Taller Lenateros: The Woodlanders’ Workshop

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We are the woodlanders who walk in the hills gathering dry branches and deadwood from fallen trees, collecting firewood without chopping down the forest. We come down from the mountains, carrying bundles of wood, of pitchpine and split encino, for the hearths of the Royal City of San Cristobal de Las Casas. We walk through the mist, leading our burros, selling firewood from house to house. We knock on people ’ s doors, offering pine needles as well, to spread on the floor, moss, flowers of bromeliads and orchids for manger scenes.

Thirty years ago we rented an old adobe house in San Cristobal and we planted a little avocado tree in the patio. The sprout took root and grew and now it’s as tall as the tree where the Moon showed the first Motherfathers how to weave. The house shrank under the shadow of the leaves and filled up with dreams and we called it a «Workshop,» first «of Dreams»and then «Woodlanders’» Something between theatre and witchcraft.

Our silkscreen alchemists work from Sun to Sun, from Moon to Moon, transforming natural light into bougainvillea-color images. We cut, fold, sew, glue, bind and wrap. We publish a literary magazine, a rustic codex known as La jicara, «The Gourd», which includes translations from Native languages, testimonies, foreigners’ journals, xylography, petroglyphs and odd things. And a book of spells including one «To Live Many Years» from the book  Incantations By Mayan Women. Conjure-women sing at the foot of the avocado tree.

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