Enedina and Eliseo Castillo and their family of 14 children are an industry unto themselves. They have all found success as woodcarvers - prize-winning woodcarvers.

Eliseo is very proud of the fact that none of his children had had to look for work on what he calls "the other side." The family has worked tirelessly to stay together and keep their traditional woodcarving supporting the family.

Enedina´s father taught her how to carve wood when she was just a child. She, in turn, taught her young husband, Eliseo. He taught all the children starting them out carving fish from soft pine sticks. Eliseo Castillo tells of how the children soon graduated to avocado wood angels with great smiling faces and pretty little wings. All the angels just happened to look like Enedina!

He also writes that Eliseo is the master carver of the family, after La Maestra herself, and he occupies most of his time sculpting likenesses of the local Virgen de la Salud in cream-colored tropical hardwoods. That particular virgin is famous all over Michoacán for her miraculous healing powers. There probably is no home in Pátzcuaro that doesn't´t have an image of her somewhere within its walls.

The ones Eliseo carves all have faces like his beautiful wife. Enedina denies that she is the model for all of Eliseo´s more sacred carvings, but that is just her modesty.

The Castillo family are P´urhépecha Indians and proud of their heritage. They do not speak P´urhépecha in their home, but their grandchildren are learning the language along with Spanish, in elementary school. The family keeps up many of the old traditions, however.

The small village the Castillo´s have called home for generations, carries on the old ways as well, and Enedina and Eliseo are an integral part of the village´s celebrations. Eliseo carves and paints the contest-winning masks that are worn in various of the village´s fiestas. They are intricate and artful and incorporate the ancient themes of serpents with twisting tails and demons with dangerously sharp tusks and fearsome black eyes. The masks are sanded silky smooth and painted with layer upon layer of bright paint, and flawlessly lacquered to a brilliant shine.

Enedina sews together the costumes that are worn with the masks mostly by her own sons, who dance out the ancient tales for the edification and delight of the village children. These costumes are sparkling works of art in themselves. Her sequined costumes and Eliseo´s masks have been featured in magazines and photo art shows around the world.

The oldest sons also make fanciful animals that are called nahuales, although not characteristic of Purhépecha culture. These bizarrely imaginative creatures may have several heads, some with fangs and some with tusks, and maybe several lashing tails, and look more than anything else like creatures out of a nightmare. They are wildly painted and polished to a high sheen like Eliseo´s masks. Nahuales represent spirits.

Woodcarving and woodworking is extremely delicate work and most carvers at some time during their lifetime, created popular religious art icons. The pueblo in which the Castillos live is famous for the carving of mascaras (masks).

Masks are born of the traditions and present a sample of the cosmic vision of indigenous people. Each masks reflects the richness of popular art, the constant and continuing creative process, and its design is a vision and expression of the culture, making it alive. In the P'urhépecha tradition, the masks come to life in the dances of the Moors and the Christians, the Devils, the Little Blacks, the Old People, the Ranchers, the Hermits, the Maringuias (men dressed as women) and Cúrpites (a P'urhépecha term for "those who get together").

Cucharas and bateas (spoons and flat, shallow bowls) are examples of a traditional production process that is still maintained today. Many villages trade their handmade utilitarian goods - a bowl might be traded for a ceramic plate for example.

The Castillo's village is traditionally a village of wood carvers, and there are many celebrated artists living within blocks of the Castillo´s compound. One difference that sets this family apart from their neighbors is that they charge a "fair" price for their work and have not raised prices continuously over the years as other artists have. Another difference is that, for the most part, Eliseo and Enedina prefer to leave their works of art unpainted and unlacquered, except for the ceremonial masks and nahuales.

All of Eliseo's tools are handmade, some specially designed by him and made in forges in Mexico City or Morelia. Eliseo´s rough hands caress them like they were old friends instead of razor sharp knives and gouges. His children work up on the shady roof of the house, but Eliseo likes to be close to the earth. He says it inspires his work. Almost as much as Enedina does.

Contact Information:
Domicilio Conocido
443 303 3824
Tocuaro, Michoacán

Or contact Marianne Carlson at (01152 from outside Mexico) (376) 765-7485, email mariannecarlson@gmail.com