The stars aligned and, accompanied by our ancestors, we met in the mountains of Ixtlán de Juárez to build a kiln called Esperanza, or Hope.
The kiln will live at the home-workshop of potter Rodolfo Pérez, a member of the Cooperativa 1050° and dedicated participant of the COMALA (Learning Community of Potters).
Those were three historical and emotional days. Seeing the birth of a kiln collectively hand-built by potters from four villages is a unique experience that doesn’t happen every day.
Francisca Ocampo, master comal-maker from Santa María Atzompa and her husband Guillermo Ruiz, guided us through the process of building the new kiln.
The kiln called "Jaguar" that Francisca and Memo use was also built collectively four years earlier by members of the COMALA, guided by Maestro Domingo Martínez from the Center for Pottery Studies of the CESDER (Center for the Study of Rural Development). Now, Francisca and Memo give back the energy they received by sharing their knowledge and experience in order to build another kiln.
These communal projects are yet another way for communities to share knowledge with each other and of expanding the ways of sharing we have cultivated at the COMALA. It gives hope that the knowledge of the indigenous peoples will live on.
Rodolfo is also a student of teacher Amelia Aquino, who is 95 years old. Whether or not the pottery tradition of this village in the Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca lives on is entirely in his hands. Maestra Amelia was with us, giving her blessing to this kiln and sharing her wish that Rodolfo continue the important work of keeping alive the trade of pottery in the region:
“I am glad that someone from my community decided to carry on with this work (…) Keep it up, keep doing the work, I can help you, so that it doesn’t get lost (…) Your great-grandmother also did it, and your great-great-grandmother was also a master potter. I’m so glad you’ve chosen to do this."
—Amelia Aquino,
We would like to thank everyone who participated in this adventure: Maestra Amelia Aquino, Francisca Ocampo, Guillermo Ruiz, Diego Mier y Terán, Kythzia Barrera, Julio Pérez, Elia Mateo, Gregoria Cruz, Amando Pedro, Paloma Castro, Fanel Reyes, Megan Martin, Tadd Heidgerken, Juan Carlos García, Arantza Regina, Getse Zato, Gabriela Linares, Isabel Pérez, Edith Ruíz and special thanks to Domingo Martínez, potter from San Miguel Tenextatiloyan and expert in kilns who in 2018 passed on to us his knowledge of improved traditional kilns.
And of course, we thank our hosts who welcomed us with open arms, affection, and (a lot of) delicious food: Rodolfo Pérez, Yasmín Vásquez, and the Pérez family: Don Arturo, Laura, Arturo, Ana, Frida, and Rodolfito.
Clay lives.