by Mildred Boyd

      It is a poor spirited—or truly impoverished—tourist indeed who can leave Mexico without needing an extra suitcase to carry home all the wonderful things he has bought. Whether it is a fine piece of art or a garish souvenir ashtray, a tooled leather belt, a lavishly embroidered blouse or some tawdry gimcrack for old Aunt Maggie, the shops and markets are overflowing with lovingly hand-crafted works, usually at irresistibly low prices. Ad mittedly, one pays for what one gets and ultra fine pieces can carry ultra high price tags, but always far less than equal quality would command else where.
      Every part of Mexico has its own unique cultural heritage of designs and techniques that are reflected in its crafts. The artisans of Jalisco are particularly ingenious in producing works from unlikely materials with the simplest of tools. Old newspapers are recycled as brightly colored papier ma-che ornaments and figurines, ordinary seeds are converted into elegant neck laces, bits of broken glass or tile become mosaic table tops and dyed corn husks are transformed into spectacular flowers and wreaths. The Huicholes of Northern Jalisco do wonderful things with bits of yarn and glass beads. Many of their works qualify as true art and can be found nowhere else.

     Common clay is shaped into wares ranging from the highly decorative to the purely utilitarian. From elegant multi-piece stoneware dinner services to crude clay griddles for baking tortillas, all are gracefully shaped and usually exuberantly decorated with birds and foliage. This sixteen-inch platter is a fine example of the charming petatillo ware from Tonala. Two fat and sassy quail? seem to be cavorting among the trees and flowers. It is the background of fine cross-hatching resembling a woven mat, or petate, that gives this style of decoration its name.

     The craftsmen of Santa Cruz de las Huertas specialize in producing amusing vignettes of village life and Biblical events in brilliantly painted clay. Merry-go-rounds and Noah’s Arks are popular subjects as are comic cars and buses, houses and churches. This unusually elaborate, two-story bandstand is 22 inches high. It shows a festive scene with the band playing away on the upper level while dancers gyrate below and lovely señoritas flit up and down the outside stairway.

     In the rural areas, where toy stores are far away and money is tight, children happily make do with the hand-carved wooden toys or the rag dolls, like this one, made by their parents. Though it is a far cry from Barbie, any little girl would love this tiny replica of the women in her life. Only 6-1/4 inches tall, the little lady has an embroidered stocking for a face and wisps of yarn for hair. She is obviously dressed for some special occasion in her very best striped top, white skirt, black shawl and large golden earrings.

     While this amusing papier mache figure may not be a faithful copy of a real bird, his creator has somehow succeeded in capturing the very essence of crowdom. The great yellow beak, open in a raucous caw, untidy blue-black plumage and cocky stance are authentic enough but nature never endowed this species with such gaudy breast and wing feathers or quite such a mischievous glint in the eye. He stands 8-5/8 inches tall and is a delightful example of what can be done with scraps of wire, old newspapers and a bit of paint.

     As the holiday season approaches, street markets all over Mexico over flow with figures for the nacimientos that grace every home at Christmas. The Holy family, the three kings, shepherds and animals, trees and mangers, angels and, yes, devils...all are there in materials ranging from painted plaster to fine china and sizes from miniature to larger than life. This handsome, five-inch devil with his serpent minions is of painted clay and comes from San Pedro Tlaquepaque.

     Like feather mosaic, working with popote (straw) is, alas, an ancient art form that is fast disappearing. Probably because it is so labor intensive, involving gathering just the right grasses, adding color with a wide range of vegetable and mineral dyes and painstakingly attaching the tiny pieces to a surface coated with beeswax, only a few dedicated artists still work in this medium. This Virgin of Guadalupe stands about 12-1/2 inches high and is a fine example of the dying art.

     Jalisco is not a major source for hand-woven textiles but every woman in every village seems to have been born with an embroidery needle in her hand. They create clothing and table linens for their families and wall hangings and altar cloths for their churches and still find time to make a few extras for sale on market day. Huichol women, especially, are kept busy creating elaborate clothing for their men. This detail from a trouser leg is only a small sample of the exacting work required for the full male costume.

     Huichol men have their own art forms and, though most were originally intended only for ceremonial use, their colorful creations can often be found in the markets. Almost everyone has seen their ojos de dios (gods eyes), where colorful yarn is wrapped in a diamond pattern around two crossed sticks, but yarn paintings such as this one are less familiar. Varying lengths of yarn were pressed into beeswax to form a picture of a shaman with drum surrounded by religious motifs.

     Tiny seed beads are widely employed in the creation of ceremonial at-tire and implements for Huichol religious rites. They are netted in colorful designs to produce necklaces, pectorals, belts, fetish bags, and gourd bowls. Lavishly decorated with beads painstakingly pressed into beeswax, they are used to present offerings to their gods. This example is about ten inches in diameter and shows alternating eagles and deer, both animals of deep significance to the nature worshipping Huicholes.