KEEPERS OF TRADITION

One of the potters of Amatenango del Valle who has had art expositions in Mexico and abroad.

The women of Amatenango work very hard. Most of them also care for their homes, their husbands and their children in addition to their work as potters, whether pottery is a full-time occupation or something done only to order. The women are also in charge of marketing their products. If the woman is a widow with no grown sons, she may add tilling the fields to her roster of activities. If deemed necessary, the women work shoulder-to-shoulder with their husbands when building their new homes.

    As with other indigenous groups in this region, the women of Amatenango are the keepers of the flame that prevents the customs of their group from fading away. While the men trade their cotton pants, conical palm hats and leather huaraches (sandals) for jeans, tennis shoes, rubber boots, cowboy hats and baseball caps, the women wear the traditional dress of the group, which that has changed little over the centuries. Indeed, the native dresses of Amatenango del Valle and of neighboring San Bartolomé de los Llanos are considered to be the most beautiful in Chiapas.

    The ladies of Amatenango wear a red and yellow manta (raw cotton) tunic-like blouse which they embroider with wool yarn. A blue checked cloth serves as a headdress, its arrangement reminiscent of a scarlet macaw, and a length bought in San Cristobal de las Casas is wrapped as a skirt. For some activities, the ladies swap the tunic blouse for a top like that used by the women of nearby Aguacatenango and Pinola, which is embroidered with flowers along the neck and sleeves. For important occasions however, Amatenango women dress only in their native garb.

    For religious ceremonies, especially fiestas in honor of the town's patron saint, St. Francis, the women are equal eager participants, imbibing along with the men. On this day both sexes drink a fermented beverage called posh, and it is the women who allegedly control its sale and production. They even seem to laugh longer, talk louder and take to the dance floor first.

    The men are not potters, nor do they directly contribute to the industry. They consider ceramics production a secondary activity, and the exclusive province of women. Interestingly, the attitude has little to do with economics. Studies show that a brisk business in ceramics, especially when working to order for regular clients, brings in more than the average maiz (corn) harvest; which is men's work.