Four Days In Mata Ortiz
Our trip to Mata Ortiz in late December and over New Year's 2015 was an amazing cultural and nature experience, my two favorite joys of travel. Here are my reflections on this trip which will hopefully encourage others to visit Mata Ortiz.
Day One: Getting to Mata Ortiz
After crossing the border at Puerto Palomas, you must stop at Mexican Immigration for a five day or six month Visa. The five day visa is free and is quickly given at the Immigration office right next to to road at the border crossing. Then back into the car for about four hours to drive south through Chihuahua on Hwy 2 and Hwy 10.
If you are lucky like me you will have a local drive you down, we enjoyed the entire drive with my friend Phil Stover who shared stories of Mexican history and pointed out all the interesting landmarks associated with Pancho Villa, the American invasion by a younger George Patton and others who became WWII heros, the Mormon diaspora and other tidbits of local interest.
After driving through Nueva Casa Grandes and Casa Grandes we asend one last pass to get to our first view of the magnificent valley that is home to Mata Ortiz, Colonia Juarez and Mormon agricultural stakes. The view of the valley is breathtaking, dominated by "El Indio" a mountain that looks like the face of an Indian looking skyward. As we drive down to the valley we learn that El Indio overlooks the village of Mata Ortiz situated on the banks of the Palanganas River.
On the other side of the valley to the west, we see the Sierra Madre mountains towering up to 9,000 ft. with some patches of snow from a recent snowstorm.
Juan Mata Ortiz is the modern name given to the village since the early 1900's when the Mexican government renamed cities and towns to replace colonial, religious and non-Mexican names with names more connected to Mexican culture and history. Up until the 1930's, Mata Ortiz was called Pierson, after the Canadian founder of the village who had built the railroad to the area and built a lumber mill at the town which processed the trees felled in the nearby Sierra Madres.
The village was renamed after Juan Mata Ortiz, a Coronel in the Mexican army who fought the Apache Indians in the area. Legend has it that Col. Mata Ortiz was boiled alive by the Apaches after he was captured and they learned that he was responsible for the slaughter of Chief Geranimo's family in nearby Bismark. It was the slaughter of his family while he was away that caused Geranimo to go on the warpath for many years thoughout the southwest. But, Juan Mata Ortiz is remembered as the hero.
As we drive into the valley on an excellent road just completed nine years ago, we see the trees along the Palanganas River under El Indio and the church steeple welcoming us to the village. We leave the paved road and bounce into the village on a rough rocky road and we are greeted by a new village plaza that was just built along the deserted rail tracks in the center of the village.
Be prepared, this town is poor with most homes and buildings small and dilapidated by US standards. But if you stay a few days in the village you will soon learn that it is occupied by friendly, hard working people who are happy to welcome visitors to their home.
Just down one of the village's dirt streets along the river bank we come to the home of Phil and Jeannie Stover, Rancho Rio Vista, which will be our base to explore the area for the next three days.
Phil and Jeannie worked with local craftsman to build their small two bedroom home on the river in the early 2000s while he was Deputy Superintendent of San Diego Unified School District and Jeannie was still teaching kindergarten in Sarasota, FL. Now they are both retired and enjoying this home with its adjacent garden and orchard and horse corral next to another home they built for their son Chris who who has joined them. Phil is also starting a grove of Pecan trees (nogales) which should produce a cash crop in a few years, that may be exported to the US by the local Mormon packing plants.
Day Two: Paquime and the Cultural History of the Valley
Wake up early in Mata Ortiz to enjoy the sunrise! Here is our view of the morning sun on the Sierra Madres.
On our first day we drove the 30 kilometers over to Casa Grandes to visit Paquime, a Unesco World Heritage Site. This was a great way to start our Mata Ortiz visit because the museum there and the Paquime ruins gave us a good understanding of the cultural history of the area.
The Paquime lived in the area during the 800-1200 AD period and this was the site of a large village home to thousands who developed agriculture here and traded with the cultures north to New Mexico and Arizona and south to Central America.
Paquime has a large and excellent museum that will walk you through the history of these people before you walk through the ruins of the large village area. This is a must stop for any visitor to Mata Ortiz because, if nothing else, you will learn that the designs of contemporary Mata Ortiz pottery are based on the Paquime designs from this era.
In the afternoon after returning to Mata Ortiz, you should have time to walk or drive around the village and do some pottery shopping. There are a couple of galleries in the Village center but the best shopping is to visit the homes of local potters. It is sad how the pottery business has declined for this village as a result of the tourism crash from the drug war fears. So please buy some pottery, they are truly works of art.
Here are a couple of photos from homes we visited. If you have a local guide like Phil, they will introduce you to some of the most amazing pottery artists in the world who create a distinctive pottery style from local clay. Do you see the Owl pot on the top left shelf of a home we visited? That olla is now on a shelf in our home in San Diego.
This day also happened to be New Years Eve, lucky for us. That meant that we got to enjoy the village New Year's Eve Party at the Mata Ortiz Village Hall right in the center of town. This was one of the most interesting and fun cultural experiences of my life!
Phil and I got dressed in our western wear and joined by our wives, got to the party about 9 pm. For the next four hours we enjoyed a live band playing Mexican musical favorites and watched the happy village community dance and drink to celebrate the start of a New Year. I was touched by watching such happy, warm and friendly people who accepted us old gringos to share this event with them.
Day Three: Cueva de la Olla
On New Year's Day we were up early to head off into the Sierra Madre Mountains. Thanks to a new road out of Mata Ortiz, we climbed the mountains in just an hour, a drive they say took several hours just a few years ago on a scary dirt road.
On the top, we found a lightly forested plateau where we turned of the pavement for a beautiful drive over rocks and dirt for about 6 miles to get to Cueva de la Olla. This is also another must see archeological site near Mata. The scenery is amazing and the cliff dwelling sites here will add to your understanding of the history of this facilitating part of Mexico.
In addition to visiting the cave dwellings, just the drive into the backcountry over rocky roads was a fun adventure. I learned what the phrase "in the middle of nowhere" means when we drove through the town of "Willy", a small Mormon village high in the mountains that has no electricity service. This clean, isolated town with homes with solar panels is so small I can't find it on Google maps!
Day Four: Arroyo de los Monos
On our final day, we enjoyed another trek up rocky dirt roads to Arroyo de los Monos to see ancient petroglyphs, rock paintings, that few tourists ever get to see. Thanks to Phil's local friend, we were guided up this canyon onto private property, through several locked gates, by a local policeman who obviously had connections.
We drove out of Mata on the old road along the old rail tracks and along the Piedras Verdes and Palanganas Rivers. After driving past a few gates and up a canyon, we stopped to inspect the rock walls along the stream. What a find, they were filled with drawings, a real art museum out in a nature setting!
On the way back we visited Hacienda de San Diego. This amazing complex of buildings was once owned by Luis Terrazas who by 1910 owned more than 20 haciendas throughout Chihuahua. At the start of the revolution, Terazzas was exiled to the US by Pancho Villa and his holdings were lost. We were were told that at one time more than 400 people lived and worked at this ranch for Terrazas who apparently rarely visited this palace-like home. Today it is abandoned and falling into ruin.
The Mata Ortiz Experience
It was truly an amazing experience to visit Mata Ortiz, to meet her people and to explore the surrounding natural and cultural sites. We were truly fortunate to be hosted by close friends who live there, but the village is so interesting and friendly anyone can enjoy it.
If you go you can stay right in the village at the Adobe Inn or if you want more access to city life, stay in Nueva Casas Grandes, 20 miles away. There is a recent LA Times article with good travel information at this link. Another good information site is: http://www.ortizpots.com/traveling.html
But I recommend diving in and staying right in Mata. Enjoy the culture, visit the potters, buy some pottery and explore the region. Stop by to say hi to Phil and Jeannie while you are in town and maybe they can hook you up with a good local guide for a couple of days. It will be a trip you will enjoy and always remember.
I will close with a final photo, here I am with a smiling village potter, Aide Gonzalez. She is smiling because she just sold me two of her "ollas". Aide is a talented artist who you can find at the Mata Ortiz village store. She is apparently the only local potter to use blue clay, her secret. The black pot pot is made with red clay but is fired outside (not in a kiln) without oxygen which turns it black!
Enjoy your travels!
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