In 2014 we launched the first call for Wayfinders Initiative. On that first occasion, with the help of many participants, Elia and Dorotea traveled to New York. In 2015, Rufina Ruiz, a potter from Santa María Atzompa, crossed the ocean to be an ambassador for artisans in Mexico during the Ceramic Biennale in Andenne, Belgium.
Who is Rufina? She is the youngest sister in a large family of potters in Santa María Atzompa, a community known for its green-glazed clay. Clay has been produced in that community for more than 3,500 years.
Since the early 1980s, Atzompa has been going through a difficult moment in its history. The invasion of plastic products, migration, abandonment of the trade and the growth of the urban sprawl, among other factors, have made artisans see their trade threatened. The new generations of potters fight to keep their heritage alive. Rufina is one of them.
Like many Oaxacan artisans, Rufina learned the trade from her mother. Always restless, she went in search of new horizons, studying to be an accounting assistant. The love for clay was stronger and Rufina returned to be part of the family workshop that for decades has been producing beautiful pieces of enameled clay.