Amate: from banned to beloved Mexican folk art

"Nowhere was the cord between man and spirit 

more tightly bound than in the making of amatl,  

the sacred paper of the pre-Hispanic peoples.” 

— Rita Pomade,  

“Amate Art of Mexico - (Where the Secular Meets the Sacred)"

 

Making amate

The cord was almost broken and might have been destroyed and lost forever if it hadn’t been for the Otomi peoples of Puebla.

Imagine a current industry, central to the well-being of all people. Paper for instance.

Imagine your life without paper, even in this day of electronics. Imagine a foreign power coming in and banning the production of paper, all paper ... no Bibles, no textbooks, no magazines or newspapers, no photographs, art prints, posters about coming events, or even business cards. 

That’s what began in the 1500s when Spanish conquistadors and priests decided that amatl … bark paper … was the work of the devil. We know they destroyed almost all of the codices, folded paper books, but they also destroyed the paper-making process and the foundation of the Maya and Nahua information systems. Thousands of years of knowledge and wisdom disappeared and only bits and pieces have now been put back together.