Mexico

Pottery Collective Empowers Women Economically and Challenges Gender Norms in Rural Mexico

One woman runs a pottery collective to empower women economically in a semirural region where, even 20 years ago, it was taboo for women to work.

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Pottery Collective Empowers Women Economically and Challenges Gender Norms in Rural Mexico

Rita Reséndiz, 52, introduces women to economic opportunities and their rights through her pottery collective, Mujeres Alfareras de Tláhuac.

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Part 2 in a Series

Shaping Their Future: Women in Mexico Seek Empowerment Through Crafts

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – Rita Reséndiz, 52, and her fellow potters use wooden spades to scoop the white clay that forms their ceramic crafts. An electric mixer helps the women to complete their work. But the most powerful tool in the process is their own arms in this pottery collective that has shown them their right to work and ability to support themselves.

After mixing the clay, the artisans pour it into plaster molds that they made themselves. They also built the workshop’s tables and shelves. Once the pieces of clay harden, they sand, decorate and finally bake them in brick and steel ovens. They constructed these ovens too.

The potters’ finished products include cups, pendants, earrings, crosses, rings, vases and crockery. The women sell their goods by order and at craft fairs throughout the country. In addition to earning money to be financially independent, they gain awareness of their rights as women, starting with the right to work.

Reséndiz, founder and leader of the group, and three other women, Rosalba Francisco and sisters Katia Leyte and Karina Leyte, are the current members of this collective, called Mujeres Alfareras de Tláhuac. The name translates to Women Potters of Tláhuac, a semirural borough of the nation’s federal district located south of Mexico City, the capital.

The Mujeres Alfareras de Tláhuac collective has defied the local gender norm that prevailed until recently in the semirural boroughs of the federal district that women should not work, offering dozens of women an opportunity to empower themselves economically. They have learned that they have other rights as well through exposure to new people and places while selling their crafts throughout the country.

After an earthquake devastated Mexico City in 1985, Reséndiz joined one of the various cooperatives that emerged to offer alternative trades to the thousands of people who, like her, had lost their jobs and homes. But she noticed that she was the only female in the collective she had joined.

Feeling that her male peers were not taking her opinion into account, she decided to start her own collective made ​​by and for women, as she puts it. Around 60 women have participated in the pottery collective since she founded it in 1992.

Age, education level and marital status do not matter in the group’s workshop. They adjust to the circumstances of each woman who has participated, whether it has been picking up their children from school or not working during weekends because their husbands did not let them.

This stems from strict gender norms in Tláhuac, where the custom that women should not work prevailed even 20 years ago, Reséndiz says. This made it complicated for women to get involved in the project.

But in the collective, the women began to discover that they are capable of doing paid work and supporting themselves, Reséndiz says.

The women sell their ceramics by order and at craft fairs throughout the country. A pendant or incense holder sells for about 20 pesos ($1.60), and a large clay pot can sell for up to 2,500 pesos ($200). Reséndiz says their most popular items are cups, which go for 65 pesos ($5), and candle diffusers, which earn them about 100 pesos ($8).

They earn the majority of their money during holiday seasons from May to June and November to December, garnering about 30,000 pesos ($2,415) to 40,000 pesos ($3,220) per month as a group, Reséndiz says. This sustains the women during the other months of the year, when their sales are lower.

The collective has introduced the women to an alternative form of work that yields professional and personal growth, Reséndiz says. In addition to learning the art of pottery, they have also gained welding and bricklaying skills.

Beyond the right to work, the group has exposed participants to women’s rights in general. Reséndiz mentions several radio programs they used to listen to while working that made the women aware that they have rights too.

Rosalba Francisco, 28, joined the pottery collective 10 years ago. At the time, she lived with her brothers and father, who kept her subservient. After suffering from intense depression, Francisco persuaded her father to let her work.

She joined the pottery collective in 2003. She met new people and discovered new places through the fairs the group traveled to in order to sell its crafts.

She also started to question her father. Displeased, he said she could not work with the collective anymore.

Instead of quitting, Francisco decided to move out of her father’s house and began to fend for herself. Now, Francisco is able to support herself solely through Mujeres Alfareras de Tláhuac. Francisco says her labor in the workshop has changed the course of her life.

“The workshop was an awakening for me,” she says. “It was important. The clay has opened paths for me. It has guided me.” 

All interviews were translated from Spanish.