Enriqueta Cenobio Calixto and Juvenal Bernardino Gómez create beautiful Mazahua miniature embroidery, weaving and a broad variety of crafts. They come from a Mazahua village in the State of Mexico.

Enriqueta learned embroidery from her mother, who taught her when she was nine years old. She was so interested in it, that while she cared for the animals as they pastured, she made miniature designs on the rebozo she wore every day. Finally, her mother felt her work was worthy and she was given a piece of cloth measuring 80 x 40 centimeters - Enriqueta spent months working on the piece.

She met Juvenal in Mexico City where he had moved to look for work. She won a very prestigious prize for her embroidery work. Juvenal believed she could make a living doing such work and he decided to support her by purchasing her materials in the city and looking for places where she might sell her works of art. Enriqueta finally taught him too, and now they are both involved in this art.

The embroidery technique that Enriqueta and Juvenal use is done with two needles, as they simultaneously work with two different tones of thread, generally black and red or black and blue, which is the typical Mazahua style. Most of the designs come from the patterns that the family of Enriqueta has been designing over generations. However, as Enriqueta and Juvenal also include their own designs - they have been working on art pieces that include various colors of thread.

Enriqueta and Juvenal have obtained numerous prizes throughout the years. On several occasions, they have obtained the Gran Premio de Arte Popular, one of the main awards granted in Mexico.

Mexican textiles have existed for more than 5000 years, but now Mexico's indigenous textile culture is in danger of extinction. In time, if weavers cannot earn a living at their craft, they will be lost to the world. In our modern take-out, mechanized world, it is difficult to explain or persuade buyers that purchasing a piece of handmade folk art - a one-of-a-kind piece of art, has so much more meaning and that its purchase helps keep the art alive.

The Mazahua are an indigenous people of Mexico, inhabiting the northwestern portion of the State of Mexico and southeastern Michoacán, with a presence also in the Federal District of Mexican City due to migration closer to a city where more of their work might be sold - again, forcing the indigenous people from their chosen lifestyle and into the cities in order to survive making their craft. Their native home is high and cool with heavy rains.

The word Mazahua is of Náhuatl origin meaning "the owners of deer", probably referring to the rich fauna of the mountainous region inhabited by the Mazahua. However they refer to themselves as Hñatho. The basic economic activity is agriculture with corn, beans, squash, maguey and fruit being the principal crops. The Mazahua also keep the common barn yard animals such as goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, horses and oxen. Migration, as with many indigenous groups, is an important source of income for the family. The Mazahua also produce handicrafts, embroidered goods and woven baskets are among the most well known.

Recently the Mazahua were affected adversely by the Cutzamala dam project which caused many Mazahua, mainly women to take up arms and form Zapatista civil rights movements to protect their land claims and human rights. They are in various stages of transition, with some villages losing costume and language at a incredible pace. Since the people must go to Toluca or Mexico City to find work they are exposed to the influences of the modern world. Many Mazahua women go to work as domestics and the men as laborers, they earn bottom dollar but it is still more than they can make in the towns producing their weaving and textile work. Like many of the other indigenous peoples of Mexico, there is a tendency in the past few years to abandon the traditional Mazahua costume.

Contact information:
San Felipe Santiago, Villa del Allende, Mexico
(01152 if calling from outside Mexico) 722 101 9765 or 722 312 0312 (add 045 in front if calling from inside Mexico - cellphone)

Or contact Marianne Carlson at (from the US) 01152 376 765 7485 or email marianne carlson@gmail.com.