News — Mexican

Most often when I take the time to sit down to write about my business, it’s a rant or sad description of the latest calamity or indignity I’ve either witnessed or personally suffered. Some of you might know that I’ve been (slowly) writing a “memoir” with the working title “Why Importing Crafts from Mexico is Not for Wimps”. I also think that “Are you F**cking Kidding Me?” could work as a title also. But I just realized that I need to share good news too! In the summer of 2019, while the U.S. was continuing to be destroyed by a...

There are a lot of tongues wagging, and rightfully so, about the cultural appropriation (ripping off) of traditional textile designs created by indigenous artisans in Mexico. I am angry and concerned, and you will most likely hear more from me about this subject. I'm also alarmed by what's happening in the Mexican crafts world in general, due to globalization and the power of commercial interests who could give a flying you-know-what about preserving or respecting anyone's cultural identity. While you as a customer can find more and more online shops professing to carry items "handmade in Mexico", beware that there is no...

Near Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacán, indigenous women embroider colorful pictures that can be framed or made into decorative pillows and clothing. The themes of these embroidered “stories” originally came from ancient mythology of the Tarascan or Purepecha Indians, drawn from seals found in Tzintzuntzan. Gradually many women  there began depicting traditional village dances such as the Dance of the Viejitos and festivals such as Dia de los Muertos. The artisans also embroider scenes of women cooking, men fishing, and other scenes of daily life in a Purepecha village. Teofila Servin Barriga is one of the most well-known of the Santa...

People often ask what we sell. I will answer “crafts” and sometimes "folk art"-- if I'm talking to people who don't understand Spanish. There just isn’t a good translation for the word artesania. Sometimes Spanish speaking experts in the field call it Arte Popular, but these days that isn't used much. The problem with both the Spanish term artesania and the English term "crafts" is that people have different ideas of what that is. We do not sell crochet items or cute DIY things made with supplies from hobby and craft stores. We don't sell piñatas either. Most of the items we...