On a recent trip through colonial cities, I wandered from one artisan shop to another, wondering about the rows of handicrafts, bins of trinkets and boutiques of glass and ceramica. All this stuff had to be made somewhere, I thought. The somewhere became my obsession. Instead of buying from sidewalk sellers and shopkeepers, I set out to find the artisans, the craftspeople. I discovered that behind closed doors, and sometimes in courtyards and on side streets, cottage industries flourish.
Some artisans follow a tradition of three or four generations.
In my search, I discovered workshops, large and small, where prices are a little less than those in the more visible shops. This is how we found Los Originales de Papel Machier, a paper-mache factory. Each Saturday morning in San Miguel de Allende, a tour conducted by a center for handicapped children will take you to at least one taller, or workshop. In search of a weaver, I inquired at Bellas Artes , the state art center. A teacher, who spoke some English, directed us to a two-story warehouse where young men in hip boots stomped yarn in vats of bright pink, purple, and red dyes.