Filomena C’jotz

San Antonio Palopó, Sololá 

Filomena C’jotz is a potter at Cerámica de San Antonio Palopó, a village on the shores of Lake Atitlán known for producing the finest ceramics and pottery in Guatemala.

The key ingredient is clay. Lake Atitlán consists of a caldera surrounded by three volcanoes: San Pedro, Atitlán, and Tolimán. A super-eruption approximately 84,000 years ago left behind a mixture of minerals— smectite, illite, kaolinite, and chlorite— that solidified into the fine red, black and white clays that distinguish San Antonio Palopó today. 

The Pre-Columbian Maya used the clay to craft ceramics for both utilitarian and ritualistic purposes, such as drinking ceremonial chocolate, commemorating leaders, and telling cosmological stories. 

In the 1990s, an American potter, Ken Edwards, moved to the village with his high-fire kiln and introduced techniques which allowed for increased durability. Since then, potters have transformed San Antonio Palopó into Guatemala’s ceramic hub.

Filomena first grinds chunks of clay into a fine powder. After hydrating and shaping the wet clay, she paints on designs with hand-made animal-hair brushes. She specializes in blue teardrops, a design that symbolizes the Mayan legend that Lake Atitlán was created by water dripping from a maiden’s clay jug. The vessel undergoes two firings in a wood-fired kiln– at 600°C and then 1200°C– resulting in a vase that is not only durable but tells a story of heritage and place.