Zapotec Post-Earthquake Reconstruction | Oaxaca MX

Hi there! We are very glad to tell you that this new year we are full of ideas for changing our world. Thank you again for being part of 2020, it was a very unpredictable year, but we feel that our people are more united than ever.  

As we told you in other reports, we are trying a mixed digital and semipresencial educational model for our communities. We are trying to involve our participants in learning cycles for collective healing, especially because now the living environment has been more violent and difficult for all of us. 

Simultaneously we continue with the ancestral knowledge workshops such as pottery, textiles, food conserves, and family backyard gardens for self-consumption. 

Today I want to share our pottery workshop experience which was full of revelations of the pandemic effects. The workshop was a real challenge, first of all, many of the participants didn’t have any kind of access to digital sources nor knowledge for using them. Secondly, the class was driven by Laura, a ceramist from Torreón (Mexico’s north) and Chela, a pottery artisan from our community in Oaxaca; this difference of contexts slowed the group integration. But finally the participants were from 4 different zapotec communities, which enhanced and diversified the cultural perspectives of each one. The objective of the workshop was to open creative possibilities for creating new products based on the traditional pottery knowledge but adapted to their actual needs. The results were awesome! They made clay jewelry, sculptures and cooking utensils and most of them are now producing and selling. 

Origalia an indigenous Zapotec, 66 year old, woman, shared with us the next message of encouragement: “I have been a sculptor since ever, but I decided to participate in the pottery workshop because it was a complete challenge. The digital part was so difficult, my husband told me I was lucky to take that computational workshop 20 years ago (laughs), and even with that I needed UMPO’s team help even for turning on the class . I mean I want to learn more about everything and you want to protect my health, then I must learn how to use this things (tablets and zoom). The most powerful result for me is that I am truly motivated to do new activities. Some months ago I participated in the gardens for self-consumption workshops, and now I am eating tomatoes from my garden and I am preparing a sculpture exposition. I feel alive.” 

This 2021 we will continue revalorizing the traditional arts and crafts,giving entrepreneurs, such as Origalia and the pottery workshop group, opportunities to boost their growth. Together we are generating community, which we believe is the key for maintaining our communities. Thank you for being part. ¡Feliz año nuevo!