Take a tour of Taxco, Mexico
(YouTube Video/Globe Trekker)
Taxco (which some spell "Tasco") is a hill town located between Acapulco and Mexico City, in the state of Guerrero. It is one of the Western hemisphere’s oldest mining sites and was attractive to early Conquistadors because of its wealth of silver.
Taxco was known as Tlacho to the native people, who apparently had to pay tribute to the Aztecs in the days before the Conquistadors. The Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1521, and a year later Hernan Cortes arrived staked his mining claim in Taxco. By the end of the century, Taxco silver could be found throughout Europe and the area had become Spain's main New World source for precious metal. However, Taxco mining slowly died as other richer and more accessible mining areas were developed. Nearly 200 years would pass before it was resurrected.
In 1716 Don Jose de la Borda rediscovered silver in Taxco and made a fortune mining, although he did leave the area eventually. In the 19th century, Mexico went to war for its independence, and the Spaniards in Mexico destroyed their mines rather than let the Mexicans take them over. At this point, silver working died out yet again.
But that changed again in the 1920s, when William Spratling, an American architecture professor, arrived in Mexico. He learned that while Taxco had been a silver mining site for centuries, it never became a center for creating silver jewelry and other silver objects.
Spratling changed that, opening a business and working with local silversmiths who proved to be very talented. He established an apprentice system, and many of those trained in Spratling’s workshop went on to become masters in their own right.
From its inception, the Taxco movement broke new ground in technical achievement and design. Although Spratling usually gets the cred for spearheading the modern Taxco silver movement, it was a group of talented Mexican designers who went on to establish independent workshops and develop the distinctive “Taxco School.”
These designers incorporated numerous aesthetic orientations—Pre-Columbian art, silverwork, religious images, and other artwork from the Mexican Colonial period, and local popular arts—merging them within the broad spectrum of modernism.
The great beauty and quality of Taxco silver jewelry and silverware earned the community recognition throughout the world. Today Taxco is the Mexican city known for silverware and silver jewelry.
A number of the artisans went on to open their own workshops and stores, and Spratling supported their efforts. The great masters who learned their craft in Spratling’s workshop continue to be an inspiration to Taxco’s and Mexico’s silversmiths. And their work is highly sought after by collectors.
William Spratling died in a car crash in 1967 near Taxco. He is known as “Father of Mexican Silver," and you can find a silver bust of Spratling in the town's silver museum. The Spratling Museum houses the Spratling Collection of Silver and Pre-Columbian art that he bequeathed to the town of Taxco. If you’d like to learn about the William Spratling Ranch in Taxco-El-Viejo, click here.
Taxco holds a Feira Nacional de La Plata (Silver Fair) every year in November. Craftsmen, artists and silversmiths display their work, and a national prize is awarded to the best silver artist of the Fair.
