Aguilar family (Oaxacan potters)

This town produced only utilitarian items until Isaura Alcantara Diaz began creating decorative figures with her husband Jesus Aguila Revilla.

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.

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.

[2][3][4] The couple had four daughters Guillermina, Josefina, Irene and Concepcion, who began learning ceramics young as assistants to their mother.

[4] 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.

[4][2][5] 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.

[5] Works by Guillermina and Irene Aguilar were also exhibited as part of the Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular de Oaxaca in 2012.

However she also creates solitary female figures, which have made her known in the United States, principally of Frida Kahlo, women with calla lilies, musicians, devils, monks, prostitutes, Catrinas and mother earth images covered in foliage.

[5][2] Irene has participated in various exhibitions in various places in the United States such as Chicago, Houston, Arizona, Colorado, Dallas and New Mexico.

[5][3] Josefina creates male and female human figures which she called “muñecas” (dolls), following the style of her parents, in many kinds of activities, venues and dress.

He also creates “muñecas” and plaques, along with interpretations of religious, cultural and family themes, such as those related to the Garden of Eden and Day of the Dead.