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Do you need to learn Spanish for Mexico travel or to visit Taxco? You'll want to learn Spanish with these Spanish lessons
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In 1929, William Spratling, Professor of Architecture at Tulane
University, locked up his home in the New Orleans French Quarter to
move to Taxco. He briskly transformed this mountainside paradise
into a mecca for literati and artists similar to Gertrude Stein’s
group in Paris. The Taxco coterie included the likes of Sherwood
Anderson, John Dos Passos, Georgia O’Keefe, Diego Rivera, and
William Faulkner, Spratling’s college roommate. Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, ranked high among the Taxco expats. Under his suggestion, Spratling laid down plans to introduce silver crafting to the town. Spratling hired a nearby goldsmith to move to Taxco in order to create silver jewelry of Spratling’s design. In the beginning, this former professor had to persuade townspeople that working silver into fine jewelry was a worthy task, for the locals found silver beneath their dignity in contrast to gold. Gradually, and happily, Spratling converted goldsmiths into silversmiths and built an enterprise that grew beyond all expectations. His apprentice system enabled students to open their own shops--all with Spratling’s support. |
And so goes the Taxco story . . .. Today, the town counts nearly
1,000 silver artisans and over 500 jewelry shops that sparkle with a
fabulous mixture of European, Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, and other
pre-Columbian designs, all crafted from .925 sterling. Taxco boasts
some of the best artisans in the world, many of whom studied under
Spratling.
Time has stood still for Taxco; yet Taxco has no time to stand
still. The quiet splendor that bathes the place and the endlessly
meandering cobblestone lanes disguise a bustling, bourgeois city.
Beneath the glowing, pure, white sheets that are really houses
hanging from a cliff, off-white little taxicabs tease tranquility
with the sputter of whining engines as they chug up and down
vertical streets and negotiate curves that are as steep as the
mountain. The tiny taxis are fueled by the world’s appetite for
silver. As the town scurries to fill that appetite, it produces, on
the average, 5 metric tons of jewelry every day.
On Sundays, the crafters pause to reflect at Santa Prisca. They
stand . . . Then, con gusto, they sing “Go Tell It on the
Mountain”, a launch of Sunday Services befitting a town that, from
its own ancestral mountain, is hammering out a story of workmanship
unrivalled in the world.
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The next time you step into Tiffany’s, Neiman Marcus, or Saks Fifth Avenue and browse the silver jewelry, rest assured that the finest pieces on display are from . . . that place on a Mexican mountain where the Nahuatl played ball. The Silver Mountain; 3126 W. Cary St., #149; Richmond, VA 23221 Tel. 754-3305 (Richmond) or 1-800-774-0475; Email: gnelsongln@msn.com Copyright, The Expansion Factor, Inc., 2001 |
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Learn Spanish with Spanish lessons you'll enjoy
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Plan Mexico Travel Books to Get You to Taxco
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