Albertina López’s fingers transformed the chunk of grey clay first into a generic creature, then a recognizable bird, then a fully evolved dove. She worked rapidly, pinching, twisting and smoothing. All the while she described how the women of the group that she heads are using credit to increase production and earnings.

Then she formed the dove’s eyes, two circles pressed into the cold clay. She placed the little creature with the other members of its flock. After firing, the pieces would be stored in a neighboring building, along with pots and other wares. But the doves were clearly the stars. There were scores of them, lined up according to size, some tiny with little holes in their backs so they could be used as salt shakers, and others so massive that, if they were real birds, they could feed a large family.

It all started when a buyer, who recognized that the women of  Amatenango had a vocation for pottery, could fill orders for a design that was enjoying brisk sales among tourists. And so the women began making doves, thousands of them, to the point where, López admits, there is a problem of overpopulation.

“We are producing so many doves that the market has fallen a little,” she said.

Her group of 25 women is affiliated with Grameen Chiapas, a microcredit organization based in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas (see link at right,  “A quiet revolution in Chiapas”). They obtain loans in amounts averaging a few hundred dollars to obtain and transport clay from two separate deposits. One deposit yields red clay, and the other grey. They temper the clay with sand to ensure that the formed pot or figurine will withstand the abrupt temperature changes during the firing process.

The women also use their loans to pay for the wood they use to build open-air ovens for firing their wares. A technology that dates back millennia, it gives good results under practiced hands.

López and the other women direct their creative energies to producing objects that they think will appeal to tourists. Sometimes ideas for designs just come out of her imagination, said López, such as her latest creation, a ceramic basket with roses. But she also seeks inspiration from the pictures of plates and vases that appear in magazines.

Few tourists ever see the pieces that truly define these women’s links with their artistic and cultural heritage. López opened the door of a side building, first exposing an elaborately provisioned altar created to commemorate the Day of the Dead. Then she led the way to a group of great pots lined up against the adobe wall. While unadorned, their graceful lines reflected their noble function. These, she said, are used for cooking tamales and other traditional foods for special ceremonies, each pot shaped to accommodate a different food.

At the same time the women used their skills as artisans to help preserve their cultural identity, they also showed themselves eager to adapt to commercial realities, including participation in a microfinance program that linked them with other groups and institutions throughout Chiapas and beyond.