Certainly Sr., fortunately here in Michoacán, we still have handcrafts, our heart and these hands. And with these we can do a little bit of everything…” – Source: “El quehacer de un pueblo” (“The tasks of a town”), Casa de las Artesanías de Michoacán (The Michoacan House of Handcrafts). This article is a guide to the highways and […]
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As they explored the New World, the early conquistadors were spurred on by the possibility of finding treasure and riches. Captive Indians told convincing stories of cities far to the north even more fabulous than the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards’ greed was sufficient to fuel determined drives into ever more remote territory in the […]
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Elvia Silva Bartolo believes her big ceramic pots have a pretty good chance of winning a prize at the 46th annual Tianguis y Concurso de Artesania de Domingo de Ramos on April 9 in Uruapan, Michoacán. Bartolo lives in the village of Zipiajo where she and other artisans practice an ancient Purepecha craft in which they make […]
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The Purepecha Indians throughout Michoacan have developed a tantalizing culinary heritage for centuries that still awakens the senses with its powerful aromas and flavors. In Uruapan, Morelia and other parts of the state, corundas and huchepos, both Purepecha variations of the tamale, eagerly await the opportunity to extinguish the hunger of visitors while imparting a delicious cultural experience. Of […]
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Abdon Punzo Angel’s thick hands tapped minute details into the menacing snout of the copper dragon that sat immobilized in a vise, its body seeming to squirm. Beside him, another shiny dragon writhed from its base, teeth bared, tongue flicking, the scales across its back bristling. A candle holder sat on its head, another on […]
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Inspired by the caricatures of lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada, the elegant Catrina has her origins in Day of the Dead celebrations. Capula’s Catrinas arrived only recently. They stand in the doorways of this small quiet colonial town, Catrinas of every size and description decked out in flowered dresses and clenching flowers in their cratered teeth, plumed […]
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The paths are riddled with streams of water that exhale their sweet musty breath as they descend toward the river; the forest is bathed in a powerful mist, emboldened by its fragility where the thunder of rushing water courses through the consciousness of an eternal dawn. The moment you enter Cupatitzio Gorge National Park in […]
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José María Alejos Madrigal cut delicately through the wet clay, removing a thick slice between the two ribs of a lamp with the distinctive, bulging ridges of a cactus. His wife, Cecilia, sat a few feet away, pressing bits of clay into a round mold to imprint them with tiny indentations, then placed them on […]
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Her bold hands coax the thread through white cotton, relinquishing a fragment of the kaleidoscopic hues within her soul to cavort freely across the snowy landscape. The joints of her fingers moving with a tender dexterity, Hermelinda Reyes Ascencio pulls the filament through the fabric surrounding a needlepoint flower, radiant with shades of violet, magenta, […]
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They crept and crawled, oozed and slithered from the clay, prickly spiders and sneaky snakes and pesky lizards darting from the dark wet dough, turtles swimming to its surface, bug-eyed devils rising from the mud, all brought to life by the magic touch of Antonia Cruz Rafael. “This is a borregito (sheep), or chivito (goat),” she said in her […]
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