Roybal, Tonita

Tonita Martinez Roybal (1892-1945) of San Ildefonso Pueblo was the mother of Santana Roybal of Adam and Santana Martinez fame. Tonita learned to make pottery the traditional way from her mother, Dominguita Pino, and she passed that on to her daughter Santana. Tonita was producing pottery for the marketplace from 1909 until she passed on in 1945.

Tonita worked mostly with redware and blackware jars and bowls. During her life she developed methods of using matte white and matte red paints on redware pots. She is probably most famous for her black-on-red and black-on-black jars and her polychrome redware.

Tonita also attained a measure of fame for her participation in pottery making demonstrations with Maria Martinez, Maximiliana Montoya, Ramona Gonzales and Desideria Montoya at the Museum of New Mexico in 1909.

Tonita was one of the finest potters of the early twentieth century. Her pottery rivaled Maria’s. However, Maria did not paint her own pieces while Tonita did. Tonita may have even painted some pieces for Maria. Maria and Tonita were also able to achieve the finest “deep luster” polish on their blackware.

Tonita’s first husband was Alfredo Montoya, a painter whose mother, Nicolasa Peña Montoya, first encouraged Maria Martinez to make pots. Painting pots for several women potters, Alfredo was especially known for his birds, animals and flowers. After Alfredo passed on, Tonita is known to have spent time studying the work of Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo of Hano. Perhaps in her process of creating at least one Sikyátki-Revival pot (now in the collection of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe) she cross-pollinated ideas with some Hopi potters. It is felt that she may have had some influence in the development of black-on-red pottery at Hopi which became more popular during the 1920s.

In 1920 she married Juan Cruz Roybal and the year after, he began painting some of Tonita’s pots. By 1930 he was painting most of her pots. It was in 1935 that he began painting some Mimbres-inspired designs on her pots. 10 years later, Tonita passed on.