Although many of the designs coming from today's Mata Ortiz artists are fairly contemporary in nature, the basic craft of building clay bowls and effigies remains remarkably similar to the methods and culture used by the people of Casas Grandes nearly a thousand years ago.   Mata Ortiz pottery is considered highly collectable and fine examples can be found in collections, museums and high-end galleries around the world. 

This region they called home, located in what is now the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, includes the rich, pre-Columbian archeological site known as Casas Grandes and designated a UNESCO (United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage site.  Casas Grandes, an archeological site open to the public,  was a vast, multi-storied city built from adobe and thought to serve in part as a trading hub for the early Pueblo people who migrated and moved between what is now Mexico, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. 

Today's Mata Ortiz artists dig their clay from the same land and deposits as their Paquimé ancestors did. Photo:  Jacom Stephens/istock. 

Casas Grandes, A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Considered one of the richest examples of Mesoamerican architecture and culture, Casas Grandes is estimated to have been initially settled around 1130 CE and abandoned by 1450.  Examples of the pottery and figure effigies built by the Paquimé within this period can be found on display in some of the finest museums in the world.   The village of Juan Mata Ortiz is located approximately twenty miles south of the Casas Grandes site and, with the pottery built by the Paquimé considered highly valuable and used for trade among other tribes, it is not surprising that the pottery made its way along trade routes to the hills and valleys that surround Mata Ortiz. 

Casas Grandes Pot.  Photo courtesy of Stanford University

In the years that followed, Juan trained many family members and Mata Ortiz residents in the techniques and, today, some four hundred artists in Mata Ortiz are carrying on the tradition. The pottery of Mata Ortiz is still crafted from locally dug clay and built using the coil method.  Many of the artists continue the traditional means of firing their pots using cow dung and cottonwood bark and a few continue to source and create their paints and tints using indigenous materials found within the valley. For intricate design work that requires tiny "points" of paint, many of the artists continue to create their own paint brushes using human (often children's) hair tied onto sticks. 

To fully understand and appreciate the richness of Mata Ortiz pottery, you must understand the history, peoples and culture that it sprang from.  Nearly a thousand years before there was a border between Mexico and the United States - or even countries that went by those names - the indigenous peoples of Paquimé crafted fine painted pottery from the clays and minerals unique to their land. 

Each pottery piece is still crafted by hand using the coil method.  Photo: D. Huss/istock 

 Photo:  Fotolia/TREWheeler

As a boy, Juan Quezada discovered a small burial cache of Casas Grandes pottery while investigating a cave above his home in Mata Ortiz.  Intrigued by the designs and quality of the pieces, Quezada determined that the Paquimé must have used the same clays and materials still found in the valley and he devoted many years to recreating the building techniques used by his ancestors.  Many years later Juan's work was discovered in New Mexico by American anthropologist Spencer MacCallum who was so intrigued by Juan's work and his skill in recreating the techniques of the Casas Grandes period that he traveled to Mata Ortiz to find Juan and to support his continued exploration of the ancient pottery traditions.