"Mexican bark painting is a folk art in which artists use bright colors to paint scenes of everyday village life, colorful birds, flowers and other animals on paper made from bark. The art form is also used to illustrate scenes from traditional fables and stories."

YOU ARE VIEWING AN ITEM THAT SHOWCASING THE ANCIENT ART OF AMATE CREATED BY THE MAYA & AZTEC CIVILIZATIONS. 

Nowhere was the cord between man and spirit more tightly bound than in the making of amatl, the sacred paper of the pre-Hispanic peoples. This paper was so important to the spiritual needs of the community, that in spite of intense repressive measures by the Spaniards, it has continued to survive and is still used to connect the unseen world with the seen. In the mid-1900s amatl underwent a rebirth which re-vitalized the relationship between the indigenous people and their ancient paper. Remarkably, even though the application is new, it is so related to its use of old that one feels an unbroken thread.

Paper was sacred to both the Mayans and the Aztecs. It was the medium on which their history and discoveries were chronicled. It kept their records of trade and tributes. It filled their libraries with documents for future generation to witness. And of no less importance, it was used in every religious ceremony as an intermediary between the people and the gods.

Records show that in 1507, when Moctezuma had to prepare for the New Fire Ceremony, a ritual of renewed life that took place every 52 years, he ordered a million sheets of amatl to be delivered to Tenochtitlan to insure that the ceremony would be successful and to avoid the wrath of the gods. The finest and whitest paper was set aside for writers and painters, for chronicling events, and for placating the gods. Once these needs were met, the remaining paper was given to the people for their personal use in rituals.

By the time Cortes arrived on the shores of Mesoamerica, there were at least forty-two papermaking centers, and they were producing almost half a million sheets of paper per year for use in tribute alone. The main papermaking centers were in the areas of what is now Veracruz, Morelos, Guerrero, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Oaxaca.

The town priests weren't happy with the sacred reverence in which the native population held their amatl. They saw the manipulation of the paper in religious ceremonies as a form of idolatry. They prohibited the art of papermaking, and the papermakers were brought to trial. Even as late as 1889 persecution against the Otomi people of Hidalgo for papermaking was recorded. Shortly after, the traditional process of making amatl, the Nahuatl word for paper, which has come down to us as amate, was thought to have become extinct.

In 1901, an anthropologist named Frederick Starr headed an expedition into some remote regions of Mexico to record Indian customs and practices. It was during one of his excursions that he learned that the craft of papermaking had survived and was being made in the Otomi village of San Pablito, Hidalgo.

The Otomis still prepared the paper from the bark of the ficus and the bark of the mulberry tree - brown paper from the ficus and white paper from the mulberry - just as they had done in pre-Columbian times. The process had remained in tact through the centuries. And in spite of the dangers involved, these people had continued their rituals dedicated to fertility, successful crops, and curing disease.

By the 1940s and 1950s, the traditional papermaking techniques were starting to die out naturally. Then in the 1960s, amate was re-discovered. A new Nahua art form was starting to develop in the Balsas River basin in Guerrero.

Artisans of this region, who had once only decorated their pottery, were now putting their colorful paintings on this unique paper. Ameyaltepec, a small village in the state of Guerrero, produced charming pottery painted in earth-reds which they decorated with mythical fauna and flora. In the early 1960s Max Kerlow, a folk arts dealer tired of broken pots being delivered over the mountains, introduced to the craftsmen of Ameyaltepec the idea of using amate for their painting instead of pottery. The artisan of this remote village along with those from San Agustin Oapan and Xalitla - all within walking distance from one another - started to not only work on amate but to expand their repertoire to include religious festivals and scenes of village life. They used mostly natural colors and dyes and painted with animal hair and plant fiber brushes.

Tourists in the area picked-up on the work and the popularity continued to grow through the 1970s. Although the work in the beginning was of varying quality, artists of a higher caliber eventually started to emerge who gave a more personal interpretation to their painting. Some of these artisans were now starting to sign their amate which had started to take on personal styles.

With the success of the Nahua painters, the Otomis now had an industry outside their small community. By 1974, they were producing 50,000 and 60,000 pesos worth of paper that was used for Nahua paintings. They even named a saint known as San Jonote, or Saint Bark Paper Fiber in honor of this turn around in their lives. Not only did the Otomis prosper, but there was a renewed interest in amate throughout the country.

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