Patzcuaro and Santa Clara del Cobre

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

We were up again at dawn – this time for a 5-hour bus ride from San Miguel to Patzcuaro in the cool wooded highlands of Michoacán. We love many places in Mexico, but Patzcuaro is a special favorite.

We always stay at Los Escudos, a comfortable and economical hotel on the beautiful Plaza Quiroga – one of the oldest and finest public spaces in the Americas. We also like to eat breakfast at the nearby Mansión Iturbe Hotel (another venerable hotel located in a former colonial mansion). It offers lots of hot coffee, wonderful fresh fruit, local specialties like “corundas,” and an accompanying assortment of pastries including old-fashioned “rosettes” like your aunt or grandmother used to make.


Today, we stopped at our hotel just long enough to check in. Then we walked to the intersection near the edge of the downtown, where we caught the bus for the copper village of Santa Clara del Cobre. Six pesos (less than 50 cents at today’s exchange rate) will take you the 15 miles or so to Santa Clara.

The annual Copper Fair is in full swing in Santa Clara. The plaza in front of the church is festooned with bright paper banners (“papel picado” like you see in Chiripa). A hundred colorfully-dressed dancers (some armed with little bows and arrows) ward off a scary array of costumed evil spirits -- all to the oompah sound of a brass band.

At the local Copper Museum, there is a stunning display of hand-hammered copper. These are works of the highest art – easily qualified for display in the world’s best museums. But they are all produced right here in Santa Clara, by artisans who devote months of labor to each piece. The artisans are competing against their friends and neighbors, and the rivalry is fierce. A first-place award is a great honor.

Most of the displayed works were far out of our price range, but we bought a number of other fine pieces from the Castro Hernandez family, which captured 2 of 5 prestigious first-place awards at this year’s show. You will soon be able to find these elegant pieces at Chiripa, at very reasonable prices.


We returned to Santa Clara the next morning. But today the Copper Fair was interrupted by rain. Not just the usual gentle mist – but a fearful deluge. At this altitude (Santa Clara sits at over 7,000 feet), the lightening and thunder make your hair stand on end. The rain hammered down, and torrents of water poured down the cobbled streets like mountain rivers. A woman swept at the tide rising over the curb, trying to keep it out of her shop.


Fortunately, the curbs are high, and many sidewalks are sheltered by deep overhanging roofs. For the most part, the people just took the deluge in stride.


To all appearances, Mexico is the same beautiful place as ever. But there are some storms raging, and some dark currents flowing beneath the surface. The state of Michoacán faces serious economic difficulties, and young men have emigrated in droves. Some of those who remain have been drawn into gangs and drug violence. We felt completely safe, and saw no evidence of the violence portrayed in the news media. But it is on the minds of many people here.

Over coffee, one business owner confided to us that she is careful about what she says at parties, because “you never know for sure who is involved in what.” Neither she nor her family have ever received any threats, but she hears rumors of extortion and “protection money” schemes. Even legitimate business success can cause resentment in hard-pressed communities. And in today’s climate, businesses are forced to lay off workers who have no safety net. Job losses are making everything worse.


Back in Patzcuaro, another deluge hit in the late afternoon. Waterfalls leaped from the overhanging roofs, slid down big banana leaves in interior courtyards, and splashed on the stone pavement. But melancholy Patzcuaro, with its 400-year-old adobe walls and red tile roofs, has endured many storms. It just hunkers down and waits. -JM August 12 and 13, 2009

Day 10: Back to Santa Clara del Cobre

Thursday, August 13: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

Today's plan is to hop on a bus back out to Santa Clara del Cobre to meet with Lulu and Alfredo and to take in more of the copper fair. I'm confident that the day started with breakfast at I Turbe, a nice hotel with a restaurant serving a great breakfast and the best coffee we can find in Patzcuaro.

Starters: fruit plate, coffee, and little powder sugar cookies in the little basket.

This refreshing start is followed by a large plate of traditional Michoacan food . . . or pancakes.

Then it's a hike to the intersection where buses to Santa Clara pass frequently. The ride up the mountain (maybe "mountain" is exaggerated, but the elevation increases significantly) passes the daily life of Patzcuaro.

A flowering vine jumps out of it's humble surroundings.

Last February's trip to Santa Clara included a breakfast with Lulu Paz and her husband, Alfredo. Alfredo operates the furniture business that makes sinks and wood pieces with beautiful copper panels. Lulu operates a traditional copper storefront with a great copper-making demonstration area (not pictured here). The shop is called Casa Felicitas at Pino Suarez #88.

Lulu and Alfredo with February's travelers.

All over the city you can hear the "ping-ping" of hammer on copper and the whoosh of a bellows fire. The travelers are sure to have a full day of decision making. I'm hoping for some copper fair photos to share at a later date.

Day 9: Bus to Patzcuaro

Wednesday, August 12: The Chiripa 2009 Summer Buying Trip to Mexico

The travelers arrived in Patzcuaro and in the evening sent this email describing their bus trip and the subsequent trip up to Santa Clara del Cobre:

"We left SMA this morning on the 7:45 am bus and got here around 12:30 pm. We immediately left for Sta Clara where the copper fair is in full swing. Devils and dancers, Purepecha bands on stage, the square was full of folks. And there was a parade of sorts down the main drag -- a couple of toddlers in costume sitting on the hoods of cars. Yikes!

"Tonight we had a great meal at Primer Piso, sitting on the balcony overlooking the square [in Patzcuaro]." Beth

Copper judging and awards in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico 2008

No word on competition purchases this year. It's fun to put the photos with the winning pots that we can purchase. We try to encourage the young artists to continue their craft.

A winner in the 8-13 year-old division 2008

Furniture Craft

[Continuing journal written by Chiripa partners on a recent buying trip.]

August 18, 2008

Peter Knöbl is an unlikely Mexican name. In fact, Peter was born in Austria. He came to Mexico as a young man, 35 years ago. He married and never left. As he puts it (in Spanish), “I got used to it here. It is tranquil and comfortable.”

Peter now runs a small furniture company with his wife María Cristina and their daughter Gabriella. He makes wonderful hand-crafted furniture and mirrors, with Austrian technique and Mexican style. He uses local wood, and copper crafted in nearby Santa Clara del Cobre.


A taxi driver helped us locate Peter’s workshop, in the countryside near Patzcuaro. We turned down the unmarked gravel road, and found the office of rough-hewn wood that looked like a chalet in the Alps. It was not out of place in Michoacán.

In his orderly office, Peter sat behind a finely crafted desk painted with flowers. After we toured his equally neat workshop, which smelled of freshly-sawed wood, we placed our order for Chiripa. When we finished, we asked if we could catch a bus or taxi back to town. “No es sencillo” (“it isn’t simple”) he said, and cheerfully drove us back to town himself.

On the way to town, Peter talked about the Patzcuaro area and its traditions – including the colorful annual “Day of the Dead” events that draw people from all over the world. On the “Day of the Dead,” local residents spend the night in the cemeteries, communing with their dead parents, family members and ancestors. But, according to Peter, there are so many outside visitors that the real family communion now occurs in the very early hours of the morning, after the tourists have gone back to their hotels.

[Note: At this time mirrors and furniture from Peter Knöbl are not available at Chiripa. We will let you know when the shipment arrives.]

The Copper Fair

[Continuing journal written by Chiripa partners on a recent buying trip.]

August 18, 2008

Today, for the second time on this trip, we took the second-class bus from Patzcuaro to the village of Santa Clara del Cobre (“Santa Clara of the Copper”). The artisans of Santa Clara have had a hard year. The village produces the world’s finest hand-hammered copper. But soaring world copper prices have increased material costs, and declines in the U.S. and Mexican economies have hurt sales. A fine, but unsold, piece of hand-hammered copper may represent months of uncompensated labor.


So there were smiles when Chiripa bought some prize-winning pieces at this year’s annual Copper Fair in Santa Clara. We bought the first-place centerpiece in the children’s category,


and the 3rd-place copper pot winner in the “New Entrants” category.


Today we returned to the village to watch the winners receive their prize diplomas, amid great civic pomp and ceremony. Of course, we also bought many other stunning, hand-hammered copper pieces in Santa Clara. We always buy more than we had planned, because it is impossible to resist the timeless warmth of these pieces. In a thousand years, they will be as beautiful and elegant as they are today.

Be sure to check out the copper pieces available for sale on the Chiripa website. You'll find a range of pieces from inexpensive copper boxes to works by some of the maestros of the craft.

Still Unpacking

When a truck comes in we focus on getting the items unpacked, checked into the system, and put out for display. It will take us about a month to get all of it done. Something as simple as posting a few lines to a blog gets very hard to do!

I'll show you a few of the items that are new and only available in the shop (at this time). We are showing a new style of mirror that's very fun. It's painted metal and the top and bottom design elements are separate, but easy to assemble.


We have a few sizes of copper mirrors. This one that's long and skinny is already popular.


We also have new furniture with copper panels. This coffee table has cabinet doors on both sides and a pass-through shelf. On it and under it you can see some of the copper sinks we are carrying. None of this is on the website at this point, but, you can always call and order anything you see here. It's not very "shippable" but we got it here, so, it can probably get to you, too. Or, stop in at Chiripa to see the new things as they get put out for display.


On the smaller side, we have new jewelry pieces from Citlali in Mexico. One pair of earrings is on the website, but we have many more styles of earrings and pendants in the shop. As I have time, I'll put more up.