OUR COLLECTION — LATIN AMERICA — MEXICO 52. TONALA CLAY NATIVITY
This clay Nativity contains 11 hand-painted pieces: Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus and his manger bed, two shepherds, two animals, and three wise men. The set was probably made sometime in the 1970s. The tallest wise man measures 3 inches tall.
The set is signed “J. Lucano Mexico” who is a member of the famous Lucanos of Tlaquepaque and Tonalá near Guadalajara. Some sets from the Tonalá area feature a devil figure from the Mexican custom to add a devil to the Nativity to remind us that evil is always present ... even at the birth of Jesus. The use of Satan comes from the days when the Spanish conquistadors used the fear of the devil to convert Mexico’s Mayan Indians to Christianity.
The set come from the state of Jalisco, where an old ceramic tradition—an inheritance from pre-Hispanic days—has led to the fame of the towns of Tonalá and Tlaquepaque for the production of Nativity figures. In Tonalá, pottery is still made using ancient traditions. On Sundays the town has a ritual to gather at the Tiangue to select the best chunks of clay from the local clay beds which hold many different types of mud ; red, black, white, beige. The clay is ground in a mill to a fine dust. It is then dampened and left to ferment and then mixed with water.
The set is signed “J. Lucano Mexico” who is a member of the famous Lucanos of Tlaquepaque and Tonalá near Guadalajara. Some sets from the Tonalá area feature a devil figure from the Mexican custom to add a devil to the Nativity to remind us that evil is always present ... even at the birth of Jesus. The use of Satan comes from the days when the Spanish conquistadors used the fear of the devil to convert Mexico’s Mayan Indians to Christianity.
The set come from the state of Jalisco, where an old ceramic tradition—an inheritance from pre-Hispanic days—has led to the fame of the towns of Tonalá and Tlaquepaque for the production of Nativity figures. In Tonalá, pottery is still made using ancient traditions. On Sundays the town has a ritual to gather at the Tiangue to select the best chunks of clay from the local clay beds which hold many different types of mud ; red, black, white, beige. The clay is ground in a mill to a fine dust. It is then dampened and left to ferment and then mixed with water.