Posted on August 13, 2020
Margaret Tafoya has been honored with a National Heritage Fellowship, the U.S. government's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.
Born on this date in 1904 in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, Tafoya (whose Tewa name was "Corn Blossom") was a Native Pueblo Indian or Kha-Po Owingeh. She had to drop out of high school during the awful 1918 flu epidemic, but her most important teacher was probably her mother, who was an excellent potter. Tafoya learned from her mom, not only how to make pots by coiling long rolls of clay, and how to polish finished pots - but also how to get the clay from the land, how to knead the clay, what kind of fuel to use when firing pottery, and even where to sell her pottery. Her very first pot was sold to a dealer in Sant Fe, and she felt empowered to continue as a potter.
Although Tafoya had to do some work as a cook and waiting tables at a restaurant, she soon was able to support her growing family by trading pottery for clothing or other necessities. Then she started selling pottery to tourists in Santa Fe and Taos - and THEN she started selling pottery to other Pueblo Indians.
By the 1960s, Tafoya's pottery had become famous.
Oh, and, by the way, when I mentioned that Tafoya had a "growing family" - she and her husband had and raised 13 kids!! She lived to be 96 years old, and at the time of her death she had 30 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren! WOW!
Another by the way: many of Tafoya's descendants are carrying on the family traditions of pottery making. Most of them do not have the last name Tafoya, but instead are named Youngblood, Roller, Ebelacker, or Whitegeese.
Margaret Tafoya's work currently sells for thousands of dollars per piece.
Also on this date:
Anniversary of an acrobat being crowned King of Albania?
Anniversary of the Aztec Empire being conquered by Spaniards
(August 13 - 14, 2020 - if held!)
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