CUENTOS Foundation .... Art Building Bridges.

Ritmo de Fuego/ Rhythm of Fire

The Coppersmithing Art & Artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre,

Michoacán, Mexico

A project of the heart, Ritmo de Fuego/ Rhythm of Fire is a book which documents and augments a traveling exhibition of the same name. The book forms a historical and human portrait of the unique coppersmithing community, el pueblo of Santa Clara del Cobre. Addressing essential questions about the transformation and endurance of culture this book is homage to the Santa Clara community, the countless project contributors and collaborators, and all Michoacános living in Mexico and in the USA.
Ritmo de Fuego Book Cover

Marion Oettinger, Director of the San Antonio Museum of Art writes that Ritmo del Fuego "..is a true tour d'force and should become the standard to which future research on Mexican craft must refer..."

This book has grown from seven years of collaborative work devoted to the Ritmo del Fuego project—essentially a project del corazón (of the heart). An interdisciplinary team of artisans, community members, and scholars has created an ongoing bi-national exchange to explore and document Santa Clara today, the relationship of its past to its present and to its future. In an effort to see the whole picture, a necklace of distinct perspectives has been strung together to examine its coppersmithing history, regional connections, calendar of festivals, and the stories, aspirations, and traditions of its artisans.

Santa Clara del Cobre, (also named Villa Escalante) is a mestizo, Spanish-speaking community of artisans located in the western central highlands of Michoacán, a region renowned for its metal-smithing mastery originating with its indigenous peoples as far back as 600 A.D. The material (copper) and process mark and record the complicated navigation of this region’s culture as it resiliently transforms through time.

Today the artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre synthesize pre-Columbian, Colonial, and modern-day methods to create hammered copper vessels whose physicality is transformed into symmetrically balanced forms of expressive tension and a poised sensuality. The community’s struggle, their history, their challenges, and their accomplishments speak about a process (of cultural transformation, migration, and exchange) taking place all over the world.