The cemetery of the ancient village of Xochiaca, swallowed by Mexico City’s urban sprawl decades ago, reverberates with hammers and chisels hitting stones most Sundays.
It is the sound of the stone carvers known as the Chimalhuakan Autonomous Region. They continue to pursue crafts that have been passed down through generations, even after local sources of quarry stone have dried up.
The village cemetery is filled with statues of saints as tall as gardens and the unity of people using chisels to create wreaths and flowers out of stone blocks.
Generations of stone carvers in Chimalhuacán, on the far eastern side of Mexico City, have also created much of the stonework that adorns the buildings and parks of the capital’s downtown.
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Carvers in other areas long ago relied on mechanical cutters and grinders, but artisans here use only hammers, mallets and various chisels and gouges.
Many are self-taught, but others, like Tomas Ugarte, 86, go back about five generations and learn in a traditional way passed down from their fathers and grandfathers.
These days, this group is skewed toward the elderly. About 600 stone carvers were registered a decade ago, but now there are probably only about 300, said Carolina Montesinos Mendoza, director of the Mexican state office that supports craftsmen. Sculptors are dying out and their children are generally unwilling to do this work.
Master stone quarry Tomas Ugarte carves a quarry in the cemetery of Chilmalhuacan, Mexico City Autonomous Region, once the ancient village of Xochiaca, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Aurea del Rosario)
The Sochiaca are now lost in a labyrinth of streets, but they keep their old traditions alive. Many residents use stone mortars and pestles made by stone carvers. Known as “molcajetes” in Spanish, these bowl-like grinders are the basic tools for making salsa.
“They are the backbone of the community,” said Reverend Alberto Sandoval, who has known them since 1990 when he was a parish priest in Sochiaca.
Most sculptors have private workshops at home and earn some income. His sculptures sell for prices from $500 to $2,000, but they often don’t sell very well.
Unlike many artisans who hope their work will be exhibited in museums, the sculptors here create and maintain sculptures for free to decorate the local cemetery. Among them are his imposing six-meter-tall stone statue of Christ and European-style carvings of his 12 apostles.
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They also work, free of charge, to decorate and maintain the masonry of Santa Maria de Guadalupe, a 250-year-old parish church. They made altar screens, columns, and ten-foot-tall statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
One of the earliest signs of the work of our predecessors is a carved stone on the floor of the churchyard with the inscription “Sociaca, Home of the Stone Sculptors”. No date.
But this refers to a time when the lakes that once covered most of the valley still washed up on Sotiaca’s shores. The builders came looking for the sculpture and had it transported by barge over the lake to Mexico City.
Juan Alfaro Bastidas, 75, is a sculptor, like his father and grandfather. He recalls entering the quarry by candlelight to obtain stone blocks.
But the quarry is now just a memory.
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Most of the land they stood on was sold and used for housing. Some of the newcomers considered it quaint and used the quarry sides as walls for their homes.
Carvers now truck stones north and west from other states, sometimes from the far south Yucatan state.
They are supported to some extent by donations from local governments and local residents.
“Neighbors helped us with donations of $6 to $12. People in town buy the stones,” Bastidas said.
Asked if the trade would survive, sculptor Mario Olivarez read a poem carved on the walls of the church by craftsmen. “Your art, traditions, culture and the nobility of your people keep the spirit of this city alive.”
