Feria de la Lana y el Latón: : Artisans happy to return to the Garden

Published November 21st, 2021

In the main garden is the “Wool and Brass” Fair, with the participation of approximately 30 exhibitors, all of them from San Miguel, who have been making wool, brass, metalwork, and paper-mâché products with their hands for years.

In this Expo, you can appreciate that the skills of the people of San Miguel have been expressed with countless handicrafts since the pre-Hispanic period, mainly with products related to livestock and textiles, and with the presence of “sheep” farms since the founding of San Miguel in 1542, evolving into specialized trades, with creative processes, techniques and original designs that have been inherited for generations among San Miguel families.

They are happy to return to the Garden

“They had already taken away this point which is the strongest in San Miguel because all the tourism arrives here, here both locals and visitors are concentrated, they had put us in the Civic Plaza and in the cultural center “El Nigromante”, but it does not sell as well as here, the truth is that it is very good here”, said Don José Arellano, who accompanied by his son was making a beautiful carpet.

The wool products are 100% handwork, from putting the yarn, warping, dyeing the wool. You don’t use any machines, except for the loom, but this is manual.

Another wool exhibitor is Margarito Jiménez, who said that the garden is a very good point of sale because if it has gone well in these first hours since the start of the fair that was this Friday, he has been in this trade for about 35 years. “My father started it, but I continued it and I have been doing it for 10 years as my own business”, he said.

Fabricio Mendoza, he and his family have been participating in the Wool and Brass Fair for 10 years, and they do it with the emblematic “heart of San Miguel de Allende”, he shared that he is involved in the whole process of elaboration. “In the heart begins with a process of engraving, finally ends with what is the decoration, is a bit what I help and now in this fair, I’m helping with sales, “he said.

Ramiro Miranda has also been working with wool for 35 years, he is from the Presa Allende community and said that he dedicates between 8 and 10 hours a day to make his rugs, and sometimes up to 12, depending on the order. “I have wanted to go out to outside events so that people know me more, but I lack more merchandise and time too, in fact here in the garden is very good, here is the best place to sell because all the tourists come here and they are the ones who buy more from us, if they send us to La Loma, they won’t buy there”, he said humorously.

Doña Ignacia Martínez and her husband Martín Arredondo are also dedicated to the manufacture of wool textiles, she explained that they buy the sheep fiber in Coroneo, Guanajuato. She showed us a beautiful rug with a sheep engraved on it, with which they won second place in a state contest.

They are some of the 30 exhibitors that are in this fair of Wool and Brass, visit them and buy their products that are 100% handmade and above all, made by Sanmiguelan hands.
This is a little of what you can find ?.