Diego Chávez

Santiago Atitlán, Sololá

Diego Chávez is a wood sculptor, oil painter and town elder in the Tzʼutujil Maya community of Santiago. He started carving wood as a child, inspired by his father who crafted toy figures for his family and eventually sold them to others. Diego sold his first sculpture to the parish church at the age of 12, and at age 17 he held his first public exhibition at a hotel in Panajachel. Since then, he has traveled the world to share his craft, including exhibitions in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Everything Diego makes is by hand and has a connection to the local community. Many of his sculptures reflect the everyday life of Santiago– a fisherman on a cayuco (kayak), a woman making tortillas over a wood fire, and men carrying firewood.

Diego is committed to the same techniques his father taught him, even as others have modernized. He explains with an analogy: “Wood fired tortillas may take more time to make than mass produced ones, but they taste much better.” He takes pride in passing his craft to the next generation: “One of my sons also paints every day, and that fills me with satisfaction because art lives on.”