Rachel and Eric on fri 11 sep 98
Leopoldo's Pots
The other day I drove to San Bartolo Coyotepec, about twenty pot-holed
minutes outside of Oaxaca City, where the burnished, black, reduction
pottery is made. I went there to visit Leopoldo Barranco and see about some
pots I was having him make. Leopoldo is the last traditional potter in
Coyotepec. He's not the oldest potter in the village, he's probably only 50.
He's certainly not the only potter who knows how to do the traditional
pottery, all the old timers do. Indeed just about all the pottery made in
this village of potters is pretty closely tied to the traditional forms.
It's just that everyone else in town, aside from Leopoldo, now makes the
smooth, slick, shiny and under fired version of the old functional pots that
were once the villages mainstay. But the slick stuff sells better to the
tourists, and they are a much better market than the poor peasant farmers of
Oaxaca ever were.
Leopoldo is the last guy who makes that old style pottery. He is about the
only potter in town who gets the kiln up to temperature so as to make the
pots water resistant. He is certainly the only potter left that just makes
the traditional, functional forms. And he is the last potter that still
sells Coyotepec functional pottery in the weekly markets. I've seen old
sepia photos of the markets back in the 40's with piles of Coyotepec pottery
and dozens of potters selling away. But those days have gone. Now its just
Leopoldo. I'm not sure why or how he still manages to sell his old time
pots. Perhaps there is still enough residual market left to support one
Coyotepec potter, just enough old folks out there who still do things the
old way and can't do without their Coyotepec well jug. Or maybe Leopoldo
just never bothered to learn the new style. He's a loose potter with a quick
touch. He doesn't get caught up in refinements and the new pottery is all
about refinement.
I like the new pottery. It has beautiful lines and a stark, fine look to
it. But for me, it doesn't come close to Leopoldo's rough, old, working
pottery. But I'm a sucker for function.
Leopoldo didn't have all the pots I'd ordered ready that day. Short a kiln
load. It has been raining since about two weeks ago when he loaded his kiln
and there is too much ground moisture in his subterranean kiln to fire with.
So the pots are sitting there waiting for their fire. And Leo and I sat
there and got to talking, as we often do, in his earth floor, adobe house,
illuminated by the weak slant of light from the overcast sky coming in
through the open door. We talked about the Coyotpec pot shapes. This village
has some very destinctive forms which I've always assumed have rhyme and
reason but could never figure it. Leopoldo knew, and he explained the pots
to me.
The iconic Coyotepec form is a jug, round bottomed and shaped like an egg
standing with the pointy end down. At the other, broad shouldered end is a
very short-necked mouth about 3" wide with a stout little splayed out lip
(these pots do not stand up by themselves). This jug, Leo explained to me,
used to be one of the most important pieces of pottery in a Oaxaca
household. It was a well jug. A rope was tied around that short little neck
to lower the pot 30 feet down the household well. Hitting water the
elongated bottom would cause the pot to roll onto its side, lowering the
mouth into the water until it filled. Then with a little pull on the rope
the pot righted it self again and it was pulled out. Those broad shoulders
gave the pot volume, it held lots of water, and the narrow mouth kept the
water from sloshing out while walking to the house. ...Pumps and pipes
handle this job now
There was also a smaller version of the well jug, a bit more narrow
shouldered and elongated. This was an irrigation pot. It was also lowered
into wells, functioning the same way. It was narrower though, so that it
would fit well under ones arm, supported horizontally by the forearm, the
way a football is carried. The irrigator would carry the jug like this along
his rows of chile or tomato plants, pouring water onto each one. But there
was a trick to this which insured that just enough water went just where is
was needed. With the thumb of his free hand stuck in the mouth of the pot,
middle three fingers closed and pinky extended, like a baby sucking her
thumb with her pinky sticking out, the farmer could create for himself a
spout which directed the water just where he wanted. Water, cohesive stuff
that it is, would grab on the thumb, flow across the palm and down to the
point of the pinky where it then straight lined for the earth. ...Hoses take
care of irrigation these days.
Another very distinct Coyotepec pot is the Mescalero. This is essentially
the well jug flipped over, fat end down, point to the sky. Looks just like a
pear, if they weren't so lumpy (the pears). The mouth of these pots, again
very short necked, are never more than an inch or so wide. These pots are
used in the fabrication of mescal (fire water very similar to Tequila). They
sit at the end of that copper tube that comes out of the still, receiving
the hot, freshly distilled fire water. They are then corked and taken off to
market. Leopoldo couldn't adequately explain why these jugs hade such a
distinctive form. He said that they fit well into a cane basket this way and
where then transported like that. True. But lots of pots fit well into cane
baskets. I'm still investigating the 'why' of the form of the Mescal Jug.
Maybe it is something a bit intangible, this odd shape, because even today
the finer distillers won't use anything else to catch the hot mescal at the
money end of their stills.
Leo explained a few other pots to me, the 3 handled water canteens with a
corn cob for a cork that would hang off the sides of wagons heading into the
fields, the perforated colander pots called "Pichancas" used for rinsing
corn grains at a certain stage in their preparation for tortilla making, the
wide bowls used for making "tejate", a traditional beverage with the
pick-me-up of coffee and the wide mouth pots for holding drinking water.
So it was that Leopoldo illuminated for me the rhyme and reason behind many
of the Coyotepec forms. And these forms can be seen echoed in much of the
new pottery being made in town. Unfortunately the new stuff won't hold
water. It is fired too low, so as to keep that mirror like burnish from
roughing up. And it doesn't need to hold water these days, just needs to sell.
Eric Mindling & Rachel Werling
Manos de Oaxaca
AP 1452
Oaxaca, Oax.
CP 68000
M E X I C O
http://www.foothill.net/~mindling
fax 011 52 (952) 1-4186
email: rayeric@antequera.com
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