Guadalajara and Environs

From the log kept on the August 2011 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

Guadalajara is a big city. It has some architectural jewels, and is welcoming in a matter-of-fact, working-city sort of way. But it is not exactly quaint or charming. We visit Guadalajara because it has cheap airline connections from Chicago and because the nearby towns of Tlaquepaque and Tonalá produce a wide variety of fine artisan crafts including hand-blown glass, metalwork and ceramics. 

Beth and Jim select metalwork at Diseno Marco Polo in Tonala.

This year, at a craft exhibition in Tlaquepaque, we met Luis Fernando Gonzalez Camerena who produces lovely dancing figures, ornaments and flowers from simple corn husks. The corn husks are cleverly fashioned to resemble traditional lilies (azucenas), cala lilies (alcatraces), gladiolas and multi-colored daisies (margaritas). These bright flowers do not wilt, and they make a wonderful display or gift – especially when placed in a handmade copper, ceramic or glass vase from Chiripa!

One evening, we had time to walk in the historic center of Guadalajara. There are many beautiful colonial buildings, including the great cathedral. Street performers entertain the citizens as they stroll in the cool evening air. While watching a performing clown, we suddenly found ourselves drawn into the act – much to the amusement of the local audience. The clown presented a heart-shaped balloon to our friend Shelley, whom he had coaxed to center stage. 

Shelly is drawn into the action on the streets of Guadalajara.

Life can take a serious turn near the stoplights in Guadalajara. When the light turns red, and traffic stops, people walk between cars selling newspapers, snacks and window-washing services. Severely disabled persons may also work their way between lanes of traffic, seeking alms. The air is hot, and thick with dust and exhaust fumes.

The window washers are equipped with spray bottles and squeegies, and expertly complete their task just as the light turns green. Drivers hand over a few pesos as their cars start to move. Once in a while, the job takes a little too long and cars start honking. Or, a window washer might drop a water bottle and retrieve it casually as an accelerating car threatens to run him over.
 

At one intersection, a street performer stood in front of traffic twirling fiery batons as cars waited for the green light. The baton-twirler’s face, neck and arms were completely covered in silver paint notwithstanding the sweltering sun. On a past trip, we saw a fire-eater swallow fiery torches as his daughter collected pesos from the waiting cars. The fire eater hugged his daughter when both of them had returned to the safety of the median strip; but from our angle it looked like he was holding the flaming torch perilously close to her long dark hair. 

-jkm

La Chata in Guadalajara

Musings from the Feb 2011 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

 
One of our regular restaurants when traveling to Guadalajara is the popular La Chata near the Zocalo. It's just a couple blocks from our standard hotel. And, on those trips when we arrive weary from airline travel, there's nothing better than a quick hike to a traditional Mexican restaurant where you know they will serve good food and beer.

The restaurant's kitchen is open to the street offering tempting glances at the frying chicken and fresh tortillas. The cooks are reluctant to pose, but tolerate the intruding gringos. 

Don't expect a quiet atmosphere. This place is always hopping. But the service is fast and the food good. It's usually my first taste of mole and I know I'm in Mexico. kl

All Good

Musings from the Feb 2011 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

In Guadalajara, we often stay at the old Hotel San Francisco de la Plaza. It is centrally located (though not in the very best neighborhood), and reasonably priced. An ornate chandelier (impossible to dust, and therefore undusted for 50 years or so) hangs high over the colonial-style interior courtyard. 

There is an excellent breakfast buffet, including delicious fresh papayas and plenty of coffee, which keeps us nourished for the rest of the day. The weather is clear and beautiful, but people eating breakfast wear jackets against the morning chill. 

We enjoy seeing the same dining room staff each year, including a courtly man in sport coat and tie, and a special waitress who lights up the breakfast room with good cheer. “Todo bien?” (everything fine?) she chirps, merrily.  When we say “sí, gracias,” she laughs and says “Hokay!”  (her voice fills the room). When we ask how she is doing today, the answer is always the same: “Bien, bien, bien!” Behind the counter, as she refills the coffee and tortillas, she breaks out into a spontaneous whistle as if she really, really loves her work. Imagine it! -JKM

A Bit of Luck in Tonala

From JM's August 2010 log of the Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

August 17, 2010. We have never had much luck in Tonala. The town on the outskirts of Guadalajara is reputed to be a major center of craft production. But we have always found it frustrating. There are a lot of workshops, but much of the production we've been able to find is kitchy grade B stuff--not the high quality traditional crafts that we seek.

Today we decided to give it one more try. We had a specific mission in mind: to find the workshop that creates interesting metal work under the name of Marco Polo Designs (we had failed to find it once before). 

The taxi dripped us on Alfereros street, where we had heard the workshop was located. But Alfereros is not a continuous street. It stops, changes names, travels several crooked blocks under its new alias, and then resumes liife under its original name. The house numbers follow no discernible order, and seem to be assigned by a random number generator.

Despite these difficulties, we persisted. Finally, after asking several friendly pedestrians and shopkeepers, and consulting with a helpful policeman, we found the little yellow house and workshop at Alfereros #8. We rang the bell, but there was no answer. Again . . . No response. Once more . . .  Nothing. It looked like yet another defeat in Tonala.

But we weren't quite ready to quit. After polking around the back streets for another hour or so, we returned One more time to Alfereros #8. This time the door opened, and a friendly figure emerged. He smiled when he saw us, and waved us in.

We ordered some really nice luminaries (table and wall), a big dancing Catrina skeleton, and other good metal pieces, including some clever geckos to climb all over your walls. Tonala is still hard to figure out, but it may be growing on us.

Hard Times

Text from JM's log on the Feb/March 2010 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico. Photo captions by Kathryn.

February 20, 2010 – HARD TIMES

“We may have to shut down if things don’t improve.” Like many other artisans, Enrique is deeply concerned about current economic conditions. He and his wife Gloria run D’Casa Ceramics, a small workshop that produces hand-crafted Talavera-style ceramics. Each piece requires hours of careful hand painting. The ceramics are then fired at high temperature to produce a durable and exquisite product.

The showroom/office at D'Casa Ceramics, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Enrique engages the guys while Gloria figures our total in the background.

The artists work in the back room painting patterns on stoneware.

Their fine brushes are made from squirrel tails.

Enrique and Gloria worry about their small family of talented painters, who rely on them for a steady wage. (Enrique showed us the ceramic jar that held the wages to be paid that afternoon.) If Enrique and Gloria are forced to shut down, the world will be a poorer and less beautiful place. Chiripa is helping to sustain this handcraft tradition. You can share in the beauty, and keep the tradition alive!

Another painter working on a very detailed platter.

The completed piece waits to be fired.

We sell this platter at Chiripa and online.

Other pieces in the Rosy (teal) and Imperial (blue) patterns.
Stop at the shop to see what's on hand.

Bussing to Guadelara

A post from the log that JM kept on the August 09 buying trip to Mexico for Chiripa. -kl

This morning, as we headed toward the bus terminal, workers were sweeping the streets with long brooms made of bundled twigs and fronds, and people were stretching and taking their morning exercise laps around the Plaza Quiroga.

The bus terminals in Mexico are amazing. Buses are constantly coming and going in a precise and intricate dance. They simultaneously carry thousands of people to hundreds of different destinations. The barkers call out the names in a flat nasal twang: “Morelia, Morelia!” “Uruapan!” “Zitacuaro!” It is an enormously efficient transportation system, from which we could learn much.

Sadly, if you take a first-class bus, you must endure the movies. These are often loud and violent U.S. products, and by the end of an otherwise pleasant and restful trip they can leave you exhausted. These movies, far more than any diplomatic communications, shape the world’s image of the United States. The overall impression is that of a violent, corrupt and degenerate society.


Despite the movie torture en route, we completed the 5-hour trip from Patzcuaro to Guadalajara, via Morelia. You couldn’t describe Guadalajara as quaint or picturesque, although its downtown features magnificent colonial architecture. It is a big, hard-working, blue-collar place. It has plenty of rough edges, but it is not mean. A sincere young taxi driver told us that Mexico City was choked with pollution, traffic, poverty and crime (“todo malo”), but that Guadalajara was much better (“you don’t get robbed here”).



On Sunday afternoon, families and couples are out walking in the downtown (unlike many U.S. cities, which are ghost towns on weekends). Children, in their underwear, are laughing and playing in the fountains. The splashing water and cool mist offer relief from the afternoon heat. --JM August 16, 2009

Day 17 and 18 in Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque

Monday and Tuesday, August 17 - 18: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

The agenda for these days duplicates some of the visits made on other trips. I'll lead you to those posts.

On Monday Beth and JM visited the D'Casa Stoneware workshop. See the Aug 18, 2008 post for more information about Enrique Castro Compos and his family. Their products continue to be popular at Chiripa.

The next stop was the glass workshop in Tlaquepaque. See the March 12, 2008 post.

Perhaps we'll get more information about how the day went. Both of those workshops require much time and decision-making.

Tuesday is the first day of Enart, the trade show of handcrafted Mexican gifts. See the April 16, 2009 post. Beth will make stops at Citlali for jewelry and a couple other "regular" stops. Perhaps there will be a Chiripa (a happy accident) and she'll discover a new vendor who's workshop we'll visit on another trip.

This is the last shopping day of the trip. The travelers head for home on Wednesday flying out of Guadalajara at 8 a.m. and arriving in Chicago at 12:10 p.m. A bus to Madison should put them here by late afternoon.

It's been a full trip. Details and new contacts will be added in future posts. However, there will be a break in posting as I share information with Beth and then take a few days off from working the shop.

A Taxi Ride

From August 15, 2008

When we go on buying trips to Mexico (for Chiripa), we do a lot of walking. We also rely on public transportation – buses and taxis. So we have met a lot of taxi drivers. Each taxi driver in Mexico has his own personal style (the taxi driver is always a “he”). Some are middle-aged and courtly, while others are young and macho. Some are talkative, some not. Most have a rosary or religious token hanging from the rear view mirror. Some wear seat belts, but others (perhaps trusting in the Virgin’s protection) only pretend to be buckling their seat belt when they approach a police car.

Most taxi drivers prefer Mexican traditional or pop music on the radio. But you may hear classical or New Age music, or even Johnnie cash singing “Your Own Personal Jesus.” Many taxi drivers have been in the U.S., but most say they prefer Mexico. As one driver told us on this trip, Mexico is “más bonito” (more beautiful) and “más tranquilo” (more tranquil) than Aurora, Illinois, and you don’t have to spend so much time putting coats on and off.

Mexican taxi drivers usually know exactly how to get where you want to go, (they sometimes they take disconcerting shortcuts that make you wonder, if only for a moment, whether you are being kidnapped). But taxi drivers occasionally have trouble locating the obscure and unmarked family workshops that Chiripa seeks out.

In Guadalajara, we asked our young taxi driver to get us back to our somewhat low-profile downtown hotel during rush hour. He gave the impression that he knew where it was, and we started on our way. We passed, among other things, the statue dedicated to the “Niños heroes” (child heroes) – the young Mexico City military cadets who fought to the death against the invading U.S. Army in 1846, while the main Mexican army abandoned the city. Every Mexican city has a street named “Niños Heroes.” In the Mexican-American War, the U.S. forced Mexico to cede much of its northern territory (including Texas, California, Utah, Colorado, and most of New Mexico and Arizona).

The Guadalajara taxi driver seemed to have a plan, and was making good headway. But eventually he admitted that he didn’t know exactly where our hotel was located. I knew we were in trouble when he asked me which way to go. We were actually pretty close, but on the wrong side of the central plaza, and the downtown streets were choked with traffic. Getting to the other side took, well, a long time....

We crept along -- measuring our progress in feet, not blocks. The young driver maintained a cheerful demeanor, but was sweating with anxiety. We passed the glorious cathedral, as well as the famous hotel established in 1610 (our pace gave us plenty of time to take in the sites). We could easily have made faster progress on foot, but the taxi driver was determined and we didn’t have the heart to stop him short of his goal. As the sun was going down, we finally arrived. The taxi driver beamed, and we paid him extra for his trouble.

[Note: See post on March 10, 2008 for a description of the hotel Chiripa partners were trying to find.]

Trip with Pix 1

I will recreate parts of the Chiripa buying trip to Mexico complete with pictures and information this time. We began the trip February 14 at Enart, a semi-annual handcrafted gift show in Tlaquepaque just outside of Guadalajara. Our first hotel was Hotel San Francisco in downtown Guadalajara. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good location at a reasonable price.


Our room was on the second floor (no elevator) overlooking an interior courtyard/dining room below. The buffet breakfasts are great. Our first morning's fare included fish. I suspect it was because it was the first Friday of lent.

While in Guadalajara we stopped by the concurrent furniture show to visit with Lulu and Alfredo at their exhibit of Wood and Copper. We picked out some new furniture pieces with copper accents. We hope to have shipment by mid-April and it will include end tables, coffee tables, and bedside stands, as well as copper frames.


I hope to continue adding info and images as I have time. Look for more in a couple days.