Native Americans

Juan Quezada began making and painting pottery based on the shapes and designs of the prehistoric Indians from nearby ruins of Paquimé in Casas Grandes. By 1976, he was selling the decorative earthenware to traders from El Paso.

However, it was after his “discovery” by a businessman and amateur anthropologist, Spencer MacCallum, that Juan’s work improved and his popularity grew in the United States. At the end of the 1970s, this young man, with only a second grade education, had had his pottery featured in several museum exhibitions, including ones at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles.

Now, there are over 300 potters — men, women, adolescents — working in the village. Many of them turn out original pots, bowls and plates, which some collectors believe rival or surpass the more famous Pueblo pottery of the southwestern US.

Mata Ortíz wares, often erroneously called “Casas Grandes pottery,” can be found in galleries throughout the Southwest and in other parts of the United States. A gallery in Cincinnati has a large collection. Shops from Santa Cruz, CA to Albany, NY are known to carry the naturally-made earthenware plates, pots and figures. Potters recently demonstrated their art in such diverse cities as Petaluma, CA, Denver, CO and Mystic, CT.

While the pottery can be found throughout the country, the fun is in visiting the village to meet and purchase pieces from the artists. There are no signs on the potters’ homes, but children will flag down a stranger’s car, or one may see a man or woman tending a small fire beside a home.

Under the smoldering dried cow chips or kindling, a piece of pottery is cooking. Visitors are invited to view and photograph the firing and, hopefully, buy that piece or another already finished and waiting inside the house.

The potters are often found working in their bedrooms which usually double as studios. There, a “tortilla” of clay is pressed into a plaster mold. Coils of clay are added and the walls are pinched and smoothed upwards by hand. None of the craftspeople uses a potter’s wheel. All the artwork is built by hand.

Sanding, polishing and painting are other steps to be completed before the pot is fired.

As much as possible, the potters adhere to the techniques of the ancient Paquimé Indians. The clays — gray, yellow, orange, red and white — are taken from the valley floor or the nearby foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains. The paints are made from the clay or from crushed manganese, which is also mined locally.

Emphasis for many of the craftspeople is on the quality, not the large quantity of pieces churned out daily in many villages in central Mexico.

Prices are surprisingly reasonable. While they range from $1.00 for a tiny bowl to upwards of $300.00 for an exceptionally fine polychrome on white clay, the average price for a good quality pot is about $40.00. The potter signs each work of art. (Juan Quezada, the master potter, charges considerably more for his fine pieces).

While Nuevo Casas Grandes has a full range of tourist facilities, the Posada de las Ollas in Mata Ortíz, gives visitors a chance to literally live with the potters. The inn provides rooms, indoor plumbing and three meals per day. The Posada is a block from the village center and is surrounded by pottery families. Each day sees the artists’ children visiting to display their parents’ latest offerings.

This warmth and pride in pottery making is village-wide. It is easily transferred to visitors who often return to Mata Ortíz looking for new treasures.