San Pablito, Puebla

Originally, it was made only by the area's shamans for ritual purpose but today commercial production is mostly done by the town's women and children as many men have left to work in the United States.San Pablito is one of the towns belonging to the Pahuatlán municipality, located in the Sierra Norte region of the state of Puebla in eastern Mexico.[1] The Otomi name for the town is Bité or Nvite, which means “at the bottom of the hill.”[6] Traditional dress for women consists of a skirt decorated with stripes and a cotton blouse with short sleeves and a square neckline which is embroidered in bright colors.A heavier shirt in black or blue with white stripes may be worn over this along with an ixtle fiber bag and huarache sandals.[4] These grow in the area's hot, wet climate, strongly affected by warm air masses coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.[4] The production of amate paper has been commercially successful, with sales mostly outside the Sierra Norte region, which has given the town economic and political clout up to the state and federal levels.[9] Despite the commercial success of the town's crafts, many men, mostly of the younger generations, migrate out of the area, generally to North Carolina in the United States at least temporarily to work.The Otomi are thought to have migrated here from the Toluca Valley starting around 800 CE, pushed out by other groups, including the Nahuas, over the centuries.The Otomi of the area resisted evangelization strongly and have kept a large number of indigenous beliefs to this day, especially the use of paper for ceremonies.The first attempt by an Otomi to gain a municipal political seat was in 1998, but the ruling mestizo class managed to have this candidate lose by only twenty votes.[16] Despite the success of amate paper for San Pablito, many of the men here migrate to find work at least temporarily, a trend that began in the 1980s.While they venerate Catholic figures such as Saint Paul and the Virgin of Guadalupe, they also pay homage to deities of the mountains, sun, moon, water, fire and earth.There is significant animism in the sense that entities such as mountains, seeds, fresh water springs and other objects of nature have life force.The second is considered to be spiritual in nature and cured by shamanic rituals to get rid of bad spirits and/or create harmony between the sick person and the universe.[5] One hallmark of Otomi magical practices is the use of paper cut into forms, along with more common elements such as offerings of food and tobacco.[31][32] However, its recognition as an important craft came when it became tied to paintings done by the Nahuas from the state of Guerrero, who adopted styles from their ceramics to the new medium.[28][33] Then the federal government intervened, mostly through FONART, at first to promote the craft internationally at the 1968 Olympic Games and later as the main buyer of the paper to keep Nahua painters supplied.[33][35] New products include envelopes, bookmarks, cutout figures, and booklets, as well as sheets in a variety of colors, textures and sizes up to 1.20 by 2.40 meters.In addition to traditional Nahua customers, amate paper is now sold to industries who use it to produce other end products such as lampshades, furniture covers, wallpaper and parquet flooring.[1] The success of amate paper commercialization has caused the population here to forego most other economic activities such as agriculture and even other handcrafts such as pottery and weaving.The first consists of households of up to five members, with production varying greatly during the year depending on other economic activities and/or means to produce the paper.Some artisans have experimented with sizes, shapes, and elaborate designs, and there have been amate exhibits in the Smithsonian Institution and the London Museum of Archeology.[15][40] One of these innovations is large, poster-sized cutouts, usually rich in decoration with figures such as suns, flowers and birds framed by friezes.[18][28] Vendors seen to be trying to learn how to make the paper have been kicked out of town, and attempts by Japanese researchers looking to document the process have been rejected.