Mermaid Folk Art

Clay Oaxaca Spirits container has a curious history in San Bartolo Coyotepec

Alvin Starkman, MA, LL.B.

Mezcalero Chango has become a very popular collection of art whose history has been told often, if at all. While all accounts of its origin in the State of Oaxaca, home of mezcal - a spirit distilled from the plant in the oven, then fermented agave - it is now highly sought by collectors living abroad much further.

The Story of Sango Mezcalero may establish a link between the gray of functional pottery produced in Oaxaca San Bartolo Coyotepec first during the pre-Hispanic and contemporary area Barro negro or black ceramic. Black pottery is said to be the result of the 1952-1953 Innovation of the now famous Zapotec indigenous potters, Doa±a Rosa Real and her husband Don Juventino Nieto.

What exactly is Mezcalero Chango, the curious shaped bottle of Mezcal Monkey?

 

Chango Mezcalero is a clay vessel in the shape of a monkey, often painted in vivid colors, traditionally used for mezcal. In modern times the form of a monkey has been built primarily as a decorative folk art, sometimes even painted with etching detail in the gray clay, sometimes bottomless and without a beak because it is not intended to be liquid.

The traditional Chango Mezcalero was used to organize, view and / or a gift to soak mezcal, and hence the name. The bottle of clay is just that, usually with a cork or a piece of corncob.

Some of the most common monkey poses include eating or simply holding a banana with his arms over his chest and one hand forward with the other covering one eye.

Chango Mezcalero serving both tourism and local commerce. It met with Recuerdo de Oaxaca (Oaxaca Remembrance) written on the back, and sometimes as a pair, with the name of a man painted on the front of a figure and a woman on the other, suggested local use as personalized gifts - for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other rites of passage. Sometimes it is found painted, but with no registration, no rare since its original function was as an adornment combined and used a bottle kept on the shelves of canteens.

Chango Mezcalero size is usually between 8 "and 9.5" tall. Traditional forms hold between 700 ml and 1 liter, respectively.

Linking Barro Negro Chango Mezcalero in a historical context

 

Eighty-year-old Don Valente Nieto, only surviving descendants of Doa±a Rosa and Don Juventino, states that anyone in his hometown of San Bartolo Coyotepec who claims that they or their deceased relatives were the creator of the Chango Mezcalero, mistakes or misstatement of fact. He believes that his father, a sculptor of great talent, was innovative not only Mezcalero Chango, but other whimsical clay jars used to hold mezcal.

Don Valente reveals it all began when operators cantina in Oaxaca - the first, followed by others - started coming to the farm-Nieto Real, Chango asking the bottle to hold, display and sale of mezcal . Finally, other animal forms have been requested and produced. While the talent of Don Juventino created these different forms as well, Chango Mezcalero gained some notoriety.

Don Valente notes clay molds of the Chango, mermaid, owl and more stylized, away to commemorate the legacy of his father. He showed photographs of his parents' time alongside these figures waiting to be placed in a rudimentary clay oven for baking. Juventino Don died in 1973 at age 70, W.