page_title: Mexican ceramics
section_title: Oaxaca
hierarchical_section_title: Mexican ceramics / Major pottery traditions in Mexico / Oaxaca
caption_attribution_description: English: Green glazed ceramic jar by unknown artisan from Santa María Atzompa at the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico
context_page_description: Ceramics in Mexico date back thousands of years before the Pre-Columbian period, when ceramic arts and pottery crafts developed with the first advanced civilizations and cultures of Mesoamerica. With one exception, pre-Hispanic wares were not glazed, but rather burnished and painted with colored fine clay slips. The potter's wheel was unknown as well; pieces were shaped by molding, coiling and other methods.
  After the Spanish Invasion and Conquest, European techniques and designs were introduced, nearly wiping out the native traditions. Indigenous traditions survive in a few pottery items such as comals, and the addition of indigenous design elements into mostly European motifs. Today, ceramics are still produced from traditional items such as dishes, kitchen utensils to new items such as sculptures and folk art. Despite the fame of the prior, the bulk of ceramic items produced in the country are floor and wall tiles along with bathroom fixtures. Mexico has a number of well-known artisan ceramic traditions, most of which are in the center and south of the country.
context_section_description: In many parts of Oaxaca state, both functional and decorative pottery and ceramic pieces are produced. Most potters live in the central valleys region of Oaxaca, where some of the best known traditions are. The most traditional potters live in small rural villages such as San Marcos Tlapazola and Vista Hermosa Tonaltepec. The latter is a Zapotec village of about a dozen families, who make very simple, yet light, earth colored cookware and utensils. Most of this pottery is sold to other local villages, but a small regional and international market for this type of pottery has appeared as well.  Many Oaxacan villages, like San Marcos Tlapazola, are nearly devoid of working age men, as most have left to work in the United States. Many of the women have begun to make pottery to supplement what their husbands send. Much of the work is sold in the larger towns or cities either by the potters individually or together as a cooperative. The cooperative at Tlapazola sells and exhibits their ware in markets and contests in various parts of Mexico. Most clay is from a local source and generally that source is kept secret.
  Despite their price, as low as thirty pesos for a pot, much of traditional indigenous cookware is being replaced by mass-produced pots and pans in the rural areas. Fewer young people are taking up the trade, mostly because many want to live in the city. Much of pottery making in Oaxaca has switched from functional ware to decorative wares that appeal to foreign markets and tourists.
  Some Oaxacan artisans draw on the native use of bright colors and magic realism present in modern works such as those by Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo. Others show a world view that mixes native beliefs and traditions with the Catholic faith. Most potters cannot compete with cheap, mass-produced items so many have turned to upper scale folk art and one-of-a-kind pieces. Others have been inspired to look at their own ancient cultures and use them to help create sellable works. Cooperatives such as these have attracted the attention of Japanese ceramists and billionaire financier Alfredo Harp Helú, who have provided seed money, business advice and outlets to show their wares internationally. Despite this, becoming profitable is still not easy.
  Many Zapotec potters still use the "Zapotec wheel" to give shape to their pieces. It is not a potter's wheel per se. It is a disc or plate balanced over another inverted one. The piece is given its basic shape by coiling or molding and then it is finished while turned on the disc. The disc with the vessel in progress is turned only with the hands, which requires a certain amount of balance and skill.
  One common way to decorate the simplest of ceramic pieces in Oaxaca is called "chorreada" (runny). The pieces are first fired with a clear glaze. Then a second glaze with oxides for color are dabbed on and allowed to run where it may. This double glazing is similar to the production of 19th century Majolica, a pottery form more prominent in central Mexico.  The use of raised images on clay items has also been adapted to more traditional vessels, often with the image colored differently from the background.
  The two best known pottery traditions are "barro negro"  and the green-glazed pieces of Santa María Atzompa. Barro negro (black clay) pottery is a style of pottery distinguished by its color, sheen and unique designs, and is most often associated with the town of San Bartolo Coyotepec. The origins of this pottery style extends as far back as the Monte Alban period and for almost all of its history, had been available only in a matte grayish black finish. In the 1950s, a potter named Doña Rosa devised a way to put a black metallic like sheen onto the pottery by polishing it. This look has made the pottery far more popular.  While the Doña Rosa's techniques and designs are now widely copied in Oaxaca, the original workshop still exists, with her son Valente Nieto Real still making pieces at seventy years of age.  From the 1980s to the present, an artisan named Carlomagno Pedro Martinez has promoted
caption: Example of the green glazed ware of Santa María Atzompa
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