page_title: Mexican handcrafts and folk art
section_title: Maintaining the tradition
hierarchical_section_title: Mexican handcrafts and folk art / Maintaining the tradition
caption_attribution_description: English: Stoneware plate with blue wave on display at the Museum of Artes Populares in Mexico City
context_page_description: Mexican handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and intended for utilitarian, decorative or other purposes. Some of the items produced by hand in this country include ceramics, wall hangings, vases, furniture, textiles and much more. In Mexico, both crafts created for utilitarian purposes and folk art are collectively known as “artesanía” as both have a similar history and both are a valued part of Mexico's national identity. Mexico's artesanía tradition is a blend of indigenous and European techniques and designs. This blending, called “mestizo” was particularly emphasized by Mexico's political, intellectual and artistic elite in the early 20th century after the Mexican Revolution toppled Porfirio Díaz’s French-style and modernization-focused presidency. Today, Mexican artesanía is exported and is one of the reasons why tourists are attracted to the country. However, competition from manufactured products and imitations from countries like China have caused problems for Mexico’s artisans.
context_section_description: As in the past, most handcrafted products produced in Mexico are still consumed domestically in everyday family life, especially items such as clothes, kitchen utensils and the like, as well as ceremonial and religious objects. Much of what the world knows as Mexican craft was promoted in the 1920s and is considered luxurious, with Talavera pottery as an example. Tradition survives in the production of many of these products. Only five percent of Mexico's artisans employ innovative methods in production, design and promotion with success. 65% continue making their crafts with little, if any, differences from their ancestors and 30% are somewhere in between.
  Many organizations and government programs exist to help craftspeople and promote the production of artsanía. Many art schools in Mexico have classes in certain crafts and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura has a Crafts School. In Puebla, artists such as Juan Soriano, Vicente Rojo Almazán, Javier Marín, Gustavo Pérez, Magali Lara and Francisco Toledo were invited to help redesign the decoration of the ceramics produced there (but not the production techniques), which they did by adding human forms, animals and others to the traditional images of flowers and curved designs.
  The intervention of artists in the design process has been criticized by experts such as anthropologist Victoria Novelo, who claims that many of these artists “interfere” in the craft process by introducing ideas even though they have no studies in the cultural traditions behind these crafts. She also claims that many college-educated designers believe that with innovative designs, they can help the artisan get out of poverty, without knowing why the artisan is poor in the first place.
  Despite organizations and institutions, most Mexican artisans are impoverished with little access to quality materials or designs, because of lack of cultural knowledge. Artisans also must compete with goods manufactured in large factories and copies of Mexican artesania imported from places like China. This keeps prices down, and the time it takes to make authentic artesanía puts the Mexican craftsmen at an economic disadvantage. This is one reason why younger generations have less interest in the craft tradition.
caption: Stoneware plate with modern wave design at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City
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