Located only 8 miles from Oaxaca City, the small town of San Bartolo Coyotepec is famous for its unique black pottery. Lovers of local arts and crafts will find the work quite charismatic. Each piece carries a decorative, textured, often floral motif that is finished to a highly burnished black patina. Nowadays, virtually the entire town is involved in the production and sale of this pottery. The best pieces are often the ones that derive from traditional usages that have only recently succumbed to the forces of modernity.
Until about 50 years ago, the vessels were used to transport mescal from hillside farms down to the local communities where it was sold in the markets. These three gallon pots were lashed together and carried into the towns on the backs of burros. But sometime in the 1950's, plastic jugs were introduced into the area and the much heavier clay containers were soon abandoned. Facing the demise of their livelihood, potters were forced to find new applications for their products.
A potter named Dona Rosa stumbled upon a method for making decorative black pottery from local clay. Her "secret" process was eventually uncovered and emulated by many villagers as the popularity of this new style of pottery grew. The locally dug clay is actually red, and it is the surface that blackens after it is fired in home built brick ovens. Though the potters are reluctant to reveal the actual technique, it is rumored that diesel is somehow part of the process. These murky production techniques discourage using the vessels for cooking or food storage, but it is the artistic rather than the utilitarian merits of the pottery that attract the prospective buyer.
The better showrooms display a wide range of pieces that are buffed to a warm satin luster. Each vessel seems to glow from within. The variety of textures and designs fall into several recognizable patterns, but the best pieces, usually those decorated with floral and plant motifs, always seem spontaneous rather than formulaic. One never tires of rotating a pot as the eye traces the design that never seems to repeat itself. Many a tourist has left San Bartolo Coyotepec weighted down with several pieces of this unique black pottery, wondering a little belatedly if the clothes in his suitcase will adequately cushion his precious cargo.
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