September 2022
In 2022, after two years of pause due to covid, we were thrilled to have a new RVH Encuentro in Oaxaca.
This year, we enjoyed the attentive listening of the members who attended, with their eagerness to learn more about the project, their desire to participate and their smiles. We were enriched by significant conversations, human connection and, of course, pottery.
We touched the clay, touched the earth, and got closer to understanding what the way of the potter’s life means, like participatory philosphy that is so important for Innovando la Tradición.
On the first day we gave a green light to our largest project to date: the Community Center Casa de los Saberes (House of Knowledge). It’s a dream now taking its first steps. Francisca Ocampo, potter of Santa María Atzompa, guided a beautiful ceremony to ask permission and bless the space that will shelter, honor and celebrate the knowledge of the original people of Mexico and the world. We placed our intentions as seeds in the offering, to help grow: “respect, cooperation, gratitude, harmony, union, abundance in all its forms, passion and respect for tradition, infinite possibility, laughs, and conscience”, among others.
Accompanied by 15 artisans, we visited the home of Goya Cruz in a gorgeous corner of Río Blanco Tonaltepec. We enjoyed a delicious chick pea yellow mole and the potters gave us a pottery mini-class that left us amazed, covered in clay, and overjoyed.
That night, Carmen Serra and Uzyel Karp received us in their spectacular home. Surrounded by rain that gave an omen of prosperity, we had dinner and conversed over the motivations of the project, what each gets from it and what we can give back.
Thanks to those who attended and made this 4th RVH Encuentro possible!
Gracias a Shelley Armistead por abrirnos las puertas al Criollo, al infatigable equipo de Innovando la Tradición, a quienes vinieron y también a quienes no pudieron venir pero apoyaron a la distancia.
Re-energized, we thank from the bottom of our hearts those members who have commited to walk this path with us for 10 years: Claudia Flores, Julieta Giménez Cacho and Jorge Espinosa, and Paula Williams.