A Rich Wood Carving Tradition in Oaxaca, Mexico: Spotlight on Jacobo Angeles

Alvin Starkman MA, LL.B.

Try searching the Americas to find the creators of folk art with more form, symbolism and importance to the development and sustenance of their culture, the descendants of indigenous people in Oaxaca (wa-HAW-ka), one of the states in southern Mexico.

Many so called experts in folk art have mistakenly written that the origins of the Oaxacan wood carving tradition date back fifty or sixty years, a small number of sculptors who live in one of the central valleys of Oaxaca, a few miles from the capital of the same name. The error has always been to match the recent marketing of the art form with its origins and ignoring pre-Hispanic roots and subsequent development.

Jacobo Angeles Mara lives with his wife and two children in San Martín Tilcajete, one of the three main towns of Zapotec origin, where most residents earn their living from carving and painting of figures in color, often referred to generically as alebrijes. The others are Tejalapan Arrazola and La Union.

At age 12 Jacobo began learning to carve from his father. Later it was sponsored by the village elders. "During the past decades, our art, no doubt, has changed dramatically, " explains James, "the use of more synthetic paints, a tremendous increase in the range of carved figures, and with national and international demand for our growing size exponentially and how it affects and what we produce. But remember, my ancestors were carving animals here in this region before the Spanish arrived in 1500. And we were using only natural paint colors derived from fruit and vegetables, plants and tree bark, clay, and even insects. In my family we still use what we find around us to make the paint for our figures and our timber of choice remains the branches of the copal tree " .

San Martín Tilcajete is about 40 minutes drive from the city of Oaxaca, along a highway leading to the cities of the state Pacific Resort, one of the oldest ports, Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido was a hub for the export of coffee and other cash crops in colonial times, but is now a popular beach destination for Mexican and foreign tourists alike.Many travelers combine their sun and sand holiday with a visit to Oaxaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, seeking unique pieces of folk art and dance masks, pottery and clay figures, rugs and tapestries, and antiques from the colonial period forward. And, of course, are the pre-Hispanic ruins, galleries, churches Dominican impressive museums, and renowned Oaxacan cuisine.

"My ancestors used a 20-day in the calendar, " Jacobo continues, "and every day that was represented by a different creature. So each person had an animal Zapotec with whom he had a connection, and each of the animals had certain characteristics that individual is moved to. For example, the jaguar represents power and ultimate strength, the frog is characterized by honesty and openness, the coyote watchful observation, the turtle always a troublemaker prone to breaking rules, the technical and strategic power of an eagle, and so on. My people used to carve figures of these 20 animals only. whittlings started out as small for good luck that people have a respected place in the house or worn around the neck as amulets . also carved larger figures for their children to use as toys."

After much probing, an almost forgotten story emerges of the use of decoys of wood and other materials. Jacobo reveals: "My people use a variety of methods to attract different types of game, but for hunting birds of prey, rabbits and deer, they do sometimes use decoys. A painted wooden snake would be placed on the ground in an area where ants had trampled the grasses so the snake decoy would easily be seen by eagles. To hunt rabbits, my ancestors attach a rabbit skin glue to one end of a straw hat, and at the other end of the tail of another with his face painted. For deer, a crude wooden deer torso with real antlers would be placed in the tall brush. So the size was of historic importance for our people, for reasons not only totemic and related but was directly related to our livelihoods. All writings of the period of conquest, not just local legend, confirmed the importance of woodcarving.

"But look at what is now carving. While in my family that still use natural paints, and even carve our totems, we have transformed an important and symbolic tradition, but simple into something very different.In our villages we now carve many more than 20 animals because of collector demand. More importantly, we can make our heritage better understood and appreciated by the world. In our workshop, our painting depicts designs and representations of our culture? friezes from the ancient ruins at Mitla, symbols representing waves, mountains and fertility, the totems, and other metaphors of our culture, past and present. "

In fact, the world has taken notice. Jacob's work is prominently displayed at the Smithsonian Institute, Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, and elsewhere across the continent and abroad, in museums, art schools and galleries. James regularly across the U.S. promoting Oaxacan folk art and his Zapotec heritage, teaching in a variety of educational spaces ranging from elementary schools to university departments of art, and as a speaker of honor at art exhibition openings.

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A visit to the workshop angels, visited by a heavily pot holed narrow dirt road toward the edge of town, provides an opportunity to learn about this extraordinary game of skill, Jacobo, Maria --- an excellent painter in his own right -- - and some two dozen other members of his family who produce some of the best quality carvings anywhere in the continent.

Men make most of the carving, while women do most of the paint, but the tasks are definitely not based exclusively on gender lines. Carving is done with non - Mechanic with tools such as machetes, chisels and knives. The only time a more sophisticated tool is when you use a chain saw used to cut a branch and the base level for a given proposal.

Except when a special order is received, the woodworkers in the family are given artistic license to carve whatever figure they like. A piece of tree trunk "talk" to one of these specialists, and be the inspiration for the creation of a particular animal: the shape, thickness and curves and turns in the piece come alive.After the bark is removed, a detailed description is drawn, the definition of the image with greater clarity and detail. The sculpture in earnest then begins.

"From the female copal tree can make figures of a single piece of wood, often very large and complex. This wood is soft and easily worked. The male tree is harder, and the branches tend to be smaller and a little delicate, so we're using to make the animals that got in the process. "

The size only takes up to a month, sometimes longer. The figure is dried for up to 10 months depending on their size and thickness. Because the properties of the climate of copal, and Oaxaca's semi-tropical, wood is susceptible to termite infestation. Consequently, during the drying process the piece is immersed in a gas mixture of insecticide for several hours. As an additional safeguard, is then placed in an oven, just in case eggs have evaded extermination. "All our pieces are guaranteed to never have a termite problem, " says James.

Because the figures are trendy, while the wood is green and more easily achievable, the wood is removed during drying."There are a couple of my family members, whose main task is to fill the cracks before the painting begins." For this recovery work using wooden wedges and sawdust mixed with glue. But even these wood chips and sawdust have been cured. "We are proud of our work, not wish to have any problem with any of our buyers, whether someone is spending $ 20 or $ 2, 000."

In almost all cases in the workshop Angeles, a person of stature and other paintings. Once a person has left the hands of the sculptor, all property rights are released, and another family member is responsible for the painting. Nephew Magdaleno explains: "Occasionally one of my cousins come to me and tells me and what do you think about these colors or this kind of design concept for the coyote, and I will give my comments, but does not happen very often, and I am always pleased with the outcome. To me that is the most important, and for whom the painting, which is the image he captures."

One can not help but gasp at the genius of sculpture that goes in each: a starving dog scratching fleas, a bear with a leg in a jar of honey, a constrictor snake wincing jaguar, a winged horse in deer, a woman with long braids, locks and the body of an armadillo, or a deer-sized for Mexican standards. There is something in particular about the detention of each creation: the move fluidly and realistically, a fanciful stance, or a familiar pose pressing a chord with our popular characterization. However, the painting is anything but familiar. No color is tested and the complexity and variation in design is remarkable.

Theories abound about the start of the modern manifestation of the tradition. Some say that due to hallucinogenic mushrooms are native to this part of Mexico, drug induced revelations caused the imaginations of some to wander, ultimately becoming expressed in their carvings. The best explanation is that the knowledge of colors, large cardboard alebrijes mach or dragon-like forms which originated in the State of Mexico, eventually filtered down to Oaxaca, and were the inspiration for parents of current sizes painted wood."You know, there is no need to refer to what we create as alebrijes, due to increased generation of Mexicans, and for collectors of folk art truly, alebrijes developed near DF (Distrito Federal, or Mexico City, the capital of country) and what we do is completely different. "

Jacobo demonstrates how his ancestors created natural paints, historically used to dye clothing, painting buildings, and ceremonially in the face and body decoration used for rites of passage, festivals, prayer and other important occasions. Today, their primary use, at least in the family of James, is to paint the carvings. He explains with the help of a machete and a tree trunk is cut as the color red inside the bark of the male copal, allows it to dry, then roast and grind: "This is a primary basis we use that allows us to create a range of colors, tones and shades. Just watch. "

Using his hands as palettes, Jacobo begins by placing a small amount of powdered bark in one hand, squeeze the juice of a lemon, creating a brown, which are then placed in an unpainted wooden owl."If the owl is also one of our sacred beings, the great healer, quiet and humble." He reveals: "Now with the time under the sun, this color will change or disappear and be absorbed by the wood. So what our ancestors learned to do is take the dried sap of the copal tree and warm with honey. The resulting liquid is mixed with paint, change the color a little, see, becomes a deep orange? but more importantly it acts as a mordant take permanent color and a little brighter. "He adds powdered limestone, and the color changes to black. With the addition of baking soda and lemon juice over it becomes a deep yellow, and more chemical miraculously becomes magenta. A new database is then started, with crushed pomegranate seeds. Magically the pulverized pink becomes green with the addition of powdered limestone. Mixed with the magenta color turns blue. With the addition of zinc turns gray, and with more zinc, white. Ail tree blue, indigo, is altered by the addition of bicarbonate, zinc, lemon juice or lime mineral powder. Molde corn a black sticky culinary delicacy known as huitlacoche, when fermented and then powdered, yields of ocher.The red of the dried and crushed insects minute, cochineal, which feeds on its host nopal, becomes orange with the addition of juice from any of a number of acidic fruit.

The demonstration ends with Jacobo asking, "What is your favorite animal", after which the finger painting of a rabbit's rainbow colors in their hands, as only Alice could have imagined.

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With approximately 150 families now producing painted wooden figures and a couple of these smaller towns, the questions remain: What facilitated and drove more carvers to adopt the style of papier mach using brilliant color combinations, and how everyone in these villages live this solitary art form?

As with other offices in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, their production was not always the main source of livelihood for the population. Traditionally, crafts are a hobby or partial trade, beginning with very few items that are sold to foreign bystanders, adventurer or traveler.In the case of carpets from the nearby Valley Teotitln had trade routes that producers followed in conducting more sales in other regions of the state, and in some cases beyond. But the main means of survival of the family worked the land and small-scale farming. And in the case of the peoples of the size, there never was a broader market, although in San Martín Tilcajete embroidered shirts, blouses and dresses were extremely well received throughout the 1960 boats and in the 80s.

Dramatic change in production and marketing of wood carvings had its genesis in the 1940s. The Pan-American Highway cutting through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, reaching Oaxaca, opening the region to the north, including Mexico City and the border states. Until then Oaxaca was relatively isolated despite a rail link. In the 1950's and early 60 Americans and Canadians were prospering in the post-war boom, credit cards had been sent to virtually everyone, and he got word of a new type of vacation in a country Third World, Mexico. Jet air travel facilitated the transformation. The women's movement meant more two income families, resulting in more disposable income to travel.Mexicana Airlines and Oaxacan travel agents partnered to begin offering package tours, which will further facilitate tourism to the region.

The hippie movement of the 1960s and 70s brought Oaxaca to the forefront of alternative lifestyles, with crowds of youth and their pop idols traveling to Huautla de Jiménez, then a small village in Oaxaca, to eat the hallucinogenic mushrooms Mara Sabina now infamous healer. North American youth saw and purchased the first generation of contemporary wood carvings.

In the 1980s, as a result of multiple factors, Oaxacan Wood Carving has become well established as a popular art, with the market growing. The economic implication is that farmers and ranchers were able to spend more time carving and painting, and less time in the field and in the markets for selling their products and animals. With a new toll road opened in Mexico City to Oaxaca in 1995, access to the southern state became even quicker and easier and safer. In good conscience, travel writers were no longer able to warn tourists about driving in a zigzag, back-road banditos, or cars overheating on secondary roads without gas stations.

The future market for art? While the odd visitor to a Oaxacan coastal resort such as Puerto Escondido, Huatulco and the most popular, will visit the state capital and workshops of carvers like Jacobo, most do not. Within the next four years a new coastal road was opened, reducing travel time by road at least a third. Even more sun worshipers will visit Oaxaca, and marvel at the art of James and Mara Angeles.

Since opening his studio in the family in 1996, no doubt, James and Mara have singularly raised the quality bar for other villagers who aspire to reflect their success. With Oaxacan wood carvings of superior quality, now well established on the world stage, and access is no longer an impediment, the challenge for others in San Martín Tilcajete will succeed Angeles family through the production and quality so far elude most.

A challenge for all the sculptors of the region is to ensure a continuous supply of copal to meet demand. A spear head reforestation project about 15 years ago by the late master of contemporary Mexican art, Rodolfo Morales, continues through his Foundation.The family angels with friends and other villagers spend the last Sunday of every July in the middle of the rainy season, planting, a part of its effort sustainable living: to ensure a continuous supply of raw materials, cutting branches only making figures so that the tree continues to grow, reducing waste by using wood chips and sawdust in repair work and the remaining branches and the branches as firewood for cooking, and use the sap and bark of the production paint. "And you know, " recalls James, "for generations we have been using the hardened sap as incense, especially in religious cememonies. Knifemakers There are even Ocotln the road, recording their hand-forged blades with a special ink made from the sap. Have you visited the cutlery Aguilar, Angel? "

For high-end collectors, which can only encourage the success of all efforts to sustain growth and development of wood carving tradition in Oaxaca, since it satisfies and advances our penchant for obsession with hand fashion quality craftsmanship.For the artisans of the region, apart from the obvious economic importance, is part of maintaining their Zapotec heritage and illustrate the richness of the culture to a wider world.

The workshop of Jacobo Angeles and Mara is on the street Olvido # 9, San Martín Tilcajete, Ocotln, Oaxaca (t: 951-524-9047, w: http://www.tilcajete.org; E: Angels @ Tilcajete. org).