Tesoro Tarasco

Since centuries before the 16th-century Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico, the innately artistic Tarasco inhabitants in central Mexico’s Tarasco Region -- now the State of Michoacan -- have been handcrafting their imaginative designs using pure, solid copper. The center of this distinguished copper craft is the tiny highland town of Santa Clara del Cobre (cobre means copper). The Tarascan artisans specialized in ornate copper jewelry and practical agriculture tools until the arrival of Bishop Vasco de Quiroga to “New Spain”. The humanist and educator taught these people certain Spanish methods for creating copper utensils such as kettles and pitchers...as well as sinks.