Tlaquepaque Buy-ways : Guadalajara suburb has become center for Mexican crafts, from purely artistic to inept schlock

I wandered down red-tiled Avenida Independencia, past facades painted ocher, peach, pale blue and luscious lime green. Traffic is barred from the center of this tree-lined neighborhood. Instead of cars, flower carts and lampposts punctuate the street.

There was hardly another pedestrian to be seen. Just a 20-minute bus ride from the heart of Guadalajara--a city of gridlock, irascible taxi drivers and urban sprawl--I had found serenity and a surreal profusion of objets d’art.

After a couple of months traveling through Mexico’s colonial towns last summer, I couldn’t absorb one more mural-emblazoned palacio municipal or another architectural legacy of the Spanish silver barons. The suburb of Tlaquepaque (pronounced tla-kay-PAH-kay) has no historic sites one feels obligated to visit--only colonial mansions, shaded patios, cobblestone lanes and some of the best shopping anywhere in Mexico.

Over the past three decades, Tlaquepaque has become the center for the production and sale of contemporary Mexican art and folk art. Shops here offer an entire synopsis of the nation’s crafts: textiles and copper ware from Michoacan, miniature instruments and baskets from Chihuahua, rugs and black pottery from Oaxaca, ceramics from Guanajuato, embroidered clothing from Chiapas, decorative tiles from Puebla, masks and silver jewelry from Guerrero, serapes from Sonora, hammocks and filigree work from the Yucatan.

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There are about 300 boutiques and galleries in Tlaquepaque--many of them in restored mansions lining the two major boulevards, avenidas Independencia and Juarez. In the eight-by-six-block shopping area, you can find bargain vases for $1 and upscale bronze sculptures for $20,000.

There’s a kind of magic realism to the shopping in Tlaquepaque. In one store, wisteria dangles frivolously before a ghoulish army of marble Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) skeletons; in another, a decadent Bacchus fountain spews mist upon a saint’s carved head. Courtyards filled with banana palms and jacaranda form the backdrop to Catholic icons and amulets of brujas (witches). Even subdued establishments on the side streets provide surreal encounters with wood, clay and stone.

One native son, sculptor Sergio Bustamante, has an international reputation for his fanciful visions. In addition to galleries in Chicago, New York and Switzerland, his showroom on Independencia is one of the village’s most striking.

Peacocks, flamingos and other exotic birds peer from a courtyard into the exhibition space. His large-scale sculptures of papier-ma^che, copper and bronze (beginning at $700) use human and animal forms into phantasmagoric creations that suggest their own mythology. A ceramic mermaid balances the moon on her shoulder while she flaunts her lily-encrusted torso (for a mere $6,000); a ceramic vase literally bursts with birds and fish.

It’s logical that Tlaquepaque should be a part of Guadalajara. Mexico’s second-largest city boasts not only Latin America’s biggest enclosed market (the Mercado Libertad), but also the huge El Baratillo flea market.

I had been in Guadalajara nearly a week before I discovered Tlaquepaque. On my first morning there, one shop caught my eye. In markets throughout Mexico, I’d seen thousands of the elaborately embroidered Mayan blouses called huipiles. But never in a setting like this: a large mirrored room with high ceilings and black track lights that targeted the garments like museum pieces. It looked like a minimalist boutique in Manhattan’s Soho.

The proprietess, who resembled a Vogue model, explained how the complex symbolism of the embroidery revealed the weaver’s connectedness to the cosmos. “She has described the whole universe with a subtlety that other weavers won’t always notice but the gods will see,” she said.

I hurried back out to the street. Yet, afterward, I almost regretted not having shelled out the money for a blouse--$100 might be a good deal for mystical connectedness.

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Tlaquepaque’s artisans are linked to a tradition going back to the 16th century. Many stores are family businesses, handed down from generation to generation. The local workshops are often open to the public, exhibiting techniques refined over the decades.

Over a lunchtime bowl of tortilla soup , Beatrice Fernandez, a ceramist who befriended me after seeing my joyful concentration in her shop, gave me a Tlaquepaque history lesson.

“It’s always been a little bohemian here, a little ahead of its time maybe,” she said. “In pre-Hispanic times, Tonalteca, this region, was ruled by an Indian queen. In her court were many gifted artisans who worked with silver, gold and cloth. Originally, each Indian village around Guadalajara specialized in its own craft.”

We sat in the cool colonial patio of Casa Fuerte, a restaurant landscaped with banana palms, papaya trees and purple bougainvillea. Doves looked down at us from the trees. The surrounding apricot-colored walls were adorned with Indian jaguar masks, orchids and turn-of-the-century antiques.

“Typical Tlaquepaque decor,” Fernandez assured me. “Muy romantico, eh?”

Tlaquepaque--”place over hills of clay” in the Indian language--has a tradition of pottery production. Taking advantage of the local clay, the native Tonaltecans developed a hand-painted style as far back as the 16th century.

In 1870, glass-blowing artistry from Europe was introduced. As Tlaquepaque became a magnet for those wanting to purchase fine ceramics and glass, artisans of other types--jewelers, wood carvers, weavers--came to establish workshops.

During the colonial period, Tlaquepaque was a separate village used as a weekend getaway by the elite of Guadalajara. In 1821, it was thrust briefly into the limelight when Mexico’s treaty of independence was signed here.

Soon afterward, the aristocracy began building palatial summer retreats in the area. Gradually, the village became a suburb and then was absorbed into Guadalajara.

In the ‘60s, a movement was launched to restore the colonial homes and haciendas for artists’ studios, craft workshops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants, giving birth to today’s chic district.

After lunch, Fernandez took me to the Museo Regional de la Ceramica for an overview of the traditional pottery and contemporary ceramics of Jalisco (Guadalajara’s state). Housed in a colonial mansion, it traces the evolution of ceramic production in the region from before the Spanish conquest. Its galleries showcase a superb collection of artifacts by the Huichol Indians (from northern Jalisco and the state of Nayarit). Prize-winning entries from the national ceramics competition are on display too.

Then we toured the nearby La Rosa de Cristal, one of Tlaquepaque’s older glass factories. The process looked like a tribal puberty rite set in Dante’s Inferno. Veteran artists and their young apprentices dashed about, dipping 10-foot hollow poles into roaring furnaces to retrieve globs of molten glass. With the dexterity of magicians, they puffed and whirled and coaxed the primordial lumps into mugs, minotaurs, vases and goblets.

On the way out, we lingered in La Rosa de Cristal’s store, admiring wine glasses and decanters fashioned in delicate shades of rose, violet and lavender.

Handblown glassware and ceramics are the two crafts most linked with Tlaquepaque. Techniques seen in the area’s eight glass workshops were pioneered by the Avalos brothers, who, in the 1920s, studied in the studios of Venice, Italy. Today, the traditional cobalt blue, purple, green and amber have been expanded to include soft shades of lemon, lime, orange and pink. Glass chandeliers (starting at $150) come in extraordinary hues: canary yellow, kelly green and crimson, the latter requiring gold dust to produce the right intensity.

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Tlaquepaque shares its reputation as a pottery center with the craft-making village of Tonala, six miles away. Ceramics have been made in Tonala for centuries. A driving force behind the revival of pre-Columbian designs is Tonala resident Jorge Wilmot. Considered one of the finest ceramists in Mexico, Wilmot was influenced by Asian and Aztec techniques.

Some Tlaquepaque ceramists use the painstaking petatillo decorative style, which, in its use of raised dots and finely executed lines, can be compared to French pointillism. Not everything here is authentic or of high quality. Lots of traditional techniques and designs have been co-opted by schlock shops. In her guide, “Mexico: Places and Pleasures,” writer Kate Simon called some of Tlaquepaque’s establishments “museums of ineptitude and dynamic bad taste.” There are cabinets everywhere piled high with carelessly painted ceramics, bad imitations of Puebla’s Talavera ware, boring basketry and pretentious objects masquerading as art.

This isn’t so bad, though. Looking for treasures amid the kitsch makes shopping here all the more fun. Among the treasures I discovered were masterfully designed tables of wrought iron and stone with mosaic tops depicting magical fiestas and village scenes ($150 to $200) at the shop of the Preciado family (on Independencia).

I also saw riveting colonial antiques and religious artifacts at Casa Canela, Antiqua de Mexico and Bazar Hecht (all on Independencia) and spotted haute couture clothes inspired by traditional Indian motifs at Irene Pulos and Maria de Guadalajara (also on Independencia). The Moorish-influenced Talavera pottery was everywhere.

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By the time I left the shopping streets. It was late afternoon. I headed to El Parian, a huge 19th century structure enclosing a sprawling network of open-air cafes and restaurants. Named after the Chinese section of Manila with which the conquistadors traded, it serves as Tlaquepaque’s zocalo (central plaza). This is the spot for much of the area’s night life.

Groups of mariachis were gathering beneath the plaza’s arcades and under the bandstand. . Mariachi music is said to have originated in the 1870s in Tlaquepaque or Cocula, a town 35 miles south of Guadalajara.

Walking through El Parian, I spied the familiar face of Beatrice Fernandez, who invited me to sit at her table. As darkness crept across the plaza, a mariachi named Jorge regaled us with some marvelously melancholy solo work, and told us about the Tlaquepaque of this youth.

“When I was young, a sad lover would go to a curandero. This used to be a center for them.” A combination of shaman, psychiatrist and herbalist, the curandero would restore a scorned sen~orita’s spirit or heal a caballero’s broken heart. Jorge’s farewell smile suggested these sorceries might still be transpiring at that very moment on the back streets. Certainly the magic realism of Tlaquepaque’s shops seemed to spill over into El Parian that night.

Ragamuffins barely 7 years old, with cherubic eyes, darted from table to table like hummingbirds, hawking Chiclets and sticky sweets to tourists in serapes.

Even the music was for sale. Visitors and locals alike, eating and drinking by the Doric columns of the arcades, bid for the mariachis services at $6 to $12 a tune while plaintive, joyful songs from half a dozen groups drifted over the grand patio.

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GUIDEBOOK: Street Smarts in Tlaquepaque

Shopping in Tlaquepaque: Most shops are open 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Some closed on Sunday, others open 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Bazar Hecht, Independencia 158. A 12-room hacienda filled with hand-carved furniture, crafts, antiques, decorative items and designer fashions.

Galeria Sergio Bustamante, Independencia 236. Elegant showcase of Bustamante’s surrealistic papier-mache, bronze, copper and ceramic creatures. The shop also has silver and gold-plated jewelry.

Ixchel, Juarez 145-8. Mexican handicrafts, including Talavera ceramics, textiles from Oaxaca and lacquerware from Michoacan.

Ken Edwards Gallery, Madero 70. Stoneware and hand-painted plates, cups and vases. Factory in Tonala at Morelos 184.

La Casa Canela, Independencia 258. Beautiful 18th century mansion, now housing antiques, furniture and colonial art.

El Aguila Descalza, Juarez 120. Art, antiques, handicrafts, furniture, jewelry and fashions, some by designer Josefa.

Antiqua de Mexico, Independencia 255. Exemplary collection of colonial furniture, decorative items and paintings by Mexican artists; in a 19th century mansion.

El Palomar, Blvd. Tlaquepaque 1905. Both a fascinating shop and production facility featuring fine jewelry, sculpture. Weavings and metalwork from throughout Mexico.

Casa Fuerte, Independencia 224. Small gallery featuring Huichol Indian art, contemporary art and photography.

Terry, Blvd. Tlaquepaque 1879. Assorted crafts, baskets and textiles, including papier-mache, wood carvings and pottery.

Bazar Barrera, Independencia 205. Crafts in brass, copper, clay, wood and metal arranged in one of Tlaquepaque’s oldest houses.

Antiquo Tlaquepaque, Juarez 145. Custom-made rugs and wall hangings are designed and woven here.

Irene Pulos, Independencia 224. Indian-inspired fashions created by this well-known designer and displayed in an 18th century colonial residence.

J.J. Marquin, Independencia 186. Large selection of rustic furniture, souvenir items and silver jewelry set with semiprecious stones.

Where to eat: Restaurante Sin Nombre, Madero 80; local telephone, 635-4520 or 635-9677. Imaginative combinations of pre-Hispanic and modern dishes; in a renovated 17th century mansion. Entrees average $8-$12. Reservations advised. Casa Fuerte, Independencia 224; tel. 639-6481. In beautiful colonial hacienda with garden; traditional dishes. Entrees $5-$8. Restaurante El Abajen~o, Juarez 231; tel. 635-9015 or 635-9097. Traditional Jaliscan food in large open-air setting. Mariachi music and folkloric dancers on weekends. Entrees $5-$8.

For more information: Mexican Government Tourism Office, 1801 Century Park East, Suite 1080, Los Angeles, CA 90067; tel. (310) 203-8191.