Tafoya, Cresencia

Cresencia Tafoya was born into Santa Clara Pueblo during the flu pandemic of 1918. She was the second of 11 children and, when she grew up and married, she had 6 children of her own.

Cresencia started producing pottery on her own around 1940. She became known for her black-on-black pieces, her carved black seed pots, her wedding vases and her oval polychrome redware bowls.

Cresencia was a participant in the Santa Fe Indian Market from 1978 to 1989 and earned multiple ribbons there, especially for her wedding vases. She also exhibited often at the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show.

Cresencia taught all her children: Arthur Tafoya, Harriet Tafoya, Annie Baca, Pauline Martinez and Mark Tafoya, how to make pottery the traditional way, well before she passed on in 1999.