Suina, Frances

Frances Naranjo Suina (1902-1992) was the daughter of Juan Roybal, a painter from San Ildefonso Pueblo (not the Juan Cruz Roybal who was the husband of Tonita Roybal). Frances’ mother died when she was one year old. The youngest of Juan’s five daughters, she was raised in the St. Catherine’s Orphanage, attending the St. Catherine’s Indian School in Santa Fe and then the Cochiti Indian School.

Out of school, Frances married a Mr. Naranjo of San Ildefonso Pueblo. They had a son, Louis Naranjo, and then divorced. Later she married a Mr. Suina and moved to his home at Cochiti Pueblo with Louis. Her daughter, Sarah Suina was born there.

Frances learned how to make pottery by watching and working with her neighbors at Cochiti. She began with small figures and slowly her pieces grew larger. She made pottery all through the Great Depression, selling what she could on the side of Route 66 (before the 1937 re-routing, Route 66 passed directly by Cochiti Pueblo). She also taught Sarah how to make pottery but Louis wasn’t interested yet. She did teach him later in life, after his wife, Virginia, suffered a stroke.

Frances made traditional polychrome jars, bowls and figures until the mid 1960s when she started making storytellers and nativities. A couple of her storytellers won First Place ribbons at Santa Fe Indian Market in 1973 and 1974. Some of her nativities were exhibited at the Museum of Northern Arizona as part of “Nacimientos: Manger Scenes from the Sally Wagner Collection.”