Aguilar, Rosalie and Joe

Rosalie Simbola was from Picuris Pueblo. She was born in 1898 and passed on in 1947. She married José (Joe) Aguilar (Nov. 1898 – Dec. 1965) in February 1922 and moved to his home at San Ildefonso Pueblo. Over the next 24 years she gave birth to eleven children. She was also a prolific potter in those years.

Joe made a few pots of his own but he was more of a painter, painting pots for Rosalie and for his mother, Susana Martinez Aguilar. Pots he painted for Rosalie he signed Rosalie and Joe Aguilar.

In the early 1930s Rosalie and Rose Gonzales were among the first potters at San Ildefonso to carve their pots. Rosalie would also sand the edges of her carved lines to give her designs a “cameo” effect.