Pena, Elias

Born in August 1968, Lorenzo Elias Peña Pacheco grew up in Nuevo Casas Grandes before moving to Santa Rosa for 10 years. When he returned to the Mata Ortiz area he worked in his father’s grocery store for a while. He also worked for the postal service in Nuevo Casas Grandes.

When he was first interested in making pottery, his main mentor and teacher was Andres Villalba. He got some pointers from Leonel Quezada, too. It was about 2000 when he first began offering his pottery for sale.

Elias began by painting standard Paquimé-style flowing geometric designs on standard pottery shapes but soon branched into painting combinations of animals, figures and geometrics on figures, effigies and deformed pots. His pottery also tends to have very thin walls, so thin that sanding them can be a problem. He works alone, doing everything from digging his own clay to making his pots to decorating and firing them. He says painting the designs is his favorite part of the process.

Young as he is, Elias has earned several First, Second and Third Place ribbons at the annual Concurso de Mata Ortiz. He also earned the Best of Show ribbon at the 2008 Concurso of Chihuahua State. Elias work has also been featured in an exhibit at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA.

Elias is married to Maria del Carmen Tena. She makes miniature figures and has earned several ribbons at the Mata Ortiz Concurso, too.