Santa Clara de Cobre :: Copper Artisans in Mexico

Patzcuaro, Uruapan and St. Clara de Cobre. 

For a weekend excursion by car from Mexico City, follow the toll road west from 

La Capital towards to Toluca and Morelia to the towns of Uruapan, Patzcuaro and the magical artisan community St. Clara de Cobre.  

Lago de Patzcuaro is a volcanic lake and home to the early indigenous tribe that worked copper, said to be the only copper artisans in Central America. 

They used copper for their hatchets and other weapons as well as to make containers.  

Recommended buildings for visitors to visit in Patzcuaro include Casa de los Once Patios (House of the Eleven Patios), Biblioteca Gertrudis Bocanegra with the celebrated murals bv Juan O'Gorman and the Basilica.

The market area includes House of Eleven patios offers souvenir goods, however a few shops tucked away off the main walking route, do sell authentic hand-woven cotton cloth, copper containers and decorative creations, placemats, and inlaid wooden items.  

Survey the entire shopping area before buying, not to search for better prices, but unusual items or better quality work and design.

Tzintzuntzan is the meso-American archeological site above the town, the area of the Chichimecas tribes. Bring along a guidebook for historical perspective. In the town of Tzintzuntzan, the Franciscan Monastery grounds were planted by the Spanish monks with olive trees that are still growing there fine hundred and ten years later.  

In Uruapan, to the northwest of Park Eduard Ruiz which lies in a deep ravine, there’s a liquor store (address: 87C Pino Suares)  an outlet for the liquor factory, located outside of town.  They sell sugar cane liquor (aka rum or charanda), in various flavors.  Charanda Dorada el Terasco is a favorite. 

I bought coffee flavored liquor, remembering my student days in Toronto, when we would make the delicious potion at home with raw alcohol (Ever-Clear) and thick coffee syrup made with excessive doses of powdered espresso coffee concentrate.  You were supposed to let it cure for a few weeks, but I always seemed to crack open the bottle early.  Four months after buying this Mexican coffee liquor, it is still sealed.

In the copper shops in the village of Santa Clara de Cobre, you can watch artisans at work.  The fierce banging of mallets and shaping tools on the dense copper shapes could be a drawback for visitors, so bring ear plugs if noise bothers you.  This town is famous for the traditional artisans who work in copper. The nearby Copper Museum displays metal working tools set up and ready for use.

Ask to see the obsidian ornaments.  Copper bells and smaller objects are for sale.  The bells look a little like castanets and are similar to bells attached to grazing animals.  Oval in shape, with clapper covered by two oval sides.

Where to Stay: In Patzcuaro, the Hotel Posada Don Vasco, Best Western Hotel with pool, restaurant and attractive grounds.  Single room rates vary depending on the peso-dollar exchange rate.  Rooms numbers 501 to 507 have balconies overlooking gardens.  

Congressional Cemetery

 

Free Press? Dead Press:: Mexico's Dead Journalists

Mexico and the Free Press

Traditional media in Mexico practiced “press release journalism” in which reporters chronicle government announcements and activities based on information offered by the government.  Independent investigation was rare.  Some newspapers even treated the government issued press releases as advertisements, accepting payment for running the announcements. Still, there were journalists who were skeptical or posed investigative questions.  Yet regimes in control would deny access or control sources through intimidation or lack of response.

“In late 1990’s, the journalists often drew distinctions between government’s willingness to tolerate criticism, its willingness to furnish media with information that should reasonably be considered public.”  P. 38  Cantrell

Journalism in Mexico dates to 1722 when newspapers appeared, though scribes and writers have been chronicling daily life in Mexico since the arrival of the Conquistadores. For writers in Mexico, periods of repression alternated with periods of growth and access to information. Freedom to publish depended on the whim of government.

Today, a vigorous number of newspapers serves the reading public, but content can be anemic, partisanship obvious.  Though there are a few investigative papers pursuing active journalism, papers like La Jornada and Reforma. 

Until recently, reporters relied on government issued press releases for story sources and publishers bowed to official mandates on newspaper content.  A newspaper owner may be free to publish, but the content was controlled by the government. 

During the early decades of the 20^th century, when the stated goals of the Mexican Revolution -- free public education, land reform and labor laws  -- signaled a wave of democracy in Mexico, newspaper editors who dared challenge the motives or actions of the leaders could be jailed or their presses shut down.  

Government tactics to control editors and journalists have changed during the 20^th century. In the past an editor might be muzzled and jailed, but by the final decades of the 20^th century, the editor or writer would likely lie bleeding or dead in the street for daring to identify corrupt officials or sponsor investigative reporting.

For example, back in 1925 and 1929, Don Silvestre Terrazas, a newspaper publisher in northern Mexico, was imprisoned and his presses padlocked.  He was charged with inciting rebellion or attacking public order.  Yet during the revolution, this Chihuahua native son of one of the powerful northern families had served as liaison between Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza, leaders of the insurgent armies in the north.  Don Silvestre had provided arms and ammunition to the revolutionaries, but when his newspaper El Correo de Chihuahua criticized the new government, his allegiances were nullified and his press padlocked.  (p. 87-88, Mexico: Ancient and Modern) 

By mid-20^th century, corruption and subtle pressures were effective in controlling the media.  Journalists are informed of the ‘rules’ for maintaining presidential image and  advised in advance what issues could be addressed.  Papers that didn’t comply would suffer declines in advertising orders. Newspaper owners would dismiss a reporter who didn’t follow the ‘rules’ rather than suffer loss of financial support from the government advertising revenues. (p. 40, Lawson)  

Direct threats to journalists ensued. “…(R)elatively mild punishments were usually sufficient to drive independent media into compliance or out of business. … Organized official repression was seldom necessary.” While the last few years have seen a slacking of the “la mano dura”  (the iron hand), corrupt officials who feared exposure by emerging independent media had turned to violent repression.  Especially during the 1980’s, 60 journalists were murdered between 1980 and 1996. In 1986, Mexico claimed the dubious fame of the highest rate of journalists murdered in world. (p. 45 - 46 Lawson)

Though the violence, kidnapping and intimidation continues, the last ten years have brought improvements in access to information and protection from retaliation by corrupt officials. The emergence of international human rights organizations and vocal advocates for journalists focuses global attention on the perils of being a journalist in Mexico. Journalists in Mexico still practice their profession hampered by restrictive libel laws that carry jail terms and heavy fines.  Officials continue to be reluctant to submit to transparency laws and there’s a continuing attitude of opposition to investigative reporting.

www.article19.org   - Article 19 The Global Campaign for Free Expression

www.cidh.org   -  OAS, Freedom of Expression, Annual Report 2002 

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB68/  - National Security Archive

www.ijet.org  -  Knight International Press Fellowships

http://www.pulso.org - Pulso de Periodismo

http://www.internews.org/ - Manuel Buendia Foundation

http://us.politinfo.com

http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/period/pubmexnews.html - Mexico News Seminar

www.sipiapa.org  -  Inter American Press Association (IAPA)

www.rsf.org  -  Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontieres


www.cpj.org   - Committee to Protect Journalists

www.cipe.org/pfc  - Journalists Against Corruption

www.editorandpublisher.com   - Editor and Publisher Magazine

Columbia Journalism Review, NY, Jan-Feb, 1997, "A Freer Press Scares the
Government," Joel Simon

Toward Freedom Magazine, Dec. 98-Jan 99, “Killing the Messengers,” Ron Chepesiuk  www.towardfreedom.com

The Media Crisis…A Continuing Challenge, World Press Freedom Committee,
www.wpfc.org  World Press Freedom Committee


Lawson, Chappell, Building the Fourth Estate: Democratization and Media Opening in Mexico, Univ. of California Press, 2002

Morris, Stephen D., Corruption and Politics in Contemporary Mexico, 
Univ. of Alabama Press, 1991

Mexico: Ancient and Modern, An exhibition celebrating the acquisition of the Silvestre Terrazas Collection, Friends of the Bancroft Library/U of Cal Berkeley, 1962