EXPLORE | CLOSER LOOK
BY RACHNA SACHASINH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
MARICEU ERTHAL GARCÍAPOTTERY OF
THE NIGHT
ACCORDING TO LEGEND, the clay in San
Bartolo Coyotepec village is blessed.
Artisans who use it to make Oaxaca’s
famous barro negro, black clay pottery,
are reluctant to reveal its secrets.
But 66-year-old Amando Pedro
Martínez is an exception. Sparks
crackle from the earthen oven in his
studio as I watch him reach, with
cloth-covered hands, into the still cool-
ing kiln and pull out smooth ebony
plates one by one.
Made from clay mined on the slopes
of the Sierra Madre across the valley,
these pieces started out the color of
wet mud. Impregnated by heat and
smoke, they transformed into sleek
grays and blacks evocative of twilight.
It’s no wonder Zapotec folktales call
barro negro “pottery of the night.”
Pedro Martínez is upholding
an artisanal tradition that dates
back more than 2,500 years. Just
beyond his studio, the town’s tidy,
broad avenues are lined with home
workshops where extended families
labor side by side turning clay into
pots and figurines. Travelers arrive in
tour buses to buy the distinctive black
pottery—but what tourists see isn’t
exactly traditional.
When tin, aluminum, and plastics
began to replace watertight black clay
vessels, artisans adapted to a changing
market by introducing new shapes,
offering decorative pieces, and incor-
porating different techniques, such as
etched patterns and plastic molds.
While these changes have helpedIN MEXICO, AN ANCIENT ART
IS EMERGING AS A SUSTAINABLE
ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTICS.Beautiful and functional,
the Bartolo jug by
Colectivo 1050° is a
return to the traditional
roots of black pottery.