Mexican handcrafts and folk art

The tradition & historical record

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. ¹

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. ¹

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. ¹

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. ¹

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. 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. ¹

Mexican artesanía is sold to foreigners in two ways. The first is to tourists, as Mexican handmade items is part of what makes the country attractive to foreign visitors. The second is through exports. Mexican artesanía is widely sold outside of Mexico, especially through the Internet. However, there is no single marketing entity or corporation whose business is to export Mexican artesanía in general. Exporting is mostly done by investments in a particular crafts by particular people, rather than a large scale promotion of Mexican crafts in general. One example involves smaller enterprises and cooperatives attracting foreign investment and opportunities to sell their wares abroad. One such cooperative, headed by Nurith Alvarez Cravioto, in Hidalgo State consists of rural poor, many of whom have sent men to the United States to work, and ex-convicts who cannot find employment. They needed an investment of almost US$10,000 to build workshops and buy equipment. They were unsuccessful getting money from the Hidalgo or Mexican federal sources. However, their case was well known enough that a state politician mentioned them to the secretary of the Japanese embassy in Mexico. The cooperative made a sales pitch to the Japanese embassy, which agreed to fund the cooperative. This effort is hoped to lead to the ability to export the cooperative's products to Japan. Another community in Hidalgo called Axhiquihuixtla makes ceremonial masks of sculpted wood. Sculptor Javier Astora found the community and bought their masks. They masks wound up at a gallery called Biddingtons in New York where they fetched prices of up to 350 dollars each, in comparison to the 250 pesos (roughly $25) they normally sold for. ¹

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. ¹

Many organizations and government programs exist to help craftspeople and promote the production of artsanía. ¹

Handcrafts in Mexico vary widely from materials used, techniques and employ and … ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mexican handcrafts and folk art”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Mexican handcrafts and folk art is practical and artistic items in Mexican culture, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²