The Aguilar family of Ocotlán de Morelos are from a rural town in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. This town produced only utilitarian items until Isaura Alcantara Diaz began creating decorative figures with her husband Jesus Aguila Revilla. The couple taught their five daughters who continued innovating their own styles and then teaching the two generations after them. Two of the sisters, Guilliermina and Irene have been named “grand masters” by the Fomento Cultural Banamex, for their figures and sets of figures related to the life and traditions of Oaxaca, as well as Mexican icons such as Frida Kahlo and the Virgin of Guadalupe. The younger generations have made their own adaptations with some attaining their own recognition such as Lorenzo Demetrio García Aguilar and Jose Francisco Garcia Vazquez.
Isaura Alcantara Diaz
Isaura Alcantara Diaz (1924-1968) was the original innovator, who made pottery with her husband Jesus Aguila Revilla. Prior to this, the ceramics of Ocotlan de Morelos was limited to utilitarian items such as dishes and cookware. However, Isaura thought to make decorative human figures, with the husband began drawing on paper and she executed. These figures depict daily activities and other expression of rural village life in Oaxaca, with great detail and vivid colors. Women are generally shown in indigenous garb performing activities such as carrying items, nursing babies, selling in the market and participating in life celebrations. The decorative pieces with their colors and detail came into demand by Mexican folk art collectors including Nelson Rockefeller, who purchased dozens of these pieces in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these are not in the collections of the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Mexican Museum in San Francisco. Isaura died in 1969 at the age of forty four.
Second generation
The couple had four daughters Guillermina, Josefina, Irene and Concepcion, who began learning ceramics young as assistants to their mother. They learned their mother's new style, and as they became older adapted and expanded the repertoire to include images of Frida Kahlo, the Virgin of Guadalupe and even prostitutes. These innovations are due in part to the popularity of the pieces among international tourists, a number of which visit the sisters' studios. These women, in turn, have taught their children and even their grandchildren.
Guillermina and Irene Aguilar
The better known of the four are Guillermina and Irene Aguilar, who have received numerous award and were featured together in the book Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular Mexicano (2001) by the Fomento Cultural Banamex. Works by Guillermina and Irene Aguilar were also exhibited as part of the Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular de Oaxaca in 2012. The sisters create pieces that are painted with bright colors, completely unpainted or some combination of the two. These include various human figures, skeletal figures for Day of the Dead, candle holder, incense burners, angels and religious items. Both have similar methods for creating their works, using white, red and sand colored clays. Bodies of figures are made by first creating disks of clay, then folding them. After this is burnished, details are added such as faces, hands, etc. Sometimes they use molds but the final touches are always by hand and then use both natural and commercial enamel paints with commercial and handmade brushes.