Pottery & Ceramics

On this page we are assembling materials that might be useful for developing curricula around the theme of Mesoamerican ceramics/pottery today or across history.

Here is a link to a PowerPoint presentation about an object-based inquiry with a focus on a pre-Columbian figurine, intended for use in the classroom (by Stephanie Wood.)

Caption: Oaxacan Ceramic Figurines by Deb Strother
Oaxacan ceramic figurines in the home of Angélica Vásquez
(Photo by Deb Strother, 2010)

Pottery Production, Early 20th Century

Mass production, ca. 1930s or 40s. Somewhere in Oaxaca.
Unknown photographer. Slide in WHP collections.

Mass production, ca. 1930s or 40s. Somewhere in Oaxaca.
Unknown photographer. Slide in WHP collections.


Indigenous woman making a bowl. Somewhere in Oaxaca. ca. 1930s or 40s.
Photographer unknown. Slide in WHP collections.

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Bowl completed. Somewhere in Oaxaca. ca. 1930s or 40s.
Photographer unknown. Slide in WHP collections.

Couple decorating ceramics.
Somewhere in the state of Oaxaca, ca. 1930s or 1940s.

Potter at work with a make-shift wheel.

Hauling pots to market.

Pots for sale?

Braziers, jugs, and bowls for sale.

Another way of carrying large pots, reminiscent of the tameme

(from the Nahuatl, tlamama) human carrier.

Curricula from Previous Institutes

If you would like to use (or adapt) one of these curricular units for teaching about pottery (in Spanish or as an art lesson, for example), please feel free to choose from the materials provided below. Please credit the teacher who made the unit and the photographers providing their still images and videos here. We could probably connect you to Angélica Vásquez, with whom Deborah Strother worked in 2010 (and on subsequent visits); let us know, if that is the case.

Copyright Free Photos for Instructional Use

  • Stills by Deb Strother of Potter Angélica Vásquez of Atzompa: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
  • Stills by Nicole Caracciolo shot in San Marcos Tlapazola: 1, 2, 3
  • Stills by Stephanie Wood from San Marcos Tlapazola: 1, 2

Copyright Free Video for Instructional Use

  • Video Clips by Nicole Caracciolo, shot in San Marcos Tlapazola
  • Documentary on folk art with some attention to the potters of Atzompa
  • Pottery Workers of Oaxaca,” by Ralph Adams (1952), an online video in two parts, including a focus on San Bartolo Coyotepec (one could have students take a critical look at the way this material is presented in that period)
  • Mexican Ceramics,” by Reino Randall and Richard Townsend (1966), an online video that includes a look at ceramics in San Bartolo Coyotepec and other places in other states within the republic of Mexico

Additional Resources

Please visit our web pages about excursions to Atzompa and Tlapazola.

Atzompa is a Mixtec town famous for its ancient green-glazed pottery. It is also known for its innovative women potters, such as Angélica Vásquez and Dolores Porras.


Piece by Angélica Vásquez. (S. Wood, 2008)


Pieces by Dolores Porras. (S. Wood, 2008)

The women potters of Tlapazola also have something of a reputation.

San Bartolo Coyotepec, a two-thousand-year-old Zapotec pottery community is a worthwhile destination you might wish to visit on your own one weekend. Especially famous is the workshop of the late Doña Rosa, where they sometimes have demonstrations of the shiny black technique and the cutout patterns of the pottery here.