Visiting the Uriarte Talavera Factory in Puebla, Mexico
Posted on May 31 2018
We landed in Puebla on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 pm in a small 50 seat regional jet from DFW, and I have to say that it was one of theroughest landings that I've ever experienced since I started travelingback in the seventies ... and then we got into a Subaru hatchback to drive into Puebla which made me long to be back on the plane.
Our driver, a young woman named Daniela, had been sent by the Quinta Real Hotel to meet us at 3:30. We waited, and waited and waited and finally reached her through the hotel only to find out that there had
been a huge multi-car collision as she was heading out to get us and she'd been severely delayed.
She was so flustered by the time she arrived at the airport to pick us up that she drove like a mad woman on the way back to town and took an alternate route that must have added an extra 40 minutes to the trip. Elayne was so freaked out by her driving that she's insisted that we take a bus to San Miguel de Allende on Saturday.
We came down here to work at the Uriarte Talavera factory. We are one of their largest distributors in the U.S., and I think the world of their product. On Holy Thursday, 1519, Hernan Cortes’s first expedition to the New World anchored in what today is the port of Veracruz, Mexico. The monks and artisans from the Spanish town of Talavera de la Reina who accompanied the Cortes expedition were responsible for introducing the hand-painted majolica pottery commonly known as “talavera” into the Americas. 
Founded in 1531, Puebla quickly became the center of talavera production for all of the Americas. “Uriarte Talavera” is the oldest, largest and most prestigious manufacturer of fine talavera pottery in all of Mexico, and was founded by Don Dimas Uriarte in 1824. Generally considered to be the “gold standard” of all the hand-painted talavera pottery produced today in the world, “Uriarte” is one of a very small group of companies that have received “Denomination of Origin, Classification 4” status from the Mexican government as manufacturers of authentic hand-made talavera pottery. The historic center of Puebla is a UNESCO world heritage site and the architecture is stunning. Cortes is said to have vowed to build 365 churches in Puebla, one for each day of the year, but by the time he hit 90+ he apparently decided to call it quits ... |
Connect