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.
Definition of Mexican folk arts and crafts
Mexican handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and fashioned for utilitarian, decorative or other purposes, such as wall hangings, vases, toys and items created for celebrations, festivities and religious rites. These arts and crafts are collectively called “artesanía” in Mexican Spanish. This term was invented in Spanish during the 20th century to distinguish merchandise made by traditional methods versus those made by industrial/assembly line methods. The word is also used to promote traditional products to tourists and as a source of Mexican national identity. Mexican artesanía has its foundations in the crafts of the many pre-Hispanic cultures within the country, but 500 years of European influence has transformed it into a mixture of the two and unique to Mexico. Most artesanía produced here shows both European and native influences in the crafting, the design or both.
Artesanía can be defined as those items created by common people, using traditional methods which are well-founded in the past. Most artisans do not have school-based training in their craft, but rather learn it through formal or informal apprenticeship. The term “common people” for Mexico generally applies to people native to rural areas and those outside the upper and middle classes.
For Mexico, artesanía is heavily tied to national identity as well as indigenous identities, and this idea is often played out in movies and television in the country. From the early 20th century to the present day, Mexican folk art has inspired famous artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco, Fernández Ledezma, Luis Nishizawa and many others. Miguel Covarrubias and Salvador Novo defined true Mexican artesanía as a blending of European and indigenous traditions, with items produced for domestic consumption, mostly for the Mexican middle class. This definition best applies to the production of pottery, leatherwork, textiles and toys. This definition is founded in the early post-Mexican Revolution era when artists and intellectuals were concerned with creating a native identity for Mexico, which revolved around the concept of “mestizo” or the blend of European and indigenous races. It was even thought by some of its proponents, such as Dr. Atl, that any change in the artesanía of Mexico would lead to its degradation and of the identity they represent.
Most of the artesanía produced in Mexico is ordinary things made for daily use, but they are still considered artistic because most contain decorative details and/or are painted in bright colors for aesthetic purposes. The bold use of colors in crafts and other constructions extends back into pre-Hispanic times. Pyramids, temples, murals, textiles and religious objects were painted or colored ochre red, bright green, burnt orange, various yellows and turquoise. These would be joined by other colors introduced by European and Asian contact, but always in bold tones. Even the production of colors ties into the history of craft making. Red pigment since pre-Hispanic times has made from the cochineal bug, which is crushed, dried and ground to a powder to mix into a liquid base.
Design motifs can vary from purely indigenous to mostly European with some other elements thrown in. Geometric designs are prevalent and the most directly connected to Mexico's pre-Hispanic past and/or items made by the country's remaining purely indigenous communities. Motifs from nature are as popular, if not more so, than geometric patterns in both pre-Hispanic and European-influenced designs. They are especially prevalent in wall-hangings and ceramics. Mexican artesanía also shows influence from cultures other than European. Puebla's famous Talavera pottery is a mix of Chinese, Arab, Spanish and indigenous design influences. Lacquered furniture was unknown in Mexico until the Manila galleons brought lacquered wood products here, which local craftsmen copied.
Many Mexican crafts are considered to be of “Baroque” style, with the definition of such as “a decorative style characterized by the use, and the occasional abuse, of ornaments in which the curved line predominates.” This is a result of Spanish Plateresque and Churrigueresque styles being used during the colonial periods and possibly from some highly ornate pre-Hispanic traditions as well.
History
Since pre-Hispanic times, folk art (arte popular) in Mesoamerica has been the primary vehicle through which people have expressed their dreams and fears, courted their lovers, amused their children, worshiped their gods, and honored their ancestors.Oettinger, Marion. "Folk Art." In David Carraco (ed). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. ISBN 9780195188431: Oxford University Press, 2001 By the late pre-Conquest era, the Aztecs had absorbed many of the crafts and trades traditions from the Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and the Maya. In some of his writings, Hernán Cortés describes the myriad of handcrafted goods available in Tenochtitlan’s markets such as textiles, feather art, containers made with gourds and objects made of precious metals. Bernardino de Sahagún describes the various items made from the maguey plant, the wide variety of pottery, as well as about the privileged place that artisans held in the native social hierarchy.
In the very early colonial period, the native artisan class was persecuted and was all but destroyed, as many of the designs and techniques they used were linked to pre-Hispanic religious practices, which the Spaniards wanted replaced with Christianity. Conversely, new crafts and new craft techniques were introduced from Europe and often taught to indigenous and mestizo people in missions.
Those crafts that survived the Conquest, such as pottery, were enriched by the new techniques from Europe. New crafts were also brought to Mexico, such as saddlemaking, and naturalized by local artisans, using elements of indigenous designs. However, crafts which did not fit with European lifestyles or tastes, such as like feather mosaics, tended to disappear.
One notable case of the re-establishment of crafts in the early colonial period is the work of Vasco de Quiroga. Quiroga arrived to the newly conquered Michoacán province after Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán had murdered many of the native Purépechans, ruined many crops and disrupted the economy. He began to repair the damage by feeding the hungry, founding schools and hospitals and reconstructing the economy. He worked to re-establish the crafts that had existed previously, often introducing new techniques, and to establish new crafts. To avoid competition for the same limited markets, he encouraged each village to specialize in one particular craft or product. He was successful in bringing many native craftsmen back to their work. Quiroga was the first to systematically blend native and Spanish craft techniques as well as organization of labor. Vasco de Quiroga is still honored in the state of Michoacán, especially the Lake Pátzcuaro region, and the state is well known as a crafts producer.
In time, the crafts redefined themselves, as most of them were dominated by mestizos or those of mixed indigenous and European ancestry. However, tight control was kept on production by the higher classes and government authorities.
Near the end of the colonial period, another member of the clergy was active in promoting the crafts as way to help those in lower social positions in Mexico. In 1803, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla settled in as the parish priest of Dolores, Guanajuato. Turning over most of his religious duties to a vicar, Hidalgo dedicated himself to commerce, intellectual pursuits and humanitarian activity. He spent much of his time studying literature, scientific works, grape cultivation, the raising of silkworms. He used the knowledge that he gained to promote economic activities for the poor and rural people in his area. He established factories to make bricks and pottery and trained indigenous people in the working of leather. He also promoted beekeeping. He was interested in promoting activities of commercial value to use the natural resources of the area to help the poor. His goal was to make the Indians and mestizos more self-reliant. However, these activities violated policies designed to protect Spanish peninsular agriculture and industry, and Hidalgo was ordered to stop them. The Spanish authority's treatment of peasants and the lower classes would be one factor in pushing Hidalgo to begin the Mexican War of Independence with his famous Grito de Dolores. Hidalgo's efforts founded the Majolica pottery industry in Guanajuato state.
After the Mexican War of Independence, the crafts’ guilds that had regulated manufacture through the colonial period were abolished. Since anyone could call themself a craftsman, product quality deteriorated badly, especially in pottery, foreign products entered the country freely and industrialization began to take hold. To help stop the socio-economic deterioration of artisans, brotherhoods, cooperatives and professional organizations were founded. However, indigenous artists generally did not join these associations, and they remained within their own socioeconomic organizations.
The status of native crafts remained precarious and were further depreciated during what is now known as the Porfirato, or the long rule of President Porfirio Díaz from the 1880s to 1910. Not only crafts, but just about everything native to Mexico was nearly discarded in favor of French-style and modernization.
The Porfirato was ended by the Mexican Revolution. Near the end of the Revolution, there was a desire on the part of artists, intellectuals and politicians to define and promote a national Mexican identity. Part of this effort was aimed at Mexico's crafts tradition. A number of Mexican intellectuals and artists, including Dr. Atl and Adolfo Best Maugard, were fascinated in folk art. Convinced of its importance, they began to write about the subject, and since then numerous books about the topic have been published. President Alvaro Obregon was interested in promoting Mexican crafts outside of Mexico. A group of academics and artists interested in folk art was commissioned to form the first collections of these for public display. This group included Gerardo Murillo, Javier Guerrero, Ixca Farías, Roberto Montenegro and Gabriel Fernández Ledezma.