amid newly laid tile, or watching a movie. VCRs and televisions are as common in homes here today as Last Supper pictures.
And there are the detour signs on the way in to the village. Road construction has begun. Those 12 dirt miles into Mata Ortiz will soon be paved, and the first wave of tour buses is already scheduled.
If you want to see Mata Ortiz before the buses roll in, go now.
Helpful hints
Brush up on Spanish if you don't know it. Most people in the Mata Ortiz area do not speak English.
There are only a handful of phones in Mata Ortiz— one in each farmacia. All are cellular and often do not work. If you take your own cell phone, plan on having no signal.
If buying pottery, take American dollars. The artists only deal in cash. It is a good idea to carry smaller denominations of bills.
Travelers checks are not easily used anywhere.
Do not attempt to bargain with potters. Their prices are set, and it is considered rude to make a counter offer.
All purchases must be marked Made in Mexico. Pack pottery so that the mark, or stamp, shows.
Depending on the amount purchased, an informal declaration of import may be required at U.S. Customs upon return to the United States. Processing fee for this is about $10.
Required paperwork
(If driving across the border)
Passport*
Drivers license*
Birth certificate (optional)*
Vehicle title, registration and proof of insurance. If your vehicle is not fully paid for, a notarized letter from your bank authorizing travel over the border is required.
Vehicle permit. This can be obtained at the border. You must own your own vehicle and have purchased Mexican insurance. Bond will be required to guarantee you bring the vehicle out of Mexico. A credit card may be used to post this.
Mexican insurance. This should be purchased in the United States before your trip. It is best to buy coverage for more days than the length of time you plan to stay in case of emergency.
Tourist visa. This may be obtained at the border. The fee is usually between $20 and $35 and must be paid at a bank in Nuevo Casas Grandes.
* Three copies, plus the original, are advisable.
Lodging
There is general agreement among those who travel frequently to Mata Ortiz that Casa de Marta is the best place for food and lodging in the village. Cost is $35 per night, including lodging and three home-cooked traditional Mexican meals per day. Visitors must take their own drinks, including bottled water. Maximum seven people. No pets. A nonrefundable 50 percent deposit is required. Three to four weeks advance notice is advised.
Since there are virtually no phones in Mata Ortiz, reservations can be made by calling Tito Carrillo, a 20-year veteran of trading in the area, at (520) 290-0305 or (520) 861-2068 in Tucson, Ariz.
For additional travel information and places to stay in Mata Ortiz and Nuevo Casas Grandes, visit www.ortizpots.com/calendar and click on travel to the village.
Tours
Though tour groups are beginning to hit Mata Ortiz, the best way to have a guided tour of the village and ensure you visit top artists with high quality pottery is to take a private trip with a trader.
Penelope Flack, owner of Walking Rain gallery in Alpine, Texas, will take groups of four or less at a cost of $100 per day, per person. Cost does not include food and lodging. E-mail her at walkingraintexas@yahoo.com for information.
Tito Carrillo, owner of Casa Molina Curio Shop in Tucson, Ariz., will take groups of six or less at a cost of $400 per person for four days/three nights. Cost does not include meals and lodging. Call (520) 861-2068 or (520) 290-0305 for information.
Suggested reading
"The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz," multiple authors
"The Miracle of Mata Ortiz" by Walter P. Parks. (It is out of print and may be difficult to locate.)
"The People's Guide to Mexico: Wherever You Go ... There You Are" by Carl Franz