Rachel and Eric on sat 13 sep 97
For this proposed e-mail tour into the wild, ancient, clay lands of South
Mexico, Oaxaca City will serve as our base camp. It is a good base camp
because it has five movie theaters, many excellent juice and ice cream
stands, hot steam baths and, of course, connection to the wide world via The
Internet. The villages we will be visiting will not be so fancy, even those
that are within a half an hour drive of this modem connected city have
changed but little in the last five centuries.
A quick lay of the local land and nutshell history. This city lies at the
crossroads of three spokes of what is collectively called the Central
Valleys. These three valleys represent the best real estate for many, many
hundreds of miles. Out there at valleys' edge, once the mountains start,
they do not again easily give in to the rest of flatness. Because of this,
in this fertile and flat valley, the first Oaxacans came to dwell 10,000
years ago, and it was here that they stayed. Pottery started happening some
4,000 years ago with the introduction of the first Shimpo kick wheel. (I'll
have to double check the facts on that one. It may have been a Soldner).
Fifteen hunred years ago folks got the basics of survival handled well
enough that they started having lots of free time. That's about when the big
Zapotec and Mixtec city states came into being, and that's when pottery
really started taking off. Clay work got very amazing for a while: bizarre,
abstract works forged around religion and myth, birth, death, greatness.
Fine sculptural works and a wonderful array of colors, all done low fire.
About 800 years ago the Aztecs started coming 'round and bullying, demanding
tribute for the rulers or else. Five hundred years ago the Spanish conquered
the Aztecs, and then taking up the well-established Aztec routes, came to
Oaxaca bullying, demanding tribute for the rulers or else. They brought some
nasty European diseases too, like the flu. Things got very messy for a
while, and in fact, most people you talk to down here would say they still are.
But through all of it, the humble and necessary cookware pottery has
survived. The same pots that served the first people who boiled turkey stew
also boiled turkey stew in the time of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs, and in the
time of the Aztecs and Spaniards, and, in fact, boiled turkey stew in my
kitchen this very night. The humble and necessary cookware has survived
because it is needed, because it is useful.
Unlike the mythic, old religious pottery, adornment is usually no more than
an after thought in the cookware pottery. A few quick strokes of white slip,
a splattering of stain, a simple design etched into the surface is all the
flourish a pot is given. It is the long, slow evolution of form to purpose:
the rounded bottom that nestles so well in the coals, the organic curve of
the handle that fits the hand, the flow of the lip that smoothly pours
water, these are the things that make these pots breathtaking. The beauty,
like so much beauty, is a wonderful accident of creation. The potter will
not tell you her pot is beautiful, to her it is a pot. She is happy with it
and proud of it, but she does not make it for beauty. For her it buys the
turkey. For the Oaxacan it cooks the stew. It is for the foreigners like
myself to wax profound about the beauty of theses pots, which I am quite
ready and apt to do.
Now then, there's our base camp, the history of Oaxaca and an in depth
observation into the character of traditional Mexican pottery, all in one
post. But, having gotten a little ambitious with the keyboard, I think it
will be best to save the first trip to a pottery village for next time.
We'll be going to Atzompa, just out of town and still within reach of the
tour buses. Please bring straw hats, cameras and flowery shirts.
Hasta prontito, Eric
Eric Mindling & Rachel Werling
Manos de Oaxaca
AP 1452
Oaxaca, Oax.
CP 68000
M E X I C O
http://www.foothill.net/~mindling/
telefax (951) 3-6776
email: rayeric@antequera.com
| |
|
