Performing Craft in Mexico: Artisans, Aesthetics, and the Power of Translation

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-making—from the American “craft” to the Spanish “artesanía.” This book also homages Dr. Janet Brody Esser’s research on the Blackmen masquerades of Michoacán, 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.