Sandoval, Socorro

Two wannabe-potters from the village of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico, Socorro Sandoval de Silveira and her sister-in-law, Gloria Hernandez de Silveira, watched others, worked together and essentially taught themselves how to make pottery. They got really good at it, so good they taught their husbands who also started making pottery.

Socorro started learning in the early 1980s and by 1990 American traders were coming to her door to buy her pots. She was known for her large, thin-walled jars with her own style of geometric designs. She got so busy her husband, José Silveira, learned how to help her.

Socorro always signed with her maiden name on the large pieces she made. She usually used local tan clay to build her pots, then she slipped the outer surface in red and painted in top of that. Around 2005 she started making large well-formed pots for others to decorate. That turned out to be so lucrative for her she almost completely stopped working on her own pots.

Socorro also taught all her children, Yadira, Saul, Lila and Trini how to make pottery.