AMOZOC, Mexico (RNS) — It’s known as the town of the Nativities, or los nacimientos. For more than a century, Amozoc, in central Mexico, has been the home of craftsmen skilled in creating religious figurines, who have passed their skills down through generations.
José Luis Ramírez checks on the small retail section of his workshop. While sales of Nativity sets make up much of his business, the best-selling pieces are still figures of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast comes two weeks before Christmas. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
But the industry has undergone tremendous change in the past decade, due to competition from Asian imports and the increased cost of materials. Out of the roughly 600 families that once produced Christian figurines in Amozoc, only 200 families remain.
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- José Luis Ramírez mixes plaster at his family workshop. He learned his family’s craft, practiced over four generations, as a child. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Luz Ramírez paints the hand of a life-size Magi statue at the family’s Amozoc workshop in central Mexico. The thousands of religious figures made each year are hand-painted. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Luz Flores said that the September 2017 earthquake that hit the state of Puebla dramatically hurt Amozoc artisans. Many figures and materials were lost, the final blow for family-run businesses already suffering from lower sales in recent years. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
José Luis Ramírez, a fourth-generation artisan in Amozoc, is among those who have seen the landscape change rapidly in the past decade. Sales at his family’s workshop have fallen by 40 percent over the past three years. Ramírez blames competition from figurine factories abroad that produce work that is of inferior quality but less expensive.
The Ramírez family is one of only 200 families of artisans continuing to work in Amozoc. Roughly 400 families closed their workshops in the last decade as markets shifted and sales dropped for Mexican artisans. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
Amozoc’s artisans make their molds by hand and cast in small batches, then hand-paint their figures. Decades ago, the Mexican industry sold to the worldwide market, but today the industry’s best customers tend to be smaller merchants and Mexicans who prefer to buy local, high-quality work.
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- An Amozoc vendor wraps a religious statue in her shop. Products vary in size from small figurines less than an inch long up to 6-foot-tall statues. Prices can range from a few dollars to more than $600. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Religious items produced in Asia can be purchased at many markets across Mexico City for very low prices. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- José Luis Ramírez says Mexico requires him to use special packaging and lead-free paint and follow customs procedures, all of which gives his foreign competition an additional advantage. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Some markets, like this one near the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, sell only handmade Mexican religious crafts. The competition from Asian producers is still overwhelming for the Mexican industry. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Sales have dropped year after year for Amocoz artisans. Most vendors blame the “Asian invasion” of inexpensive, low-quality imitations from Asian countries for their woes. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- A visitor to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe carries a souvenir figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
In the middle of the holiday season, the town of the Nativities is doing brisk business, filling locals with hope that their livelihood will survive. But it might just take a Christmas miracle.
The town of Amozoc, located in the state of Puebla in central Mexico, is filled with religious imagery. The “town of the Nativities” has been home to Mexico’s religious figurine industry for more than 100 years, but local artisans are finding it hard to continue. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
