Ceramic cultural heritage in Chazuta, Peru, led by indigenous women artisans

Some examples of Auraluz Pilco Pizango ceramics with their traditional iconography painted with natural colours, at the women's fair in Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP. 

At the women's fair in Chazuta on 14 February 2025, several women came to exhibit their crafts. FPP spoke to Auraluz Pilco Pizango and Juana Pizango, who have been working with ceramics for decades, to find out more about ceramics and how it is linked to their territory and culture.  

To learn more about the women's fair, read the first article with interviews with other craftswomen from the region.

Auraluz: My name is Aura Luz Pilco, I belong to the association of ceramists. I am a craftswoman who has been working since I was eight years old. 

Juana: My name is Juana Pizango, I come from the town of Chazuta. My business is handicrafts and mixed. 

How do you feel looking at the fair that has been set up today?

Juana : Ah, I feel happy, excited. So they should promote to sell our handicrafts.  

Auraluz: We're working on everything at the fair. I've been working since I was eight years old, but here in the association [of ceramists], working with it for 18 years.  

Apart from this fair, we are invited to national fairs. We would also like to participate in international fairs, because Chazuta is considered a national cultural heritage, its ceramics.  

Juana Pizango next to her handmade pottery and other mixed crafts at the women's fair in Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit Frances Jenner/FPP 

Why is the pottery of Chazuta so important, and how is it related to the territory here?          

Auraluz: Well, the pottery of Chazuta is important because in the past you couldn't find a bucket, you couldn't find a pot, you couldn't find anything. You couldn't find anything at all. Our grandparents made their pots out of clay, they made clay pots, jars or dipped them in water. So in this one we didn't have a cup, they drank with the mocagua, not the water, they cooked the rice in the clay pot.  

Juana: Ah, the relationship is that we are going to take the land. Nature gives us the land and we improve it. To the handicrafts, to the land, to the clay. We improve it, we add the year, we include other lands from other communities. Yes. 

Auraluz: And this culture is with natural paints which are white earth, yellow earth and black stone but decorated with the pucheros. The puchero is the brush made from our own hair that we use for decoration. But that black is not an artificial paint, it is a natural paint that is a stone called Yana Rumi, which we mix with banana, yagua leaf and banana broth. 

Juana: Icons have a cultural, spiritual meaning. The icons have a meaning of your community. The flowers on the trees, the hills that surround us - thanks to the women who have come from ancestors to their ancestors making their decorations and with innovation, mother Juanita began to innovate the iconographies. Yes, that's right, if nature is what gives us the hills, what we see around your community.  

Some examples of Juana Pizango's ceramics, with iconography of flowers and hills found around her community, at the women's fair in Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP 

Where did you learn to make pottery?

Auraluz: Well, I learnt by playing when my mum used to play with my grandmother. From there I was encouraged to do it, and I even had a partner. I started working with my partner and he didn't want me to do it, as people are macho nowadays, right?  They didn't want me to work like that, but I've followed that legacy and I'm fine now. 

Juana: I learnt handicrafts from my mother. When I was very young, my mother made handicrafts for eight years and when we were children we saw them making handicrafts. But when we were young women, we dedicated ourselves to study, to want to have a profession, but we didn't manage to do handicrafts and we started to do it when we were 45 years old. 

At the age of 45, my mother and I started making handicrafts at home. I have my workshop at home. I make utility jars, decorative jars, pots, saucers, flowerpots and vases.  

Auraluz Pilco Pizango at the women's fair in Chazuta, Peru. The iconography is done with pucheros - traditional brushes made from her own hair. February, 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP. 

What are the challenges in ensuring that this knowledge is not lost? 

Auraluz: This pottery is passed down from generation to generation, from our grandparents, our mother, and now we are passing it on to our children. It is the cultural legacy. We are moving forward, passing it on to our grandchildren, and to the whole generation here in Chazuta.  

I keep. I pass it on to my family, to my children, to my grandchildren. I already have an 18-year-old granddaughter who I have learned by playing, just as I played, she has also played since she was three years old. Now she is at university, but when she comes on holidays or on Saturdays she comes to work and I am very happy that we are giving value to ceramics. 

And we also ask people to visit us. We give workshops, we also do internships in different places. We are there to support people who need to learn. 

Juana: I started my culture by showing the other children, encouraging my children, my grandchildren, to follow the culture. 

The challenges are that we must continue. We must not give up, we must keep on practising until God gives us life or gives us the strength to be able to do it.