A rich wood carving tradition in Oaxaca, Mexico: Spotlight on a Jacobo? Ngel
Mr. Alvin Starkman A., LL. B. A
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Try searching in the North and South America on creators of folk art with more form, symbolism and significance for the development and maintenance of their culture than those of indigenous origin in Oaxaca (WAA? HAWA? Ka), one of the southernmost Mexican states.
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Many so-called experts in folk art have mistakenly written that the origins of Oaxacaâ? wood carving tradition date S fifty or sixty years ago, a few sculptors residing in the central valleys of Oaxaca, a few miles from the capital of the state of the same name. Â The error has been equating the recent commercialization of this art form with its origins and ignoring their pre-Hispanic roots and subsequent development.
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Jacobo Ã? Ngel lives with his wife Maria and two children in San Martín Tilcajete, one of the three largest indigenous Zapotec villages, where most residents earn their living by carving and painting colorful figures, often referred to generally as Alebrijes. Â The others are Tejalapan Arrazola and La Unión.
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At age 12 Jacobo began learning to carve from his father. Some time later, he was supervised by the village elders. Â?? In recent decades our profession has changed, no doubt, â?? Jacobo says one? With the use of synthetic dyes, a huge increase in the number range is sculpted, and national and international demand for our influence grows exponentially sculptures and how and what we produce. Â But remember, my ancestors were carving animals in this region before the arrival of Spaniards in the 1500A? P. A and we have been using only natural paint colors which we derived from fruits and vegetables, plants and tree bark, clay, and even insects. Â In my family we still use what we find around us, to add color to do for our people and our timber of choice remains the branches of the tree are Kopal. â??
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San Martín Tilcajete is approximately 40 minutes from the city of Oaxaca, on a road leading to the state? S Pacific resort cities, including one of the oldest ports, Puerto Escondido. Â Puerto Escondido is a hub for the export of coffee and other crops during the colonial period, but is now a popular destination for the beaches of Mexico and international tourists. Â Many travelers combine their holiday “sun and beach with a visit to Oaxaca, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in search of unique pieces of folk art including dance masks, pottery and clay figurines, carpets and tapestries and antiques from the colonial period forward. Â And of course there are the pre-Hispanic ruins, galleries, churches Dominican impressive, museums and the renowned cuisine of Oaxaca.
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â?? My ancestors used a schedule of 20 days one? Jacobo continues, â?? And every day, was represented by another creature. Thus, each person has a pet Zapotec with which it connects, and each animal has certain characteristics which made the individual. Â For example, the jaguar represents power and strength, the frog by the honesty and openness, the coyote careful observation, the turtle always a troublemaker is characterized vulnerable to the violation, the power of an eagle and technical strategic, and so on. Â My people used to carve figures of just these 20 animals. Â She started as a small Hack to happiness, that people love in a niche at home to keep or carry around the neck as amulets. Â They have also carved a large number of their children to use as a toy. â??
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After much sampling, an almost forgotten story emerges of the use of models in wood and other materials. Jacobo reveals   Â?? My people used a variety of methods to attract different types of game, but for hunting birds of prey, rabbits and deer, yes they have sometimes used lures.  A painted wooden snake would be placed on the floor was in an area where the grass ant bait for the snake would be easy to understand by Adler kicked. to hunt rabbits, Â, my ancestors would be a rabbit’s tail at one end of a straw hat, tie, and painted at the other end of the tail of another with a face on this.  For the deer would be a deer torso with real wood raw wood are placed in the high brush. These sculptures have been historically important to our people, not only totemic and related reasons, but it was directly related to our livelihoods in context.  All documents written at the time of conquest, not only to local legend, confirm the importance of woodcarving. â??
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â?? But look what we carve. For a time in my family we are still using natural colors, and even burn our totems, WEA? Ve turned a simple tradition, but important and symbolic in something very different. Â In our villages we now carve many more of those 20 animals because of collector demand. A More importantly, WEA? Re can make our heritage better understood and appreciated by the world. In our own paint shop shows our designs and ideas of our culture? | Friezes the ancient ruins of Mitla, symbols, waves, mountains and fertility, the totems and other metaphors of our culture, past and present. â??
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For the world has taken note. Â Jacobo? S work is displayed prominently in the Smithsonian Institute, Chicago?? S National Museum of Mexican Art, and elsewhere across the continent and abroad, in museums, art schools and galleries. Â Jacobo regularly crosses the U.S. to promote the folk arts of Oaxaca and the Zapotec heritage, teaching in a variety of places of education from schools to university departments of fine arts, and as president honored opening of the exhibition of art.
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A visit to the Ã? Ngel workshop, accessible by a dirt road very close to a pot-hole goal of the village, offers an opportunity to learn about this extraordinary skill set, Jacobo, Maria — an excellent painter in his own right – - with about two dozen other members of their families, to produce some of the sculptures of the highest quality throughout the continent.
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The men, most of the sculptures, while women constitute the majority of the painting, but the tasks are not exclusively definitive basis of gender lines. Sculpture is not a? hand tools such as machetes, knives and scissors. Â The only time a highly developed tool is used when a chain saw used to cut a branch and the baseline for a planned figure.
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Except want a special order is received, the woodworkers in the family are given artistic freedom, they form the figure. Â A piece of the trunk of a tree? SpeaKa? a lifetime of these specialists, and the inspiration for the creation of a particular animal: the shape, thickness, and bends and twists in the room. Â After removing the bark, a detailed account will be created, defines the image with more clarity and detail. Â The sculpture begins in earnest. Â
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â?? From the female copal tree we can perform tricks on a piece of wood, often very large and complex. Â The wood is soft and easy to work. Â The male tree is harder, and branches are usually smaller and somewhat delicate, so we want to use the animals that we collect in the process. â??
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The carving alone takes up to a month, sometimes more. Â The figure is then left to dry to 10 months, depending on its overall size and thickness. Â Because of the properties of copal and Oaxacaâ? The semi-tropical climate, the wood is vulnerable to termite infestation. Therefore, A is saturated during drying, the pieces in a gasoline / insecticide for several hours. Â as additional security, ITA?? S, then placed in an oven, just in case eggs have evaded extermination camp. Â?? All our pieces are guaranteed never a termite problem, â?? Jacobo said.
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Because the characters are created, while the wood is green and easy to process, separates the wood during drying. â?? There are some members of my family, including the most important task is to fill the cracks before painting begins. â?? Â For this rehabilitation work using wooden blocks, and a mixture of sawdust and wood glue. Â But even these splinters and sawdust have been cured. Â?? Wea? Re proud of our work and do not want a problem with one of our customers, if anyone spending $ 20 or $ 2,000. â??
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In almost all cases in the Ã? Ngel workshop, a sculpture of a person and other colors. Â Once a character has left the hands of sculptors are released from all rights, and another family member is responsible for the painting. A nephew Magdaleno said: Â?? From time to time one of my cousins come to me and tell me one?? What do you think of these colors or this kind of concept for the Coyote, a?? and AI? give my feedback, but it doesnâ? t happen very often, and the AI? ‘m always satisfied with the result. ITA one for me? Form S thatâ? S important and whoever? Paint S, ATI?? S images he captures. â??
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One can not help but gasp at the engineering that goes into each sculpture piece: A starving dog scratching  fleas, a bear with his paw into a honey pot, a snake constricting a wincing jaguar, a horse winged its Hinds, a woman with long braided hair, the body of an armadillo or a deer, the life size by Mexican standards.  Thereâ? S something special stop on each creation, the movement ever so fluid and realistic, a fantastic price or a familiar pose, popular with our popular characterization. A, but the painting is far from familiar.  No color is not tested and the complexity and variation in design is remarkable.
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Abound in the beginning of today’s demonstration of the tradition. Â Some say that, like the natives of this hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico, drug-induced revelations caused the imagination to wander some more recently, as expressed in their carvings. Â The better explanation is that the knowledge of colors, large, paper macha © Alebrijes or forms of Dragon which originated in Mexico State, filtered, and finally, in Oaxaca, and were a source of inspiration for founding fathers of modern sculpture painted. Â?? You know, ITA?? S is not exactly what we Alebrijes because the older generation of Mexicans and serious collectors of folk art, Alebrijes were developed near DF (Distrito Federal relate, or in Mexico, the national team? Capital S ), and what we do completely different. â??
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Jacobo demonstrates how his ancestors created natural paints, historically used to dye clothing, painting buildings and solemn, like the face and body decoration used for rites of passage, festivals, prayer and other important events . Â Today, their primary use, at least in Jacobo? the family S is for painting and sculpture. Â He said with the help of a machete and a tree trunk as it crosses the inner bark reddish male copal, it can lead to dry, then toasts and grinds it: Â?? This is a primary basis, we use that we create a range of colors, allowing tones and shades. Just watch. â??
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With his hands as palettes, Jacobo, adding a small amount of powdered bark begins in one hand, the juice of a lime squeezed, creating a brown, then put it on an owl whitewood. Â?? Yes, the owl is also one of our sacred animals, the great healer, quiet and modest. â?? Â He said: Â Â? However, over time, and in the sun, it will change color or fade and be absorbed by the wood. Â So, what our ancestors learned to do was take the dried resin of the copal tree and cook it with honey. Â The resulting liquid is then mixed with color, change color to see a little, it becomes a dark orange A? | First of all, it looks like a bite making permanent color, and a little brighter. â?? He adds powdered limestone, and changes color to black. Â With the addition of baking soda and lemon juice is a dark yellow, and with more chemicals miraculously magenta. Â A new database is then started, with crushed pomegranate seeds. At the pulverized pink magic is green with the addition of limestone powder turns. Mixed with the magenta, it is dark blue. With the addition of zinc, it is gray, and with more zinc, white. Â ± tree is the Blue AA, Indigo, has changed with the addition of bicarbonate, zinc, lime or powdered lime mineral. A corn mold, a black sticky culinary delicacy known as huitlacoche, when fermented and then powdered, ocher on income. Â The red of the dried and crushed insects minutes, cochineal, which feeds on its host nopal cactus, orange juice is the addition of a number of fruit acids. Â
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The demonstration ends with Jacobo asks, â? What is your favorite animal, â?? after which he finger-painting of a rabbit rainbow of colors on his palms, as Alice could not imagine. Â
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With approximately 150 families are now producing painted wooden figures in these countries and a few other small villages left questions unanswered: What drives a Carver and makes it easier to adopt the style © macha paper with brilliant color combinations, and how we can stay in these villages depend on this art form alone?
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Wasna As with other trades in the central valleys of Oaxaca, their production? T always the most important food for the population. A traditional crafts have been a hobby or part time trade, beginning with very few programs to encourage casual passers-adventurer, sold or traveling.  In the case of carpets from the Middle Teotitlà ¡n del Valle, there were trade routes to the manufacturer for more sales in other regions of the state has been followed by action and in some cases beyond. A, but the most important to the survival of the family of the country and worked in the small-scale agriculture. A and in the case of sculpture villages, there never was a broader market, although in San Martín Tilcajete embroidered shirts, blouses and dresses were a very well maintained boat in the entire 1960a? S and the 80A? ? Art
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Dramatic changes in the production and marketing of wood carvings from the 1940a? Â S The Pan-American highway through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, reaching Oaxaca cut, opening the area to the north, especially in Mexico City and the border states. Â Until then Oaxaca was relatively isolated despite a rail link. With the 1950a? S and 60a before? Americans and Canadians were s of post-war boom in credit cards thriving, almost all sent, and the rumor spread of a new kind of vacation in a third world country, Mexico . A jet of air travel facilitated the transformation. A Women? S movement means more two-income families who are in more disposable income for travel. Â Mexicana Airlines and travel agencies offer packages starting Partnership Oaxaca, facilitates the promotion of tourism in the region.
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The hippie movement of the 1960a? S and the beginning of -70? S Oaxaca brought to the forefront of alternative lifestyles, with crowds of young people and their pop idols Huautla de Jimenez © Travel nose, then a small village in Oaxaca, eating mushrooms to the now infamous healer María Sabina. A young man living in North America and bought the first generation of contemporary wood carvings. Â
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Through the 1980a? S, from the result of several factors, Oaxaca was well established Alebrijes including folklore, grows with the market. The economic impact is that farmers and ranchers produce able to spend more time painting and sculpture have been, and less time in nature and in their markets vending machines and animals. Â Â 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 are no longer able to warn tourists about driving the shoelaces, car emergency road side streets Banditos or gas station without overheating.
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The future of the art market? Â Â If the curious visitor to a Oaxacan coastal resort such as Puerto Escondido, Huatulco and the most popular, do not visit the state capital and the number of writers like Jacobo, most do not. Within the next four years a new highway, the coast is open, reducing travel time by road from at least one third. Â Even bathers visit Oaxaca, and admire the art of Jacobo and Maria? Ngel. Â
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Since opening their family workshop in 1996, without a doubt Jacobo and María are unique, the quality bar for other villagers who raised their level of success Aspire. A set of Oaxaca wood carvings of the highest quality on the world stage, and access is no longer an obstacle, the challenge for others in San Martín Tilcajete to achieve the success of A? Ngel family with a quality production as, until now, most escape.
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A challenge for all carvers in the region is Kopal to ensure a continuous supply to meet demand.  Afforestation Project, launched over 15 years under the leadership of the late master of contemporary Mexican art, Rodolfo Morales, continues through his foundation. Â? Ngel with family friends and other villagers spent the last Sunday of July in the middle of the rainy season, planting, part of his life efforts:  Ensuring a continuous supply of raw materials, cutting branches only to the figures, if the tree becomes, waste reduction through the use of tapes and sawdust in repair work and any remaining twigs and branches as firewood for cooking, and with the with SAP and bark in paint production. Â?? And you know one?? Jacobo reminds,? For generations Wea? Ve been cured using incense as SAP, especially religious cememonies.  There are even cutlery down the road in Ocotlà ¡n, who carve their hand-forged with a special ink made with SAP.  Have you visited the cuchillerÃa Ã? Aguilar Ngel? Â??
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For collectors of high-end, we can encourage the success of all efforts to sustain growth and development of wood carving tradition Oaxaca oriented, because it satisfies and advances our penchant for and obsession Hand-quality craftsmanship. Â For the artisans of the region, apart from the obvious economic importance, ITA?? s part of maintaining their Zapotec heritage and illustrate the richness of the culture of the world. Â
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The workshop of Jacobo and Maria? Ngel is located at Calle Olvido # 9, San Martín Tilcajete, n ¡OcotlÃ, Oaxaca (t: 951-524-9047   A w: http://www Â. Tilcajete. Orga, e:  @ org Angeles Tilcajete.).
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