House & Garden Tour
By Jennifer Hamilton

House & Garden Tour
Sun, June 7, noon
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
US$15 or 150 pesos
Breakfast at Café Santa Ana starting at 9am

1.

Small in size but massive in color and personality, this home is an astounding place to see. One of the owners was brought up by parents who were folk art addicts, and he inherited this addiction at an early age. His family has a long history with the artisan families which he retains to this day with their descendants who continue their ancestors’ craftsmanship. The approximately 150 ancient dance masks on the wall in the living room were collected by his father, and the striking wooden Virgin with real thorns was one of the very first pieces he purchased as a child. As his wife explains it, she “married into the folk art obsession” and is as fanatical and erudite after many years together. It’s impossible to write about the plethora of folk art you are encountering upon entering this dollhouse-sized home. The country kitchen contains old pottery, corn cobs, glassware from Carretones (a one-time glass factory in Mexico City no longer in existence), and cazuelas (large earthenware cooking pots) in varying sizes under the table. The colorful dining room is filled with curanderas … healing pieces from Metapéc, and a spectacular rendition of the Last Supper. A TV room is also jam-packed with outstanding folk art, and the plaster molds are originals from master folk artisan Pedro Linares. The enormous cochucha (pot) in the center of the small round pool outdoors was, in days of old, used for storing water or corn. Perhaps in the small communities dotting the countryside, they are still used for this purpose, but, equally, they make fantastic adornos (decorations) for collectors and decorators. The owners spend a lot of their time traveling throughout Mexico to add to their own, and their store’s, extraordinary collection of dazzling folk art.



2.

This eclectic and colorful home was purchased a few decades ago and is surely one of the “hidden gems” behind the mysterious doors of San Miguel. The spacious living room with painted frames around the doors is filled now with almost unobtainable Mexican folk art and pottery, with gleaming dark wood doors and wood ceilings. Note the spider web interspersed into the mirror over the wood-burning fireplace. Two guest bedrooms, with a “secret” door leading from one to the next, face the street and a third guest bedroom with its glass walls and outstanding brass bed gives inhabitants the feeling of actually being in the garden. The pièce de résistance is the patio/garden itself. It is filled with every conceivable type of plant and tree in huge macetas (pots) which were purchased over 20 years ago and are almost impossible to find nowadays in such varied shapes, colors and sizes. A swan spouts water into the beautiful fountain. There is an abundance of colorful tilework throughout, most of which the owner designed herself. Part of the original house contains adobe walls 60 centimeters thick. The kitchen is filled with colorful Mexican pottery, much of it dating back many, many years and now only found in collectors' homes.

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