A country rich in culture passed down from the ancient Mayan civilization and the Spanish colonial period, the people of Mexico take great pride in their country, culture, ethnicity, and lifestyle.

Mexico is known worldwide for its folk art, mostly derived from the indigenous and Spanish crafts. The variety of Mexican folk art is astonishing. You can find "paintings" made from yarn, beads, straw, and string. Bread-dough figures, cornhusk dolls, pottery, carved gourds and papier-mâché figures have become highly sought after forms of art.

The variety of Mexican folk art is astonishing. Items of charm, humor, and beauty are created out of just about anything. You can find "paintings" made from yarn; bread-dough figures; tin tree ornaments; bands of straw musicians; cornhusk dolls; fantastic wooden creatures; intricately carved gourds; enormous devils and angels of papier-mache. If you search you may even find a colorful Lady of Guadalupe made from the pod of a tree.

And there are countless clay items-from skull magnets to flamboyant trees of life to flowerpot mermaids, holding combs for their flowing hair.

Victor Fosado of Oxaca helped make people aware of the energy and grace of folk art, as did the painter Chucho Reyes. Maestro Gorky Gonzales Quinones, a potter from Guanajuato, is renowned. Because his work is of such high quality and because, apart from original pieces, he re-creates historical designs, Gorky is considered a national treasure.

There is no end to Mexican creativity!

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