“A Woman Is Always Earth”: The Ceramic Art and Spirit of Rufina Ruiz López
Photo courtesy of Rufina Ruiz López
“I am a woman of the earth.”
Rufina Ruiz López spoke with unassuming strength, her gleaming black braids threaded with pink ribbon. The clay calavera skull she had sculpted bounced gently on her knee, her fingers wandering the hollows of its black eyes.
It was the third day of the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, spotlighting Indigenous Voices of the Americas. López (Zapotec/Mixtec) sat in the center of the Narrative Stage, joined by fellow Oaxacan artisans Macrina Mateo Martinez and Carina Citlalli Ramírez Juárez. To open the conversation, each presented a sample of their work to the audience. López offered her calavera, along with a glimpse into the piece’s layered significance.
“Making calaveras was a way to honor the women of my community who fell,” López explained, referencing gender-based violence. “I go about the world always speaking of women.”
Photo by Grace Bowie, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Two days later, we pulled two stools onto the dirt and sat beside each other under the heavy heat, surrounded by the swirling chatter of festivalgoers. The morning had just begun, but visitors were already pooling under the Zapotec Ceramics tent to admire her handmade wares and the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) style altar set up behind them.
“It’s a biodiversity of knowledge,” López said in Spanish, gesturing to the Festival hum around us. The last few days had introduced her to many inspiring techniques and clay traditions, but, above all, she reflected, they had been a welcome window of insight into new cultures.
This love for continued learning has been the driving force of her artistic career. López comes from Santa María Atzompa, a small town cradled between the rolling hills of the Oaxaca Valley of southern Mexico with a rich clay tradition dating back over 3,000 years. She has supplemented her ancestral knowledge of ceramics with twelve years of study at the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, an ecological arts center in Oaxaca committed to artistic training and environmental protection. Today, her distinct style reflects a soulful dialogue between these traditional and contemporary influences. Aside from decorative items like calaveras, her workshop creates functional pieces like plates, bowls, and vases for clientele across Oaxaca and beyond.
Much of daily life in Santa María Atzompa is upheld by the hands of women, López said. Yet despite all they provide, many live restricted lives. Only a generation ago, women were not allowed to sell or display their ceramics in public spaces. In López’s case, things were different.
“My mother showed me a different path,” she explained. “She taught me what courage looks like. Because of her, I live in a different vision—a different way of relating to femininity.” She recalled how traditional gender roles were more flexible in her home, with household responsibilities like cooking and cleaning shared among the men and women in her family.
“The most important challenge we face is ourselves,” she continued. “You have to let go of your fears in order to break through obstacles. It’s always difficult but never impossible.”
Throughout her forty-five-year career, López has connected with artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. She soon realized the limitations felt by women in her own community were universal.
“It’s like my mother used to say,” she remembered. “A woman is the humblest being who exists in the land.”
Some might mistake this for passivity, but I sensed the duality in her words. Sitting beside each other, I couldn’t help but be moved by the power of this same humility. She is strong, sure, and kind.
Read the full story, published October 4 2024, on Smithsonian Folklife.
