Shopper Correction

It is always a pleasure for me to read about the arts and crafts of Mexico since I have also spent some time investigating them personally. Jennifer Merin did a fine job in putting together the information (“In Olinala, Crafting Lacquerware Is Way of Life,” Jan. 20), but I would like to add further insight about the artisans plus one correction that might be helpful for your readers.

First of all, the fragrant wood used in the construction of chests is linaloe wood, hence the name of the village. It has no connection to the aloe plant.

And I would hope that your readers do not spend too much time searching for the work of Margarito Ayala in the hopes of finding it for sale in commercial stores. For although he, along with his brother Damaso, was the acknowledged master of the rayado craft, both have been dead for some years. (The story implied that Margarito Ayala was still alive.) There would be little, if any, inventory of his past work.

While in other villages of Mexico there continues the tradition of signing work with the name of the master artisan by the immediate family, such is not the case in Olinala, where the sons are making their own name in the craft. Today, members of the Ayala family, particularly Juan and his cousin Damaso, make some of the very best rayado style pieces. Both of them also do custom pieces when commissioned. I have asked work from them and have been enormously pleased by the results.

RAOUL DE LA SOTA

Los Angeles