Meeting an Icon, and Visiting a City Built by NAFTA

This day was the one to which Katherine had been most looking forward.  Mata Ortiz day.  First, some background.  Mata Ortiz is a tiny village about 40 miles from Nuevo Casa Grandes.  It is so remote, the paved road between the two towns didn't exist until about 10 years ago, and it was only reachable by mule, horse, or train (when the train still ran about 80 years ago).  There was a man in the village, named Juan Quezada, whose occupation had been to collect firewood for the village.  He was born in 1940 and is now 78 years old.  In the early 1970's, while foraging for firewood, he came across a cave, in which he found a significant cache of Paquime pottery.  It was very unique in how thin it was, as well as the featured designs.  He spent the next several years attempting to recreate the pottery in his spare time, experimenting with clay he excavated from the hills surrounding Mata Ortiz.  It took him years to perfect a method to make the pots without a potter's wheel, and to fire them so that they would not shatter.  He began to produce the pots, but had no way to sell them.  A few pots he had given away made their way into New Mexico, when an American anthropologist named Spencer MacCallum came across them.  He was so intrigued he traveled into Mexico and spent several weeks trying to locate the artist.  He eventually made it to Nuevo Casa Grandes, where a shoeshine man recognized the work.  As there were no roads to Mata Ortiz, MacCallum traveled by mule to eventually link up with Quezada.  He commissioned Juan to begin producing pots, which MacCallum brought across the United States to museums and exhibitions, and they were soon in very high demand.  As Quezada began to see income and realized he couldn't keep up with demand, he taught his children and family members the secrets of his pottery, and eventually he trained multiple people from Mata Ortiz.  Over time, apprentices have in turn trained others, and the pottery now flourishes.  Despite his wealth, Quezada still lives in his same home in Mata Ortiz, which now also serves as his studio.  He still goes into the mountains almost every day to collect and search out new sources of clay.

Field of Chile Peppers -- We Were Able To Pick Some

So, on this morning, we were brought to the home and studio of one of Juan's original students, who now runs his own studio.  It was located adjacent to the Paquime ruins.  Here we got to visit with four pottery artists who put on a demonstration of how the pots are made, painted, and then fired.  It was fascinating to see it all step-by-step.  All of the designs, by the way, are painted by hand, using human baby hair, as it is so fine.  All of the clay is 100% natural from the nearby mountains, and all of the paints are made from local, natural pigments.  It was particularly interesting to watch them fire four recently painted pots; we saw the process from beginning the end, and afterwards the four pots were made available for sale to our group.

Tub In Which the Pottery is Fired

Placing Pots Into Tub for Firing

Ready To Be Fired

They Fire for About 25 Minutes

Artists at Work

Coming Out After Firing

The Four Just-Fired Pots Before Auction

Painting the Design With Baby Hair

20181105_091515 from Allen Steele on Vimeo.


We then got back onto the bus and made the 45-minute ride to Mata Ortiz, which is now reachable via fairly modern roadway.  The village remains little but a speck around an abandoned rail station.  We went to Juan's home, which as I said is also his studio.  They had work on display and for sale by Juan, as well as his immediate family members and apprentices.  We quickly lost ourselves looking at all the designs when Raul called for our attention and announced that Juan Quezada was there and wanted to meet us.  I thought K was going to faint.  When Raul had called in the morning, to confirm our visit, he spoke with Juan's wife, who said he was about to head out in search of clay.  He pleaded with her to "hold him" for a while, until we could arrive, and she did.  It was quite a treat.  He speaks no English, but Raul ended up interviewing him in Spanish, and recording the whole thing on his phone.  Raul said that it had been more than 10 years since he last saw Juan, which is testament to how lucky we were to meet him.  Raul decided to take advantage of this and record Juan telling him the story of how he first found that cache of Paquime pots, and all the stories leading up this day.

After making some purchases, we all piled back onto the bus and headed back to the studio where we began the day.  On the way, Raul was sharing with us some of the highlights of the stories Juan had just told him. Someone asked why Juan seemed so poor, when he certainly has made money over the past few decades.  He chooses to live very simply, but then Raul told us all to look behind us, to the mountain immediately behind Mata Ortiz.  He explained that Quezada had purchased the entire mountain, to ensure that the clay would remain available to the people of Mata Ortiz, which I thought was really cool.

The Road to Mata Ortiz

The Tiny Village of Mata Ortiz

Juan Quezada's Home/Studio

Inside the Studio

Juan & Katherine

Raul Records Juan's Story

Back at the studio, we had a wonderful lunch on the back terrace, catered by the French chef from the previous night's dinner.  Lunch was a local Mexican affair, which several "unique" local dishes, including boiled pig's skin.  While I tried it, I certainly didn't finish it, nor did I return for seconds.  The other items were excellent.

We Missed Day of the Dead Celebrations by a Day

Nuevo Casas Grandes

Speaking of pig's skin (nice segue way), during the tour we learned that our guide, Raul, had entered the United States illegally at the age of 17.  He grew up and was living in the city of Chihuahua, and was running a business with his older brother making and selling fried pork skin.  He and his brother had no way to readily transport and distribute their product, so they relied on city buses, which was far from ideal.  His goal was to go to America long enough to learn English and make enough money to buy a pick-up truck for he and his brother.  He ended up spending almost two years working on a dairy farm, where he basically "washed the cow's teets" and cleaned up after them.  A Mexican friend had gotten him the job, but the farm was a 24-hour-a-day business, and he and his friend worked opposite 12-hour shifts.  That left Raul working alone, with no one who spoke Spanish.  He certainly learned English, and he did eventually make enough for the pick-up truck, which he bought and drove back to Chihuahua.  With the money from pork skins he eventually made it to college, became an insurance broker, and saved money to tour Mexico with his family.  He eventually "felt a calling" to become a guide himself, so he became licensed.  He now does about four or five tours a year, and works the rest of the time running an insurance business with his son.



Our lunch ran long and most of us were tired already; the beer at lunch didn't help that.  Many dozed on the bus while we continued south toward the city of Chihuahua, where we were to spend the night.  The landscape became increasingly prosperous as we drove, and we came across miles and miles of farm land, which all kinds of crops growing, including an inordinate amount of chile peppers.  As we approached  Chihuahua, it felt as though we were in the United States.  The highway was lined with malls and shops, including every imaginable American company.  We also began to see a huge number of factories and assembly plants.  Raul explained that Chihuahua is called the "city built by NAFTA," given all the business that has come in since the accord was signed in the 1990's.  There is no unemployment in the city; in fact, they can't get enough workers.  As we got more into the city, we began to see small numbers of Central American immigrants standing on corners.  Raul explained that they see a "fair number" of Central American immigrants, but explained that anyone on the street begging simply didn't want to work.  There were help wanted signs everywhere, and, as he put it, "anyone who can breathe could get a job if they wanted."  It was an interesting take on things.



Our hotel was perched high on a hill overlooking the city, and it felt as though we could be in any American city.  There was a Home Depot behind us, a Whole Foods across the road, and an iHop on the other side.  Our hotel catered to business people and was full of people visiting the assembly plants from Canada and the United States.

Area Around Our Hotel in Chihuahua

We were treated to a happy hour with drinks and food at the hotel, after which we had an excellent Mexican meal at a restaurant located in a shiny new mall nearby.