Today was our excursion to Amatenango del Valle. Our guide was June Nash, anthropologist extraordinaire, who has been connected with this town of potters for half a century. Nash is also the author of an incomparably brilliant book on the current political situation of the Indigenous people of Chiapas entitled: Mayan Visions, The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization.
Despite her expertise, Nash is soft-spoken and unassuming. This has probably helped her build very close personal relationships with potters whom she has known for decades. When she spoke to the group, she maintained that soft charisma, explaining aspects of history, politics, and technique concerning Amatenango potters.
It took about an hour to get to Amatenango from San Cristobal and we went straight to the Presidente's office to announce the purporse of our visit. He was not able to see us but we had made an appropriate effort. We then went into the church and June showed how images of two very important saints to the Amantecas had been reinterpreted and given local stories. These were San Pedro Martyr with a cleaver in his head, and Santa Lucia holding her eyes on a plate. I mentioned these in an earlier posting in which June took Rita and myself to Amatenango to plan today's excursion.
We then went to see Juan Bautista who is leading a local program in bilingual education (Tzeltal and Spanish) but he had been called away. So instead we visited some potters' households and in some cases watched them work. In one studio we were able to watch one woman form the base of a pot with the coiling method. The clay is worked very wet, so when the pot reaches a certain height it must be allowed to dry before a higher wall is built up. Meanwhile her sister, Victoria Gomez Perez, was making the tiny animal figurines or animalitos. They also took us to their back yard to see where they fire the pottery and talked about the procedure.
Other exceptional visits included the family of a Alberto Gomez Kut-Saban who makes high-end market ceramics, espcially huge jaguars a meter long. Last time we were there, he was packing some of these up for shipping to Chicago. Alberto was not there, but we talked to his son, Ramon, who is studying anthropology at the Indigenous university in San Cristobal. We also met his teacher, Professor Sophia Pincemin, at their house.
Finally we stopped in at the house of the woman who is closest to June and is her "comadre." Carmela Lopez de Leon is just as delightful as June and they had a warm conversation while younger members of the extended family brought out pottery for students to buy. Many did by things, including doves, roosters, and piggy-banks. In the earlier posting I mentioned that Carmela had been at a curing ceremony for a girl, now 4, who had been very sick and could not be diagnosed by western medecine. She is not better, and her illness is now more apparent, though I won't comment on it.
We headed off to nearby Teopisca for lunch, with most of us at a restaurant that June enjoys. She helped the waiters rearrange the tables so we could sit around a square and all talk to each other: as usual, June fosters community discussion. I felt privileged to sit next to her and talk, although it is not the first time I have had the opportunity, since her house in San Cristobal is only a block from our apartment.
During lunch one of the drivers informed me that it was now too late to go to the ancient site of Chinkultik, as it is two hours distant and closes at 4:30. They also suggested that we could not get to Tenam Puente, another site that is easier to reach, but it seems they were not telling the truth in this case. However, I had not been to either site and could not judge, so I gave up on that. Instead, we took advantage of the time to go to the waterfall of El Chiflon, an hour distant. Two thirds of the class actually returned to San Cristobal to work on homework, while the other third of us took one van to the waterfall. The water was very cold and the current very strong but it was very refreshing. As usual, James led a group (Alica, Peggy, and Tina) in doing stunts involving jumping into the water from overhanging trees. Kids these days!
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