Taller Leñateros

This exhibit features artist books, posters and postcards produced by Taller Leñateros (The Woodlanders' Workshop) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, a cooperative Mayan artisan workshop that produces handmade paper, artist books, silkscreen and wood block prints, natural dyes and, by their own admission, magic spells. Founded in 1975 by the Mexican poet Ambar Past, Taller Leñateros is dedicated to promoting the continuation of ancient native traditions of dyeing and papermaking techniques, as well as preserving, supporting and disseminating Mayan and related popular culture and oral traditions.

In its 33 years, Taller Leñateros has produced several landmark books. Initially, the workshop focused on rescuing endangered traditions of natural dyes, passed down for centuries among the Maya, and almost completely replaced by synthetic aniline dyes. In 1980 one of the first publications of Taller Leñateros was Bon tintes naturales, an 80-page bilingual (Spanish/Tzotzil) instruction manual for creating natural dyes. Inexpensively offset-printed on newsprint, the book contained recipes, plant illustrations, poetry, charts and a fold-out map for locating supplies in San Cristóbal. This led to the creation of the Natural Dye School, a cooperative that has trained a new generation of teachers that led to the invention of many new dyes and spawned a resurgence of these traditions for ceremonial and commercial purposes. Other key publications include La jícara (The Gourd ), a literary, artistic and historical journal in the form of a rustic codex that includes translations from Mayan languages, testimonies and journals; a book of spells including recipes and incantations to live a long life and as well as hexes for the unfaithful man; and the hand-made book Mayan Hearts, a collection of metaphors used in Tzotzil, by anthropologist Robert M. Laughlin, Past, and printmaker Naul Ojeda.

The Latin American Library is pleased to present this exhibit of books and postcards from Taller Leñateros, recently purchased during a book-buying trip to Chiapas in July. They illustrate the harmony of medium and message: Each book is not only a document or text to be read but also a hand-made work of art forged from age-old Mayan traditions and thus a physical testament to the continuity of this knowledge in the present.