Reconstructing a Miracle: New Perspectives on Mata Ortiz Pottery Making
Reconstructing a Miracle: New Perspectives on Mata Ortiz Pottery Making JIM HILLS Memory is life, borne by living societies founded in its name. History, on the other hand, is the reconstruction, always prob- lematic and incomplete. —Pierre Nora, Realms of Memory (Les lieux des mémoires) This paper is an exploration into memory and history, and into how certain stories have evolved while a larger chorus of voices—those that permeated the kitchens, streets, and fields of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua—have been lost over the past forty years. The project didn’t start out this way. It began in 2001, when Mata Ortiz collector Dr. Richard O’Connor suggested that I write an article on the traders of Mata Ortiz. Since I was an early trader in the village, having arrived in May 1978, I thought it was a great idea. We immediately set down on paper the names of the traders we could think of to interview: we came up with a list of twenty individuals and believed we remembered most of the relevant people. Ten years later, I have iden- tified more than 120 traders and other significant visitors to the village, and the list continues to grow (see appendix). As I began the interview process, first with traders, then with collectors and aficionados of Mata Ortiz pottery, my files quickly expanded. Today, I have collected research data and conducted interviews with more than one hundred individuals on both sides of the border, including collectors, buyers, traders, potters and their family members (including wives, ex-wives, daughters, and sons), and friends of important potters who have died.
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