Performing Craft in Mexico

This book examines how Mexican artisans and artistic actors participate in translations of aesthetics, politics, and history through the field of craft. The contributors build from historical and ethnographic archives and direct engagement with makers to reassemble an expanded vision of artisanal production in Mexico and the complicated classifications that surround Mexican popular art-makingfrom the American craft to the Spanish artesana. This book also homages Dr. Janet Brody Essers research on the Blackmen masquerades of Michoacn, exploring African culture in Mexico. The contributors provide wide-ranging insight into the colonial influences on Mexican popular art and its translation as well as the agency of creators and actors.