Please select a local to hear their perspective:

Valente
Valente one of the son's of Dona Rosa, who invented the technique for making the famous black pottery produced only in Oaxaca.  Dona Rosa's workshop is in San Bartolo Coyotopec.

CX: How long have you been working with clay?
Valente: I started when I was 10 or 12. I'm now 74 years old, so around 60 years working with the clay.

CX: How did this special technique get discovered?
Valente: Well, pottery has been around in this region for a thousand years, but always opaque, grey. This technique was discovered in 1952-1953 seeing that you could make the pottery black by rubbing it and polishing it with a quartz stone (then firing it). This rubbing compacts the clay and prepares it, (turning it black when fired with wood).