Chihuahua Potters Feeling Hit Drug Violence Has Put On Tourism

Tourism has plummeted in regions of Mexico mentioned in the U.S. State Department travel warning. Nowhere is the impact felt more than in the village of Mata Ortiz, home to hundreds of artisans who make distinctive pottery.

Most families in the village have at least one potter in the house.

Sabino Villalba and his wife, Veronica, are both dedicated to the art. They create some of the same designs and figures unearthed in Paquime, an ancient Indian settlement that is now an archeological site.

Villalba learned the tradition from his father, who asked his children to continue the Paquime pottery to ensure it would not die.

But these days the potters face a modern-day threat that has many concerned their children won?t be able to continue the tradition. Tourists who used to visit by the busload to buy pottery and watch the artisans at work are staying away.

?They?ve told us they?re very afraid,? Veronica Villalba said.

Many Americans are reluctant to make the three-hour drive south of the border because of drug violence in the state of Chihuahua. The U.S. Department of State travel warning for Mexico includes this region. According to the warning on the website, ?U.S. citizens should also defer non-essential travel to the northwest quarter of the state of Chihuahua.?

American anthropologist Spenser MacCallum, who lives here with his wife, bristles at the suggestion that tourists are in any danger of being targeted by drug traffickers.

?The statistic is zero. It has not happened,? said MacCallum, an expert on Paquime-style pottery who still remembers the first time he saw some the pots more than 35 years ago..

?Something about them made me know intuitively the person who made them was potentially a world-class artist,? he said

He?s made it his mission to study the artisans and their roots in the region. ?

Paquime was at one time the largest and most complex in entire pueblo world, ?MacCallum explained.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, has named the ruins of Paquime in Casas Grandes a world heritage site, and on its webpage describes Paquime as, ?The extensive remains only part of which have been excavated, are clear evidence of the vitality of a culture which was perfectly adapted to physical and economic environment but which suddenly vanished at the time of the Spanish Conquest.?

Modern day artist Juan Quezada is the most famous potter from Mata Ortiz. He recreated the ancient techniques with only shards of the excavated pottery. He?s credited with a renaissance in the ancient art and the reason so many villagers decided to dedicate themselves to pottery.

But these days, it?s a struggle.

One Mata Ortiz resident and her son displayed their pottery on a street corner recently hoping to catch a visitor?s eye. When times were good she could sell up to $700 worth of pottery in an hour.

?I haven?t sold one single thing,? Esperanza Tena said.

Things are so bad, many potters have had to look for other jobs, including construction, to survive.

?I hate to see fine artists working on building the road up in the sierra. We just have to hope and pray and look forward to things returning to normalcy at some point in the future,” MacCallum said.

A few Americans have returned to Mata Ortiz, including Rebecca and Frederic Russell. The couple lived here for several months.

?It?s a life experience,? Frederick said.

They came to learn the Paquime style from the potters who now struggle to preserve their ancient art.

?There are no borders as far as art and people are concerned,? Rebecca Russell said.