Aguilar, Rafaelita

Rafaelita Aguilar was born into Santo Domingo Pueblo in August, 1936. Her parents are Juan and Miguelita Aguilar. Joe Aguilar was her brother and Darlene Aguilar her daughter. Rafaelita learned how to make pottery from her mother and, in turn, taught her daughter. Later in life she and Darlene would sometimes collaborate.

Rafaelita was active in the marketplace as a teenager, making black-on-black, black-on-red and black-on-cream storage jars, pitchers, dough bowls, canteens and wedding vases. Her favorite designs often included leaves, clouds, rain, birds and four-petal flowers. She also made some jewelry. She was known for making some of the largest black-on-black jars ever made in the Southwest.

The method for making black-on-black pottery came to Santo Domingo in the 1930s when potter Monica Silva of Santa Clara Pueblo married into Santo Domingo and then moved there. Rafaelita’s mother learned directly from watching Monica and passed the knowledge on to her daughter when she was learning. Santo Domingo potters had been making utilitarian blackware before but the techniques for achieving the black had been forgotten decades earlier.

Rafaelita is a relatively undiscovered potter as she only participated a couple times in the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show and in the Santo Domingo Arts & Crafts Show. As of 2024 she is still alive but no longer producing pottery.