México tiene historias que el mundo necesita conocer. La de San Bartolo Coyotepec es una de las más complejas, más reveladoras y, en muchos sentidos, más urgentes de entender. Aquí está el contexto que las noticias rara vez ofrecen.
La historia detrás
San Bartolo Coyotepec is a town and municipality located in the center of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is in the Centro District of the Valles Centrales region about fifteen km south of the capital of Oaxaca. The town is best known for its Barro negro pottery - black clay pottery. For hundreds of years pottery has been made here with a gray matte finish, but in the 1950s a technique was devised to give the pieces a shiny black finish without painting. This has made the pottery far more popular and collectable. The town is home to the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (State Museum of Popular Art of Oaxaca) which was opened here in 2004, with a large portion of its collection consisting of barro negro pottery. There is also a barro negro mural on the recently opened Baseball Academy.
The area was the settled homeland of the ancient Mesoamerican Zapotec civilization going back at least 2500 years, with the oldest archeological finds being in the Valley of Oaxaca. Its Zapote
Los protagonistas
The techniques for making the pottery have changed little during these centuries, with plates serving as potters’ wheels and design remaining traditional. One change has been the replacement of underground pits by kilns for firing the pieces. However, the most important innovation has been a polishing method devised by ceramic artist and potter Doña Rosa in the 1950s. Doña Rosa discovered that by polishing the nearly dry clay before firing, the gray color turned to a shiny black. This has made the pottery far more popular, and many pieces are produced now for decorative purposes rather than utilitarian. Since then, the aesthetic qualities of “barro negro” (black clay) pottery has become further appreciated due to the work of artisan-sculpture Carlomagno Pedro Martinez, who has displayed his barro negro work nationally and internationally. Spanish era The end of the Pre-Columbian era arrived with Spanish conquest and occupation of the Zapotec peoples region in 1521. It was first renamed
Dato clave: The museum was designed by and is cared for by a commission of craftsmen from San Bartolo Coyotepec.
Lo que los documentales no muestran
State Museum of Popular Art of Oaxaca - MEAPO The Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca - MEAPO, the State Museum of Popular Art of Oaxaca, was founded in 2004 to promote and preserve the traditional crafts of this state. The museum was designed by and is cared for by a commission of craftsmen from San Bartolo Coyotepec. The museum sponsors events such as the “Tianguis artisanal”, a crafts flea market, along with other civic groups. The museum has three halls. The first exhibits some of the finest pieces of barro negro pottery from San Bartolo Coyotepec as well as archeological finds from the area. The second contains 92 pieces of prizewinners from the Concurso Estatal de Cerámica “Benito Juárez” (Benito Juarez State Ceramics Competition) which is sponsored by the ‘Artesanias e Industrias Populares del Estado de Oaxaca’ -ARIPO, and contains various types of pottery and ceramics from Santa Maria Atzompa, San Marcos Tlapazola, Tamazulapan, Ocotlán, and San Antonino Castillo Velasco.
Las consecuencias
San Bartolo Coyotepec has been the subject of considerable study and documentation. San Bartolo Coyotepec is a town and municipality located in the center of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is in the Centro District of the Valles Centrales region about fifteen km south of the capital of Oaxaca.
Por qué esta historia importa
La historia de San Bartolo Coyotepec no es solo un relato del pasado. Es un espejo que nos ayuda a entender el México de hoy — sus contradicciones, su resiliencia, sus retos y su potencial. Conocerla es un primer paso hacia una conversación más honesta sobre el país y la sociedad que queremos construir.
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